The Godfather Effect: ‘You Can Start By Acting Like a Man’
The Godfather at 50: Film a gateway to meaning, purpose, truth, faith: Michael Corleone, a prodigal son seeking the true father?
Fifty years after its release, The Godfather endures as the story of family, fatherhood, and faith — cleverly disguised as a gangster movie.
From family to work to the battles of life, we still use Godfather analogies the way earlier generations could widely quote (and recognize) the Bible as a standard frame of reference (stories we all knew), a source of wisdom.
“Italians have a little joke that the world is so hard a man must have two fathers to look after him, and that’s why they have godfathers.” Mario Puzo explains in The Godfather, the 1969 novel that guides the films.
Why are so many men so quick to use The Godfather as a parable for their worlds? Why do we compare people we encounter to characters from the three films? The Godfather Effect shows why this 1972 masterpiece is still rated history’s greatest film.
The age-old test: Fight for the family — or focus on my own needs
“You cannot say ‘no’ to the people you love, not often,” we learn in Puzo’s…
