The Godfather is best movie many have yet to watch

NEW YORK - In the movie You’ve Got Mail, Tom Hanks tells Meg Ryan to stand up for herself, to “go to the mattresses,” and to remember: “It’s not personal. It’s business.”

His character was quoting his all-time favorite, life-transforming 1972 film, The Godfather. But to his shock and dismay, the references were entirely lost on her character. You’ve Got Mail was made in 1998, Ryan was almost 40 years old, and The Godfather was one of the most famous movies of all time. She really had no excuse.

If the references were lost on a hypothetical character who would be about 53 years old today, then they’d certainly be lost on many others, especially the younger generation. Regardless of age, it’s somewhat odd - The Godfather is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made, and yet, not only have many people not seen it, but they also have no desire to. Why the resistance?

“I have no idea, other than that they’re stupid.” That was journalist Peter Biskind’s explanation. Francis Ford Coppola’s response was a bit subtler. In an e-mail, the director of the 1972 Academy Award-winning film told me, “Gee, I can’t imagine that ’every’ film is seen by ’every’ person.” He added, “Perhaps some people are repelled by the violence, or some Italian-Americans feel it’s a slur on their heritage. I don’tknow.”

It’s possible that for Coppola, the film’s early criticism is somewhat fresh in his mind. Film historian Peter Cowie, who has written extensively about the famous mafia movie, recalled, “When The Godfather originally appeared, it broke a lot of taboos where violence and morality were concerned.”

“A minority of the public felt, perhaps with some justification, that the film’s endorsement of the Corleone family was immoral,” Cowie said, “and the celebration of violence was repellent, especially for the religiously minded.”

Cowie suggested that that particular “minority of thepublic” had missed the point. “It’s fairly plain that Francis and Mario did not celebrate the criminal exploits of the Corleones, but rather the opposite, showing that fear and loneliness are the wages of such sin,” Cowie said. “I have rarely met someone who has seen and studied the movie, and who still feels negatively toward the director and writer.”

Today, there is far less shock value to violence in movies, especially with the ascent of directors like Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese, who Cowie said have “taken such blood-letting to the next step.” The violence in The Godfather, Cowie said, is “pretty par for the course” for movies these days. Although graphic violence in films is now the norm, some people still don’t want to see it.

Virginia native Allison Kinney, 23, explained: “I’m not into super violent movies. It’s not something I would seek out.” She’d rather leave the gun and take the cannoli, so to speak.

It also seems that some people feel as though they have the information they need, without having actually seen the movie. Daniel Bennett, 33, from upstate New York, said that he has “peripheral knowledge” of the movie, the way that many do about Star Wars. And he is satisfied with that.

In a New York Starbucks in midtown, Loretta Spencer, 27, said, matter-of-factly, “I’m just not interested.”

Aside from peoples’ distaste for violent content, lack of time and mental energy, and overall lack of interest, there are also the people who simply resist going along with something so popular. Joe Pichirallo, the chairman ofthe undergraduate film and television department at New York Univerity’s Tisch School, doubts that The Godfather is unique in its status as an iconic and classic film that people don’t care to watch. Biskind agreed, saying, “I don’t think this phenomenon is unique to The Godfather. I’m sure the same people who haven’t seen it haven’t seen all the other major films that end up on the all-time Top 10 lists.”

MovieStyle, Pages 29 on 03/29/2013

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