Just watched "The Godfather" and it sucks

[purbeast0]

this is pretty odd that this thread came up. i had this discussion with my buddy last week. he saw the trilogy on slickdeals on bluray for cheap and told me i should get it (cause i have a HT in my basement) and i told him no because i think thsoe movies are boring as hell. he then started on the whole tihng about how i'm crazy and it's the best movie ever blah blah blah.

then later that week i was asking my other buddy and he said the same thing as me, he thought they are boring as well.

then this past saturday i was at a bar with some other buddies talking about movies, and i asked another friend. and he said the same thing to me, that he thinks they are boring as hell. and all 3 of us thought we were in the minority about this, but in our group of friends we aren't.

i don't necessarily think it's a bad movie, i just think it's boring. and i like slow, long movies when they are engaging. those movies just aren't.

i just think that it was a movie that was great at it's time and paved a way for many future movies. back when it came out there weren't as many good movies as there are afterwards, so everyone flocked to that one. i saw it for the first time like 3 years or so ago but i'm sure if i saw it way earlier maybe i would have appreciated it more. but i didn't, and watching it now is just boring as hell. i watched part 1, then part of 2 and got bored to death. i tried to rewatch it again at a later date but that didn't last long.

 

[Ricochet]

Didn't like the movie when I was around 19 or early 20. It was much better when I was in my 30s. My attention span definitely changed over the years.

 

[schmuckley]

I've never made it through The Godfather or Matrix II

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I think part of the quarrel I have with the OP's sentiment is how inartfully written it is. It's one thing to say "I didn't like The Godfather," and quite another to say that it "sucks." Obviously movie preferences are a personal and subjective thing, but this is a film that has drawn universal acclaim and that nearly every critic would agree is among the finest films ever made. We are not talking about Dude, Where's My Car? Empirically, the Godfather does not "suck," whether or not it appeals to a particular individual.

 

[smackababy]

I think part of the quarrel I have with the OP's sentiment is how inartfully written it is. It's one thing to say "I didn't like The Godfather," and quite another to say that it "sucks." Obviously movie preferences are a personal and subjective thing, but this is a film that has drawn universal acclaim and that nearly every critic would agree is among the finest films ever made. We are not talking about Dude, Where's My Car? Empirically, the Godfather does not "suck," whether or not it appeals to a particular individual.

Don Vito Corleon defending the Godfather, who'da thunk it!

 

[Mai72]

The Godfather is an old film, so I can understand that a young film viewer might think that it is boring. The first tow films are short on action, but long on story development.

I personally love the films.

 

[Exterous]

(I love T2, of course--but it's obviously also not as good as T1, so there's that)

:hmm: I think you might be a terrible person

Oh, you think Shawshank Redemption is that good?

Terrible person status confirmed.

then this past saturday i was at a bar with some other buddies talking about movies, and i asked another friend. and he said the same thing to me, that he thinks they are boring as hell. and all 3 of us thought we were in the minority about this, but in our group of friends we aren't.

Well, at least its comforting to see people with terrible movie taste are congregating together instead of trying to infect the masses with their tripe

 

[zerocool84]

Yeah - that's something that happens a lot. A lot of 'classics' don't seem as great to later generations because by that time everything it does has become commonplace and they aren't experiencing it in the same context. Its often 'you had to be there at the time'.

There's a lot of things that didn't seem that big a deal to me, but only later when reading about how it appeared at the time (or speaking to people about it) did I get some inkling of how it appeared then.

That's the weird thing for me, when you later get a glimpse of how it looked through contemporary eyes. Its a strange juxtaposition of getting some idea of how they saw it yet knowing you'll never actually be able to see it the way they did.

Watching Psycho for example, I didn't see what the big deal was at all. Only when hearing a discussion of it later did I realise things like the dissonant soundtrack being novel at the time, or Janet Leigh being a big star (I had no clue who she was) so audiences would be shocked at her being killed off so quickly [is that a spoiler?])

The Godfather seemed 'not bad' to me, but I still didn't really see it how people who saw it at the time. Probably because I saw it some time between when it came out and when the OP did so my reaction was half-way between the two.

Happens all the time in music as well.

I wonder if this is true of all big cultural artifacts or if somethings are more era-dependent than others?

I can understand that point of view where movies were great in their time but don't have the same effect on later audiences. I for one can watch a movie from any time (except silent) and have learned to love many old movies just as much as I love recent ones. I'm still in my 20's but to me, if a movie is good, no matter when it was released, it can still hold up just fine.

 

[purbeast0]

:hmm: I think you might be a terrible person



Terrible person status confirmed.





Well, at least its comforting to see people with terrible movie taste are congregating together instead of trying to infect the masses with their tripe

what if i told you that i think T2 is one of the greatest movies of all time? and that every time shawshank is on tv i watch it until the end and have probably seen it over 2 dozen times?

what kind of moral movie dilemma does that put you in?

 

[LevelSea]

Do you like your steaks well done, OP?

 

[child of wonder]

I've never seen the Godfather but the entire mafia genre doesn't interest me at all so I doubt I'd care for it either.

 

[NetWareHead]

I bet OP is a vegetarian too

 

[kt]

what if i told you that i think T2 is one of the greatest movies of all time? and that every time shawshank is on tv i watch it until the end and have probably seen it over 2 dozen times?

what kind of moral movie dilemma does that put you in?

He would think you're a pretty bad liar, obviously.

 

[Clemenza]

I think part of the quarrel I have with the OP's sentiment is how inartfully written it is. It's one thing to say "I didn't like The Godfather," and quite another to say that it "sucks." Obviously movie preferences are a personal and subjective thing, but this is a film that has drawn universal acclaim and that nearly every critic would agree is among the finest films ever made. We are not talking about Dude, Where's My Car? Empirically, the Godfather does not "suck," whether or not it appeals to a particular individual.

I concur with this.

 

[NetWareHead]

I concur with this.

:thumbsup:

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I concur with this.

Thank you, my old friend.

 

[zinfamous]

what if i told you that i think T2 is one of the greatest movies of all time? and that every time shawshank is on tv i watch it until the end and have probably seen it over 2 dozen times?

what kind of moral movie dilemma does that put you in?

none. I tend to watch both of those movies if they are on TV, as well. I've seen Shawshank maybe a dozen times overall. I wouldn't even put it in a top 200 or maybe 300 list, though.

Doesn't mean I don't like those movies; just that the praise is skewed strangely.

 

[ThinClient]

Maybe stick to transformers, it's more your level.

LOL

 

[purbeast0]

none. I tend to watch both of those movies if they are on TV, as well. I've seen Shawshank maybe a dozen times overall. I wouldn't even put it in a top 200 or maybe 300 list, though.

Doesn't mean I don't like those movies; just that the praise is skewed strangely.

i didn't even quote you

 

[smackababy]

I think one of the big reasons The Godfather is so well reviewed is because all aspects are superb, regardless if whether the OP (or any other naysayers) understand it or not. The acting was top notch, the score was phenomenal, the characters were developed very well, and the story had theme a lot of people can relate to (son choosing to follow in their father's footsteps, despite the father attempting for them to have a 'better' life).

It might be a bit slow for the "modern" movie watcher and some might not connect with the story or content, but that doesn't mean it sucks; it means you suck. >_<

 

[zinfamous]

i didn't even quote you

:hmm:

well, I thought you did....probably because you were quoting Exterous who was responding to my comments--he is basically agreeing with you.
So...it didn't make sense to me that you would be challenging his views that already agree with yours.

right--except for the last bit which is what you were responding to. Sorry, I saw the first two lines of that comment and moved on. I guess he was being sarcastic at first
:\

 

[JManInPhoenix]

The Godfather movies are not fast paced action flicks. They are pretty deep in character development and thus can seem very slow at times. They didn't hold my interest when I tried watching them in my early 20s. I watched them again in my 40s and they were much better. Very good movies.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

i thought the movie was pretty awesome when i watched it. my first viewing was a year or two ago. i also watched scarface for the first time after than. it was a good movie but it definitely felt more dated. i think it was the 80s synthesizer music and the crazy hair.

 

[KeithP]

You know it is interesting, sometime people dislike movies that other people liked and vice versa. I know it is rare, but it does happen.

...hell i liked Patch Adams and Lost in translation.

You aren't helping yourself by admitting that you liked those movies.

-KeithP

 

[Exophase]

I can understand that point of view where movies were great in their time but don't have the same effect on later audiences. I for one can watch a movie from any time (except silent) and have learned to love many old movies just as much as I love recent ones. I'm still in my 20's but to me, if a movie is good, no matter when it was released, it can still hold up just fine.

Honestly, I can see a lot to this. I like some old movies a lot but they're pretty few and far between. If I were to watch random theater released, non-B movies from the early 70s vs random movies of the same criteria from some time in the 80s or 90s I can pretty much guarantee I'd like the latter more on average. And I'd like the 70s movies more than 60s movies, which I'd like more than 50s movies. It's hard to pinpoint all the ways the average film has changed since then, but it seems obvious. I could have some subconscious bias against films that feel old just because I've learned to be bored by them from ones that were more genuinely boring.

On the other hand, I don't have a problem with theater.

More thoughts on Godfather.. this strikes me as a very character driven film. In that the plot, at least by my recollection, is very simplistic - a series of acts of hostility and revenge between competing mobs, with some interspersed bits of routine mob business and internal conflicts. But at the same time, the characters didn't feel interesting or likeable (except perhaps Don Vito, but that's diluted by my finding most of Brando's lines unintelligible). Instead they feel one dimensional, gears ground against each other by the churning of the simplistic plot, or maybe you could say by the natural mechanisms of their setting. They get angry and retaliate because their character description demands it. They're perpetual archetypes. Michael is supposed to be the exception to this, but his transition doesn't feel interesting or natural. It could have been a study of the breakdown of a well intentioned extremist who is forced to make compromises because of a life he can't escape. Instead it's about a selfish bastard who doesn't care at all about his family and thinks he's better than them but still leeches off of them, to a selfish bastard who jumps at the chance to assume control of the family and get revenge but also immediately beat down his family members. The lead of the movie who is supposed to help us understand this seemingly hostile and selfish world just shows us hostility and selfishness. Movie still works as a power fantasy, though.

My memory could be off though, to be fair. This was a few years ago and the movie's failure to really engage me could have resulted in my failure to remember important things.