Transcript of 70mm’s The Godfather (1972) Episode.
SLIM Hey, it’s your old pal Slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers. Every Monday I sit down to talk about recently watched movies with my dear friend and artist Danny Hoss,
DANNY You’re definitely a Rolo guy. [Danny laughs]
SLIM And our own spiritual advisor, Protolexus.
PROTO Rolos… every 50 year old’s favorite candy.
SLIM As we recorded this episode, to the day, it’s been 50 years since the release of The Godfather. And two hosts, believe it or not, have never seen it. How is this possible? Will they love it or hate it? Let’s find out… together.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
PROTO How ‘bout this was the release day 50 years ago?
DANNY Thank you.
SLIM 50 years ago today, Proto.
PROTO How did we do it?
SLIM Was this — whose idea was this? Or was this serendipitous? Was this Danny’s idea? The day, the day we record this was the day The Godfather was released in theaters.
PROTO Gawd.
SLIM How do you feel about that, Danny?
DANNY I feel great. I picked it because I haven’t seen this film before. Excited.
SLIM So let’s just let’s just set the emotional stage for people that are checking out the show for the first time. A movie podcast, movie lovers, that’s me. Don’t shut it off when you hear that to the host haven’t sat down to watch the Godfather before. You know, we’re all here on this planet together going through life at our own pace.
DANNY Thank you.
PROTO How often do you get to hear someone’s first impressions of The Godfather in this this day?
SLIM Skip ahead and use the chapter if you want to jump right to The Godfather discussion. But that’s our feature prezzo this week — 4K Godfather.
DANNY Yeesh.
SLIM Never been done. But there’s been a lot of talk in our Discord this week that we need to jump into right now.
DANNY Oh gosh.
SLIM And that is the deleted scene for Matt Reeves’ The Batman, featuring the Joker officially. We all sat down to watch the deleted scene, five minutes long.
DANNY Incredible.
SLIM Batman goes to visit him. They have a history, a year ago, it’s the almost anniversary of their something happening. Proto, what did you think of this scene? Barry Keoghan.
PROTO What did I think of it? I was not expecting to get a deleted scene like this. I kind of liked this though. I like this much better than a post-credit scene. This is pretty cool to have them just drop a deleted movie that’s very relevant and interesting online and you can just like watch it like, whoa, here’s another piece of this movie that we all loved. We all had a great time watching. And of course, you know, there was little tease of the Joker in it. So to have this, yeah, I wasn’t expecting this. But I trust in Matt Reeves. I don’t know if I loved this. Or I didn’t think it was amazing. I think it’s cool just have more content. But I trust that whatever Matt Reeves wants to do with this character or whatever story he has to tell, after watching this first movie, I’m on board. You know, people are saying like Joker is played out. We’ve seen enough, want something different. But hey, I’ll be there in the theater.
SLIM For Matt Reeves. Danny, will you be there for Matt Reeves?
DANNY Oh yes. Yeah, yeah, this deleted scene was fantastic. I really loved it. And I wish that this would have replaced the stupid Joker scene that we got. Or just not even have the Joker in it at all. But this five minutes? I don’t know. I liked it. I didn’t, I was afraid to get Ledger vibes from this performance. And I think the voice gets there for a minute. But there’s also, I don’t know, they’re not trying to do comic book-y. So if we’re going to do these grounded Jokers, it’s going to be hard to not compare to Heath’s performance, especially when you’re doing the scarred up face and etc. But I think his motives and how they, you know, write that story for that Joker, I think it could set apart pretty nicely from heats. And I think Barry’s a solid, creepy actor. He plays those kind of quirky, odd Paul Dano type roles very well.
SLIM Burned up head in that deleted scene.
DANNY Yeah his head was all messed up. I mean, it was given very current Joker vibes from comics that we’ve seen more recently. Post New 52, etc. So yeah I think it’s pretty solid.
SLIM I initially was pretty turned off by the whole thing. I didn’t like Barry pursing his lips together a-la-Heath. I was like, don’t you dare make me hear your lips like Heath! [Slim laughs] You haven’t earned that right, Barry!
PROTO That’s Heath’s! You cannot take that from him! [Danny laughs]
SLIM That was me. And then like cooled down a little bit, you know, as I am one to do. And I thought maybe they’re just gonna kind of lean in, maybe he’s Joker is the best. Why bother making crazy distinctions between that Joker, like the Jared Leto Joker? I don’t know if we want to dig into that a little bit. Well, we don’t have to, let’s continue on.
DANNY Snyder cut.
SLIM I was talking about The Suicide Squad one.
DANNY I blame the writing. [Proto laughs]
SLIM And then so, I’m kind of okay if they just want to maybe keep it in line with what we’ve seen so far. And also I think Paul in our Discord had a suggestion, maybe Joker just lives in Arkham Asylum for the rest of this trilogy, if there is a trilogy and he never really becomes the kind of like leading figure.
DANNY It would be cool, yeah.
SLIM That would be pretty cool.
PROTO I love the fact that there isn’t an introduction for the Joker, that it’s just assumed that they have a relationship already. I think that’s really smart just to have like characters dropped in, skip the whole, “Oh who’s this new character?” Because it takes a half hour to introduce a villain in a movie. We can skip all that.
DANNY I like the, he had a great line to Batman as he was leaving that made Bats freeze was about how he was happy about the crooked people dying. Just admit it that you were happy about these deaths. I really loved that line.
SLIM Yeah me too.
DANNY Just get him good.
SLIM Get these politicians outta here.
DANNY This is exciting. I mean, this is cool content to have come out after loving this film.
SLIM When’s the steel book coming out? Can you imagine the Best Buy steelbook?
DANNY Gosh. What if it’s like these five minute villain dossiers in this deleted scenes, other villains that are in Arkham?
SLIM Also like you’re getting Barry Keogan to be Joker, I wonder if he’s like signed on for future movies, like that’s got to be like a multi-deal. You don’t just sign up for one movie and then see what happens.
DANNY I don’t know.
SLIM Right?
DANNY If we’re introducing Robin, like I really want Matt to do.
SLIM They’re not.
DANNY They’re gonna have to have Joker for some multiples.
SLIM Cut the stream. Mental note, edit Robin talk out from the podcast. [Slim laughs]
PROTO Danny, are you are you guaranteeing that we’re getting Robin in the second movie?
DANNY No. I’m not. I’m just wishing. Just a big wish for me. I want some Nightwing so bad.
SLIM Just a quick note. We mentioned last week about our friends at Movies Anywhere slid into our DMS one more time last week and a lucky live chatter from our community won a bundle of five movies to redeem on movies anywhere from Oscar season, the Oscar fever is fever pitch. I think as as episode drops officially, it would have been last night. But the comment of the night wins a bundle from Movies Anywhere including West Side Story, Nightmare Alley.
DANNY Gosh.
SLIM Belfast, King Richard, and the most controversial film that we’ve ever covered on this podcast, episode 91, Dune.
PROTO That’s a great bundle. I would love to have that bundle. I think there’s three movies on there I haven’t seen. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Proto might need this bundle more than whoever wins this contest.
PROTO Whoever wins this, DM me, we can work something out. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM So Movie Anywhere, as we mentioned before, we actually do use Movies Anywhere all the time. If you have movies on Apple TV, Prime and you don’t have them all in one spot. You can actually just link all those accounts in Movies Anywhere and use them in one app. Legalese time, please. The digital code can be redeemed on Movies Anywhere only. Registration with Movies Anywhere required, open to US residents 13 and older, sorry, download the free Movies Anywhere app or visit moviesanywhere.com to redeem your code. Usually at this point in the show we talk about what movies we watched this past week but I don’t know if either one of you have watched any movies this week. Right Danny? Did you watch anything?
DANNY I will say that the Godfather has consumed my life this week.
PROTO Wow.
DANNY And that’s all I’ll say right now. [Slim laughs] For another four minutes.
PROTO He watched the other two.
DANNY I didn’t!
SLIM Did you?
DANNY I didn’t.
SLIM Oh my.
DANNY No, I didn’t. Actually, all the stuff that I watched too, when it started digging into two and three, I had to stop watching it because I didn’t want to be spoiled. Because I honestly have no idea what happens.
PROTO That’s amazing.
DANNY Very excited.
SLIM Wowow. We could talk about the Halo TV show.
PROTO Do it.
DANNY You can.
SLIM That officially came out.
DANNY You hated it.
SLIM We’re hardcore Halo fans. We grew up on it. Many friends I met on Xbox Live playing Halo. So they finally had the first episode on Paramount+. And I watched it today, right before dinner. I snuck it in. I like the trailer. I watched the trailer ahead of time, I thought it looked pretty rad. Some people were bad out of shape that it might not follow exactly the game storyline, but I was kind of fine with that because the games have been done to death. Like I can’t think of a video game campaign that bores me faster than Halo at this point.
DANNY I couldn’t tell you what the storyline anymore was.
SLIM The flood.
DANNY Yeah, the flood, the convenant. All the things.
SLIM Masterchief going bad. So I did watch the pilot or whatever the premiere, I thought it was fine. I got like hardcore, I say this a lot, but like Red camera vibes. You know, like for anyone that is watching The Matrix Resurrections, it had a certain look, because it was filmed with a certain camera. And it worked pretty well for Matrix because we felt like it was just going for a different visual style than the other ones. But this one feels like a TV show. And it kind of works against my love of the show in that way.
DANNY Are we getting domed in the show?
SLIM No, I mean the first half of it takes place in like in outdoor, do remember in Mad Max Road Warrior where there was this like mini city built up in the desert?
DANNY Yes.
SLIM And they were like hoarding gasoline. It’s kind of like that. So the whole set piece is almost like a Universal Studios set piece stunt show.
DANNY Oh really?
SLIM Yeah, it starts out with the insurrectionists actually, you know, hating the Marines. And they’re fearing that the Marines are gonna like come attack them, but the covenant actually comes and then Spartans have to come save them. So it’s like this big stunt piece. And some of it looks pretty cool, but some of it also just looks like dudes in Masterchief cosplay.
DANNY Cosplay. [Danny laughs]
SLIM Running around a little bit.
PROTO Does it feel like SyFy Channel-esque? Like Battlestar Galactica?
SLIM Yeah, I guess you could say that. It’s like if Battlestar Galactica was filmed with RED cameras in 2022.
PROTO Okay.
SLIM So I liked Battlestar Galactica a lot though.
PROTO I do too. Yeah.
SLIM Yeah, like, would you want a Halo in Battlestar Galactica vibes? If you do, then maybe you’ll enjoy the show?
PROTO No, that’s what I’m saying. No, that’s not what I would expect from this. At least from what I saw in the trailer.
SLIM The trailer made it look like an expensive movie. The show is more SyFy original. So for better or worse, that’s kind of where I land on it.
DANNY Okay. I’ll give it a go.
SLIM We should say hello to a new patron this week. Spencer joined us at 70mmpod.com. Uncut episodes. And our Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix episode just went out to supporters. Proto, you had a great time during that recording. Any any fond memories as you went back to watch Order of the Phoenix?
PROTO Well, that was the one movie that I got to watch this week. My daughter was excited that we’re back to watching Harry Potter, as was I. We did our tradition of running over to the Wawa. Got some slushies, as they call them. I got a Reese’s, they have the Reese’s Cups but with like Reese’s Pieces inside of the cup. Have you guys seen this?
DANNY Mmmm. Oh baby. Yes.
PROTO I got myself a pack of those and let’s just say that was the best part of the movie. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM You ever had to Take 5 bar?
DANNY Ohhhh my god.
PROTO Oh yeah.
SLIM Take 5 is probably my number one candy, ever.
DANNY Oh. That’s interesting.
PROTO Wow. That’s not good.
SLIM What’s wrong with Take 5, Danny?
DANNY No, it’s a great bar. Ever, ever is interesting.
SLIM I mean I also love Rolos. Rolos are probably at the top of my list.
DANNY You’re definitely a Rolo guy. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM What does that even mean?! A Rolo guy?
DANNY It’s like old man in the pocket Rolos.
PROTO Every 50-year-olds favorite candy. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM Where are my Rolo fans at in chat please?
PROTO Rise up!
SLIM Sarah, thank you. Mike, you’re banned. Sorry, Mike is gone. Someone take care of that please.
DANNY Right next to his butterscotch.
SLIM No, I’m not a butterscotch person.
DANNY The sounds of the butterscotch is unwrapping.
PROTO Don’t you dare call me a butterscotch person! [Danny laughs]
SLIM Should we drift into the main course?
DANNY Yeah.
SLIM The Godfather. We could have a lot of note, We could not not a lot of note. You know this is allegedly the greatest film ever made. We’ll see. We’ll be the judge of that, actually.
PROTO Thank you.
SLIM In 2022. As I’m sucking down my Rolos watching this film.
DANNY You can’t say that. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Proto, what is the Godfather?
PROTO Veto is the Don of the Corleones, one of five crime families that operate in New York City. When veto declines involvement in the rising market of narcotics, Don to taglia and salons so put a hit out on veto gun down while buying bell peppers veto miraculously survives. While recovering, his son Santino takes the reins, but his hothead leaves him careless and exposed, leading to his death. Michael, Veto’s younger son and hero of the war, who was separated from the family business is left with no choice but to get involved. It is soon evident that Michael is the heir, containing the composure, intelligence and patience that is required to fulfill the role of family Don. With the five families in chaos Michael must act to save the business, the family and become what his father was: The Godfather.
SLIM Our dear friend Vontmer playing the background right now. Is he the greatest living musician? I ask you. [Proto]
PROTO I mean, everyone just heard it. Okay? It speaks for itself.
SLIM We’ll have a link in the episode notes for you to check out Vontmer’s beautiful music on Spotify or wherever you listen to your beautiful music. 1972. Danny, you have never seen this movie before. Ever. But you have the DVDs.
DANNY I have the VHS and I have the DVDs. I now have the 4Ks. And here we are. 2022.
SLIM 2022.
DANNY Yeah, I think the most that I know of, all my education of The Godfather comes from You’ve Got Mail and everything that Tom Cruise said in that or Tom Hanks says in that movie, you know what do I pack? Summer vacation, leave the gun, take the cannolis, what day of the week it is, Monday, Tuesday Wednesday, you know? So that was my Godfather education.
PROTO How did it feel to watch this and see the context for all those things?
DANNY You know, it is insane to get all the context. And you know it’s really funny, Casey and I, this is our first time watching it. Even like we I have I don’t know the story. And when Vito gets gunned down in the street, we both were like, is he already killed off already? So it was just it was great to just kind of not really have this movie at all spoiled, which is really wild to me. I mean, only thing I really feel like I knew from this movie is the intro office scene that feels like the most iconic kind of stuff from this.
SLIM Yeah, I was thinking I think I know about this movie, mainly from Simpsons homage throughout the years and I feel like there was a Leslie Nielsen spoof, where he died with the his young like grandson in the fields, some kind of Mafia, Mike Scott says Mafia exclamation point. That is probably where I’ve seen most of this stuff. So I also went in pretty much like, impossible to be spoiled. Like the half white, like even any of the scenes in the restaurant with Michael the whole thing was like a brand new viewing even though I feel like I’ve seen most of these scenes in different ways, whether it be YouTube clips, or homaged in some kind of TV show. So it was pretty special viewing in my opinion for me, but Proto, when did you first see The Godfather?
PROTO I think I’ve seen it twice before. I remember the first time thinking that it was slow in kind of struggling to get through it. But and also just hearing like growing up I don’t remember anyone talking about The Godfather, but always talking about The Godfather Part Two, two is the best one. That’s the movie yada, yada. So I never really heard much talk about this. And I think that watching it even now, I wouldn’t say I was like entirely sure of the entire plot of the main stuff, but I almost get like Christopher Nolan vibes watching this movie where it’s kind of tricky to follow what’s going on between the characters and the families and who’s after who, like if you take a if you’d like aren’t dialed in, I think feel like for the most of the movie, it’s easy to kind of lose pace of of what’s going on. How did you get it? Did you feel like it all made sense as you were watching it?
SLIM It did for me. I think the by the halfway point, like it’s almost like that at the very halfway point is when Michael needs to go at hiding. And it’s almost like two different movies at that point. And yeah, the him in Italy and then later you could tell that there’s some time passing. Because like his his son is growing up and you’re like, okay, we’re progressing pretty quickly through the current state of this family. But it was pretty easy for me.
DANNY Yeah, I think that was only bit that I couldn’t wrap my head around towards the end was how much time has passed before, you know, while he was in Italy. And then when he says he’s back for a year already to Kay. He’s been back for a year and she didn’t even know it. So they had been apart for four years, but didn’t really feel like that because everything in Italy happens quite quickly. But it also still kind of feels well constructed this whole kind of story. Almost like I’m not missing it. But it begs to be watched again multiple times.
SLIM Yeah. So we’ll talk about our, each host has three things that we want to call out in our discussion. Then we’ll give her honorable mentions and then our final rating. We touched on a little bit and this was in my Letterboxd review.
DANNY You’re grinning, just say it. You’re smiling ear-to-ear. [Slim laughs]
SLIM I mean you talk about Obama meddling Obama. My Letterboxd review for this movie: “Michael meets a girl in Italy, marries her and then she explodes on the same weekend.” [Slim & Danny laugh]
He still has the shiner from when he got punched by the cop. And he finds someone, marries her and then she’s dead all before his face heals. Like he’s not there that long. He is moving very quickly in Italy as new Michael and that just cracked me up. I mean, also, I zeroed in on the exploding car. But like you can see like her corpse hanging out. You can see her leg just hanging out from the exploding car. It was insane!
DANNY 4k.
SLIM Oh my god, the 4K of her dead leg. [Danny laughs] Was off the charts. Proto, what do you think of the Italy? Michael in hiding?
PROTO Yeah. Well, I mean, that’s yeah, that’s a I mean, the scene that leads to of him killing those guys in the room. We’ll talk about that scene. But yeah, he’s there so quick. And the thing that I thought watching at this time is how I think this movie, for one. It does, I think it does communicate the passage of time. So well, through just different techniques of communicate, like through children’s ages, people just, you know, offhand saying, you know how long they were somewhere because a lot of time does pass. But it keeps you kind of like dialed in through hints as to how far things have gone. But also just like that idea of just the what the passage of time is doing to like this family and their business and what it means to be a crime family and that kind of like the times are changing and that Vito was a certain kind of dawn that is dying out that can’t exist anymore. And then Michael has to come into this role and kind of really, like, innovate in being a crime family in some ways. And all I kind of took the whole you know, Michael goes to Italy, he married he tries to marry the Sicilian girl, and she gets killed. And then he comes back and he American marries his American wife and almost so that, you know, that’s just a, you know, a metaphor for just like the the changing of the times for them, like the old ways, the Sicilian ways of like, the Italian way of running the business doesn’t work anymore. And we’re in America now. And the the world is changing around us and we have to change with it. So I thought that was kind of like a nice, yeah, just symbol that.
SLIM I mean, how fast tie with the passage of time. It’s a lot so how fast does he move on them? Right when they say that we don’t want to take part in the drug business. We’re not going to front the million dollars and then he’s like, go go check out this family see what they’re up to. That guy gets murdered right away. And then they’re moving fast to destroy them. I thought that was insane how quickly things progressed right after that meeting.
PROTO Well, how about being in a line of work where you just got to kill people all the time? Like is there any other way to work things out? Just like we are killing people all the time it’s just you know, it’s just you know, it’s it’s one of the it’s on the kanban board, you know, kill Luca.
SLIM I mean even he how he gets killed too, that is brutal. All the murders in this movie are extremely brutal to see. And very like realistic in, I don’t know, just horrifying to see. Danny, what’s number one on your list?
DANNY Number one for me is the Michael storyline. I can’t get over how well crafted his corruption is from this movie. Because when we see him at the wedding party, he is just, this is my family. This isn’t me. And then when we get him when he comes back, he’s in Vegas, and he tells Fredo don’t don’t talk against the family. Like he’s now like there’s this amazing three hour journey of Michael that I just couldn’t get over how well crafted this was and and I love young Pachino I really love young Pacino. His old movies are incredible. But there’s something about him in this film. I was just, I really loved him in this.
SLIM My note, one of my top three, “Is Al Pacino and the coolest m-fer alive?” [Danny laughs] I mean, he’s got like a swagger, a calm swagger, in this movie.
DANNY Yeah, and every situation he’s put into feels high pressure but he’s so cool. The one of the best is him having to move Vito in the hospital and that scene. It was so well shot to I mean, every interior scene in this movie Francis’s filming it with one light bulb lit and it still looks amazing. Like I couldn’t get over how incredible this looked. But that hospital scene just was next level.
PROTO Yeah. And the the score behind that scene add like it does so well to counter the tension. You know, like, something like dreadful is about to happen. He doesn’t, you know, figure this out right now. Yeah, it’s such such a great scene.
SLIM Did Roger Deakins shoot this movie? The cinematography was so good. [Slim laughs]
DANNY You’re gonna have to cut that. I’m pissed.
PROTO Yeah Pacino is is is wild in this because it doesn’t feel like it feels so different than what I expect or what Pacino is in my mind. So seeing this calm and collected character, but I love how he’s so much like his father, so much like the Vito character. And I love how that plays out in the other suns as well. Like, Santino is obviously, like the heir, but he’s just not he’s not his father. And he’s too hot. And there’s like, no way this would ever work. But you can see, there’s so many great scenes where all of the sons, like share aspects of their father, but like Michael truly is his father in the way that he thinks and the way that he operates because often like they have the same idea, like Santino’s is like, we have to kill these guys, and I’m gonna drive out there and we’re gonna kill him. And then Robert Duvall is like, you can’t do that. You’ll have all the cops after you, you know, you’ll get us killed. But Michael, he’s like, Yeah, we have to kill them. But we’re gonna do it a smart way. You know, like every point, like they’re on the same page. But it’s just that Michael and Vito Know how to operate. And Michael just carries that trait of thinking through things and knowing how to operate this business the way his father did. And I I just love that. I like that picture of the sons and their father.
SLIM Yeah. I joked, it’s not actually, Deakins did not shoot this movie. It was Gordon Willis Jr. He did the entire trilogy. Also did Manhattan, Clute and the Parallax View, just to name a few. Oh Money Pit with Tom Hanks. The Devil’s Own, Presumed Innocent, couple of Harrison Ford movies. Okay. Proto, what’s your number one?
PROTO Ah, okay. We kind of were talking about stuff. Yu know, so much of this movie. I think if seeing it, that it were so much of it is in popular culture. It feels so like the scenes feel cliche in some ways, because you see them and everything else. But they’re also like the most iconic to me. They’re like the most iconic versions of these scenes of like, you know, putting a guy in a car, driving them out somewhere and killing them. You know that the sleep with the fishes scene with the with the, with like, just like all the mob stuff that happens in this, you know, strangling guys. I mean, how many windshields are blown out? Maybe you should think of a different approach to killing guys in cars. But there’s so many scenes in this movie that feel like oh, I’ve seen stuff like this and other mobster movies. But these versions. I just felt like man, it just looks so good. And there was just the way it’s shot. It just feels so iconic.
SLIM Yeah, I mean, the cinematography in this film is absurd. There are so many beautiful moments. The wheat field scene with a Statue of Liberty in the background.
DANNY My word.
SLIM Duvall on the movie set in between the buildings walking through. Michael peering through the hospital door frame. I mean, flexing very hard, a lot of this movie. And he talks about the like iconic, you know, scenes to the point of cliched. You could even just like watch this movie with someone for the first time be like, ah, yep. Yeah, that right. Yeah, that was that scene. You could do that 100 times in this movie. Because you’ve seen so much of this elsewhere. So it was pretty fun to experience.
DANNY I felt like the Leo meme pointing at the screen every time it was something that I knew from this movie without even seeing this movie.
SLIM Yeah, yeah. My number two, still on Al, our sweet boy, the restaurant scene when he meets the cop, and Solatso, this might be the most stressful scene in movies that I’ve ever seen.
DANNY It’s insane.
SLIM Like going through this, I couldn’t remember, I remember him reaching for the gun. And this might be another mafia scene. Where like it goes to the toilets, I was like, what happens with this guard? Does he get this gun? Does this actually happen? Or is this some other movie I’m complaining with where someone drives by and kills everybody and he escaped so I couldn’t remember what happened. And when he comes back from the bathroom, like, I feel like I started sweating. Because I couldn’t remember what was going to happen if he was going to do it. He is an all timer. Like it’s legit. So good.
DANNY And Al’s performance alone. There’s he does the well. I love this caught Casey and I off guard. The Italian not being subtitled. We were like crap. So then we went and rented it somewhere else thinking that the version we had wasn’t correct. So he rented it on. I don’t know where Amazon or somewhere. And they were like, Oh, this has been V like this. So we had to start the scene over. But out. I couldn’t get over how you could watch in his face and his eyes and his demeanor and his mannerisms. contemplating what he’s about to do was impressive. And when he can’t find the gun, I was like, like, every every pore of my body was sweating. I couldn’t I was like, Oh no, the guns not there. What’s he going to do? And then even up to the killing, when he shoots that cop in the throat. Honest to God, I thought he really shot that man in the movie. I don’t know. It looks way too real like because it wasn’t like oh, I’ve been shot I’m gonna fall over he does a thing with his mouth. He’s like, can’t breathe because he was shot like there was something way to correct with how that would actually look that it really unsettled me. You gotta shoot him in the head. You gotta shoot him twice. You were told to shoot him twice! These are the rules! Please shoot him again!
PROTO Yeah, I’d love that to have I think it adds the tension of not knowing what they’re saying. You know when he’s like yeah, is it alright if we speak in Italian and that’s like hey, what’s going on? Yeah, that’s that just worked so well and I I’ve seen this multiple times the scene and I couldn’t remember I was expecting him to walk out of the bathroom and just immediately shoot them. So when he doesn’t he hesitates and then he sits down I’m like, Oh, Michael. You crazy cool! And he’s just gonna He’s so cool and collected, yeah, and that’s just like speaks to like this character throughout like the you know the rest of the movie. I mean, cuz that’s just he’s so cool in this, another scene like that is when he when he goes to Vegas to confront Moe green and his brother Fredo and Fredo is like screwing everything up, you know, signing with Moe green and being like you know, Michael What are you talking about? And he but he doesn’t like loses cool even after mo green leaves and he’s just like, he was just like, Fredo…
[clip of The Godfather plays]
PROTO He’s so like he never loses his school and like that is so amazing of this character. He’s just so cool. Like the fact that there’s almost there was no like, like learning steps for him. He was he’s just like a natural born killer to be a Don and that’s like he’s like a he’s like a super Don. When it’s so cool to see this character come in and just do that.
SLiM The one time I was starting to like actively question if he was making the right moves because he tells Tom that he’s not the conceit consigliere he anymore. Check check the box. And he hires as his right hand man, Carlo. The is Carla right? The abusive husband of his sister. And I’m like, What are you doing? Huh? What’s going on here? Enter this guy’s life immediately your poor sister who exists in this movie only to get beaten? Apparently, according to what I saw on film. i He like, was so annoyed. And I was surprised. I was shocked that trainer and Chad, the abusive husband could be anyone. Sorry. Sad, but true. I was like, I couldn’t I was confounded by it. And eventually, you know, he does get the information out of them. But I don’t know. Couldn’t he have gotten the information out of him? At that point? Did he really need to wait that long? And to serve His purpose? That was like the one thing that I was raising my eyebrow? About about Michael’s plan? Neither one of you have thoughts on that plot?
DANNY No, maybe I don’t understand your question. What plot?
SLIM Like he tells Carlo like, this is why I kept you around to like, kind of protect him and pull the information out of him get him to admit who he sold out Sunny. Like, because he it was him who got Sunny, killed right in that scene. And then he finally pulled it out for him. And he’s like, Who Who did you deal with to get that hit? Yeah, yeah, I just didn’t I just didn’t quite get it.
PROTO I think he was in that. I think he might have been like leveraging having Carlo on his on his good side. Because obviously, the other family was able to use him. So by not just like killing him off, that might have just sent a message to the other family that like, oh, they know, it was it was Carlo, or they would have then found out that it was Barzini because I think he tells him it’s Barzini but it wasn’t until that point that I think Michael knew that it was him specifically. So maybe that’s like he just wanted to keep them close because hey, if I promote this guy, maybe he’ll be like, oh, well my family’s trip treating us pretty well.
SLIM Or maybe like show that like he’s weak. And maybe I don’t see that as like a strength for the other families. Okay. Who’s turn is it? Danny is number two.
DANNY Number two, let’s talk about Brando. For something that feels ingrained as one of the most iconic characters in cinema, I couldn’t get over how much I really loved it. I didn’t think that I would enjoy because I feel like everything I’ve seen of him outside is just kind of not mocked but it’s just you know, people doing the voice doing the hand gesture, you know, dropping their jaw make it kind of but it always feels like a joke but so I thought it more be like a caricature of himself watching this finally. I kind of loved him in this I loved his the opening day at the wedding in his office, not being able to you know, he has to take all the requests that come in and that whole scene with him and Robert Duvall and you’re just getting the lay of the land of this family very well done. I mean, everybody you know, in the first you know 10 minutes you know exactly about Sonny exactly about Fraida exactly about Michael exactly how Vito is even Duvall, Tom it’s like an incredible masterclass of just character development so fast and I was just glued to that entire office scene, taking the requests you know even not even like losing his cool when the guy comes in about like the first shot loving America but my daughter was beat up and why didn’t you come to me with this when it was happening? Are you just not coming to me now? I’m not going to kill this guy for you, etc, etc. Like there, but he’s not like mad about it. There’s this real calm presence. He’s just larger than life and I was in love with him in this film.
SLIM The one thing that was a shock to me was that first scene, the meeting he takes with Solatso, he’s wearing that like brown suit.
DANNY It felt so out of character.
SLIM What decade are we in? I forgot what year we’re in when he’s wearing that suit.
DANNY I expected him to be a tux this whole movie with the red rose. [Danny & Proto laugh]
SLIM Yeah, it’s so strange to see anything else?.
PROTO Yeah, I Iove the scene of him in the garden when he dies. I remember hearing about the scene like oh, the garden scene. This is like another iconic scene. I think the first time I saw it, I was like, why is like this is like so important. But now I think it hit me more of just this. Like what? What a life that this guy lived and how rare it would be for somebody to be In crime to be a crime boss, and to go out like peacefully pretty much like playing with your grandson in a garden. It’s kind of like he won. Like he just like died on his own terms. And he won the game of life. He was like He lived a crime boss life and died happy. But just even like that moment, like that’s, it’s not important to what comes next or the plot, of course, it’s important that he dies. But just that there was like, so much time spent in that moment with like, his three year old grandson of them, like it’s such like a touching moment to have just like, in the middle of this movie, and this movie has such a such a. I don’t know if like slow is the right word. I think it does feel slow. I was when I was like, halfway through this. I went down stairs for something. And Jenna said, How’s the movie? I was like, Oh, it’s great. And she’s like, should I should I come up and watch it? I was like, I mean, it’s great. You I think you might like it, you know? I mean, it’s a gangster movie. And it’s kind of slow. I was like, I just said it’s kind of slow in a gangster movie. So you probably should have watched like if I told her yeah, she’s never gonna watch it. But it does like it does have like the slow pace but it feels so good at the same time. Like nothing is wasted. Just I just love how it’s how it unfolds.
DANNY Another thing I wasn’t even really prepared for also in this film, especially with Vito in a couple of scenes, were how emotional he gets about a sons, even to the point of crying. Like I expected this macho movie gangsters all these tough guys but there’s so many moments where real emotion comes through when he finds out that Michael was the one that killed the two cop in the in whatever the other mob guys name is any kind of does that kind of face with a little bit of a tear rolling down and then standing over Sonny’s body the famous look how they massacred my boy or what it’s just there’s still like real raw emotion coming through these performances and I honestly just didn’t expect it, even Tom’s character when he when everyone kind of thinks Vito’s dead. Tom gets kind of weepy too and it’s like turns his head I was not expecting that from these characters in this film and it was very interesting it also made a just I don’t know feel more real, like more of this could lift this felt legit.
[clip of The Godfather plays]
SLIM Also the baker who helped Michael at the front of the hospital, that guy is gonna be a made man after that.
DANNY No, he got called that was his his he got called up for his one favor he had to give back like the two guys that were off that had to give favors both had to give favors in the film that guy had to you know make Sonny’s body look not you know presentable to his mom and then you had the the baker had to stay on guard they had to you know, call in their favors and you see them you know, get that in the beginning and then they had to come through in the movie. It was so great. I love that full circle for them.
PROTO And I love how the favor isn’t like we need you to kill somebody. Right?
DANNY It’s something very simple but also big moments.
PROTO Oh, yeah. My favorite scene is the another scene between Vito and Michael where there’s I think they’re sitting outside in the garden that lions from Vito where he says I don’t I don’t apologize. That’s my life. But I thought that when it was your time, you’d be the one holding the strings.
[clip of The Godfather plays]
PROTO And just that you know that Michael would be a senator or governor and the gray would make their family legit. And just like the the grief and like just you know, just like that loss that veto feels of like Michael was the one who was gonna in a way get out of this life. Like he was gonna push our family forward. But here you are like life happens. And that’s not the way things played out. I just love that scene. I feel like it’s such like a great build up to where these characters are, and of course, like the Vito at the end of his life.
DANNY And you just said it, Slim, when he’s with Vito and he says, “I’m with you now pop” I love how there’s almost a double meaning where he means in the moment But also, he’s wisdom now, like he’s not he’s no longer the outsider. He’s in he’s, he’s in the family business now. And I just, yes, I love it.
SLIM Proto, is that your number two that scene? Or do you have any? Okay. My number three, let’s see. So when they got to Vegas, this leads into my three, but when they got to Vegas, and he’s like, trying to take over the casino, and like, almost sort of legitimate legitimize the family. I was like, ready for more at that point? Yeah. Oh, god, what’s the purpose, the second movie about what’s their flashbacks or something? So I was like, that for me. I was trying to think of what happened. I couldn’t remember really what happens in the second movie, because I wanted to see like, continue on like, oh, what happens next for this family? So at the my last note is the ending scene. Mm hmm. Where his sister comes in and says, You killed you know, you killed my husband. Admit it. You did this. Why would you do this? And is it Diane Keaton, who plays his wife? Yeah, Diane Keaton comes in. And here’s this also, there was a great moment in like that scene where Michael looks at Diane, to almost like in like an unspoken motion, like, can you help out here? Can you handle her? Which I just loved? But she asks him, what do you do? You know, like, did you do this? And he shows his one emotion, of anger and the entire journey so far. He’s like, our alright, you asked me one time ever, about my business. And he lies to her. I was like yelling at the TV, I was like oh my god! I can’t believe it! I thought he was gonna have this moment where like, they’re a family business. She’s in like, I thought maybe they’re like, going to work together. They’re going to be like, you know, one of those couples. And trainers have tactically he didn’t come so yeah. But like he could have let her in there. But he didn’t. And he says, No, you’re still you know, you’re still separate from the affairs of this family. And, you know, everyone comes into kiss his hand at the end in the movie, and she looks back what an ending that friggin ending.
DANNY When she looks back in the door slowly closes. Just look on her face like this is she knew, but then she also she was like, I don’t know, there was it was just amazing. What an amazing ending to this film.
SLIM Yeah. I mean, also, how do you not know, Diane?
DANNY Right, she knows.
SLIM Diane, have you heard anything about this family over the last however many years you’ve been associated with them?
DANNY Diane, try bangs out, please. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Danny, number three point.
DANNY Number three, the finale. Leading up to what you just said him having all the crime bosses killed. At that moment after the funeral. I was. I was kind of in awe. Like, I feel like the storytelling in this entire movie was something I feel like I haven’t witnessed before and the layers and layers and layers of things going on. On top of this. You know, when he’s in the garden with his dad, and he says the person that’ll be the trader will be the one that sets up this meeting, etc. And it ends up you just watching it unfold. And you see who the traitor becomes. And then it all plays out after the baptism. And yeah, not the funeral. Sorry, the baptism of his daughter, granddaughter. Just killing off the mob bosses one by one. I was just like, I want to just to stand up and cheer. It was amazing.
SLIM How bout Mo Green getting popped in the eye?
DANNY In the eyeball. The trader at the very end when he just, Tessio just knows it’s over for him. And he just kind of calmly gets in the car. There’s no fight over that, like nothing. And it just what a performance what a what a small piece of storytelling.
PROTO I love that scene because Tessio says he says, you know, tell Michael, it was just business. And then Sollozzo says that earlier too. He’s like he tells I think Robert Duvall his character, you know, it’s just business. But I feel like the difference is for them it’s business but like for the Corleone, this is our family. Like for them it isn’t just business it’s something different but they never actually say that but it’s communicated through just like their actions. So I love just that comparison of like, these guys who get killed off they’re just doing it for business. You know the kill these guys but it’s different for the Corleones.
SLIM Yeah, final point Proto?
PROTO Oh just the look of this, so the 4k, I want to say I wasn’t blown away by the 4k. I think that dark scenes looked incredible like there’s some amazing lighting and we hinted at this earlier and there were some really gorgeous shots in this but overall I wasn’t really like blown away by the look of the 4k but I the the dark portions did look really good I know what did. What did you guys think?
DANNY You know if you look on the discs, there’s a whole section on the restoration process of this film. And while I don’t know if you know 4k When we think about it, how crystal clear and etc new movies look and 4k. What they were doing with these 4k we’re just bringing out more details and they’re showing side by sides from the last restoration in 2007. From what they can do now and it is kind of mind blowing what they were two were able to accomplish and there was a great side by side this show of I can’t think of the sister her name but her wedding dress. There’s so much lace in that wedding dress and detail and in the in the daylight shots outside. It’s so blown out in the original footage but in this you can see the lace and while it’s not crystal clear you are seeing much more detail and I found that quite interesting. And yeah, I think I think it really did look incredible. Yeah, but especially the low light dark scenes. It’s fascinating.
SLIM Yeah, if we probably were used to the 1080p HD version. Like if we had washed this a bunch, I’m sure we would have probably noticed a big difference. The main one that jumps to mind is Bridge on the River Kwai. When I watched a clip on YouTube, I don’t even know it was that it was at a digital 4k, it might have just been a 1080p restoration that they had done. And even like the previous version of that versus an updated restoration was like night and day of what they’re able to accomplish and bring out some of the detail.
DANNY I think I took a photo I’ll share it on live chat of the dress.
SLIM Honorable Mentions. And final thoughts. One of my other notes that I would definitely want to bring up was just the way Pacino runs with his arms. It’s almost like his arms are like wings, and they’re catching wind. They just kind of like float next to him. Like it’s very hard to describe, but it’s a very noticeable run. Duvall is one of my favorite actors. I just always seem to forget every time I see him in a movie.
PROTO What a classic.
SLIM He is so good. This is five stars, easy.
DANNY Oh my.
PROTO Easy?
SLIM Yeah, I had it, I was riveted. The whole time I was drawn to the screen. Did look great in 4k. I watched the digital version. So I did not have the discs. But I greatly enjoyed watching the digital versions. Yeah, lived up to the hype for me.
DANNY Yeah. Let me see, honorable mentions. Sonny’s character loved and also I love Luca Brazi. And this film, I bring up Luca because I watched probably every bit of behind the scenes that I could for this film this week. And there’s a great 45 minute doc on how them the mafia itself was heavily involved and the drama behind this you know, film even being made the protests about stereotypes of Italian Americans being looped into all being a part of the mafia and it was a big deal and even even, you know, so much of the mafia was involved in how this was made, how it was filmed. They like even this whatever the singer character was that wanted to put in films and the mafia and like they the mafia even had their people put into this film. There’s a few in the wedding scene. Luca Brazi is the actor is actually a hitman from the mob and the scene where you first see him practicing his lines is a literal scene where the guy is sitting there practicing his lines and and and amazing Francis just filmed it and then threw it into the film behind k and and Michael it’s just it’s insane what he was doing in this film and what what went on. And for me, this is easily a five star movie. I was blown away with every second of this film. And honestly, it’s like a click away from being a top four movie. I honestly can’t. I can’t wait to watch this more. I can’t wait to watch two and three. I am shocked by this film that really Yeah, it really consumed me this week. It really did. I mean, I couldn’t I couldn’t watch enough behind the scenes of this.
SLIM And you got the, did you get the collectors box set?
DANNY I got the big collectors box set. The book. Everything. I’m in. I’m all in. I get it, three middle-aged white guys love The Godfather. [Proto laughs]
SLIM Do you believe it?
DANNY This was my first time watching it and I’m just floored and I really am floored by this.
PROTO What a turn. Wait because didn’t you say you started this a couple times?
DANNY Couple of times bored out of my mind and I’m just not in the right place. The village has changed me. The podcast has changed me. You know, it’s just nice to be, I don’t know, I sat down this with fresh eyes. I mean this also we probably started it years ago. I’m not the same person.
SLIM There’s some chatter in live chat right now, just a reminder we’re gonna give away the Movies Anywhere bundled to the comment of the night and there has been made legal gambling in our Discord, people have been putting in their wagers to see what the overall star rating is. They can put some Vge bucks, Vgoshis, in on the line and people are waiting now on Proto’s rating for this film to see if they can cash out.
PROTO Honorable mentions. Someone did just mention yeah Yoli and said what about the bloody horse had seen another iconomy seen it’s such a crazy scene. And you know our good friend Vontmer, he actually read the godfather of the book. And he talked about how you know great it is and that seemed like makes me want to read the book. Because I’m just like so curious as to all the other stuff that must take place in the larger story though that it’s this is taken from. That scene is just so insane. Just the cube like the the way the guy even wakes up and realizing like you that feeling when you wake up you’re like why am I soaking wet and then you realize it’s your your kid peed your bed and you’re sitting in their urine? This, like waking, waking up and it’s horse blood. It’s so crazy. Um, but I had a great time watching this. Yeah, I like it more each time I see it. It is so iconic. And I’m at four stars.
SLIM Woooww, four stars. I was wondering if we’re gonna get up 15 banger.
DANNY Next time we cover it. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Batman Forever effect.
DANNY The 75th anniversary.
PROTO How do you guys feel about doing Two? Because I’ve been making mention of doing Two.
SLIM You have been hankering in our DMs about doing Two.
PROTO The things is, like, you watch this one… we gotta watch Two. We gotta do Two. [Danny & Slim laugh]
DANNY Let’s get through Leading Ladies and let’s pull the trigger and do Two.
SLIM What if we make two a patron supporter exclusive? And we don’t have to wait. Maybe we squeak in a Godfather Two during leading ladies.
DANNY You know it’s funny about two is that’s the De Niro one, correct?
SLIM Spoilers.
DANNY When they started sharing photos recently of their get together like the 50th anniversary, and I saw de Niro in the pictures. I was like, Oh, he’s in there. I was waiting for de Niro almost the whole time for this film. That’s how little I knew.
SLIM I definitely want to watch Two. So it really depends on what we want to do. I want to do it later. You know in May, or we do it sooner and just put it out for supporters. We’ll talk with legal, we’ll get with a board. VHS Village board. Former Ian.
PROTO Former Ian, now disgraced.
SLIM Former Ian, now frog. Ian and Dale are the other members of the VHS Village board. We’ll talk with him, have our own meeting.
PROTO Oh, and let me say that you mentioned VGER, yeah, so we have VGER bets in the Discord anyone who’s a patron can join the discord and start making bets. Not only do we have bets for how many stars we’re going to give it but also now we have a an over under that you can bet on as well. And for leading ladies month, I thought it’d be fun. We thought it’d be fun if we did a giveaway for the VG beds.
PROTO So for the month, the four movies that we cover for Leading Ladies, whoever wins the most VGER coins at the end of those four episodes, will be getting The Godfather 4K trilogy box set mailed to them. So the money is real this time. I mean it’s fake money, but the rewards are real. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM The MSRP of this box set? Is it like $200 this thing? I mean, it’s up there, right? It’s pricey.
PROTO This isn’t the Collectors. It comes in the paper packaging.
SLIM You’re gonna be getting those mini sleeves. Proto got rid of the box. He’s just gonna give you the sleeved 4K discs.
PROTO Yes, thank you Marcie the most masculine prize for Leading Ladies money, you know, bring balance to all things.
