Certainly one of the greatest, and you've selected some great scenes to highlight! This is one of those instances when the story translates better to film than to its original print medium.

Procopius -

Thanks. You're right about the film being much more resonant than the novel. Pulp fiction (and by that I mean real pulp, meant to stir base emotions, and not intellectual homages) often makes the best film.

Fantastic movie(s) Great story, GREAT cast. When I'm really feeling Italian, I put one of these on... then I follow with Moonstruck to end on a light note. It goes down well with the demitasse and Sambuca :)

I've been thinking a bit more on this film, and am curious why you selected it instead of "Godfather II"? Personally, I agree with you. To me, "Godfather II" has an awful lot of greatness, but is brought down by the soap opera encounter between Michael and Kay when she tells him she had an abortion. I didn't think the scene rang true, and didn't like Keaton's acting in it, either.

Procopius -

I've gone back and forth about Godfather vs. Godfather II, but usually I come back to thinking the first film is the greater one (we won't even mention Godfather III, which had to have been done for the money and tried to turn a monster into a hero).

What made Godfather II brilliant in my opinion was the story of young Vito, especially after he came to America. I still get a physiological reaction when the camera moves past the faces of the immigrants on the deck of the ship coming into New York--Italians, Jews, Irish, Poles, and more. I always remember that most of them didn't turn to taking advantage of their own countrymen in order to provide for their families the way Vito eventually did.

The parallel story with Michael in Godfather II was too much of a roman a clef--too many scenes that were there only to remind us of the real events that inspired them--the mob in Cuba before the revolution, the Senate hearings modeled after the Kefauver committee, the Jewish mob boss.

The Godfather Part II is half a masterpiece and half a TV movie.

I love the movie!

Tea! Yea! okay. Who said?
As much as I can open myself
(OpenSalon) to my own folks,
and I'm ready to tell the truth?
Be, you and me, slow to reveal.
Be Ya' self, be known? Friend?
Ya' Friend will never misleads.
No ways shape form whatever.
I gotta be at o hoot-O- Annie's.
@ 6:00. Tick-o-tock-O-Clocks.
RetroDaddy, O, my-me-Pa Pa!
An associate ask me? heehaws!
O I wish I viewed more movies.

That Diane Keaton always has the best lines!

Actually, the first line of the film is "I believe in America". I agree with your pick of this film as the greatest of all time. I've seen the film 76 times and those count the 45 times I saw it when I worked as an usher in a movie house during it's release in 1972. This film literally transports you back in time to those New York City locales and there will never be anything like this film again. Great pick.

FYI, no one in The Godfather says "I love America." The opening sentence of the movie is "I believe in America." Time to go watch it again.

Americain -

Thanks for the correction. I was relying on memory.



Procopius, screamin mama, Bill, and Arthur -

Thanks for reading and commenting.



Monsieur Chariot -

You're right about Diane Keaton getting the best lines. Remember Love and Death?

Boris (Woody Allen): You think we're made in the image of God? You think God wears glasses?

Sonja (Diane Keaton): Not with those frames.

pravdaddy -

Thanks. It is time to watch The Godfather again. But I wonder if I would remember it differently.

I watched all three Godfather films in a row on a cable movie network within the last six months. Why did I remember it as "I love America" instead of "I believe in America"?

I thought about correcting the line on the title of my post and decided not to. Our memories of stories are as telling as the actual stories. So I left the line as I originally (and incorrectly) recalled it, because when I remember the face of that mortician (did he really have a mustache the way I remember? was he wearing a tux like all the other guests at Connie Corleone's wedding?) he is saying, "I love America."

I had to watch the films a few times, but eventually I realized that Vito didn't love America, he used America. He wasn't any better than the fat mobster in the white (was it white?) suit he killed in Godfather II. Vito took advantage of other immigrants. That's why what Sonny learned from him was "Your country's not your blood." (Was that in the original Godfather film or in the coda scene in Godfather II?)

They are great films. But their heroes don't deserve our pity.

One of my favorites. I read the book when I was a young teen- my mother would not let me see the film until later. I like the scenes you chose.