American Film Institute's Top 100 Movies: No. 2
Academy Award Winner for Best Picture, 1973
Leave the gun, take the cannoli. - Peter Clemenza
Despite the wild reviews.... probably not my favorite movie. Overall, an intriguing, stimulatin plot. Not only did the actors do a good job, it was fun to see them looking so young - or with so much hair.
What I didn't like: Too slow. I understand the importance explaining everything carefully, because the list of characters in the movie seems to go on forever. However, the beginning just didn't have enough kick to it so it was hard to get into. It was also confusing keeping everyone straight - so many Italian names, so little time!
What I did like: As mentioned above, the actors. Marlon Brando was outstanding, I loved his muttering, bulldog-esque appearance. The scene where he's playing with the little boy in the orange patch was especially cute, seeing a mob boss acting so relaxed; I was intrigued to learn it was ad-libbed. Al Pacino gave a good performance and was convincing in his role, and James Caan as the older, protective brother was also well done. The use of oranges to symbolize death was also an interesting take, but after reading about it, it seems the oranges were initially only included in the scenes to add more color.
Also, for a movie about the Italian mob, there was a surprisingly low body count - 18 including the horse. Overall, a good movie, but I find the pop culture references to the film more entertaining.
3.5 stars out of 5
4 comments:
Slow? Not enough kick? That was an eye-talian wedding. That was nothing BUT kick!
Hey, I'm just saying.....too much talking going on at the wedding! I've been to rowdier weddings that didn't have mafia members on the guest list.
My favorite was Lori's comment when her and I watched it a few weeks ago... "Why are all these people so ugly?" Really. There were some terribly hideous people in those wedding scenes. I guess we're just used to today's movies knocking us over the head with beautiful people galore.
Hahaha that's true...I guess they were trying to be more authentic by casting an array of not-so-glamorous people. But at least they could have found a happy medium - surely out of those two families not all those people would have been so ugly.
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