There Are Always Two Sides, Always
Watched "The Godfather" this weekend. First time ever. It deserves all the hype just on account of the superb acting. It starts with a powerful mafia leader, holding a purring cat in his hands, belly exposed, caressing it, while a man comes in with a request to kill two young men. On the wedding day of this mafia man's daughter. To me, a powerful moment of polarity. Life and death, beginnings and endings, innocence and corruption.
The Turk drug dealer talking to Michael (without subtitles) in Italian, you sitting there on the couch knowing he is likely saying The Don was slipping, it was business, not personal, etc etc. I can see it, the emotion covering his face. Ok, he says in his head, I think am ready to kill you now you piece of shit, I hope to god I don't piss in my pants. Later him floundering in the bathroom grasping for the weapon to dramatically change the events and put his family back in control; to avenge the life of his father. My favorite part of all… the moment of utter confusion, when his family’s native tongue becomes a cloud of jibber buzzing in his head, background noise screeching in his ears. The look in his eyes no words can describe, only a feeling and seeing his heart pounding on the screen of your TV. That movie has got to be the finest acting I have ever seen ever.
The way I see it, the Godfather was a truly lucky man and is as loveable as criminals can get. For heaven’s sake, he isn’t a murderer (at least, that is the way he feels.) In the end, he dies an old man playing with his grandson in their tomato garden, becoming the part of a monster teasing and playing with a child. Pause a moment and realize the symbol of that, acting the part with fake teeth and all, of a scary beast while a small boy runs laughing. Black and white, good and evil. How is that for an ending?
What a truly peaceful way to die when you think of it. Some die a violent death. Others a lonely one, and yet some live boring pathetic lives and their death is nothing worth recognition. That movie was filled with death, many of which are truly pointless. Not his, not that way. He lived well, his family lived well, and it strikes me, he died in the most innocent of ways.
How strange and poetic life can be when your ending is written by Hollywood.
