Post

"The Godfather" is just starting on BBC4. I have never seen it. Let's see how this goes...

"I believe in America" Well, that first line aged like milk in a hot car.

CAT! Cat. There's a cat.

...we're at a wedding. I don't know any of the people at the wedding. There's a lot of dancing. Oh, hey, it's Robert Duvall! I know him.

Now somebody's singing a song.

This is as far as I normally get with this movie. 20 minutes in, there's no mystery, no intrigue, no threat. The only reason I'm still watching is that everybody always talks about what a great movie this is - but there's absolutely nothing on screen to suggest it won't just be two hours of wedding.

OK, the old cars are quite cool. And I briefly saw an aeroplane, which was interesting.

HORSE! Horse. There's a horse. I have a bad feeling about the horse.

...there isn't a horse any more. Not a whole one, anyway. Poor horse.

Robert Duvall is basically carrying the picture for me. Brando's Don Corleone is too close to caricature. Maybe just 'cos I've seen it parodied so many times before actually seeing the real thing? But Duvall's great. Apparently they're going to get into narcotics. Or something.

45 minutes in and for the first time I'm actually genuinely wondering what's about to happen...

...it's the pacing. Vito Corleone gets shot; blink & you'll miss it. Somebody reverses a car out of a driveway? Better dwell on that one a long time and mention it in the dialogue so everybody knows there's a car reversing.

The entire plot of this movie is the McGuffin. It's not a movie about stuff happening, it's a movie about people talking about stuff happening, and if something completely different happened the same people would be in the same room having a slightly different conversation. The cars are still cool.

I was wrong. There's another wedding.

Im guessing “Dude, where’s my car?” Is more to your taste 🤣