Last Film You Watched
- Thread starter GrandOldTeam
- Start date
I can't think of many better examples of how music, lighting, camera work and acting can be so well blended together for five minutes. Phenomenal.
Rita_Poon
Player Valuation: £100m
Watch for the Robert Duvall reasons re III, then with that info, consider the how and why she was cast in the lead. Suddenly a few details become a bit more obvious.
FFC is a peculiar chap, seemed to make amazing films at the height of his powers, but always needed to be bankrupt to be energised to draw such energy from the well. I'm trying to think of the term that describes it.
Rita_Poon
Player Valuation: £100m
What's your read on the character and story arc of Michael?
So as not to influence others
Necessity? In the sense of needing to have a success rather than desiring it?
Rita_Poon
Player Valuation: £100m
There's a character in FMJ and in it his pals explain he's alright so long as there's someone throwing grenades at him.
Some people are pressure cooker survivalists, the more spit* there is to deal with their strengths come to the fore through the sheer force of will and the need for action. Rescuing impossible situations and coming through with a cigar and a smile must be very satisfying. No idea what it does long term to the heart and brain though.
Ha, I could probably speak about this for a fair while, but...
This video sums up the difference between Michael and his father:
I'll simplify this quite a bit, however my take is Michael is unable to match his father because he is unable to comprehend who/what his father was.
By that, I mean his father's character. Vito is a family man, who shows compassion and in some instances, weakness, to protect his family.
Vito is a man to be feared and loved in equal measures. I know a few people in real life who are in some ways similar: criminals but those who are liked.
People who are respected and loved by the community, if you do not cross their lines. Michael is unable to show that level of love - it's alien to him.
There are glimpses in I and at the end of Godfather II how he's different to his family, almost an outsider. He is on the face of it businesslike - ruthless.
But it isn't as simple nor clear-cut as that because he loves his father and family deeply, and people underestimated the pain such a character faced.
On the face of it, he is an outsider and promised to not be like his family, however he does his utmost to protect his father and the organisation he made.
To lose Sonny, to lose his father, Apollina and eventually his brother Fredo and his betrayal, that would make any heart become cold and isolated.
He always wanted to be "strong for his family", like his father was, but Michael confuses this with being withdrawn and in doing so, "lost his family."
As a character, we can pity him, but we should not dismiss him.
I'll simplify this quite a bit, however my take is Michael is unable to match his father because he is unable to comprehend who/what his father was.
By that, I mean his father's character. Vito is a family man, who shows compassion and in some instances, weakness, to protect his family.
Vito is a man to be feared and loved in equal measures. I know a few people in real life who are in some ways similar: criminals but those who are liked.
People who are respected and loved by the community, if you do not cross their lines. Michael is unable to show that level of love - it's alien to him.
There are glimpses in I and at the end of Godfather II how he's different to his family, almost an outsider. He is on the face of it businesslike - ruthless.
But it isn't as simple nor clear-cut as that because he loves his father and family deeply, and people underestimated the pain such a character faced.
On the face of it, he is an outsider and promised to not be like his family, however he does his utmost to protect his father and the organisation he made.
To lose Sonny, to lose his father, Apollina and eventually his brother Fredo and his betrayal, that would make any heart become cold and isolated.
He always wanted to be "strong for his family", like his father was, but Michael confuses this with being withdrawn and in doing so, "lost his family."
As a character, we can pity him, but we should not dismiss him.
Animal Mother.
Rita_Poon
Player Valuation: £100m
In reply
It's bigger than that for me. It's an epic, like from the golden years of Hollywood success, but it is not a tale of virtue.
Michael is America. Michael begins innocent, truthful, to-fault truthful, can't be anything else with Kay, starts the film in a suit, a uniform, navy man. A few ribbons, prepared to do his duty.
Duty.
Contrast with the end of the film, he's in another suit, better fitting, the trappings of success, of power, of ruthlessness.
The cost between the two, is the study, opens with the American dream, wide eyed, do your bit, serve your country, we're all in it together.
He is corrupted, but not totally through choice. The umbrella protection of his father slowly fades, and it costs the family, Sonny tries to provide but is unable.
**This** was stunning writing, Freddo is overlooked by the first film and thus the audience. What a piece of writing, he knew the sequel was a go, we (the audience) were all complicit.
And so Michael is drawn in, for survival, for all his father had suffered to build. (The Luca Brasi 'worry' was just on, the main man heavy killer was taken out easy, it turns out that the final nail in his own coffin is from Michael himself when he does what he does in the restaurant, and with that blood, those lives he is commit to a path he never wanted.
And so to the old country, a second chance at love, at redemption, the life he wanted, virtue, honesty, decency. Not for you Mike, you're in to deep kidda. This is business now, and it consumes lives, get busy killin, or get busy dying.
So the dream becomes nightmare, the youthful kid unrecognisable, a snake, a supreme standing in his world but at a cost of reputation and for fear. Fear can never be loved, and the parable is complete.
It is a sad story, of compounded loss, of competing ideology, the whip hand, and of violence done as easy as breathe. A warning of sorts.
Michael is America. Michael begins innocent, truthful, to-fault truthful, can't be anything else with Kay, starts the film in a suit, a uniform, navy man. A few ribbons, prepared to do his duty.
Duty.
Contrast with the end of the film, he's in another suit, better fitting, the trappings of success, of power, of ruthlessness.
The cost between the two, is the study, opens with the American dream, wide eyed, do your bit, serve your country, we're all in it together.
He is corrupted, but not totally through choice. The umbrella protection of his father slowly fades, and it costs the family, Sonny tries to provide but is unable.
**This** was stunning writing, Freddo is overlooked by the first film and thus the audience. What a piece of writing, he knew the sequel was a go, we (the audience) were all complicit.
And so Michael is drawn in, for survival, for all his father had suffered to build. (The Luca Brasi 'worry' was just on, the main man heavy killer was taken out easy, it turns out that the final nail in his own coffin is from Michael himself when he does what he does in the restaurant, and with that blood, those lives he is commit to a path he never wanted.
And so to the old country, a second chance at love, at redemption, the life he wanted, virtue, honesty, decency. Not for you Mike, you're in to deep kidda. This is business now, and it consumes lives, get busy killin, or get busy dying.
So the dream becomes nightmare, the youthful kid unrecognisable, a snake, a supreme standing in his world but at a cost of reputation and for fear. Fear can never be loved, and the parable is complete.
It is a sad story, of compounded loss, of competing ideology, the whip hand, and of violence done as easy as breathe. A warning of sorts.
"I think your brain has gone soft, from all that comedy you're playing with that young girl"
What a line, delivered just. Funny. << this aint to you, it just amused me, a fathers condemnation of his sons fooling around. Such pathos and wit.
I know this is a deleted scene, so admittedly it's relevance in the film (not the book) is questionable, however this is where the differences are shown.
Vito is able to accept weakness for the protection of his family, and beloved son; he is able to forgo vengeance. In GFII, we see Vito taking vengeance.
Michael can't comprehend being able to display that sign of weakness, nor can he allow those acts in the past to go without a response.
"It's not personal, Sonny, it's strictly business." Like you said, the action in that restaurant made him become the ruthless, business-like boss.
But it WAS personal, he would just never put that guard down ever again to show his emotions, including love.
I am happy they took the scene out though, as otherwise it'd have been far too predictable.
Rita_Poon
Player Valuation: £100m
spoils
the restaurant hit
they all laugh at him.
The only one there that's seen combat in WWII and seen some stuff, and they laugh him off.
To defeat a monster you become a monster.
That's where the parallel ends, this was made in 71 and released in 72, the man that made Apocalypse now felt the conflict from 55-75 acutely.
And the America point initially of what Michael is, is spotlight centre. Feared, hated, grudgingly respected, a fallen hero.
they all laugh at him.
The only one there that's seen combat in WWII and seen some stuff, and they laugh him off.
To defeat a monster you become a monster.
That's where the parallel ends, this was made in 71 and released in 72, the man that made Apocalypse now felt the conflict from 55-75 acutely.
And the America point initially of what Michael is, is spotlight centre. Feared, hated, grudgingly respected, a fallen hero.
Good one on ITV1 tonight. The taking of Pelham (2009) at 10:45 pm
*tomorrow
Welcome
Join Grand Old Team to get involved in the Everton discussion. Signing up is quick, easy, and completely free.
Shop
