THE GODFATHER
Author Aaron Gillies — aka @Technicallyron — tackles The Godfather for the first time. Yes, The Godfather
THERE ARE SOME things in life I just haven’t got to yet. I’m a busy man who sleeps a lot, so my time is precious. I haven’t gone bungee jumping, I haven’t backpacked across India, I have never done ketamine — you know, the things most people do in their lives. Oh, and I’ve never seen The Godfather.
I do consider myself a movie nerd. I love every aspect of cinema, but the one question I’ve always hated is, “Do you think Goodfellas or The Godfather is the better gangster movie?” Because as soon as I answer the question, I get the same response I always get. “You’ve NEVER seen The Godfather?! How are you alive? Do you have eyes?!” I don’t know why I’ve never watched it. Maybe I was put off by the running time of three bloody hours, or perhaps I felt I’d experienced it through osmosis from jokes in every TV show, movie and hilarious pop-culture conversation reference. I know the main bits: Marlon Brando speaking like his mouth is filled with mince, Al Pacino is too good-looking for his own good and takes over the family business, and everyone dresses like they are meeting you in an underground car park to discuss secrets. It’s one of those movies you feel like you’ve seen without seeing it, because everyone is always going on about it and parodying it. It’s like how everyone says they’ve seen Citizen Kane, when in fact they’ve just seen the Rosebud episode of The Simpsons and got the gist from there.
As I started watching, my thoughts drifted between cinematic analysis and the ridiculous. “The stark contrast of light between the office and the wedding is extremely beautiful and clever,” I thought until my mind jumped to, “The cat Marlon Brando is holding is probably dead now,” and, “That wedding cake is too big — it’s sunny outside, it would melt all over the place, this is just reckless.” However, watching a film that has had so much cultural influence for the first time was really wonderful. Woltz waking up screaming, covered in blood and staring at the head of his prize horse at the foot of his bed, or Sonny (a confusingly young James Caan) unwrapping a parcel containing two fish and hearing the line, “Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.” In both instances I thought, “Ohhhh, that’s where that is from!” It’s a brilliant feeling of enlightenment and a realisation of ignorance at the exact same time. It’s also the first film I’ve seen where the spinny-newspaper-coming-
from-a-distance-towards-screen-with-a-major-plot-point-in-the-headline thing happens un-ironically, which is something I never thought I’d say.
At points it felt like I was watching a lesson in the history of film rather than a movie. Maybe it’s because of the hype over the years, or how the film influenced other filmmakers, but every scene was perfect in its own way. Within the first ten minutes, every character has an established role within the film, a backstory, an arc; as storytelling goes, it’s one of those brilliant tales where you don’t know if you should be rooting for a character or hating them. As soon as Michael arrives at the wedding, looking innocent in his military uniform, you think to yourself, “Well, this isn’t going to go well for you...”
The one thing I fell in love with about this flick was the use of music. I’m a bit of a score fanatic: my 2017 Spotify top 100 was dominated by Mansell, Zimmer, Giacchino and Djawadi, and I grew up listening to Ennio Morricone and John Williams, so I instantly took to Nino Rota’s score. Its use of tension constantly reminds you this is a Mafia movie and anyone can get shot in the face for absolutely no reason at any time. It’s not necessarily a soundtrack you would listen to for pleasure, unless you are planning a trip to Sicily with your family and want to feel really uneasy about it.
The real question is, is it one of the greatest movies of all time? No. Not in my opinion. It’s a fine movie, its influence is obvious in the works of Scorsese and even Fincher, but as a film, a stand-alone film in its own right, it’s just… fine. The pacing is slow, which artistically makes sense, but it’s easily a twohour movie with an extra hour of people wandering about and looking miffed. Some scenes seem out of place, and Pacino’s character changes in an instant, making the film seem disjointed at times, but hey, everyone goes on about how the sequel is better anyway. So much like going to the banana bar in Amsterdam, The Godfather sits comfortably in the ‘I’m glad I’ve done it, but I’m probably never going to do that again’ category.
Aaron Gillies’ How To Survive THE end of THE world (when IT’S in Your
is out now in hardback. THE Godfather blu-ray And download