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ading the wealth approach sadly almost abandoned in current cinema is a trademark of coppola look at most of his major work and the first scene you think of won t involve the film s headliner when i think of apocalypse now i immediately think of robert duvall wanting to go surfing when i think of the undervalued and ripe for rediscovery the cotton club i think of the scene where of fred gwynne breaks bob hoskins gold watch when i think of bram stoker s dracula i think of sadie frost in that funereal dress her face white with death now more about kay as i wrote earlier she is the fresh eyes that represent us always just outside the corleone family and never able or willing to take that final step even after she marries michael she appears to be a strong woman from the beginning and yet the final scene of the movie is her believing michael s lie that he had nothing to do with the death of his brother in law does it make her look gullible for buying into his lies and by extension his sins and corruption of course but then again haven t we as the viewers who have deemed this one of the masterpieces of all film done the same thing the godfather part ii here s a catch 22 if i ve ever seen one in devoting a third of the godfather part ii to flashbacks that track the rise to power of vito corleone writers mario puzo and francis ford coppola who also directed insert in the film a flaw that can t help but hurt the pacing and build of the other story they want to tell michael corleone s embracing of power in exchange for the final vestiges of his soul and despite creating that problem this sequel prequel simply would not work without them the movie needs to show vito s humanity well humanity in direct juxtaposition with michael s inhumanity for the impact to be deeply felt vito s story begins with the murders of his father brother and mother at the hands of one of italy s wicked dons he travels to america grows up to look a lot like robert deniro and frustrated with the mafia presence in his slice of new york city decides to take things into his own hands michael s al pacino again story begins with a celebration of the first communion of his son he s still married to kay diane keaton but things between them are icier of late after an assassination attempt michael goes to great lengths to uncover the turncoat in his family while also securing a big business deal in cuba and being investigated by the government phew the suspects include his brother fredo john cazale and even his underboss tom hagan robert duvall at some point in the movie pacino s eyes completely drain of emotion and go dead and they stay that way in virtually every other scene the one exception is his fury at learning kay had an abortion how could this man we saw courting kay and smiling widely at the wedding reception that opened the first film have turned into this soulless monster if kay is indeed our eyes into the world and the corleone family then she becomes just as suspicious and horrified of michael as we do early on vito sensed something in michael that reminded him of himself and yet the man we see before us has embraced all the unseemly horrors of the mafia and forgotten entirely the lessons and charity his father showed after sonny was murdered in the first film vito took the step to end the cycle of revenge instead of just wiping out everyone who had set their sights on his family it seems michael cannot comprehend this i write those statements not as a criticism but in admiration that puzo and coppola could tell this story so unflinchingly we inherently knew where this was heading from the middle of the first film and the murders michael oversaw at the climax of that film confirmed it but here the two show just how far he ll fall on this journey there s a beautiful heartbreaking scene that takes place after the corleone matriarch has passed where michael s sister connie talia shire gets on her knees and begs michael to see fredo the man who betrayed him again michael seems touched and embraces his brother once more and we dare to hope even though his dead eyes tell us we should know better that he can change and then the movie climaxes with fredo being shot while michael watches this is all very shakespearean and coppola wisely knows that even in the most dire of his tragedies there must always be some form of light to distract us even momentarily from the descent into hell this can sometimes be a supporting character who ultimately becomes a hero macbeth a comic relief character think of falstaff or some really dark humor tamora eating her sons in a pie in titus puzo and coppola supply us with vito brought wonderfully to life by de niro in a performance that doesn t strive to mimic brando s work but instead capture the spirit vito isn t exactly a saint but in comparison to michael he might as well be he murders a don who is the bane of the community and steps into the role genuinely trying to do good for those who need his help of course in the end he returns to italy to exact a really nasty revenge on the man who killed his family but the next moment is of vito and his family on a train together and loved it was revenge yes but the story ends with the hope that vito would grow into the man we meet at the beginning of the godfather the screenplay is excellent with many wonderfully written scenes and enough callbacks to the original both subtle and blatant to give us real impact from these characters journeys and yet neither mini film could exist on its own the false optimism at the end of vito s story would ring false and michael s story would be too oppressive for us connect emotionally watching the movies back to back i can t help but be a little let down by the scope of the movie i m sure the budget for this movie was much higher than the original thanks to all the praise and box office and oscars and prestige and stuff but i can t help but feel all the add ons are a little off the original seemed epic despite taking place mostly in dimly lit offices restaurants and back rooms it went big only twice with the wedding which was juxtaposed with the intimacy of vito s office and our first view of michael in italy in michael s story there s a communion party a parallel to the wedding in the original multiple parties in cuba a riot scene for good measure and senate hearings in vito s story there s the arrival in america the introduction of his neighborhood a parade and other large street scenes perhaps the most telling example of this is that michael s office has a huge window that overlooks a lake where are my beloved venetian blinds i truly missed the intimacy of those smoke filled rooms and think many of those parties and parades could have been excised without losing much from the final product the heart of the movie comes when fredo thinking michael has forgiven him explains to michael s son how to fish he tells about how his father took the boys fishing and no one caught a bite except for him the way he describes it you inherently know it s the proudest moment of his life even though it was decades prior for that small scene our hearts break for fredo and we completely understand what it must have been like for him in a family that included stronger smarter men like vito sonny and michael without this scene his death at the end means nothing and michael s descent is just that but because of this scene and because we like kay so much the film is a tragedy the two movies connect so well in telling a complete story of how a good man can be corrupted absolutely even with the best of intentions it tells its story manages to affect us even though we know it shouldn t and in the end resonates deeply what more could you want my score out of five the godfather the godfather part ii posted by robert taylor at 11 13 pm 1 comment friday february 3 2012 casablanca afi top 100 ranking 3 year 1942 writer julius j epstein philip g epstein howard koch adaptation murray burnett joan alison play director michael curtiz star humphrey bogart ingrid bergman claude rains everyone knows the old quote howard hawks used to describe a good movie three great scenes no bad ones casablanca is a movie with a seemingly endless amount of great scenes and not a bad one anywhere to be found i suppose that s why it s almost at the top of afi s list and why it s so easy to fall in love with here is a simple story extremely well told where every minute or two you smile with recognition as you see a classic moment and realize what made it so special and perfect in the first place we open in the title city a place where everyone seems eternally stuck hoping to escape to america away from nazi forces the only one who doesn t seem to want to leave is rick humphrey bogart he owns a bar where everyone finds themselves every night good or bad poor or rich one night rick s lost love ilsa ingrid bergman walks into the bar with her husband victor laszlo paul henreid and it just happens that he s enemy number one for nazi officials who are desperate to find a reason to arrest him and take him to a concentration camp before he can get to america though the movie isn t a thriller it involves one hell of a mcguffin to get out of casablanca ilsa and laszlo need letters of transit impossible to get and rick just happens to have what seems like the last two in the city it may seem as if the movie is purposely manipulative just by reading the synopsis but it never seems forced or overwrought when you are watching it that begins with the casting has there ever been another movie where the cast is as a whole so uniformly perfect for their roles bogart known for his tough guy roles plays another one here but we get to see him fall head over heels for ilsa and lose her in flashback so instead of just being a dick we understand his pain and bergman was never lovelier and the way she plays the small intricacies of the love triangle she is at the center of would have been lost on a lesser actress that lesser actress would have simply been making love to rick with her eyes from moment one but bergman rightly plays it cooler henreid is great at playing the straight man interesting enough to be the hinge the story moves on but not engaging enough for us to root that he sticks with ilsa and then there s the supporting cast filled with character actors doing their very best to steal scenes claude rains gives the performance of his long and celebrated career as the sort of bad sort of good police captain who gets all the best zingers he shuts down rick s bar because of gambling while being handed his roulette winnings conrad veidt is menacing as the one genuinely bad guy in the movie the nazi insignia is the first hint and then there s s z sakall and dooley wilson as rick s trusted confidants and employees the film throws a nice twist early when peter lorre shows up as an oily ne er do well we assume he ll stick around to make trouble throughout the film but then is grabbed and we learn later he s murdered a true shock considering we expect someone like lorre to have more of a fundamental role though the love triangle is the film s center it s a fuller better movie because the supporting cast help to paint in the edges julius j epstein philip g epstein and howard koch s screenplay takes variations on scenes that seem long familiar shine then and reverse our expectations until they seem genuinely new i want to cite examples but i could literally pick any scene in the film okay fine let s talk about the moment ilsa finally caves and admits she still loves rick when she enters the scene rick and we knows she just wants the letters of transit they play a mind game and rick tries to give her the cold shoulder once too often so instead of trying to seduce him she pulls a gun on him rick s character arc is so very inspired this woman he once loved who left him for reasons unknown has returned now he s cold and can t open up and because of that won t give her the letters to finally do the right thing he must admit to himself that he does still love her but by doing that he ll lose her forever it s a fantastic catch 22 where even though we know it s an inevitable ending it still affects us deeply after an hour and a half of bluntly stating that he doesn t stick his neck out for anyone he makes her get on that plane even though let s face it there s no real reason she couldn t stay in casablanca with him but he knows it would kill her and he d rather die himself than see her suffer director michael curtiz filmed the movie in a straightforward understated style and thank god for that yes there are the shadows of a noir but another director would have either exploited the thriller elements or emphasized the romance that would have been a mistake curtiz simply let the film be what it was instead of forcing it to be a cookie cutter studio picture and the results give casablanca all the more power i must ask a silly question about the atmosphere he creates though why is there a searchlight constantly searching the streets of the city what are they looking for exactly and then there s the music i prefer max steiner s score in this film to his more lauded work on gone with the wind there s just something about the way he incorporates the song as time goes by into the score subtly while still creating several other themes that are just as timeless seriously i didn t mean it as a pun then again i m always a pushover for the henry mancini style where the entire score for a movie is built out of a single song for example moon river in breakfast at tiffany s i also adore how this movie seems built on fate both in the storytelling device of having ilsa walk into rick s bar after all these years and in how it seemed like all of these hollywood workhorses who had worked with just about everyone finally came together for this specific project i would also like to note that you dear reader should be very proud of me for not inserting endless examples of the classic quotes from the movie about ten of which have become so well known they have become part of public consciousness and really there were a ton of opportunities especially here at the end of the article but i m not going to do it but if i did you know which one i d choose my score out of 5 posted by robert taylor at 12 06 am no comments tuesday january 31 2012 raging bull afi top 100 ranking 4 year 1980 writer paul schrader mardik martin adaptation jake lamotta joseph carter peter savage book director martin scorsese star robert de niro cathy moriarty joe pesci raging bull tells the story of a monster the film is exceedingly powerful raw and horrifying unafraid to look unflinchingly into the eyes of a man portrayed to have no redemptive qualities the movie may not flinch but i sure did here is a masterpiece i genuinely hope i won t have to watch again jake lamotta is a famous enough wrestler that even i who know nothing about boxing have heard of him the film adapted from hi...