The Godfather

1) Yes, the epic film, The Godfather Trilogy.  What the class viewed was The Godfather, the film that started it all.  Leave the gun, take the canola (pronounced canoli), I'll make an offer he can't refuse, these and much more were so memorable of the film.  The Godfather was directed by Frances Ford Coppola in 1972.  It had eleven nominations and three wins.  The nominations were Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adaptive Screenplay.  The Godfather had an amazing cast including Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton and Talia Shire.  There was a main theme that played out throughout the move and the trilogy.  That main theme was family.  Family was everything to them and they came first, no matter what.  They had a set of family values, it was a different kind of family movie goers saw.  It isolated a point of view and told the main story within the family as opposed to society examining the Mafia.  They celebrated families most cherish-able moments like a wedding, baptism and birthdays or family get togethers.  There were fifty scenes with food in this film! That is a lot of food!  There were anti-hero's in this film which were the Corleone family.  they were the bad guys but they are the good guys too.  How can that be with 23 on screen deaths? Well that is what anti-hero is.  We root for them even though what they do is absolutely immoral, at times.  The impact of this film shed light into the Gangster Genre and influenced every gangster/thug film/tv show made (The Sopranos).  the film grossed a total of $134 Million dollars.

2)  The site I used was http://www.filmsite.org/series-godfather.html

This site basically gave us the summery of what happened in this film. The film begins with a Sicilian-style wedding reception for the Corleone family's 18 year old daughter Connie to Carlo Rizzi.  In attendance at this important event was Don Vito Corleone, the WWII service man and family outsider (son of Don Corleone), Michael Corleone, the unmarried middle son Fredo, the family's consigliere, Tom Hagen and the hot headed brother, Sonny.  During the reception, Don Vito carried on with the crime family business because as they say a Sicilian man man cannot refuse a request on the day of his daughter's wedding.  Throughout the movie we see Michael change and truly become his father and the true ahire to the thrown.

3)  This article relates to the screening because this article gives us a greater in depth look at the movie from its historical preference in history to the styles and genre it created for the film industry.  It also tells the different parts of the movie that has a great importance to how Michael comes to be the new Don Corleone.  

4) This was one of my favorites that we viewed this semester.  The use of the dark lighting really set the mood of the film.  I also likes the use of special effects like the cars exploding to the bloody death scenes.  This really set the tone for future gangster/thug movies and tv shows.  An excellent film that really has everyone rooting for what we consider to be the most favorable crime family of all time! Remember, leave the gun, take the canola.