Gabe Addess: Gangster Movie Marathon

            Originally, I was going to write about my 10 favorite films of the year. However, I haven’t seen a lot of the more interesting movies that were released because a) I didn’t have time, money, permission, etc. and b) I live in Memphis, TN, where most movies aren’t released until a month and a half after their initial release date. So instead, I’m going to report about something special I did over winter break. I’ve been planning this for a month, and was immensely satisfied when I finished. Have you guessed it yet? That’s right. I had a gangster movie marathon! 16 hours and 47 minutes of pure, cinema glory! (Well, not really. But the majority of it was.)

          

  I started off with the gangster film to define all gangster films: The Godfather. Released in 1972, Francis Ford Coppola’s highly influential masterpiece tells the tale of the mafia much different than told before. Initially, gangster films were about dudes in trench coats and top hats driving old-fashioned cars and shooting Tommy guns at each other. Then Coppola released this movie, 

which focused less on the guns (although there is a lot of violence in the movie) and more on the family aspect of mafia life. Great performances from Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, and James Caan, and Coppola’s skills at perfect pacing keep you so engrossed, you have no idea that 2 hours and 55 minutes of your life have passed by the film’s end.

           

        Immediately after finishing The Godfather, I popped in The Godfather Part II. Released 2 years after the first one, this is less of a sequel and more of a companion piece. You need to see the first one before this one, but it doesn’t feel like a sequel. It feels like an entirely different movie altogether. This one has a more interesting plot and the best line in the whole series: “I know it was you Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart.” How heartbreaking.

I then saw The Godfather Part III…eh. It was good up until Vinnie, played by Andy Garcia, kills Joey Zasa, but after that, Pacino’s Michael Corleone goes all wimpy on the audience and Sofia Coppola, playing Michael’s daughter Mary, is so bad, you’re laughing at her in the end instead of crying (if you watch it, you’ll see why).

Next, I saw Scarface. 

Also starring Al Pacino, this movie is considered a cult classic. And honestly, I have no idea why. I saw somebody write somewhere that this movie is “a piece of art.” I disagree. Brian De Palma’s directing is pretty slick, but overall this film tries too hard to embrace its 80s atmosphere. In other words, this movie was very cheesy. Also, it’s very excessive. In fact, it’s so over-the-top, you will either find yourself immensely disturbed or unintentionally laughing at its violence and drug content. At least it was better than The Godfather Part III.

 

I then saw Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese’s crime tale that spawns three decades from the 50s to the 80s.  I love Scorsese and think he’s the second best director of all time, right behind Alfred Hitchcock. But this is not my favorite movie made by him. Don’t get me wrong; this movie is amazing. But compared to other classics like  Taxi Driver and the recently released Hugo, Goodfellas fell kind of short of my expectations. Not too short, but slightly short nonetheless.

I ended my marathon with Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Probably the most influential film of the 90s, this movie told three interwoven stories of loyalty, betrayal, and crime in a way only Tarantino can pull off. Both shocking and hysterical at the same time, this is probably the only movie on this list I could watch over and over and over again (I can only watch The Godfather so many times). Anyway, this is the only movie I had seen before the marathon, and it gets better every time I watch it.

Well, that’s that. My rankings of the films I saw from best to worst are:

1.     The Godfather (2 hours and 55 minutes; dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

2.     Pulp Fiction (2 hours and 34 minutes; dir. Quentin Tarantino)

3.     The Godfather Part II (3 hours and 20 minutes; dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

4.     Goodfellas (2 hours and 26 minutes; dir. Martin Scorsese)

5.     Scarface (2 hours and 50 minutes; dir. Brian De Palma)

6.     The Godfather Part III (2 hours and 42 minutes; dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

Of course, those weren’t the only movies I saw this break. I also saw the French modern-day classic Amelie, the new Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Coppola’s other classic Apocalypse Now, and Beginners, a new indie-film that was the only movie I saw under 2 hours. I also re-watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy because those movies are freaking awesome.

Parallel Universe

Rewrite this sentence correcting any errors in parallel structure.

James, a young teenager from the ghetto, experienced an exhilarating, soul-searching encounter with God, which he thought was something to cling to, protecting him from the immoral clutches of the Avenue and that would relieve his feelings of despair.


Please post by 7:30 am on Friday morning, March 2.

Controversy in Interpretation

Paths in the woods and lanes on highways are not the only things that can diverge. Two individuals' perceptions of the same poem can also differ substantially.

We can allow for such difference if the differing interpretations are reasonably supported by evidence in the poem itself and perhaps also in the historical context of the poem and our knowledge of its author.

You have already offered your own interpretations of Frost's "The Road Not Taken," and you have also just read an explication of the poem that differs from what most of you have written (google.doc Explication: Road Not Taken). In a paragraph or two, briefly summarize the reading of the poem in this explication and explain why you agree or disagree with it. For full credit post promptly by 7:30 am on Thursday, February 9.

ROAD NOT TAKEN

We have produced collaborative paraphrases of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" in class on google.docs to which you all have access. Now, before we discuss this poem further as a group, I would like each of you to write a carefully composed and punctuated paragraph expressing your understand of what the poem is about and is expressing. Do not be afraid to hypothesize or venture a guess ... I will not be grading for correctness of interpretation. Just communicate to me your thoughts on the subject. Submit your paragraph here as a comment by 7:15 am Monday morning, February 6th. Comments will not appear on the blog until later Monday.