The Godfather

Christopher Garcia     

Out of all the movies that we watched I found the godfather to be one of my favorites. Before we watched the movie we talked briefly about it. The godfather was created by Frances Ford Coppola in 1972 as well as went to school with James Caane(Sonny). The godfather was nominated for 11 awards and won three including: best picture, best actor, and best adapted screenplay. I found the themes of the godfather particularly interesting. In the godfather the themes are Anti-Hero where the bad guys are really good guys. We root for them despite that they are criminals and murderers. With this violence/Murder is intertwined and in this film saw 23 on screen deaths.

The article that I found really critically analyzed the movie and talks about the theme of family primarily. In the Godfather the family value differences between the families head (Don), future head, gang members, daughters; sons are all shown and given certain respects. Furthermore, In the movie there were weddings, baptisms, and over 50 scenes with food in it. Food and family are huge aspects in what makes a family a family. There was a scene were sonny says “No business at the table”, the dinner table is given a respect due to the family values that it represents, We must also remember that the story is told from within the family as opposed to society examining the mafia from the outside looking in.  

The article though it talks a lot about family also touches on the view of understanding and sympathizing with those that are supposed to be bad. During the movie we see not a single actual civilian victim of organized crime. Or in short we don’t actually see acts of crimes beside death attempts being made. You did not see any women trapped into prostitution, drugs being sold, deals with cash exchange for goods taking place, lives wrecked by gambling, victims of theft, fraud or protection rackets. Even in terms of people being bought out though it is said and beside the one officer there were not many views of corruption taking place.

The godfather was one of the highest grossing films of all time; in 1972 it grossed $82 million dollars, a total of $134 Million in the USA and a total of $244 Million in the world. When I was watching the movie which I hadn't seen in a long time I found specific dialogues to really catch my attention. “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse”, “It’s a Sicilian message, Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes”, and “This one time, Kate, I’ll let you ask me about my business”. These scenes that I heard this really brought me back to the time when I first watched this movie. Furthermore, out of all the scenes in the godfather the one scene that I felt the most dread was when mike’s Sicilian wife was blown up in the car. That scene made me feel sorrowful because it marked the end of his true freedom and happiness. Instead he is thrown into the family business once again and this time there is no hiding. I saw this as a symbolic representation of what the mafia truly was in terms of trust, love, and death.

Article: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-godfather-1972

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Name:#___chris garcia______________________________Date:#_________5/11/14___________________##

The Graduate

1) In class I found out that the director of the play was Mike Nichols. Mike was only one of twelve people to win all the major American entertainment awards. These awards are as followed: An Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award. He was also awarded the national medal of arts and received the lifetime achievement award from the American film institute. This director was truly one of the greats and it shows in the film The Graduate. Furthermore, I feel that Dustin Hoffman being the great actor that he ended up being truly shined in this movie and kicked off his career. He was nominated best actor in his starring role in The Graduate and several actors in different movies.

2) In the article I found it reviews The Graduate and gives some insight on the movie that might not be understood. It was said that, "It is funny, not because of sight gags and punch lines and other tired rubbish, but because it has a point of view." It simply means that the comedy is against something. The audience is more the target of the joke then the actors in the movie. I found this fact very interesting and thought about other movies that had the same type of style. This style incorporated by the British director Mike Nichols.

3) The article that I summarized really opened my eyes to the true structure of the film. Since the comedy was meant for the viewer once I thought about it I saw how the movie really did make me feel as if I was in the movie, so to speak. Furthermore, the article talks about the movie and goes in depth about Hoffman and the other actors in the play. This allowed me to understand their roles better and ultimately the movie’s plot really became understood. Whereas before I was not so sure I understood the movies climax or real meaning.

4) The movie the graduate was more of a romance/ drama than anything else. I found the romance to be quite twisted in the fact that it was an affair within the family so to speak. This really made me feel disgust for the entirety of the film. This is most likely a personal emotion due to the fact that I see cheating and even so in this case more so as very un-moral. Marriage and love are supposed to be sacred acts that are performed with that one person and one person only till death do us part. However I only feel that way about the story line/plot I feel that each actor played his role correctly. I also did realize that the twists in this movie were not subtle rather in your face. I found this interesting because to the individuals in the movie it was a complete mystery. I enjoy when a director does not leave out any details and allows the viewer to be in on what's going on rather than confused and waiting for the answers to be revealed.

Article
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-graduate-1967
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