Movies In History: The Godfather

Somehow I managed to review The Godfather, Part II, but not the Godfather.  I think that's because when I originally started doing these, the criteria was a bit different.  It'll be noted that my entry on the second movie is extremely short (at least right now, it's likely to be added to at some time).

The Godfather, of course, was the first of this three part series of films and perhaps is the best, although the second film is excellent.  The third film, The Godfather Part III, is lousy and not worth watching. 

This 1972 film presents the story of a New York mafia family.  Based on some discussion with a friend of mine who knows the mafia quite well, this movie, based on Mario Puzo's novel, is very closely based on real mafia characters and events and presents a highly accurate look into the Sicilian American mafia. 

The film takes place in New York, Sicily and Las Vegas, giving a fictionalized account of the spread of the mafia into narcotics and Las Vegas gambling.  It shows in detail the mafia culture of the time and its activities, including how various mafia families looked at different topics, such as the introduction of the illegal narcotics trade.  Very well done, the film presents 1940s New York, so naturally it doesn't seem to be a period piece.  That it is a period piece is more obvious in the portions of the film set in Sicily, but then they'd have to be.

This film is an excellent film in every way, including in cultural and material details.  It's also an acknowledged masterpiece of American film making and worth seeing for that reason alone.

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Related pages:

Movies In History:  The List

Friday, February 5, 1909. Plastic's and crimes.

At a meeting of the American Chemical Society at the Chemists' Club, Dr. Leo Baekeland announced his synthesis of a new chemical, obybenzyl-methylenglycolanhydride, which he called Bakelite, the first plastic.  It became a huge commercial success.

Clark County, Nevada, where Las Vegas is located, was created from the southern half of Lincoln County.  The legislative act was today, but it took effect on July 1.

The German embassy in Chile was destroyed by fire, and a body thought to be that of Ambassador Wilhelm Beckert was found therein.  Following the discovery of a large amount of money being embezzled and that the corpse was not Beckert's, a manhunt ensued, and he was caught in Chillán,

The deceased was Exequiel Tapia, a Chilean porter employed at the legation. 

Germany waived judicial immunity and turned Beckert over to Chile, who executed him on July 5.