An offer I couldn't refuse

It's a classic. Perhaps the best movie ever made. Quotes that have become ubiquitous. The film is No. 2 on the American Film Institute's Top 100 films, and the line, "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse," is No. 2 on the list of 100 best movie quotes of all time.

And I'd never seen it.

Until last night. And to say I hadn't seen it is not completely true; I"d seen bits and pieces - I'd slept through it on my sofa at least once. But last night I decided it was high time to add The Godfather to my film resume.

I was inspired, for one thing, by seeing You've Got Mail and its constant Godfather references. Leave the gun, take the cannoli. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday. Go to the mattresses - I knew several lines of dialogue just from pop culture. Thus I was moved to join the discourse - Pete and Gary analyzed and dissected the film on and off throughout our weekend in NYC.

It's high time I got on board.

So, warning: SPOILERS ahead.

Watching a film of this notoriety 30 years later is an interesting undertaking. First of all, you kind of know the story. And nothing is a total surprise. I saw the horse's head coming - it probably shocked audiences when the film came out, but since I had heard all about it, some of the shock-value was lacking.

I tend to find these stories complicated and hard to follow - just like The Sopranos. I can't tell the characters apart - it's a bunch of Italian guys with Italian last names wearing suits and hats doing dark deals with the threat of death looming. The details are murky.

But more noteworthy, perhaps, is that I had a preconceived notion of what the film is about. And to me, The Godfather in the title wasn't really Don Corleone, but about Michael Corleone. The story, to me, was less about Vito's fall from power and more about Michael and his initial reluctance, followed by his ultimate acquiesence to power.

I liked it for the same reason I always found The Sopranos fascinating: the family dynamic. Who knows? How much? How do these men live with themselves? Whom can you trust? (Apparently, no one.) How can you live with the possibility of death or betrayal at every step? What do the wives know? Their husbands lie to them, but surely they don't believe all those stories - either they're idiots or they choose not to believe. How do you deal with the kids? The neighbors?

And the church - they baptize their children, and the priest must know who they are, what they do. And he can just turn his head. Remarkable.

Quite a cast of notables - but I had some trouble with the 70s hair and ties. Come on - they could have done better in recreating the look if they'd wanted to. But my biggest problem with the plot? How could that director have slept through someone putting a horse's head in his bed? How heavily does he sleep? Would he not have felt something in the night? He was covered in blood - you'd have to notice. Or one would think.

No matter - all in all, still a great film. Great enough, anyway, that we're cueing up Godfather II here momentarily.

It's not personal, after all - it's business.