Movies: ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Der Untergang’

I’ve been studying and working so much since last year that I can hardly remember when was the last time I watched a movie before this week. Then I got a break and decided that I should compensate myself. I have a huge list now of the movies I’ve been wanting to watch for a long time and haven’t yet.

Last Sunday I decided to start. The Godfather was my first choice. Yes, call me a heretic, but I had not watched it yet. I started searching for it on the internet, but couldn’t find a version in any language I could understand. I got pissed and went to a rent shop the next day. I rented the whole trilogy. When I was preparing to leave, I spotted Der Untergang and couldn’t resist. This way, I came home with four movies for the week.

Monday was The Godfather‘s day. Part I. I was eager to watch it because I bought the book last week (it’s an imported version, so it may take a few more weeks to get here). I watched it. And wasn’t much impressed. Or maybe I was too impressed. I even tried to write a post about it when I finished it, but I couldn’t. I was very pissed on the American portrayal of the Italians. Especially, Italian women. But then I chilled out and decided to watch the other parts to see how it would turn out.

On Tuesday, I was still very much angry at Puzo and Coppola, so I decided to move to Hitler to chill out a bit (very funny, I know). Der Untergang is excellent. I won’t say much more. I’ve seen bad critics but, seriously, you have got to be kidding me. Bruno Ganz is great. I guess that’s why many people were somewhat ‘scared’ of this movie. There was a real Hitler there. More importantly, there was a human there. It scares people to associate historical ‘monsters’ to normal people who eat, cry and love, because this way they would be associating these ‘monsters’ to themselves. And I think that is why it is so important to ‘humanize’ them. Because yes, we must remember that it could have been anyone with enough power and brain (or not) there. Power can drive people to insanity.

I was glad to see that Hanna Reitsch had a part in the movie. Yes, she was loyal to Hitler, therefore, the enemy, but she was a woman in WWII and, boy, that I can’t ignore. I respect it. Good job, Anna Thalbach.

One of the most shocking parts of the movie is doubtlessly when Magda Goebbels kills her own children. Last, but not least, I don’t really know what to think of Traudl Junge. The movie turns her into a saint, but… who knows? It’s really easy to regret everything when you’re old and dying and everyone around you condemns what you’ve done. But we will never know whether she really supported Hitler or not, I guess.

On Wednesday, time to go back to the padrino. The second part was… ok. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t much thrilling. But I must admit that I enjoyed very, very much De Niro as the young Vito Corleone. And hey, maybe it’s just my thing for Italian men, but Al Pacino and Robert De Niro were HOT back in the 70′s.

Finally, yesterday I watched the last part and I have to say that it’s by far my favorite. Everything about it. And as I was pretty much convinced of that already, the movie ended by the sound of Cavalleria Rusticana‘s Intermezzo, which is my favorite song ever. I couldn’t resist.

I want to talk about the impressions I had of the Hollywoodian Italian community, but I’ll leave that to another post.

I will end this one with a video of my favorite performance of Mascagni’s song. Enjoy.

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