kefrank

One's enjoyment of a film is subjective, but one's assessment of the quality of a film is a different thing and is a far less subjective exercise. To say, "The Godfather is one of my least favorite films - I didn't enjoy it at all" is a much different statement than "The Godfather is one of the worst films ever." The former is an entirely subjective statement with which no argument can be made, but the latter is a qualitative assessment of the movie relative to all other movies. There will always be some level of subjectivity involved but there are conventions by which we assess cinematic craftsmanship and those conventions are mostly independent of one's purely subjective enjoyment of a movie.

I personally don't enjoy Citizen Kane at all, but I still recognize that it's an extremely well-made film that I could never with a straight face call "one of the worst films ever" even though I don't find any enjoyment watching it. On the other hand, I greatly enjoy The Godfather and also recognize its gorgeous cinematography, exceptional performances, and deft editing which are clearly a level above the vast majority of Hollywood films from the last 50 years.

Count Dooku

I'm going to take it this as indication that you will not be addressing the follow-up questions.

stvn1974

I still want to know how they got a horses head onto the bed without there being blood everywhere. The camera pans all the way thrugh the yard and up the stairs and no blood anywhere, did the dudes who cut the head off bring a mop and bucket?

Kurt D

Obviously the horse was already in bed with him, they just didn't show the decapitated body. (DVD extras indicate the body wasn't in the budget, only the head.)

GoldenJCJ

Outside of the worlds worst pulled punch, The Godfather is damn near perfect.

bluetoast

Here you go, the video game has a mission doing exactly that, in a horribly acted recreation. They also end up garroting guards and butlers which is idiotic. I would imagine it’s similar to this scenario but with complete stealth and no cartoonish violence.

GoldenJCJ

I always thought part of the intimidation of leaving the horse head in Wolz’s bed was that they were able to sneak in and out of his mansion unseen. Not that they left a trail of dead bodies behind in their wake.

DJariya

I get that not everyone likes the same movies and some "classics" might not be for you. But, saying that this movie, which has been regarded as a big part of motion picture history, is one of the "worst movies of all-time" is total hyperbole.

There is no way you can put this in the same ranks as Ishtar, Battlefield Earth or Ecks vs Sever.

bluetoast

Right? Aside from the killings, it plays out pretty well. I like that Tom Hagen had a signal worked out before hand.

rocket1312

Robert Duvall refusing to participate in Godfather 3 yet agreeing to be in this videogame is truly the darkest timeline.

Count Dooku

And as far as being the worst examples of what movies are, those are all professionally made films. If you want to see some truly awful movies, spend some time in the world of low budget, direct-to-video movies from inexperienced directors starring amateur-level actors.

Jaymole

Yes, and it makes their other opinions on films way less credible.

Some people just have no idea how to be subjective.

asianxcore

One of my ex-girlfriends absolutely hated violence in films but asked to watch this film back in 2018.

She loved it and sat through all 2-hours & 55-minutes without asking for a break

milo bloom

I believe it was Roger Ebert who said "a movie is not good or bad based on what it's about; a movie is good or bad based on *how* it is what it's about".

The Godfather films (even 3, mostly) are extremely well constructed, filmed, acted, edited films. It's one thing to say you don't care for it, but quite another to just say that they're "bad".


ETA: I realized I never voted in the poll because it doesn't have the "it's not the greatest but it's damn near close" option.

Rival11

It's a great movie but nowhere near the greatest ever but.......that's all based on opinion anyway. With that said, while this movie is not on any of my own top lists, I can see why people absolutely love it.

The one thing I just can't get over is the botched fight scene where Caan clearly misses the with a punch - Ugh, really wish they caught that and corrected it.