The Godfather

Movie: The Godfather (1972) - January 1

Drink: Sottimano Bric Del Salto Dolcetto d'Alba 2007

Introduction: The daily ritual of watching a film and enjoying a drink begins, and finding a starting point was a larger challenge than I had expected. I decided to start on January 1 with the American Film Institute's #2 picture of all time, and end on December 31 with the AFI's #1 film, Citizan Kane. For the 363 days in-between, I will just allow the movies to take me wherever they lead.

I also had a few houseguests at the beginning of the year, so the idea of watching a legendary "family" movie while I had family visiting was a great way to kick of 2009.

Movie Review: The Godfather is often considered one of the best films ever made, yet I had never seen it. Well, now I have, and I can confirm that it's great. Not the best I've seen, not the most riveting, but still absolutely great. I think the film gets such high, universal praise because it is stellar in so many, nay every, aspect; the writing, the acting, the cinematography, the thematic elements, the music... everything is great. I had two major take-aways from this film.

First, so many people talk about different thematic elements from The Godfather, whether family, or the American dream, or the concept of vengeance. I felt that the over-arching theme of The Godfather was moral relativism. This is a film about criminals, murderers, just bad people... yet I felt sympathetic to them, basically because Coppola found a way to morally justify terrible actions through the actions of somewhat sympathetic characters. When Michael Corleone justifies killing a cop because the cop is involved with another Mob family, and thus crooked, I didn't question it. When Don Vito Corleone refuses a man's request that the Corleone family murder a man who raped the man's daughter, Don Vito parses the difference between revenge and equanimity by claiming that since the man's daughter was raped, beaten, and disfigured, her attacker didn't exactly deserve to be killed, just to live the pain he has caused. And I bought it. To me, the over-arching theme was moral relativism.

Second, the scene where Michael Corleone sits at his nephew's baptism as well-organized, multiple hits are carried out on other crime family leaders and other people who have crossed the Corleone family stands as one of the finest scenes I have seen in film. Everything ties together in the most dramatic yet cogent way, and the concept that as the well-planned hits are carried out, Michael is both literally and figuratively becoming "The Godfather" was well-stated yet not overly obvious. A masterpiece in cinematic scene creation, in my opinion.

Drink Review: 2007 Sottimano Bric Del Salto Dolcetto d'Alba

It was only appropriate to select an Italian wine to enjoy with The Godfather, and I also wanted to celebrate New Year's Day with a couple glasses of one of my favorite wines. The 2006 vintage of this tremendous dolcetto d'alba is slightly better than the 2007, which is available now, but that's only because the 2006 vintage achieves perfection. Just like in the film The Godfather, this wine is very complex, yet not so much that it is too expensive or not possible to enjoy.

Up Next: I have always been fascinated by the acting career of John Cazale, who made only 6 total films before dying of bone cancer in 1978. What amazes me is that all 6 of these films (this total includes The Godfather, Part III, which included Cazale posthumously and used archived footage) were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. There can never be another actor who will achieve such a record, but since Cazale has been dead more than 30 years, he's often overlooked or even forgotten. So the next film I will review is 1974's The Conversation, the second film John Cazale made.