Better than the fucking godfather, that's for sure. Really good anime.
I hated The Godfather. I don't think I've seen any piece of media that hates women more than it. It felt disgusting to watch. It's also too slow and boring, even watching sped up.
To be honest, I couldn’t get into it either. I wouldn’t call it a lousy film — it is undeniably competent — but there was something about it that couldn’t hold my attention. Maybe it was because I didn’t like any of the characters.
I'm feeling this with The Wire right now partway through Season 3. I watched and loved a lot of prestige shows like Breaking Bad and The Sopranos. The former you see Walt's true personality come unleashed and can at least see the progression of how he became an asshole, and the latter almost everyone is horrible but they're interesting and funny caricatures.
In The Wire, pretty much everyone is a piece of shit, but they aren't goofy Paulie Walnuts type characters either. The cops abuse everyone, the politicians are corrupt, and most of Stringer Bell's crew are just exploiting people younger than them in their drug empire to enrich themselves without doing anything to alleviate their poverty.
The only sympathetic characters so far have died relatively quickly. Which I guess if you look at it as more a reflection of reality, it all makes sense, but there's nobody to root for and very little humor in any of it. I don't hate it, but there's a pretty big contrast in presentation.
Edit: I caught some episodes of Entourage and that one is pretty bad too. Everyone in that show sucks.
The Wire is pretty explicit about its criticisms of institutions under capitalism. It's showing how those institutions don't guard against opportunists and the corrupt, but actually encourage them. We see how good people don't make it very far while absolutely diabolical scumbags climb over each other to the top.
I think what seperates it from other shows with villain protagonists is Baltimore itself is the main character. It's also better with each re-watch. I think the first two times I watched it, I'd say season 1 > 4 > 3 > 5 > 2. The third time I'm leaning more 1 = 4 > 2 > 3 > 5.
Yeah, there's a lot of important issues being talked about and I really like how every season focuses on a different part of the city and how things are changing for different groups of people. I think I worded the other post too harshly because it's a good show and not everything needs a quirked up white boy to provide comedic relief. But it definitely fits into the "no good protagonist" slot. The first few episodes of Season 1 are just a bunch of cops beating up black people and I was like "these are supposed to be the protagonists?" I was carried through by the few sympathetic characters and alternating viewpoints. Even in Season 2, there's people (the Sobotka relatives) who I think are supposed to be sympathetic but who I don't really care about.
Oh god yeah. I far, far preferred Better Call Saul to Breaking Bad because I actually like Jimmy/Saul and also Kim. And Nacho. And, as terrifying as he is, I even kind of like Lalo, in a "holy shit you're terrifying, my dude" kind of way. But in Breaking Bad the characters are just so fucking unlikeable. I like Jesse Pinkman, as well as Badger and Skinny Pete, but other than that, I hate absolutely everyone in Breaking Bad. Well, ok, I like Mike Ehrmentraut and even, although I know I shouldn't, Gus Fring. But those two are also in Better Call Saul, so it doesn't exactly count. But other than Jesse and his crew and Mike and Gus, I hate everyone in Breaking Bad. Walt most of all, of course, fuck that guy, but fuck Flynn and Skyler and Marie and Hank too. They're all deeply, deeply unlikeable, and it makes me hate the entire show.
I don't think I've seen any piece of media that hates women more than it.
The Michael Mann directed movie Heat maybe?
Luckily I hate Chris Pratt's smarmy "white boy who can do no wrong (while assaulting everyone around him)" vibes so I just refuse to watch anything with him in it.
Huh. Now that I put it together it's probably some trigger. Well, back into the dirt goes that realization, I don't have time to introspect about everything
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
The sopranos has made the godfather a little embarrassing in 2024 tbh
Sopranos killed mobster flicks like Monty Python killed the quest movie
I don't remember any of Godfather i just remember being really bored and wondering what the big deal was. It really does insist upon itself
Bocchi is no less than finely crafted perfection
What is actually the appeal of the godfather? I got very bored very quickly, and all I ever hear about it is complaints, but there absolutely is a sort of guy who Stan's the movie
The high drama of family strife, conspiracy, betrayal, and power, played out with life or death stakes. Or at least, that's what I enjoy about it. It's very operatic. Plus it's got a number of excellent performances and an excellent soundtrack. And as an aside, it's a rare example of a movie being far better than the book it's based on. Fond as I am of the novel, there's a lot of shit that the movie rightfully excises (in the novel, Sonny's unnaturally large penis is literally an integral part of Lucy Mancini's subplot.)
Also, particularly when combined with the sequel, Godfather shows a mythologized, multi-generational rendition of the Italian immigrant experience. More broadly, it's a cultural artifact of 70s America that reflected a growing sense of otherness among so-called 'white ethnics' from the socially dominant WASPs, and a rejection of the assimilationist tendencies that had supposedly characterized the immigrant experience prior to that point.
None of this is to say you have to watch it. If it isn't your thing, then it isn't. I hate when people insist that a movie is essential somehow, and that there's something wrong with you if you don't like it. I just figured I'd share a bit of what I liked/thought about it.
Nah, it's worthwhile reflecting on things you like, even in public assuming no one is going to jump down your throat.
The main recommendation I've gotten up to now is "Oh my God, you haven't watched The Godfather?? You've watched so many movies" from one sort of person >.>
Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about. People do that with Star Wars a lot as well. Always gives me second hand embarassment.
Plus like, leaving all else aside, I've never understood how peer pressure and making somebody feel lesser for not seeing a particular movie is supposed to make them enthusiastic about doing that (though of course much of the time that isn't the point, it's a mask for a smug sense of superiority)
