Francis Ford Coppola formal Film Study
While watching my formal film study I had the privilege to view some of the best movies I had ever seen. I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the Godfather series, even the third one which was said to be the worst (which I can see why, but none the less a great film). I also got to view "Tucker: A man and his Dream". This was another movie that I got really invested in. I noticed that all of Coppola's movies were telling a story about a man in business, and there is also a tie of trouble for the family in the movie. The trouble in The Godfather being the other mobsters and the trouble in Tucker being the court and the big car companies.
My favorite of the three was The Godfather part 2. This movie had the best cinematic elements like when they would go back in time to show Vito uprising in NewYork and in Sicily. There was a yellowish feel to the screen. It reminded me of the effect from the matrix because they do a green tint. It did a really great job of letting us know that we were in the past.
I also really like that they kept the emphasis on family, but they put a new twist on it. When you have someone else running the family you get a completely different outcome. I would say that Michael was more brutal than Vito was, considering that he killed his own brother.
The Godfather 3 was nothing compared to the previous two, but still a very good movie. This movie is basically where we get to see the down fall of Michael Corleone. All of that bad karma is coming back to nip him in the butt. I thought that some of the acting was overdone. When the daughter dies, it was uncomfortable to hear/watch the mother go through what she was going through. There are many other better ways they could have done it. They had some interesting shots though. When Michael is in the kitchen and has that anxiety attack, they go to a long shot... It was held a little too long, but I still like the effect that it gave.
There is always a sense of juxtaposition within these two movies. Whenever something bad is happening there seems to be birds chirping in the background or they are in a church. I like these elements, but by the third movie I would have liked to see them get a little more creative with it. They were merely just using it as a device at that point. A necessary point in these movies that must be kept is the enemy. On paper I really like the ideas, but in the third movie I do not they executed the 'bad guy' very well. It seemed kind of abrupt. It was just like he decided "i'm going to hate you now".
Even though the third Godfather was made in the 90s, I would say Tucker is the most contemporary feeling movie (1988). This can mainly be attributed to the style and camera work in this movie. They didn't experiment too much with lighting or long distance shots. I didn't even notice anything special about these elements, and I think, depending on the movie, this can be a very good thing. you don't always want to be thinking about the special effects and the pizazz. sometimes you want to just sit back and enjoy the story that is being told. If it's too in your face, it can be distracting. Here it was like they weren't even there.
For Coppola, it was all about getting the actors into a room and letting them do their thing. You wouldn't see gigantic action scene where they are running through the streets of the city and they would need 12 cameras and a bunch of cuts. They mainly just stuck to the 180 and had a lot of dialogue.
overall I give..
Godfather 2: 4 out of 5 stars
Godfather 3: 3 out of 5 stars
Tucker: 4 out of 5 stars
