The Godfather

The Godfather,(1972) directed by Francis Ford Coppola, shows us an inside look into a New York Mafia family showing that even with its dark side family means everything to them but it’s sadly torn apart, through the pressures of being a in the Mafia, in a way that makes the viewer feel their Pain.

The movie starts out with a dark scene with low key lighting looking at the shadowy back of Don Vito Corleone(Marlon Brando) head as a man in the background begs for his help and protection. This dark and eerie sequence is interrupted by scenes of his daughters wedding. These scenes are a big contrast from the dark shot of the Godfather in that they are shot in high key bright lighting. This opening sequence sets the tone of the whole movie. There’s the dark business side of their life and then there’s the joys of family loyalty.

Don Vito Corleone is a man that lives like he is still in the old country. He has principles that he will never break. Family is everything to him. The people who he Godfathers he will help for the rest of their lives no matter what they need. This is shown in the line “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse,” which is said many times throughout the movie as he helps people get what they want through threatening their opposition in many clever ways that can’t be turned down.

But he also has principles when it comes to business. He is against Drugs and won’t offer his services to a man that needs his help to traffic drugs. This move ends up in his near death from their retaliation. Because of this his son Michael Corleone(Al Pacino) who doesn’t want to get involved with the family business ends up diving full force into the violence of the wars between mafia families and eventually taking control of his aging fathers business.

This Mafia family is portrayed completely from inside. There are no civilian casualties shown and everyone that they do kill has it coming to them which makes the viewer on their side hoping that everything works out for the best for the family.

When Michael takes over the family business he’s in a real struggle and the family starts to break down. Family members are fighting and betraying each other. A sequence where Michael is becoming the Godfather of his sister’s daughter strongly resembles the opening scenes. The should be joyful scenes of the ceremony are interrupted by many scenes of ruthless murders. The murder scenes are dull as many different people are shot dead in cold blood by Michaels doing. But in a contrast from the opening sequence the shots of Michael becoming this Childs Godfather are not bright and joyful. Instead these shots are in dark low key lighting much like the opening shot of the Godfather behind his desk. These dark scenes along with the intense music foreshadow a surprise ending in which we get to see what Michael truly values.

3:10 to Yuma

I first heard about this film from a friend who saw it and thought that it was absolutely amazing, and after hearing a brief summery of it I thought it sounded really good, and Robert Ebert strongly agrees in his Review
The movie is directed by James Mangold who has directed the movies “Walk the Line” “Heavy” and “Girl Interrupted.” Doing a film like "3:10 to Yuma" is a little out of style for him “but the movie itself proves he had a good reason for choosing it.”
A man named Dan Evens, played by Christian Bale moves to Arizona after losing his leg in a war to try and start his life over as a rancher. He finds a lot of hard times doing this and ends up transporting a famous outlaw Ben Wade, played by Russell Crowe, to a train which will take him to his death.

Christian Bale plays not simply a noble hero, but a man who has avoided such
risks as he now takes and is almost at a loss to explain why he is bringing a
killer to justice, except that having been mistreated and feeling unable to
provide for his family, he is fed up and here he takes his stand.

This movie seems like it's about good verses evil, right verses wrong in a way that is refreshing and encouraging to see.

It restores the wounded heart of the Western and rescues it from the morass of
pointless violence. The Western in its glory days was often a morality play, a
story about humanist values penetrating the lawless anarchy of the frontier.

Most western today are more about violence then doing what is morally right, although some are, but that’s something that I really miss in today’s world where violence and sex dominate action movies.

In hard times, Americans have often turned to the Western to reset their
compasses. In very hard times, it takes a very good western.

And Robert Ebert thinks that this is a very good western. And I really like movies that do this, and I really like action movies and it seems like this movie does both.
This movie seems goes deeper than violence with acting and dialog. It sounds like Dan and his captive have deep conversation.

[Wade] draws, reads, philosophizes, and is incomparably smarter than the
scum in his gang. Having spent untold time living on the run with them, he may
actually find it refreshing to spend time with Dan, even as his captive.

Wade is not your typical Western gang leader. He is a deep person that likes more that just booze, girls and killing. That’s rare to see and I think that it’s great that we are able to see that even though he’s a gang leader he still has a real intellectual side.

Locked in the hotel room, surrounded by death for one or the other, the two men
begin to talk. Without revealing anything of the plot, let me speculate that
each senses he has found the first man he has met in years who is his equal in
conversation. Crowe and Bale play this dialogue so precisely that it never
reveals itself for what it really is, a testing of mutual insight. One trial of
a great actor is the ability to let dialogue do its work invisibly…Too many
actors are like the guy who laughs at his own joke and then tells it to you
again.

That part of the review alone makes me want to see this Western. It’s not that often that you get to see deep into the characters through such great dialog in a Western. I think it will make the movie more realistic, allowing us to get to know them more than in movies where there is just pointless violence.

I really want to see this Movie; it has the Action of a Western, follows a deep moral compass, and shows deep insight through the great acting in meaningful conversation where the main characters truly connect.

intro

I think analyzing films will be fun. It will be different than just watching films without thinking about them all the much, and different can be good. Although I do have to say that there is benifit in just mindlessly watching movies. It's a really nice way to sit back and relax after going to school, doing a ton of homework, or all the other things that we have to do in our busy lives. But I think that sometimes analyzing a film will be fun, when I'm not to exauhsted.