October 25, 2022 • 31 mins
This week we’re talking about my favorite movie of all time, The Godfather and the book of the same name. Listen in for what impressed me about this film and how it became the gateway for me loving stories featuring organized crime.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:39):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to a new episode of Her
with Amina Brown and Yo. I hope you all are
really getting into these Fall vibes. I really have to contemplate,
is follow my favorite season now, and I'm pretty sure
that's true and not for the pumpkin spice reason some
of y'all might think. But I love fall. I love
(01:01):
the in between this of it. I love the air
getting crisp in the mornings and at night. I love
the want to drink more warm beverages. I love the
leaves and all the changing of the colors. This is
this is for me. This is the most wonderful time
(01:21):
of the year. I know for some of you it
is Christmas. Shout out to those of you that left
your Christmas trees up all year. I feel you. I
kind of feel like that's kind of like fall decor.
For me, it's the it's the pumpkins and the acorn
squash and the corner cope is it is. It is
all of the nice earth tone kind of candles. It's
(01:44):
all of that like red, orange, yellow kind of color scheme.
This is the mood board right now. So I hope
that y'all are enjoying a little bit of the fall time.
I also wanted to thank you all for something. A
few of y'all have reached out to me about these
last couple of episodes, and I just want to tell
(02:05):
y'all that it really means the world to me. Like
I got some d MS about the episode where I
was talking about the times in my life that I
threw away my air quote secular music, and it was
just wonderful to get a chance to dialogue with a
couple of y'all about that episode in particular, and was
(02:27):
lovely reading interacting with the comments on the episode about
my favorite Atlanta eats. So love to see that. I
saw that a few of you are going to be
traveling to Atlanta soon. So yes, please continue to use
this podcast episode and that social media post as a resource.
And if you discover any new eats, a girl wants
(02:50):
to know about it. Okay, for this episode and my
next episode, I have thought about two books that also
became movies that were very influential in my life. So
I'm starting that with my favorite movie of all time,
all time, The Godfather. Let's dig into it. Okay, first,
(03:13):
let's talk about how I discovered The Godfather And what's
interesting is when I think about, you know, the art
that I discovered that really had a big impact on me.
It is interesting to think that there was this time
sort of between twelve and sixteen were a lot of
(03:34):
the art that I came to love that really influenced
my ability to want to tell a story. It's just
interesting to think that I was that age when I
was discovering a lot of this art. It's just that's
that's a wild thing to think now, because I was
about twelve when I first tried to read Tony Morrison's Beloved.
(03:55):
I just remember being like, I don't understand what's going
on at all, but this is beautiful, you know, And
that sort of putting in me these early feelings of
wanting to become a writer. And I was not far
from that age the first time I saw The Godfather,
and I'm pretty sure I was not catching this movie
(04:17):
from the beginning, and I think it was just like
a scene of two people in the car that were
in like the back of a car talking while they
were riding somewhere, and I just remember for the first time.
It was the first film I remember noticing the use
of shadow and the use of the beautiful cinematography to
(04:38):
also tell the story, not just the dialogue and not
just you know, what the actors were doing as they
played their roles, but how the shadow and the lighting
was also trying to communicate to you as a viewer,
you know, who is this person you're watching? What is
it that they're about? Is it dangerous? Are we watching
(05:00):
something that's cloaked, you know, or clouded in some way?
And I was like, what is this? I just remember
being very very attracted to it. But to continue to
tell my age on this podcast, I caught the movie
on television, so there wasn't a way at that time
for me to rewind it or anything. And I'm not
(05:22):
sure if at this age we still had like a membership,
a membership or whatever you paid. What am I saying? No,
there wasn't a membership to Blockbuster. You just went there
and rented things. You paid when you rented it, So
I don't I don't know, Like I feel like we
were sort of out of that time of life where
we were using Blockbuster a lot, So it didn't even
(05:44):
occur to me to like rent The Godfather and watch
it sort of like I caught it on TV, and
then I kind of had to wait, you know, look
through TV guy, whoo child tell our age on the
podcast Honey, look through TV guide or something, so you
would know the next time the movie was coming on.
But that could be a while, you know. So I
just remember seeing that and being like, whatever that is,
(06:04):
I need to find out more information. And I am
to this day not sure how I discovered that Mario
Puzzo was the author, but I actually went and read
the book first before I saw the full film, and
I just fell in love with the book. I remember
very distinctly. By this time, I'm probably I don't know,
(06:29):
maybe i'm late high school, early college time or something like.
I don't know why. It's like all like muddying together
that I remember watching that little snippet of the movie,
and then I remember reading the book, and I'm like
wondering if I read it again. I think I read
it again in my like late high school, early college,
(06:49):
but I get the book. I read the book, and
what fascinated me about reading this book, especially probably trying
to read it so young, because by this time I'm
probably thirteen or fourteen. I'm thinking reading this book and
what I loved about the beginning of this book is
it really had a cyclone kind of structure to me,
very like how the top of a tornado is so wide,
(07:15):
and then you get down further and further into the
cyclone and it narrows and narrows and narrows. To me,
that was really the beauty of Mario Puzzo's writing is
you know, you're reading these different chapters and you're like, huh, okay,
here's the character. Okay, here's the character, and you're not
quite sure how they're connected or why they matter to
(07:37):
the story really, and then the more you read, the
more you see how all of their lives are kind
of intertwined. Chefs kiss. Okay. So after I read the book,
I then went back and watched the first two movies.
And these are not short films, these are long movies.
(07:58):
But I finally went back and watched the first one,
which to me, and you know, this is it's hard
to say. The First Godfather to me, has this element
of moving very slowly in some places if you don't
truly love the sense of storytelling, or you know, if
(08:22):
you're not into you know, kind of watching watching film
for its storytelling, and especially now I mean to think
of the time frame that The Godfather was being released
in the seventies versus a lot of the movies that
are released in a mainstream way now. You're just not
used to that kind of slower pace of allowing a
(08:44):
story to be told unless you watch a lot of
independent films. I feel like there are still a lot
of independent films being made that that allow that sort
of slow presence. For those of you that watched the
movie The Hours, the Hours was a very slow kind
of film, but whoo, when it started like wrapping up
and coming together, it was so satisfying, you know. And
(09:07):
so I think it's important for those of you that
that love storytelling and those of you who love film
to try your hand at watching something that isn't going
to be this quick action packed kind of story. You know,
watch something that you kind of have to have to
have more of like a brazing kind of experience. You know,
(09:28):
you're not gonna be able to do like a quick
fry on this situation. And that's very much like The
First Godfather to me, that it moves very slowly. You're
trying to figure out and discover what it is that's happening, right.
And what I loved about The Godfather one is, you know,
(09:50):
this sort of this presentation of the idea of the
don and of course we're watching this in in this
Italian family that is being presented in the film, and
getting a little bit of what is being presented in
the movie as something that could be a part of
Italian culture for some Italian folks, right. And it's just
(10:14):
fascinating to me the layers of the business that the
family is doing and the additional family layers that were there.
And the director of Francis Ford Coppola, who also does
some really nice wines, you know, shout out to that um.
You know, he talked a lot about how he didn't
(10:35):
want it to just be a movie about crime. He
wanted it to be a movie that was about a family.
And I think The Godfather said this very interesting precedent
that you then see a lot of movies following. I
think The Godfather is a very foundational film to watch
as an artist or as a storytelling person, because once
you watch it, then you can see, oh, I can
(10:56):
see how these other shows got built around this type
of story. I can see how these other movies got
put out after that because of some of the decisions
that Francis for Coppola and the Godfather crew made at
the time, and this idea that this is a family
that is doing crime, it's living a life of crime,
and this is still a family with the parents and
(11:17):
the siblings and the sibling rivalry and who felt they
were important and who didn't feel they were important, and
you know, all of those dynamics that you are seeing
the characters there, but you're also immediately maybe thinking of
your own family or thinking of friends of yours, And
I think that is a beautiful thing that happens when
something is really well written and well done, like The
(11:40):
Godfather was. I also want to give a special shout
out to The Godfather showing the importance of having a
true gangs T BOO. And I'm hoping these are not spoilers,
but if you haven't watched The Godfather, these probably are spoilers.
But The Godfather has also been out at the seventies,
so this is not as if I am spoiling a
(12:00):
you know, episode of something that's coming out every week
right now. So it's a spoiler, but it's okay. It's
spoilers over the Internet about the Godfather. So in Godfather one,
we are meeting the father, Vito Corleone. We are meeting
him and his children, his sons and one daughter, right um,
(12:26):
And we are meeting Michael, who is the the unwilling
uh air to the crime family. And if you haven't
watched all of this will make even more sense, of
course once you watch it. And Michael is dating a
(12:46):
woman named Kate. And how the Godfather, how the first
movie ends, is still so wonderful and so telling for
me that Kate is of the impression that she is
is dating and then subsequently marries this man who is
from a family whose values he now rejects, and it's
(13:11):
her job as his lady, as his now wife, to
sort of be about a life that he really wants
for himself that is in opposition to the life of
the rest of his family, of his parents and his siblings. Well,
of course, Kate realizes way too slowly for me that
(13:32):
it is not that her husband is the opposite of
his family. He is exactly like his family. He is
all of the things that he did not want to become.
And now she has to decide will she or will
she not be a gangster boo. Let's talk about what
a gangsta boo is, Okay. A gangster boo is someone
(13:55):
who is in a romantic relationship with someone who is
doing gangs to activities, some elements of crime activities. Okay.
And to me, a true gangster boo is someone who
will not put their head in the sand regarding what
their boo actually does. You're not gonna be like, oh no,
he told me he's an accountant during the day, I'm
(14:17):
ignoring the wads of cash that I find sometimes in
the bathroom cabinet. You know, that, to me is not
a true gangster boo. You're putting your head in the
sand regarding the fact that you are probably dating someone
who has maybe had to murder other people in order
to you know, keep the family you know, intact or whatever.
You're talking about, someone who would resort to violence or
(14:40):
whatever other things needed to be done. And I feel
like you need to just go ahead and acknowledge, yo
boo is a gangster. That makes you against a boo.
You know. And every time I watch various of sundry
things that are organized crime related, I will definitely turn
to my husband in the middle of it and be like, oh,
this person is being a good gangster booty. You need
(15:18):
to just go ahead and just get in there. You know,
you need to get involved. And we're gonna talk a
little bit about other shows to me that fall in
in the category of also being about organized crime here
in a minute, but you need to go ahead to
me if you're gonna be talking fictional gangster booze. In
these types of stories, it's like, go ahead and just
(15:40):
jump in there. Go ahead and be like, Okay, so
we in a crime family. What are the vibes like
if the cops come and pull me over? What's the
stuff I need to say? Where? Where are we hiding things?
So that I can be cool and be calm, be collected. Now.
Of course, there are times where the gangster character in
the story once their boo to remain totally clueless, and
(16:06):
they do that intentionally for protection. I think that's a
different thing. I think it's different with the gangster person
is like, I'm gonna make sure you don't know anything.
That way, the cops, the FBI, whoever come in here
looking for me. They pull you into the station, start
asking you a bunch of questions. You could literally be
like you really don't know because I didn't tell you
(16:27):
anything on purpose because I don't want you to go
to jail. I think that's one thing. I think it's
another thing when the boo maybe usn't have all the details,
but they know that that money is not coming from
a corporate job and know that their boo or their
spouse is not going to sit at a desk every day,
you know, for forty hours a week and come home
(16:49):
with wads of cash. Like when you're like, I'm gonna
ignore the signs that I'm dating against it, that's when
I think, like, I feel like you need to just
choose either you just ignorant and you're not gonna know anything,
or gone and know everything, gonna jump in there be
against boom. Okay. The Godfather is also how I learned
that I just have a great love for TV shows, movies,
(17:12):
stories that are about organized crime. There's something about organized
crime that just I just find it so fascinating, Like
I don't want to ever do crime, but organized crime.
I really like how it's set up. I like the
I like the hierarchical structure of leadership. I like that
(17:33):
you know who to speak to about this, that I
like that depending on the type of organized crime you're running,
you know, you know, if you need to not communicate
on your cell phone, you need to use like a
burner phone, or I've watched some TV shows and movies
where you know, the people are like, we don't even
speak on the phone at all. I don't care. We're
not gonna take chances being recorded or anything, so we
(17:54):
only speak in person, or the person who's actually the
head of the organization removes them selves layer for layer
for layer, so that you don't never talk to them directly.
There's so many things about organized crime that are really great,
and that's making me wonder if that is a part
of my type a situation. I mean, those of you
(18:15):
that are indiogram folks. You know, I think that there's
someone going on with me somewhere. I don't know what
the vibes are about that. But organized crime, I want
to say, for the win, but mainly you go to jail,
but for the win for entertainment purposes when you're watching
a story. So I feel like The Godfather one was
this gateway right into other movies about organized crime. And
(18:36):
I have to say, for the record of the Godfather films.
It's sometimes I want to say, if I picked a favorite,
I think that Godfather Too is my favorite, although it's
almost hard to say it because Godfather One is such
a seminal work, you know that it's really hard to
(18:57):
be like. Godfather Too is more of my favorites. Would
be a Godfather Too without Godfather One. These are nerdy things,
but I have to say, I think, if I were
to be totally honest, Godfather Too is my favorite of
the Godfather films because you're getting this wonderful opportunity to
see al Pacino and Robert de Niro in the same film,
(19:17):
even though according to the plot of the film, you're
not ever going to see them on screen in a
scene together, because Robert De Niro is playing the younger
version of what is al Pacino's character's father. But the
genius of going in and out of both of their
(19:37):
stories of how they both became the Godfather in their
eras of time man, and there's just something when you're
watching a movie in particular. I've experienced this in watching
television also, but there's something about watching a movie in
particular where you get the opportunity to see two amazing
(19:58):
actors play in it together that just gives it like
a certain crackle and a certain like electricity and fire
that I really really like. And I loved that about
Godfather too. Like most Godfather fans, Godfather three it's like,
I have to watch Godfather three because I wanted to know,
how does how does this resolve? How does Michael's life resolve?
(20:22):
What happens to the family? But it was not as
enjoyable to watch as the first two. If it ended
at the second movie, it's still super great. But I
always love a I always love I was gonna say,
a nice day, New Ma, But even beyond that, I
truly love a good epilogue, and I feel like Godfather
(20:43):
three gives us this wrap up of some of those
characters in this way I liked. And there has technically
been a fourth Godfather film as well. I believe um
because I did watch that one, But I don't know.
I just watch it because I want to know what
what what the story is doing now. I don't know
(21:04):
if you've ever watched like a movie or a TV
show where you like love the characters so much that
if there is a movie to come out, even if
you don't love the movie, You're just like, well, at
least I got to see how they're doing. I kind
of feel that way sometimes about like the Downtown Abbey
films and things like that, you know, where you're like, oh,
it's so nice, you know, so nice to you know,
just see I want to see how y'all are doing.
You know, I know you're fictional, but it's just great,
(21:25):
great to know how you are. So here are the
other things that watching The Godfather and loving the show
sort of led me to also be into other movies
and TV shows about organized crime. Obviously, this led me
into Scarface and Good Fellas and Donnie Bravo, right, which
also led into New Jack City, which is a fantastic
(21:49):
organized crime family movie. You know, the family set up
is different. You have all of these black characters sort
of run this crime family during the crack era in
New York. Um wonderful film. We have American Gangster with
Denzel Washington playing a character from real life Frank Lucas.
(22:11):
And then I love also to watch shows that are
about corporate crime, right because I think when we start
talking about organized crime and we think about the movies
and TV shows that have been made, you know, there
there are certain narratives, right, Um, that those types of
(22:31):
stories lean on, right um. And some of those narratives
are are coming from things that we do watch happen
in real life. That people who have been immigrants in America,
people who have experienced poverty in America, that they create
opportunities for themselves around organized crime in a way to
(22:54):
help themselves in a way that the system in America
was not created to help them. Right And then in
some ways, as find out through some of these organized
crime stories, um, that the system in America was totally
created too to make it so that crime is the
way that you would need to try to create sustenance
for your family, which is wild wild Okay. So because
(23:18):
I also love corporate crime, this got me into some
TV shows, right I love Succession. Okay, yes, I just yes,
I love Succession. This is this Succession is giving me
the combination of feeling like this is a show that
is somehow about like organized corporate crime while also being
(23:40):
a bit Shakespearean. And I love to see that. Shout
out to Damage as a TV show, to the power
Universe that is on television two Narcos on Netflix. Also,
I got down this rabbit hole of these documentaries and
dramatized series based on the corporate crime at we Work
(24:04):
and Uber and thearaph Knows Woo y'all. I mean, I
also have to give a TV shout out to Breaking
Bad and The Wire also two shows that were really
built on the ideas of organized crime. And The Wire
was a particularly seminal work to me because The Wire
(24:25):
was saying organized crime isn't just about people who deal drugs.
It isn't just about people who are running gambling and prostitution.
It's also about the education system. It's also about the government,
that these are places that organized crime also exist. Yes, yes, yes,
(24:46):
love a layered story, love to see it. So just
giving you a little bit of ideas of how organized
crime is not just mafia stories, that organized crime can
can show up in a lot of different way in
TV and film and almost any time it shows up.
Oh he has count me in because I love a
good organized crime story. So do I own the Godfather
(25:10):
box set? Yes? I do. That has all three films,
that has the the behind the scenes kind of little
documentary thing that has commentary from Franchi sport Coppola. Yes, yes,
I own that and it is girl great and I
am currently reading I haven't finished it yet, but I'm
currently reading Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli by Mark Seal,
(25:33):
which is fascinating, Like as a fan of the Godfather
to hear what is in a way feels like this
kind of book of the oral history of how The
Godfather got made, and as a storyteller, as an artist,
it is inspiring too to think about, like when I
think about Friend to Sport Coppola now how revered he
(25:55):
is as a director, and to think that when he
was directing this movie he got fired more than one
time and was almost about to get fired several times
in the film. To think that al Pacino was not
who the movie studio wanted to play the character of
Michael Corleone. I mean, it's just why it's wild to
(26:16):
think that Marlon Brando was seen to have been a
washed up actor before he played Vito Corleone in this movie.
So um, that book has been fascinating. And then a
TV show called The Offer, which is a dramatized series
about the making of The Godfather, premiered and I watched
(26:38):
it every minute and just loved it. A lot of
the story of that seems very similar to what Mark
Steel is bringing out in his book with all the
different interviews he did of the different characters. So it's
very meta to watch the offer because you're watching actors
not only play who was involved in the production of
(26:59):
the Godfather, but also play the actors, and you have
these very quintessential scenes of the movie that you're not
quite seeing them being played, but you're seeing how the
scenes got set up. And so great, so great to
this day. What do I love about The Godfather? I
(27:20):
love that when you watch The Godfather, no matter if
you watch it today and you've never seen it, you
will immediately understand so many other movie references, right because
there are so many other movies that have been made
post The Godfather that make little references here. There are
a lot of pop culture references that came out of
The Godfather. The horse's head in the bed, the phrase
(27:43):
take the gun, leave the cannoli. Always get it confused.
You all is leave the gun is actually leave the gun,
take the cannoli. But I I say it the opposite
way sometimes. But yes, that phrase or even that idea,
even if it's not gun and cannoli, even that for
easing you will see pop up in other movies and
(28:03):
TV shows. My husband and I always think about this sentence,
all PAULI won't see him no more because there's a
scene in The Godfather where someone named Paully like betrayed
the family and made it easy for someone else to
like attack one of the you know, capos and the family.
Um the phrase sleeps with the fishes, the phrase go
(28:25):
to the mattresses. All those are things that come from
The Godfather. So there's something about watching it and then
thinking about other movies you've seen and you will now
it's like a whole other, like technicolor world of things
will open up to you that you will get. And
another thing I love about The Godfather is just, uh,
this idea of how powerful storytelling can be. That this
(28:48):
movie that was not an easy movie to make actually
made such a huge impact, this movie that did not
fit in the confines of what people thought could be
a success full movie at the time and was absolutely successful.
And so thinking about that just encourages me to not
feel like I need to create in the box. And
(29:10):
I honestly, y'all, like I am a personality that loves structure.
I love a box. You know, I am not a
person who's automatically always going to be just like thinking
way out, you know, in left field somewhere. But I
think it is important to not feel like you have
to keep to the conventions of whatever it seems like
(29:31):
people are doing in your industry or in your field.
You know, you don't have to stay in that box.
You can make things that can be really successful, that
people may not be used to, that people may not
know what to do with at first. Those things don't
mean that that thing shouldn't be made or shouldn't be created.
So shout out to The Godfather, shout out to all
(29:54):
of the other organized crime stories to come, and even
bigger than a shout out to all of the storytellers,
for the storytellers that are listening here. There are a
lot of ways to be a storyteller, and I hope
that we all remain encouraged to tell the stories that
need to be told, to tell the stories that are
(30:14):
important to us, to take Tony Morrison's advice and write
the stories that we would want to read. Right. So,
I hope you've got a little inspiration if you have
not seen The Godfather, I really personally want you to
watch it so we can talk about it. That's how
I feel. Thanks you all for listening, See you all
next week. Are What Amina Brown is produced by Matt
(30:47):
Owen for Solberfiti Productions as a part of the Seneca
Women Podcast Network in partnership with My Heart Radio. Thanks
for listening, and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review
the podcastwo
Hey, everybody, welcome back to a new episode of Her
with Amina Brown and Yo. I hope you all are
really getting into these Fall vibes. I really have to contemplate,
is follow my favorite season now, and I'm pretty sure
that's true and not for the pumpkin spice reason some
of y'all might think. But I love fall. I love
(01:01):
the in between this of it. I love the air
getting crisp in the mornings and at night. I love
the want to drink more warm beverages. I love the
leaves and all the changing of the colors. This is
this is for me. This is the most wonderful time
(01:21):
of the year. I know for some of you it
is Christmas. Shout out to those of you that left
your Christmas trees up all year. I feel you. I
kind of feel like that's kind of like fall decor.
For me, it's the it's the pumpkins and the acorn
squash and the corner cope is it is. It is
all of the nice earth tone kind of candles. It's
(01:44):
all of that like red, orange, yellow kind of color scheme.
This is the mood board right now. So I hope
that y'all are enjoying a little bit of the fall time.
I also wanted to thank you all for something. A
few of y'all have reached out to me about these
last couple of episodes, and I just want to tell
(02:05):
y'all that it really means the world to me. Like
I got some d MS about the episode where I
was talking about the times in my life that I
threw away my air quote secular music, and it was
just wonderful to get a chance to dialogue with a
couple of y'all about that episode in particular, and was
(02:27):
lovely reading interacting with the comments on the episode about
my favorite Atlanta eats. So love to see that. I
saw that a few of you are going to be
traveling to Atlanta soon. So yes, please continue to use
this podcast episode and that social media post as a resource.
And if you discover any new eats, a girl wants
(02:50):
to know about it. Okay, for this episode and my
next episode, I have thought about two books that also
became movies that were very influential in my life. So
I'm starting that with my favorite movie of all time,
all time, The Godfather. Let's dig into it. Okay, first,
(03:13):
let's talk about how I discovered The Godfather And what's
interesting is when I think about, you know, the art
that I discovered that really had a big impact on me.
It is interesting to think that there was this time
sort of between twelve and sixteen were a lot of
(03:34):
the art that I came to love that really influenced
my ability to want to tell a story. It's just
interesting to think that I was that age when I
was discovering a lot of this art. It's just that's
that's a wild thing to think now, because I was
about twelve when I first tried to read Tony Morrison's Beloved.
(03:55):
I just remember being like, I don't understand what's going
on at all, but this is beautiful, you know, And
that sort of putting in me these early feelings of
wanting to become a writer. And I was not far
from that age the first time I saw The Godfather,
and I'm pretty sure I was not catching this movie
(04:17):
from the beginning, and I think it was just like
a scene of two people in the car that were
in like the back of a car talking while they
were riding somewhere, and I just remember for the first time.
It was the first film I remember noticing the use
of shadow and the use of the beautiful cinematography to
(04:38):
also tell the story, not just the dialogue and not
just you know, what the actors were doing as they
played their roles, but how the shadow and the lighting
was also trying to communicate to you as a viewer,
you know, who is this person you're watching? What is
it that they're about? Is it dangerous? Are we watching
(05:00):
something that's cloaked, you know, or clouded in some way?
And I was like, what is this? I just remember
being very very attracted to it. But to continue to
tell my age on this podcast, I caught the movie
on television, so there wasn't a way at that time
for me to rewind it or anything. And I'm not
(05:22):
sure if at this age we still had like a membership,
a membership or whatever you paid. What am I saying? No,
there wasn't a membership to Blockbuster. You just went there
and rented things. You paid when you rented it, So
I don't I don't know, Like I feel like we
were sort of out of that time of life where
we were using Blockbuster a lot, So it didn't even
(05:44):
occur to me to like rent The Godfather and watch
it sort of like I caught it on TV, and
then I kind of had to wait, you know, look
through TV guy, whoo child tell our age on the
podcast Honey, look through TV guide or something, so you
would know the next time the movie was coming on.
But that could be a while, you know. So I
just remember seeing that and being like, whatever that is,
(06:04):
I need to find out more information. And I am
to this day not sure how I discovered that Mario
Puzzo was the author, but I actually went and read
the book first before I saw the full film, and
I just fell in love with the book. I remember
very distinctly. By this time, I'm probably I don't know,
(06:29):
maybe i'm late high school, early college time or something like.
I don't know why. It's like all like muddying together
that I remember watching that little snippet of the movie,
and then I remember reading the book, and I'm like
wondering if I read it again. I think I read
it again in my like late high school, early college,
(06:49):
but I get the book. I read the book, and
what fascinated me about reading this book, especially probably trying
to read it so young, because by this time I'm
probably thirteen or fourteen. I'm thinking reading this book and
what I loved about the beginning of this book is
it really had a cyclone kind of structure to me,
very like how the top of a tornado is so wide,
(07:15):
and then you get down further and further into the
cyclone and it narrows and narrows and narrows. To me,
that was really the beauty of Mario Puzzo's writing is
you know, you're reading these different chapters and you're like, huh, okay,
here's the character. Okay, here's the character, and you're not
quite sure how they're connected or why they matter to
(07:37):
the story really, and then the more you read, the
more you see how all of their lives are kind
of intertwined. Chefs kiss. Okay. So after I read the book,
I then went back and watched the first two movies.
And these are not short films, these are long movies.
(07:58):
But I finally went back and watched the first one,
which to me, and you know, this is it's hard
to say. The First Godfather to me, has this element
of moving very slowly in some places if you don't
truly love the sense of storytelling, or you know, if
(08:22):
you're not into you know, kind of watching watching film
for its storytelling, and especially now I mean to think
of the time frame that The Godfather was being released
in the seventies versus a lot of the movies that
are released in a mainstream way now. You're just not
used to that kind of slower pace of allowing a
(08:44):
story to be told unless you watch a lot of
independent films. I feel like there are still a lot
of independent films being made that that allow that sort
of slow presence. For those of you that watched the
movie The Hours, the Hours was a very slow kind
of film, but whoo, when it started like wrapping up
and coming together, it was so satisfying, you know. And
(09:07):
so I think it's important for those of you that
that love storytelling and those of you who love film
to try your hand at watching something that isn't going
to be this quick action packed kind of story. You know,
watch something that you kind of have to have to
have more of like a brazing kind of experience. You know,
(09:28):
you're not gonna be able to do like a quick
fry on this situation. And that's very much like The
First Godfather to me, that it moves very slowly. You're
trying to figure out and discover what it is that's happening, right.
And what I loved about The Godfather one is, you know,
(09:50):
this sort of this presentation of the idea of the
don and of course we're watching this in in this
Italian family that is being presented in the film, and
getting a little bit of what is being presented in
the movie as something that could be a part of
Italian culture for some Italian folks, right. And it's just
(10:14):
fascinating to me the layers of the business that the
family is doing and the additional family layers that were there.
And the director of Francis Ford Coppola, who also does
some really nice wines, you know, shout out to that um.
You know, he talked a lot about how he didn't
(10:35):
want it to just be a movie about crime. He
wanted it to be a movie that was about a family.
And I think The Godfather said this very interesting precedent
that you then see a lot of movies following. I
think The Godfather is a very foundational film to watch
as an artist or as a storytelling person, because once
you watch it, then you can see, oh, I can
(10:56):
see how these other shows got built around this type
of story. I can see how these other movies got
put out after that because of some of the decisions
that Francis for Coppola and the Godfather crew made at
the time, and this idea that this is a family
that is doing crime, it's living a life of crime,
and this is still a family with the parents and
(11:17):
the siblings and the sibling rivalry and who felt they
were important and who didn't feel they were important, and
you know, all of those dynamics that you are seeing
the characters there, but you're also immediately maybe thinking of
your own family or thinking of friends of yours, And
I think that is a beautiful thing that happens when
something is really well written and well done, like The
(11:40):
Godfather was. I also want to give a special shout
out to The Godfather showing the importance of having a
true gangs T BOO. And I'm hoping these are not spoilers,
but if you haven't watched The Godfather, these probably are spoilers.
But The Godfather has also been out at the seventies,
so this is not as if I am spoiling a
(12:00):
you know, episode of something that's coming out every week
right now. So it's a spoiler, but it's okay. It's
spoilers over the Internet about the Godfather. So in Godfather one,
we are meeting the father, Vito Corleone. We are meeting
him and his children, his sons and one daughter, right um,
(12:26):
And we are meeting Michael, who is the the unwilling
uh air to the crime family. And if you haven't
watched all of this will make even more sense, of
course once you watch it. And Michael is dating a
(12:46):
woman named Kate. And how the Godfather, how the first
movie ends, is still so wonderful and so telling for
me that Kate is of the impression that she is
is dating and then subsequently marries this man who is
from a family whose values he now rejects, and it's
(13:11):
her job as his lady, as his now wife, to
sort of be about a life that he really wants
for himself that is in opposition to the life of
the rest of his family, of his parents and his siblings. Well,
of course, Kate realizes way too slowly for me that
(13:32):
it is not that her husband is the opposite of
his family. He is exactly like his family. He is
all of the things that he did not want to become.
And now she has to decide will she or will
she not be a gangster boo. Let's talk about what
a gangsta boo is, Okay. A gangster boo is someone
(13:55):
who is in a romantic relationship with someone who is
doing gangs to activities, some elements of crime activities. Okay.
And to me, a true gangster boo is someone who
will not put their head in the sand regarding what
their boo actually does. You're not gonna be like, oh no,
he told me he's an accountant during the day, I'm
(14:17):
ignoring the wads of cash that I find sometimes in
the bathroom cabinet. You know, that, to me is not
a true gangster boo. You're putting your head in the
sand regarding the fact that you are probably dating someone
who has maybe had to murder other people in order
to you know, keep the family you know, intact or whatever.
You're talking about, someone who would resort to violence or
(14:40):
whatever other things needed to be done. And I feel
like you need to just go ahead and acknowledge, yo
boo is a gangster. That makes you against a boo.
You know. And every time I watch various of sundry
things that are organized crime related, I will definitely turn
to my husband in the middle of it and be like, oh,
this person is being a good gangster booty. You need
(15:18):
to just go ahead and just get in there. You know,
you need to get involved. And we're gonna talk a
little bit about other shows to me that fall in
in the category of also being about organized crime here
in a minute, but you need to go ahead to
me if you're gonna be talking fictional gangster booze. In
these types of stories, it's like, go ahead and just
(15:40):
jump in there. Go ahead and be like, Okay, so
we in a crime family. What are the vibes like
if the cops come and pull me over? What's the
stuff I need to say? Where? Where are we hiding things?
So that I can be cool and be calm, be collected. Now.
Of course, there are times where the gangster character in
the story once their boo to remain totally clueless, and
(16:06):
they do that intentionally for protection. I think that's a
different thing. I think it's different with the gangster person
is like, I'm gonna make sure you don't know anything.
That way, the cops, the FBI, whoever come in here
looking for me. They pull you into the station, start
asking you a bunch of questions. You could literally be
like you really don't know because I didn't tell you
(16:27):
anything on purpose because I don't want you to go
to jail. I think that's one thing. I think it's
another thing when the boo maybe usn't have all the details,
but they know that that money is not coming from
a corporate job and know that their boo or their
spouse is not going to sit at a desk every day,
you know, for forty hours a week and come home
(16:49):
with wads of cash. Like when you're like, I'm gonna
ignore the signs that I'm dating against it, that's when
I think, like, I feel like you need to just
choose either you just ignorant and you're not gonna know anything,
or gone and know everything, gonna jump in there be
against boom. Okay. The Godfather is also how I learned
that I just have a great love for TV shows, movies,
(17:12):
stories that are about organized crime. There's something about organized
crime that just I just find it so fascinating, Like
I don't want to ever do crime, but organized crime.
I really like how it's set up. I like the
I like the hierarchical structure of leadership. I like that
(17:33):
you know who to speak to about this, that I
like that depending on the type of organized crime you're running,
you know, you know, if you need to not communicate
on your cell phone, you need to use like a
burner phone, or I've watched some TV shows and movies
where you know, the people are like, we don't even
speak on the phone at all. I don't care. We're
not gonna take chances being recorded or anything, so we
(17:54):
only speak in person, or the person who's actually the
head of the organization removes them selves layer for layer
for layer, so that you don't never talk to them directly.
There's so many things about organized crime that are really great,
and that's making me wonder if that is a part
of my type a situation. I mean, those of you
(18:15):
that are indiogram folks. You know, I think that there's
someone going on with me somewhere. I don't know what
the vibes are about that. But organized crime, I want
to say, for the win, but mainly you go to jail,
but for the win for entertainment purposes when you're watching
a story. So I feel like The Godfather one was
this gateway right into other movies about organized crime. And
(18:36):
I have to say, for the record of the Godfather films.
It's sometimes I want to say, if I picked a favorite,
I think that Godfather Too is my favorite, although it's
almost hard to say it because Godfather One is such
a seminal work, you know that it's really hard to
(18:57):
be like. Godfather Too is more of my favorites. Would
be a Godfather Too without Godfather One. These are nerdy things,
but I have to say, I think, if I were
to be totally honest, Godfather Too is my favorite of
the Godfather films because you're getting this wonderful opportunity to
see al Pacino and Robert de Niro in the same film,
(19:17):
even though according to the plot of the film, you're
not ever going to see them on screen in a
scene together, because Robert De Niro is playing the younger
version of what is al Pacino's character's father. But the
genius of going in and out of both of their
(19:37):
stories of how they both became the Godfather in their
eras of time man, and there's just something when you're
watching a movie in particular. I've experienced this in watching
television also, but there's something about watching a movie in
particular where you get the opportunity to see two amazing
(19:58):
actors play in it together that just gives it like
a certain crackle and a certain like electricity and fire
that I really really like. And I loved that about
Godfather too. Like most Godfather fans, Godfather three it's like,
I have to watch Godfather three because I wanted to know,
how does how does this resolve? How does Michael's life resolve?
(20:22):
What happens to the family? But it was not as
enjoyable to watch as the first two. If it ended
at the second movie, it's still super great. But I
always love a I always love I was gonna say,
a nice day, New Ma, But even beyond that, I
truly love a good epilogue, and I feel like Godfather
(20:43):
three gives us this wrap up of some of those
characters in this way I liked. And there has technically
been a fourth Godfather film as well. I believe um
because I did watch that one, But I don't know.
I just watch it because I want to know what
what what the story is doing now. I don't know
(21:04):
if you've ever watched like a movie or a TV
show where you like love the characters so much that
if there is a movie to come out, even if
you don't love the movie, You're just like, well, at
least I got to see how they're doing. I kind
of feel that way sometimes about like the Downtown Abbey
films and things like that, you know, where you're like, oh,
it's so nice, you know, so nice to you know,
just see I want to see how y'all are doing.
You know, I know you're fictional, but it's just great,
(21:25):
great to know how you are. So here are the
other things that watching The Godfather and loving the show
sort of led me to also be into other movies
and TV shows about organized crime. Obviously, this led me
into Scarface and Good Fellas and Donnie Bravo, right, which
also led into New Jack City, which is a fantastic
(21:49):
organized crime family movie. You know, the family set up
is different. You have all of these black characters sort
of run this crime family during the crack era in
New York. Um wonderful film. We have American Gangster with
Denzel Washington playing a character from real life Frank Lucas.
(22:11):
And then I love also to watch shows that are
about corporate crime, right because I think when we start
talking about organized crime and we think about the movies
and TV shows that have been made, you know, there
there are certain narratives, right, Um, that those types of
(22:31):
stories lean on, right um. And some of those narratives
are are coming from things that we do watch happen
in real life. That people who have been immigrants in America,
people who have experienced poverty in America, that they create
opportunities for themselves around organized crime in a way to
(22:54):
help themselves in a way that the system in America
was not created to help them. Right And then in
some ways, as find out through some of these organized
crime stories, um, that the system in America was totally
created too to make it so that crime is the
way that you would need to try to create sustenance
for your family, which is wild wild Okay. So because
(23:18):
I also love corporate crime, this got me into some
TV shows, right I love Succession. Okay, yes, I just yes,
I love Succession. This is this Succession is giving me
the combination of feeling like this is a show that
is somehow about like organized corporate crime while also being
(23:40):
a bit Shakespearean. And I love to see that. Shout
out to Damage as a TV show, to the power
Universe that is on television two Narcos on Netflix. Also,
I got down this rabbit hole of these documentaries and
dramatized series based on the corporate crime at we Work
(24:04):
and Uber and thearaph Knows Woo y'all. I mean, I
also have to give a TV shout out to Breaking
Bad and The Wire also two shows that were really
built on the ideas of organized crime. And The Wire
was a particularly seminal work to me because The Wire
(24:25):
was saying organized crime isn't just about people who deal drugs.
It isn't just about people who are running gambling and prostitution.
It's also about the education system. It's also about the government,
that these are places that organized crime also exist. Yes, yes, yes,
(24:46):
love a layered story, love to see it. So just
giving you a little bit of ideas of how organized
crime is not just mafia stories, that organized crime can
can show up in a lot of different way in
TV and film and almost any time it shows up.
Oh he has count me in because I love a
good organized crime story. So do I own the Godfather
(25:10):
box set? Yes? I do. That has all three films,
that has the the behind the scenes kind of little
documentary thing that has commentary from Franchi sport Coppola. Yes, yes,
I own that and it is girl great and I
am currently reading I haven't finished it yet, but I'm
currently reading Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli by Mark Seal,
(25:33):
which is fascinating, Like as a fan of the Godfather
to hear what is in a way feels like this
kind of book of the oral history of how The
Godfather got made, and as a storyteller, as an artist,
it is inspiring too to think about, like when I
think about Friend to Sport Coppola now how revered he
(25:55):
is as a director, and to think that when he
was directing this movie he got fired more than one
time and was almost about to get fired several times
in the film. To think that al Pacino was not
who the movie studio wanted to play the character of
Michael Corleone. I mean, it's just why it's wild to
(26:16):
think that Marlon Brando was seen to have been a
washed up actor before he played Vito Corleone in this movie.
So um, that book has been fascinating. And then a
TV show called The Offer, which is a dramatized series
about the making of The Godfather, premiered and I watched
(26:38):
it every minute and just loved it. A lot of
the story of that seems very similar to what Mark
Steel is bringing out in his book with all the
different interviews he did of the different characters. So it's
very meta to watch the offer because you're watching actors
not only play who was involved in the production of
(26:59):
the Godfather, but also play the actors, and you have
these very quintessential scenes of the movie that you're not
quite seeing them being played, but you're seeing how the
scenes got set up. And so great, so great to
this day. What do I love about The Godfather? I
(27:20):
love that when you watch The Godfather, no matter if
you watch it today and you've never seen it, you
will immediately understand so many other movie references, right because
there are so many other movies that have been made
post The Godfather that make little references here. There are
a lot of pop culture references that came out of
The Godfather. The horse's head in the bed, the phrase
(27:43):
take the gun, leave the cannoli. Always get it confused.
You all is leave the gun is actually leave the gun,
take the cannoli. But I I say it the opposite
way sometimes. But yes, that phrase or even that idea,
even if it's not gun and cannoli, even that for
easing you will see pop up in other movies and
(28:03):
TV shows. My husband and I always think about this sentence,
all PAULI won't see him no more because there's a
scene in The Godfather where someone named Paully like betrayed
the family and made it easy for someone else to
like attack one of the you know, capos and the family.
Um the phrase sleeps with the fishes, the phrase go
(28:25):
to the mattresses. All those are things that come from
The Godfather. So there's something about watching it and then
thinking about other movies you've seen and you will now
it's like a whole other, like technicolor world of things
will open up to you that you will get. And
another thing I love about The Godfather is just, uh,
this idea of how powerful storytelling can be. That this
(28:48):
movie that was not an easy movie to make actually
made such a huge impact, this movie that did not
fit in the confines of what people thought could be
a success full movie at the time and was absolutely successful.
And so thinking about that just encourages me to not
feel like I need to create in the box. And
(29:10):
I honestly, y'all, like I am a personality that loves structure.
I love a box. You know, I am not a
person who's automatically always going to be just like thinking
way out, you know, in left field somewhere. But I
think it is important to not feel like you have
to keep to the conventions of whatever it seems like
(29:31):
people are doing in your industry or in your field.
You know, you don't have to stay in that box.
You can make things that can be really successful, that
people may not be used to, that people may not
know what to do with at first. Those things don't
mean that that thing shouldn't be made or shouldn't be created.
So shout out to The Godfather, shout out to all
(29:54):
of the other organized crime stories to come, and even
bigger than a shout out to all of the storytellers,
for the storytellers that are listening here. There are a
lot of ways to be a storyteller, and I hope
that we all remain encouraged to tell the stories that
need to be told, to tell the stories that are
(30:14):
important to us, to take Tony Morrison's advice and write
the stories that we would want to read. Right. So,
I hope you've got a little inspiration if you have
not seen The Godfather, I really personally want you to
watch it so we can talk about it. That's how
I feel. Thanks you all for listening, See you all
next week. Are What Amina Brown is produced by Matt
(30:47):
Owen for Solberfiti Productions as a part of the Seneca
Women Podcast Network in partnership with My Heart Radio. Thanks
for listening, and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review
the podcastwo
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