Go Ahead. Disagree.

Jeff Cohen

There are two things you are never supposed to say out loud (actually, there are plenty of things you are never supposed to say out loud, and I believe you should say most of them): You're never supposed to say that you don't like listening to Frank Sinatra sing, or that you're not crazy about The Godfather.

Well, I'm here to say both. So you can start yelling at me as soon as you've finished reading the rest of the post. 

Sinatra: Yeah, the guy had a nice voice. It is also true that he was not a terribly wonderful human being. That's not always a deal breaker with me, but in his case it's hard to get around. Overlook the way he and his Rat Pack pals misinformed generations of young men on how to behave. Forget the treatment of women and the palling around with organized crime (we'll get to that in a minute); I'm just not that moved by his singing. It's all about technique and rarely about the song being sung; each note seems to want to draw attention to itself and say, "Listen! I'm being sung really skillfully!" Until, of course, we reach the dooby-dooby-doo period, at which time even the "nice voice" thing is in serious doubt. If I never hear his version of "New York, New York" again, I'd only be sorry because it would mean the Yankees hadn't won the game.

But more egregious than that declaration, perhaps, is the lack of respect for Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of the Mario Puzo novel The Godfather, which pretty much anybody who's ever seen a film has decided is, if not the greatest movie ever made, certainly in the top five.

Except me.

For one thing, I resent the legacy of the movie--since its incredibly successful release, I've had to deal with fictional gangsters ranging from the ridiculous to the just plain annoying. No, I wasn't a fan of The Sopranos, for the record, and not only because it helped fuel the prejudices of just about everyone about my home state. I'm not watching Steve Buscemi--an actor I usually like a lot--in his Atlantic City gangster show, either. 

Because the fact of the matter is, I'm sick of gangsters. How the hell many ways are there to dramatize organized crime from the sympathetic perspective of the criminals? And why is that a good idea? Those who think Al Pacino and Marlon Brando were bringing something new to the party in 1972 because they were showing us that gangsters are people apparently had missed 80 percent of the movies Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney ever made.

On top of that, guess what: Gangsters are not nice people. They tend to steal from those who can't afford it, kill those whom they are not especially crazy about, corrupt law enforcement and government, deal drugs (or, in the good old days, alcohol), cause pain and generally contribute to a system that doesn't need any help in making things tough for the little guy.

From a movie standpoint: The Godfather is too damn long. Its dialogue is often hard to hear. Its lighting is intentionally dark (we're making an existential point here, people, so pay attention!). Its performances are certainly compelling, but its characters are uniformly unpleasant and hard to watch. We are encouraged to side with one group of gangsters--the good ones, I guess--and against others, including the scheming Jews. (I would not for one second deny there were Jewish gangsters, by the way.) 

So don't come to me and quote chapter and verse from the sacred Book of Michael Corleone, okay? I realize I'm demonstrating my awful taste when I say I'd rather watch any of a hundred movies again before I check out the grand opera that is the "masterpiece" of The Godfather; I don't care. 

You are unquestionably entitled to believe that it's the greatest single achievement in all of Cinema. Just as I am entitled to prefer Horse Feathers. This is America. See the movie you want.

Comments

[Fiona Marsden]

ROFL. I've never seen anything of the Godfather series except a Youtube short of the music which is interesting.
I also never saw The Soprano's. Skipped the aussi version called Underbelly. (ick)
I don't want to watch not very nice people do not very nice things with no Happy Ending. I have enough real life tragedy to contend with.

[Larry Chavis]

Ah, Jeff, Jeff, Jeff ... You are absolutely correct about the host of poor imitators (The Sopranos, et al), and I'll concede your points on Sinatra. But The Godfather?? Perilously close to blasphemy .

Interesting, isn't it, how tastes vary. And that's good; I shudder to think of a world peopled by Chavis clones.

[Cakmpls.wordpress.com]

I agree with you about Sinatra--my mother was from the "Oooooh, Frankie!" generation, but I never understood the attraction to the man or his singing.

On gangsters: Are there films or TV shows (I don't know, because I don't follow the gangster genre) in which minority gangsters are romanticized the way white gangsters are in the ones you discuss? Gangsters are gangsters, after all. And for that matter, why are Americans, well, terrified of terrorists but so fascinated by organized crime (at least the white variety)?

[Jack Getze]

Outlaws have been the stuff of popular fiction since the campfire days, Jeff. You can go sit by yourself in the dark when the rest of us gather to listen.

You're right about Sinatra, though. A real creep when it came to women, and the voice seems mechanical to me, too. No emo.

[Leann]

Agree. I like heroes to be the protagonist. I like when justice is served. I also had the misfortune to work in a hospital as a teenager in the dietary dept. The hospital is where the mob (we had a LOT of mob people in Niagara Falls) always went with fake heart conditions when they were about to be arrested. I served meals to criminals who acted like owned the place (which they probably did!). I didn't like them, so, though I saw The Godfather, I didn't think it was the greatest movie ever. Criminals are human? Sure. That doesn't mean they should live like kings and be immortalized in film. Never liked Frank's singing. The end.

[carl brookins]

I pretty much agree with everything you've written here, but in the case of Sinatra, I like his voice and his music. None of those guys in the Godfather franchise had a decent singing voice--that's why they needed Frank. Just think, if we4 didn't get on with the armed bad guys, the world would be a lot quieter and the NRA would have nothing to spend all its money on!

[Toni Lotempio]

I'm not a big Sinatra fan and, even though i'm of Italian heritage, not that big a fan of the Godfather movies either.

Give me the Man of Steel any day.

[Patty Andersen]

I read The Godfather so went to see the movie. The book was better. But that was pretty much the end of any interest in mobsters for me.

As for Sinatra. I like his Christmas songs with Bing Crosby. Otherwise, not so much.

[Alice Duncan]

Very interesting, Jeff! I kind liked The Godfather, was never a Sinatra fan, but I'm sick of villains being lionized. If I could, I'd send my wieners to piddle on 'em all. Well, maybe except for Steve Buscemi in Boardwalk Empire, but that's because I love the 1920s costumes.

[Barry Ergang]

I tried twice to watch "The Godfather" when it ran on Turner Classic Movies, and both times turned it off out of boredom. I never watched "The Sopranos" either. I've never been especially enamored of films about the Mafia. Anyone fascinated with organized crime in this country should first look at Congress and corporate America. They make the Mafia seem like the Cub Scouts.

Other iconic films I despise are "Gone With the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz."

I'm been a big-time Sinatra fan since I was in my early teens, and was fortunate to see him in concert three times, so I have to disagree with you and other commenters about his singing. (I don't disagree about his character--although he DID do a lot of charity work he didn't like to have publicized because it conflicted with his badass image.) Those who think he sang mechanically and without emotion should listen--I mean, REALLY listen--to the "Only the Lonely" album.

[Jeff Cohen]

I can't speak for all Americans, but I can say I'm not crazy about gangsters OR terrorists, no matter their skin color.

[Jeff Cohen]

Fine with me, Jack. I'll be off in the dark, watching the Marx Brothers and feeling better about things. You enjoy the allure of guys who would shoot your face off as a form of recreation.

[Jeff Cohen]

Not sure gun control laws would slow down the Corleones, Carl, but I agree with you in principle.

[Jeff Cohen]

I'm worried they're going to make him too dark and gritty in this upcoming movie, Toni. Stay tuned.

[Karen Hall]

I LOVED what you said about Sinatra:
It's all about technique and rarely about the song being sung; each note seems to want to draw attention to itself and say, "Listen! I'm being sung really skillfully!"

I sometimes feel the same way about literary fiction: "Look! This is a gorgeous sentence! Doesn't really advance the plot or help define the characters, but oh, my! Lovely!"

[Kevin]

I agree on both points, Jeff.

[Annette]

Jeff, I like to listen to Sinatra - but you are right - he was not someone I would ever want to meet, or speak to, or spit on if he were on fire.

Gangsters, not fun. I wonder how many people would be enamored of gangster movies if they substituted the Mexican drug cartels. I do not think most people would find them enchanting. And Public Enemy ---Little Ceaser, those were enough for me.

[Jeff Cohen]

I find it amazing how many young people think the Al Pacino SCARFACE is an amazing movie about a cool guy.

[Star]

Guess you got up on the wrong side of the horse's head, Jeff. I do number the GF as one of my top 5. Just making a movie about a person does not lionize them--in most gangster movies, the protags come off as ill spoken, sloppy, badly dressed and with poor social graces allowing shooting and torture. People aren't interested in saints and volunteer workers--bec stangely, these people are more like the viewers and readers and thus boring to them. I saw a movie called KILL THE IRISHMAN--about an offbeat union-mobster named Danny Green who ran around Cleveland in the 1970s (real guy) telling goombahs to stuff themselves. He worked out and was into healthy eating, but had pretty unruly hair. It wasn't bad.

[bookwitch]

You're a brave man, Jeff.
I have belatedly come to like Sinatra, a little.

Godfather I never cared for.

[Star]

I do remember once asking my daughter why she liked THE SOPRANOS. She thought about it and said, "Because I think if Tony were my dad, he would protect us." That was the push-pull of that character...there was something there.

[Jeffrey Marks]

I'll tell you a secret -- I'm a Godfather virgin. Never seen a one of them. Not even after one of my dorm mates wrote one of the sequels. Not my genre.

[Donald A. Coffin]

On Sinatra: I always thought he was about a quarter of a tone flat...and if you want a truly bad interpretation of a song, listen to his version of "Send IN the Clowns" (or,, better still, DON'T).

On The Godfather: I was always aware of its virtues as cinema. But I also always thought there was a moral hole at its center. It's Coppola's depiction (metaphor) for the corruption of American society, I guess. Bu there is no moral character in the movies who provides us with that contrast, the moral center against which we can see the abyss and be repulsed by it.

So I'm pretty much with you on both (and I have not seen one episode of Sopranos, which is, perhaps, largely a consequence of my unwillingness to pay for HBO).

Now, if you start picking on Bob Dylan...

[Jeff Cohen]

On the other hand, if he were just, let's say, your next door neighbor, he'd shoot you in the face for letting your dog poop on his lawn. It's a matter of perspective.

[Shel F.]

aggregious = egregious? Gotta love Microsoft Word's "we know how to spell better than you do".