I just don't get it

Rating: 6/10 (19 April 2013)

I finally watched this movie, and I just don't get the hype. I didn't dislike it, and the violence didn't bother me, but I found it over-long and very, very slow. I'm a 50-something who doesn't demand a break-neck pace in a film, even an "action" film I'm used to watching long movies that take some time to unfold, and I don't mind that. I have patience. But "The Godfather" just seemed to be moving at the wrong pace for its subject matter. I never got into it. I finished it, but I didn't feel drawn into their world.
Not helping was the fact that of course by now everyone, even those who haven't seen the film, knows about all the catch-phrases and classic scenes, so they seem like jokes (although naturally that wouldn't have been a problem when the film was newly-released). Brando almost seemed to be a caricature of himself in the early scenes although he got a little better, a little less heavy-handed, after the Don came home from the hospital. In that first sequence in his office during the wedding, I could hardly understand a word he was saying. How could anyone take a man who spoke that way seriously? But again, I was watching it after many years of encountering deliberately bad Brando imitations, so I was at a disadvantage in that respect.
That wedding good lord, it lasted longer than many marriages do! I thought it was never going to be over. But while I was watching it, I recalled that I had in fact tried to watch this movie about 30 years ago, when my brother was really into it. I didn't even make it through the wedding. I remember my brother fast-forwarding the VHS tape to show me Abe Vigoda when he became convinced I wasn't going to sit and watch the whole thing with him one quick look at Abe Vigoda and I was outta there. This time I also noticed one of my favorite character actors, Vito Scotti, in the wedding sequence.
The people who did "General Hospital" in the 1990's must have loved this film. They even lifted the mobster's-chick-gets-blown-up-in-car idea for recycling on the soap opera.
I watched the DVD over two nights. The local public library gives me 7, and for a while there I thought I was gonna need 'em all. A good illustration of my feelings for the tension and pacing of the film are that after Sonny bought it at the tollbooth, I turned it off for the night and went to bed, since that was as good a place as any to break. Just didn't care, one way or the other, what was going to happen next. One less character to keep track of. Plenty more where he came from. I was just hoping Vito Scotti would come back.
I won't give it a 1 as others have in a deliberate attempt to bring down its average I'll give it an honest rating that I really feel it deserves. The fact that I don't understand why so many people are so crazy about this film doesn't necessarily mean that I'm right and they're wrong in fact, it might well be the opposite. But I stand by the title of this review: I just don't get it.