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Our friends Schmelvie joins us this episode to watch the 1972 masterpiece The Godfather. We go in depth with character analysis, discuss production and sound design, overall color palette choices and perhaps one of cinema’s most iconic scenes. Oh, and also how Fredo is a loser and no one loves him. Poor Fredo!
Clarifications:
Firstly, I’ll apologize for my pronunciation of “Corleone”. It’s really Cor-lee-oh-neigh, not however I say it multiple times. And speaking of “neigh”, there’s also no horse head talk in this entire episode! Just warning you up front, so you are not disappointed that we don’t discuss the ACTUAL HORSE HEAD they used in the film. Because who would be interested in the REAL HORSE’S HEAD THEY GOT FROM A DOG FOOD FACTORY?
I still cannot think of an instance in this movie where Don Vito Corleone orders a hit on someone else. Please feel free to correct me by emailing cinematicrespect@gmail.com!
Here’s a link to the Italian restaurant assassination scene we discuss at length. And of course, it is quite violent, so don’t let your kids watch!
Here’s a wikipedia article discussing influential gangster films, many of which predate The Godfather, although they were mainly in the 1930’s. I actually did mention Scarface (1932) in the recording, but that led to a discussion about the 1983 version of Scarface which was too off topic to include in the final version. I’m just saying this to point out that I came up with one, so you all know I’m super smart with movies and stuff.
The movie takes place between 1945 and 1955, pretty much as Jessica says. The years just flew by!
While Brando did put cotton balls in his mouth during his original script reading, this was later replaced with a mouthpiece for that full-blown bulldog effect.
Fun fact: Cabaret actually holds the record for most Oscars won by a film that did not also win best pictures, picking up 8 statues. That is no consolation to Al Pacino however, who has nothing to show for his work in The Godfather. Except his whole career, I guess. But besides that, nothing!
And Also:
Next episode: La La Land (2016)