All in the family....

Rating: 9/10 (8 April 2006)

All praise the godfather, patriarchal symbol of our time. For he is disappearing, yet fighting to reappear, fighting to be relevant. He has the audacity to proclaim honor among thieves, bullies and murderers. And for this, we are grateful. Opportunists may triumph, but we will preserve HIS spirit in our minds, amen.
If you go through the list of reviewers who love this movie and, if you listen to your friends who rave about its greatness, you'll find a not so astonishing leitmotif. They are almost all men. These men see "The Godfather" as symbolic of something. It's something sort of mystical, just like the rituals of the Catholic Churchgun smoke and incense. It has to do with the right of fatherly place, something which is being lost as time has marched on, ever onwards towards an oblivion of irrelevance for patriarchy, the family, private property and the State itself! We mourn the loss. We are nostalgic for these good old days. This is a tragedy. But, buck up, me buckos. It's also reality. You know that. That's what's so good about "The Godfather". It's REAL, baby! Don Vito Corleone is right to recognize that the potential violence embodied in HIM, the patriarch of the ruling family and his/its gang of servant/employees gives him the power to dispense justice. Kiss his hand. Lick it. He is Papa, you guinea. Justicewhat an abstraction, all filled with nicety-nice images of doing good unto others as you would have them do unto you. Pure crapola! You beat the crap out of your enemies and underlings and show them who's boss! That's the reality of everyday life within the political-economy of capitalism : political power comes out of the barrel of a gun baby and it hurts!
Michael: So the next day, my father went to see him; only this time with Luca Brasi. And within an hour, he signed a release, for a certified check for $1000. Kay: How'd he do that? Michael: My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Kay: What was that? Luca Brasi held a gun to his head and my father assured him that either his brains, or his signature, would be on the contract. That's a true story. That's my family, Kay, it's not me.
It's only the women-units, like Kay Adams who are confused and who need to be reminded, every once in a while. Kay ventures to open her mouth about politics and her naive liberalism is met with a quick back fist of REALITY by Michael Corleone, (who art her husband and budding patriarch in his own right, amen).
MC: My father is no different than any other powerful man -- any man who's responsible for other people, like a senator or president. KAY: You know how naive you sound...senators and presidents don't have men killed. MC: Oh, who's being naive, Kay?
That's it girls and the rest of you liberals and socialists. The richest one percent of the families in the USA own more of the well, no, I mean wealth, than the other ninety-percent of American families. For this, they get the best government money can buy. And, if someone stands in their way with some left-leaning line, well we know what happens to them.
As Barzini says to the other Dons about sharing the spoils from the well of exploitation: Certainly, he can present a bill for such services. After all, we're not Communists. But he must let us draw the water from the well.
Get it you softies? This is social darwinism in action, reduced to its simplest formula and ground down to its final solution. This is reality of THE GAME : dominance and submission, master and servant, the Godfather and you.
Meanwhile, true women can talk about the kids, especially about the up and coming males. She can cook and clean. This is her place. She knows nothing about the realities of politics. It is a dog-eat-dog world outside of her properly protected areas of concern : with the kids, in the kitchen and at church.
Don't get me wrong. This is a great flick. The acting was the best that most of these men ever did or would do. Of course, the women were a bit hollow. But that role fit the script. Francis Ford Coppola's direction was masterful as was his collaboration with Mario Puzo on the screenplay. The cinematography by Gordon Willis was appropriately brown, dark and conservative. The casting by Louis DiGiamio, Andrea Eastman and Fred Roos was near perfect.
Brando's last scene in "The Godfather" was really the classic moment. But then, there were so many. Anyway, remember? He and his grandson playing in the garden. First Vito sprays the bugs. He pushes the device. Out comes the death spray. Down go the bugs. Then, he gives the push-spray gun to little Michael's son. The cute thing chases his grandfather around spraying insect killer at him like it was some kind of Tommy Gun until, boom, the old ticker gives out and Brando collapses. The kid doesn't know he's dead yet and so steps up to the body and sprays it some more.
Rather like the last moments in Sonny's untimely death, no? Oh well, like father, like son.