>>>>You never know how lucky you might get flipping channels out of boredom. I turned on the TV an hour ago and stumbled across "The Godfather" on AMC as part of their #MobWeek, whatever prompted that. The DVR is faithfully watching it downstairs. It is a movie I have watched probably half a dozen times, but not in a while. It is coming through with full power. Marlon Brando is amazing. His portrayal of Vito Corleone is a cultural icon, often imitated but never exceeded. (Loraine Newman in an encounter group skit on Saturday Night Live many years ago: "Vito, you're blocking!") I am not qualified to judge actors and actresses, or the relative importance of their roles, but I feel pretty confident saying this one is in the pantheon. Well worth rewatching.
>>>
>>>Mike, yes. This one is on most Top Ten film lists.
>>>For some, it has replaced Citizen Kane as #1.
>>>
>>>I'd put it at #2 behind Casablanca.
>>>
>>>Coppola - a nut job but a bona fide genius - had a hand in 3 movies that are top 10 contenders- The Godfather, Apocalypse Now and Patton, where he wrote the screenplay.
>>>Another of his movies - The Black Stallion - has some flaws but it's still one of my favorite DVD's.
>>>
>>>It took me a few viewings to "get" Apocalypse Now, but it was worth the effort. It's a masterpiece.
>>>
>>>Coppola and Mario Puzo wrote the screenplay for The Godfather and it's one of those rare instances where the movie is actually better than the book, which for me was the best US novel written during the 60's.
>>>For some extra fun, pick up the novel. I recently finished my umpteenth re-reading.
>>>
>>>A few years ago my kids gave me a boxed DVD set of all 3 Godfather movies, and I'm continually chasing them to get them back.
>>>My teen grandsons love that movie.
>>>When we visit my daughter in Long Island, we try to get to the Jones Beach toll booths, where they nailed Sonny.
>>
>>As a fan of Apocalypse Now if you have not seen it seek out AN Redux. The recut - especially the inclusion of the scenes at the French plantation - makes it obviously more in keeping Coppola's orginal vision.
>
>Charles
>I have the Redux version and that scene at the French Plantation is there. A good scene, too.
>I've never been a big fan of Josef Conrad.
>I read most of his books in college because that was the thing to do if you wanted to mingle with the sexiest female English Majors.
>I still think that The Heart of Darkness is just that.. a journey into darkness that leads nowhere and is overrated.
>Coppola is almost of my generation and he went to Hofstra on Long Island, which is not far from my college and he must have been chasing the same English majors and become fixated on The Heart of Darkness, as many of them were. Darkness was sexy in those days.
>I'm glad he was, because the movie is brilliant.
>I read somewhere that George Lucas had the first idea for this movie and that Coppola picked it up while they were working together on American Graffiti, another jewel in the Coppola crown.

LOL. Those sexy female English majors, they'll drive you crazy.