The Godfather 1972

The Film:

Ok. We've made it to the big one. Considered by some to be the greatest film ever made and certainly a strong contender for the best Best Picture winner ever. This film (and its first sequel - which we will return to) is quite extraordinary in its success, influence, enduring appeal and the way it has become woven into modern culture through both "pop references" and more significant cultural references, even today nearly 50 years on.

I've seen The Godfather about half a dozen times before - although I didn't see it for the first time until I was well into my 20s (which was probably a good thing). If someone asks me what my favourite films are, this tends to be one of the ones I mention. It gets better every time I watch it and it deserves every bit of (non-violent) hype it gets.

I took Andy to see it (for the first time) at the cinema when it was on at our local independent a few years back. (He loved it too!) I think this makes it the first of our winners that I've actually seen at the cinema - it's also the last of our winners to have been released before I was born (twenty-five days before I was born, to be precise!). I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

The Ceremony:

Not Marlon Brando

March 27th 1973 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Hosted by Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston and Rock Hudson (quite an interesting line up!)

The ceremony will be remembered mainly for one person, who didn't actually win an Oscar, or even accept one on someone else's behalf. Marlon Brando refused his Best Actor Oscar (to be fair, he already had one!) and sent Native American Sacheen Littlefeather along to refuse it on his behalf. He sent her along to draw attention to that year's incident at Wounded Knee and as a protest at the negative portrayal of Native Americans in Hollywood movies. Her speech received a mixed reaction from the crowd, but I think Brando made his point.



Other Notable Winners That Night:

Twiddle-dee-dee-dee-dee - two Oscars!

The big winner that night was not The Godfather (which won three - Picture, Actor, Screenplay) but Cabaret which won eight of the ten Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Director for Bob Fosse and Actress and Supporting Actor for its stars Liza Minnelli and Joel Gray. It is still stands as the film that won the most Oscars without winning Best Picture. It is still controversial to some that Joel Grey beat Caan, Duvall and Pacino to his award - but Grey's Emcee is one of my favourite supporting performances ever so I'm more than happy to take sides against the family on this one! 

With eleven awards being snatched up by the two big contenders, that doesn't leave much for anyone else. However, honourable mention needs to go to Charlie Chaplin again. A year after winning his big Honorary Award, he finally won a competitive award for the score of Limelight, which was eligible because it got its first cinema release in LA that year. Possibly winning on a nostalgic technicality, but a nice win nonetheless.

Best Song:

There's a weird thing that appears to have happened on both occasions where The Godfather has won Best Picture. Disaster movies were a big thing in the 70s and so , it would appear, were the theme songs from them, which took Oscars on the same years as The Godfather did. This one is from the Poseidon Adventure, featuring Maureen McGovern as the lounge singer on board the ship that's about to go down. Guess what happens next time we see Maureen McGovern! (Hint - I wouldn't recommend hiring her for an event, it doesn't seem to end well....)

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Money!

It was always a two horse race for the big prize (if you'll excuse the mention of horses in a post about The Godfather!). The Godfather did NOT win Best Director - that went to Bob Fosse for Cabaret, which won in every category it was nominated in, except Best Picture and Screenplay. That's five Oscars more than its rival. There are many other years in which it would have taken the main prize and it also happens to be one of my favourites (although I do still think that The Godfather is the better film!)

We've been very lucky to have seen some great stage productions of Cabaret, particularly one performed in Berlin which (as well as being superb in itself) added all sorts of layers just because of where we were. Andy is less keen on the film than I am - but the staging of the scenes set in the Kit Kat Club are simultaneously joyous, disturbing, vicious and poignant. Bob, Liza and Joel all deserved their awards and - as we now know - Francis will be back again in a couple of years.

Our Verdict:

Proud (God)father and his three sons!

I'm not really sure what to write for this one. There's very little to be said that hasn't already been said somewhere. So maybe I should just say it again. I LOVE THIS FILM. There is no real reason for me to love it in terms of genre (not generally my sort of thing) stars (none that I would say are favourites) or director (sorry Francis, you're a bit hit and miss). However, this is a practically perfect piece of filmmaking in all of the ways I love film. 

The real star of the show

Firstly, this is a character study that manages to study several characters and their interactions, motivations, reactions, emotions etc so cleverly, subtly and (most importantly) interestingly. For me, this story is all about Michael - particularly when you watch the whole trilogy, but also when you just take this film on its own. The line "just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in" doesn't come until Part 3 - but so much of what leads up to it is here in the first one. It shows on his face rather than in anything he says. If anyone could have taken the Oscar from Joel Grey, for my money it would have been Pacino.

The storytelling throughout the film is also brilliant. It isn't too wordy, but it also doesn't rely too much on set pieces action scenes. It blends the two beautifully to tell an evenly paced and sometimes complicated story in a way that sucks you in from the start and keeps you hooked right to the end. The opening scene of Connie's wedding starts things off as they mean to go on. You get to know the family - by being shown them and being told about them (by Michael to Kay) and you get an emotional feel for them as well by joining them at a happy and (usually) typical family occasion. I checked the timer at the end of the wedding and we were already twenty five minutes in. It didn't feel like it - but it made me want to watch more (even when I knew exactly what was coming next)

The point of no return.....

This is a film about very unpleasant, dangerous and violent criminals - and yet I'm sort of on their side, without ever feeling that I need to condone their actions. I'm on Sonny's side when he beats up Connie's husband, I want the Corleones to get one over on the other families - and the only reason that I don't want Michael to find that gun behind the toilet is because it's the point of no return for him, not because I don't want him to kill those b*****ds.

What else is there to mention? The film looks good. The cinematography is great and the colour palette is so effective, particularly in the contrast when Michael goes to Sicily. The acting is superb by pretty much everyone - I would argue, controversially, that Brando is one of the weakest of a very strong bunch. The ending is satisfying if you want to let the film stand on its own, but also works very well as the lead in to a sequel.

Those pesky oranges

There are lots of things about this film that now sound like cliches when you hear them - offers you can't refuse, sleeping with the fishes, taking sides against the family, leaving guns and taking cannolis, freaking out when you see an orange - and various references to horses heads. However, they all still work in the context of a film that, despite being 46 years old, has aged very well indeed. I'm not sure I can quite say the same for myself, but 1972 was a very good year!

The French Connection 1971

The Film:

I'm pretty sure I've seen this one before, quite some time ago. I definitely remember the car chase, but I'm not sure about much else - so I'm looking forward to seeing it (again). I used to get it muddled in my head with Chinatown (which is a couple of years later and a very different film) so maybe I don't really know what I'm about to watch.

I do know that this film won out in two very strong categories (Film and Director). Following on from Midnight Cowboy a few years earlier, it has a very modern, "gritty" style and subject matter and is another example (along with In The Heat of the Night, Midnight Cowboy and the Godfather films that are on their way) of a Best Picture winning film that represents a new and different way of doing things. Welcome to the 70s!

The Ceremony:

This all happened a week before I was born - on 10th April 1972 - so everything after this point is within my lifetime.

It was at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion again, with only four hosts this time - Helen Hayes, Alan King, Sammy Davis Jnr and Jack Lemmon.

The ceremony was notable for being one of the last public appearances of Betty Grable who was suffering from cancer and died the following year.

Nothing else really special to report, except for a certain award given to a certain film pioneer (see below!)

Other Notable Winners That Night:

And about time too!

Best Actor went to Gene Hackman, and Best Actress to Jane Fonda, winning her first Oscar for Klute. Both the supporting awards went to performances from The Best Picture Show (Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman). The fact that all these are for morally complicated characters in morally complicated films definitely sets down a marker for the 1970s!

The biggest and most popular award of the night by far went to Mr Charles Chaplin who won a long overdue honorary award for his contribution to film-making (he got one in 1929, but with very little fuss or fanfare, and it wasn't a statuette!). Most of his best films and greatest innovations happened before the Awards began (which is a shame - The Kid should have swept the board for starters, except there wasn't a board to sweep!) so he had to wait until his 70s to get his own statuette. He received a twelve minute standing ovation, which is still (and probably will remain) the longest in Oscars history.

I love Chaplin films. He has a strong claim to have invented (at least in Hollywood terms) both Romcoms and the sort of Social Commentary/Political Satire that we still have today. Some of his best films are nearly a century old now and still work for contemporary audiences in both these genres. Hooray for Chaplin!

Best Song:

This year it's all about cool cops strutting around New York. And this is one of the coolest songs ever to win an Oscar! Isaac Hayes may have had a bigger UK Chart hit with his Chocolate Salty Balls several decades later, but this is his finest moment:

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Come to think of it, I don't recall Maestro Pembridge ever
conducting Beethoven's Ninth!

It's a pretty strong category this year - including Nicholas and Alexandra (historical dramas about royalty were on their way out though), Fiddler on the Roof (as were muscials).

I think The French Connection was a deserved winner, but two others could have equally been seen as strong winners. The Last Picture Show is a very good film that has stood the test of time and is in the US National Film Registry (as is The French Connection). However, I'm going to go against my usual instincts and give honourable mention to a Kubrick film for once - A Clockwork Orange is very good, which is probably why it is so problematic, so much so that I'm a bit surprised that it was nominated. It got significantly edited for US release (I'm guessing that was the version that got nominated). It ultimately got banned (by Kubrick himself) in the UK after copycat violence and became one of those films (like The Exorcist) that was a must see for students in the 90s. The Exorcist could be seen in "members clubs" in the 90s (ie. in the SU as long as you paid £1 to join Film Soc) - Clockwork Orange was only available crammed into the room of someone who was cool enough to have an illegal copy. Amazing how times have changed......

Our Verdict:

Good cop, bad cop - all in one!

I enjoyed this film far more than I thought I would. Firstly I was worried that it was going to be an early example of something that has now become formulaic - it is that, but it's such a good example that it stands nicely as the original with everything else (to a greater or lesser extent) an inferior copy. There are several scenes which, by the late 70s / early 80s, had been imitated regularly on the sort of cop shows the US was churning out for Saturday night viewing. But the mastercopies are here and they are brilliant!

Chat et souris - le souris gagne!

Secondly, I was bothered that it was going to be difficult to watch because, given the characters and subject matter, it would have become dated. I was worried mainly about casual racism, sexism, homophobia etc. Some of that was there, but it was so well bound up in the characterisation and scene-setting - particularly in the first twenty minutes or so - that it just about justified its existence.

Thirdly, this sort of cop drama, car chase sort of thing really isn't my sort of film. I wouldn't have chosen to watch it, had it not been on this list, or at least been something which was highly praised by critics. I needn't have worried - I really enjoyed it, and I agree with the critics that it is a very good film indeed.

About as 1971 as any movie scene ever gets!

I generally prefer my films to be character-led with great storylines that develop those characters (hence my love of Wilder, Capra and Mankiewicz!). This doesn't really have any of that. Apart from Hackman's Popeye Doyle, we don't really see into any of the characters at all - and even with Doyle it's snapshots of the various (sometimes very morally dubious) motivations he has as a cop, rather than anything more substantial. We don't even really have that much of a complicated or clever plot. There's some drugs coming in from France, Doyle and Russo are trying to find them. That's basically it! (I know, I'm simplifying things, but not by much)

Russo and Doyle - like an American Carter and Regan

What I liked most about The French Connection were the surveillance and/or chase scenes, of which there were several, all expertly shot and paced. I read somewhere that this film is basically just people watching and chasing other people - and you're never entirely sure if anyone really gets caught (except the ones that get a bullet!). That's probably a fair summary - but its done so well. The scene where the top baddie ("Frog One") is being followed on and off (and on again) a subway train by Doyle is brilliant. And the famous car chase scene, where the car is chasing the train that is travelling above it, is also fantastic - even though the posters weirdly reveal the end of that sequence! It's not too much of a spoiler to reveal that everything comes to a head in an abandoned (and very wet) warehouse, but the ending is wonderfully ambiguous and yet still weirdly satisfying. As an example of the genre, The French Connection is a masterclass - and it still holds up nearly 50 years later.