Film Journal: The Godfather

1) Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the screening 
In class last week we viewed the timeless film, The Godfather, and spoke a lot on Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola, who directed the film, was a graduate of UCLA. After creating seven films, The Godfather being the seventh, he had finally gained some recognition for all that he was striving for. We also spoke of some of the major themes behind the film, which are family values, bad guys being the good guys, and a lot of violence. Generally when it comes to family values, the whole family is often seen eating or at church for baptisms or weddings.

2) Find a related article (on the film, directed, studio, actor/actress, artistic content, ect.) You can use the library or the Internet. Cite the article or copy the url to your journal entry. Summarize in your own words the related article but do not plagiarize any content.
Article: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/godfather/
The article starts off by talking about The Godfather as what Rotten Tomatoes essentially calls one of the most well known movies of all time. Considering a lot of the quotes from the film are stated in plenty of other places, its almost impossible to not note The Godfather as a film that almost everyone has at least heard about. Popularity wise, it makes other gangster films not stand up as well to this film. 

3) Apply the article to the film screened in class. How did the article support or change the way you thought about the film, director, content, etc.
The article honestly made me like the film less. After seeing The Godfather probably about a good forty times, I focus specifically on the family values of the Corleone family. With that being said, some of my favorite scenes in the film revolve around the family sitting down for dinner, or the wedding that happens in the beginning of the film. I am not very fond of the violence and gang action seen over the course of the film, which is all that the article, and basically anyone talking about The Godfather happens to set their conversation on. 

4) Write a critical analysis of the film, including your personal opinion, formed as a result of 4 things: the screening, class discussions, text material, and the article.
The screening of the film was great. I really looked forward to watching it up on a big screen for the first time. There was a much better presentation factor with the large screen, especially seeing all the details put into the noir-esque hospital scene. The class discussion revolved around a lot of the family values seen in the film, which happens to be my favorite part of The Godfather. I love seeing old style families interacting when dealing with large issues such as being one of the mob families. The article caught me on a strange note though. Rotten Tomatoes is known for giving great movies awful scores, which makes me think that this was run off of favoritism for the film, but then upon reading the article, it bases a lot of the violence as the key perspectives of the movie. Overall, I love watching The Godfather, especially in class, because I was able to see it on the big screen for the first time. 

CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM

1) (X) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.

2) (X) If I reused any information from other papers I have written for other classes, I clearly explain that in the paper.

3) (X) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations around those words, or used indentation and citation within the text.

4) (X) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in the text of the paper.

5) (X) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally read.

6) (X) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in another way. I cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography.

7) (X) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or originality.

8) (X) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully transparent about the research and ideas used in my paper.