Timeless?

Rating: 9/10 (2 March 2006)

I can't count the times I've seen the Godfather. I can't count the times I've read books about the movie. I can't say how much I regret not having found the time to read Mario Puzo's book. The Godfather is a story about a king and his three sons. And the sons all fight for power one way or another. The succession of the kingdom is the absolute reward for some and the absolute curse for others. There is something utterly seductive about the lighting of the movie, the stories (from the main stories to the secondary characters), about the ongoing feeling that danger lies around the corner, that this life is never safe and that you must, as popular Italian culture suggests, do everything for the family. "In my youngest and more vulnerable years" I wrote an essay about the role/position of women in the Godfather. I wrote about the flaws of the Godfather, about how, because it was filmed from the side of the family, you couldn't see the illegitimate character of the Corleone family's work. I wrote about the misogynist approaches and the utterly patriarchal viewpoints of the movie. I wrote about the inherent racism towards other ethnic minorities. But I still can't escape the spell. I still can't believe this feeling when Michael goes to the hospital to see Vito and he protects his father as is in his imaginative nature. There are so many moments in the Godfather that make me shiver. There's so much magic in the trilogy.
I don't give this movie a 10, because I am a perfectionist.