The Miraculous Manu Memorial Movie Month, Mmmmm!

The Godfather (1972)

Again, no screencaps, because I watched it on DVD. The same will be true of The Godfather Part II — and speaking of, my God, am I excited for The Godfather Part II, if it's 3/4ths the film this was. Same goes for Apocalypse Now. I do regret saying earlier that I was trying to refrain from making these little updates reviews and value judgements, because now I'd feel like a hypocrite for showering this movie with superlatives. And frankly, this film was so enrapturing as to shut down my usually-working-overtime critical faculties, so I'm left with very little to say (which is all well and good because technically this update is already screeching in past midnight.)

The most I can really say right now is that, more than any other film I've seen up to this point — my main points of comparison here are Zodiac and White Heat — The Godfather is sprawling. It's that near-3-hour runtime, has to be. That, or the lack of a little bar that tells you how far along in the movie you are, like I get when I stream the movies instead. Unlike other movies, it doesn't feel like it is contained in a neat, tidy 3 act structure, in and out. This is not to say it doesn't have a clear beginning, middle, and end, but it twists and it turns and it takes digressions that aren't actually digressions, until it ends, having covered a goodly sum of time while never being anything less than fascinating. Zodiac failed at accomplishing this same feat, flat out. White Heat, on the other hand, I only REMEMBER capturing this same sort of dizzying, all-encompassing feeling when I was younger than I am now, and I'm fairly sure it wouldn't have that same effect if I watched it again now. (I really should watch it again, I used to call it my favorite movie until I realized I had mostly forgot it. Maybe I just have a thing for gangsters.)