Did anyone who saw Godfather Part I

[JohnKleeb]

feel bad when Luca Brasi got killed. How those Tattalia bastards kill him pisses me off too.

[RagingInMiami]

1. Well the classic line

"Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes" made up for it.

[JohnKleeb]

2. Just like leave the gun take the cannoli

Seriously I dont know how anyone can deny that is one of if not the best movie ever. It's Pacinos best role that Ive seen him in, I don't know why many guys my age like Scarface better than the Godfather as a movie, the Godfather is just so pure and idealistic, I love the code of honor, the just for business thing, etc.

[RagingInMiami]

3. I'm a big Scarface fan because it depicted an era in Miami

in which I came of age.

Scarface is just so brazen, so in your face. It's the Godfather on coke without family values. It's a cult classic.

But the Godfather is a classic in the traditional sense. It's family values to the extreme; it's about respect for your elders and protecting your siblings, even if it means killing your sister's abusive husband. It's about politics in the game of life, about keeping your friends close, but your enemies closer.

While the Godfather was about returning to the old country for a simpler life, even if it was just a temporary getaway, Scarface was about fleeing the old country to seize the new, faster-paced country, by the balls.

Scarface is about individualism. About having respect for nobody but yourself. All he had in this world were his balls and his word and he didn't break them for nobody. He killed his sister's husband -- his best friend -- for the sole reason of loving her.

Scarface was not schooled in politics and it ended up killing him in the end. Michael Corleone was a brilliant politician and it ended up getting him promoted to Godfather in the end.

[JohnKleeb]

4. I like Scarface too

but more of a Godfather kinda guy. Another great one is Goodfellas which is my brother's favorite. I personally think Michael's transformation in character in the first film is amazing, it starts I think when McCluskey hits him in the face or when he's visiting his pop at the hospital.

[RagingInMiami]

5. Well he always had it in him

In the beginning, when he stood up to his brother about the war, it was obvious that he was not afraid to stand up for what he believed in.

Have you seen Godfather II? Some argue that it's even a better movie.

I like Goodfellas too. Great soundtrack. Love Joe Pesci.

[JohnKleeb]

14. Ive been lazy on Godfather Part II

Yeah Goodfellas Soundtrack is incredible, me and my brother both love it and we're total opposites when it comes to music generally, hes more in to rap and I am more in to classic rock but that soundtrack is great.

[RagingInMiami]

16. Godfather II is brilliant

It weaves the story of how young Vito Corleone left Italy as a child for New York to eventually become Godfather with the story of Michael Corleone expanding the family business to Vegas.

[JohnKleeb]

17. Ive seen some of it and know the gist of the plot but

I always fall asleep or something else ocmes up, I got a very low attention span having ADD and all that mumb jumbo.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

45. You absolutely have to see GF2.

It's even better than the first, believe me.

[Darth_Kitten]

25. De Niro was brilliant

:D

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

29. Scorsese is the best EVER at picking popular music to score a film.

Don't talk to me about Quentin Tarantino and his 70's tunes fetish. He doesn't hold a candle to Scorsese.

[JohnKleeb]

31. Not a Quentin fan

I agree about Marty, he is the best at it. ive liked Tarantino's films but Scrocese to me is infinitely better in so many ways because he has such great range in his work. He's my faovirte director.

[Darth_Kitten]

27. put the fear of chainsaws into me...

what a gruesome scene. :(

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

32. No, it starts when he's Xmas shopping with Kay and gets the news his

Dad has been shot. Look carefully at the scene where he goes into the phone booth to call the family and find out the news, where Kay is symbolically shut out, looking in at him.

[JohnKleeb]

33. I notice that come to think of it

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. You are right Kleeb. GF I is MUCH better though I like Scarface too.

It is just visually beautiful too, like a beautiful dark painting. From the very first scene ("I believe in America") in the study, it draws you into its spell.

So many little details that are great too. Like when Jack Woltz is cursing a blue streak in Tom Hagen's face, and Tom just sits there calmly eating his dinner, then politely excuses himself, the Don insists on hearing bad news right away, don't you know, thanks for a lovely dinner.

Such a completely star studded cast. So many great performances. A great director completely on top of his game. And a good source novel too.

BTW if you read the book (which many love but I think is just OK compared to the movie which is GREAT), the Luca character is actually quite evil, even demonic, so having him die in a gruesome fashion isn't so bad in a sense.

I remember as a kid when they first showed GF I on network TV, it was a huge event. I was really really shocked and disturbed by the gruesome violence of the Luca Brasi killing. On the director's commentary on the DVD (which I highly recommend), Coppolla describes actually an elaborate special effects setup with this scene, where a mist was supposed to activate some kind of darkening makeup on Luca Brasi to show him becoming dusky as he began to die from strangulation.

Another thing from the commentary is Coppolla explains how he made lemons from lemonade--the Brasi actor was apparently some hulking pro wrestler guy who basically couldn't act and couldn't read lines to save his life. That's why they had the goofy scene with him "practicing" his speech to the Godfather at the wedding which he botched anyway, because they couldn't get him to deliver even a few lines right, so they made this little setup to kind of work around his lameness.

[ET Awful]

7. That is one of my all time favorite movie lines. If not my absolute

favorite. :P

[Burma Jones]

46. Godfather is Tragedy, Scarface is Melodrama

[Retired AF Dem]

47. As a kid

page 28 of the novel The Godfather rocked.

[leeroysphitz]

8. Tataglia is a PIMP... it was Barzini all along. (nt)

[GalleryGod]

11. He nevuh coulda outfought Santino !

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

30. "I don't want my brother coming out of that bathroom holding just his dick

in his hands."

The Louis Restaurant scene is one of the most INTENSE ever in cinema, where Michael completes his transformation from Ivy League war hero to made guy.

The transformation started with the shooting of Vito, remember the phone booth scene where he gets the news, where Kay is symbolically shut out, looking in at him while he's on the phone...

It continues when, by accident, he saves his dad at the hospital, and then is punched and disfigured by the police captain.

Key moment when Michael is the one who comes up with the plan to ice Sollozzo and McCluskey during the planning session.

All culminates in the restaurant scene. The transition to speaking Italian. The crescendo of subway noise. Finding the gun. Carrying out the deed, not quite exactly in the way spelled out by Clemenza.

Just a sublime scene.


"How's the Italian food in this place?"

[LibDemAlways]

36. The scene in which Michael lays out how he's

going to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey as the camera slowly dollies in on him should have won Pacino the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. He was robbed.

[JohnKleeb]

39. Who won that year anyhow

Ive seen a bit of Pacinos work and I thought it was some of his best acting.

[LibDemAlways]

42. Joel Gray won for

his part in the musical "Cabaret."

[JohnKleeb]

43. Definely the wrong decision there

thats not to say the Oscars should be taken as the word of the film gods.

[RagingInMiami]

49. Yes, that was great

My favorite scene in the movie, one of the best scenes in the history of modern film -- if not the greatest -- is when they are baptizing Michael Corleone's nephew in the church.

It is the scene when Michael becomes Godfather to Connie's baby while becoming Godfather of the family through the execution of his enemies.

The scene cuts from the church to the places of the execution as the church music builds up.

Priest: "Michael Francis Rizzi (the baby) do you renounce Satan?"
Michael Corleone (the godfather): "I do renounce him."
Priest: "And all his works?"
Michael: "I do renounce them."
Priest: "And all his pomps?"
Michael: "I do renounce."
Priest: "Michael Francis Rizzi, will you be baptized?"
Michael: "I will."
Priest: "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit go in peace, and may the Lord be with you."


The scene is pure brilliance. Pure genius. Pure art.

[JohnKleeb]

51. Am I the only one who thought the priest looked like

Jack Nicholson lol. I love the baptism massacre, its a brilliantly filmed scene and its just awesome.

[Crazy Dave]

9. Luca was a scary, evil bastard

I read the book about 22 years ago and in it, it said that even the Godfather himself feared Luca. I believe in the book it said that Luca had burned a mom with her baby in an incinerator. My memory fails me there but I have the DVD collection and can turn the volume off and say the entire movie word for word.

"Hello Carlo"

Edit: I bought my wife "The Godfather" game for PS2 yesterday and she loves it. Woke up early today just to play.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

10. "Your punishment is... you're out of the family business."

"Oh, and I almost forgot, being garroted." :rofl:

[GalleryGod]

12. Hel-lo, Carlo !?

Pete Clemenza, my kind of guy.

[JohnKleeb]

15. I Was going to add

I got the game earlier in the week and its the game Ive been waiting for, a GTAsque game but set in the 40s. Its pretty cool how you can customize your character.

[cmkramer]

44. Close

What happens is that this young Irish woman he's having an affair with, gets pregnant. When the baby is born, he orders his henchmen to throw it into the incinerator because he "won't allow any of that race to live" which is taken to mean that he doesn't want the baby because it isn't pure Sicilian.

ETA: Correction: He orders the midwife to throw the baby into the incinerator.

[bridgit]

13. well, in the film Luca is portrayed as a loyal, simple minded sort of...

killer guy; but in the book he was part & parcel to some very ill & sick stuff. the Tattalia bunch did offer a glimpse into a more ill, even more sickly operation, and i suppose when up against the sum of all evils...there being a 'right way to do wrong things', it was not good the way Luca went down

:cry:

[sasquatch]

18. My BOY!!!

:pals:
How you doin' man, I haven't seen you in forever.

[JohnKleeb]

19. Ive been good

Ive been back a week about.

[sasquatch]

20. I was in the Hospital when you came back

Acute asthma attack.

[JohnKleeb]

22. OUch hope you're feeling better

Asthma sucks, I dont have it but my brohter has it.

[DS1]

21. I can't stay awake through Scarface, and I've tried many times

Maybe it's the music, something about it just puts me right to bed :shrug:

[deadparrot]

23. I was more upset over Sonny.

Don't know why, but he was always my favorite.

[JohnKleeb]

24. That upset me too

I mean I know they're criminals but I found them likable and honorable somehow especially when Don Corleone rejects The Turk's offer to get in the Heroin industry. The way Sonny is killed is just so brutal and yeah made me feel bad too.

[Darth_Kitten]

28. I felt sorry for that poor horse.

:(

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

34. I thought that whole scene, as well as the scene in "Patton" where the

horse or mule is shot and thrown off a bridge, created a major furor with the animal rights movement. Hence the "no animals were harmed in creating..." etc.

[JohnKleeb]

35. Despite the fact no horse was killed

They got it from a glue factory. I love the scene with the horse that said, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH, Woltz's scream is just priceless.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

37. The Simpsons did a HILARIOUS sendup of that scene, I don't know if you

remember, when Lisa got a pony from Homer.

[JohnKleeb]

38. I think I remember that

I love the scene because Woltz gets the fucking shit scared of him.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

40. Simpsons: they have the same creepy music, and shots of the house,

getting closer, and then Lisa finds the horse in her bed wrapped up in her blankets like in the movie, and does the scream, with a few "zooming away" shots, and then the horse gives her a kiss and they cuddle, LOL.

[JohnKleeb]

41. yep remember it now

The Simpsons mini parody of Goodfellas was great too when Bart works with Fat Tony.

[LostinVA]

26. Luca was a sociopathic baby killer

For real... the book talks about it. He is completely evil -- the Don and most of the rest of his family have some redeemable features... not Luca....

Luca's death was in that the opposing family was waaaaay worse than the Don's....

[GOPisEvil]

48. You should read the book - it's EXCELLENT!

In fact, I started re-reading it this morning. :thumbsup:

[JohnKleeb]

50. I have read some of it

Got sidetracked right after Michael kills McCluskey and Sollonzo. I also got the Godfather Returns for Christmas. I read in EW that Godfather was one of the worst books made in to a great movie, I thought what the hell are they smoking, I loved the way Puzo wrote, its very descripitve.