A masterpiece celebrated its 50th anniversary on Thursday.
Wide-released in US theaters on March 24, 1972, the Best Picture-winning epic about “Don” Vito Corleone’s unforeseen passing of the torch to war hero-turned-affiliated son, Michael, is ubiquitously considered one of, if not the greatest film ever made (until Part II enters the conversation, of course).
Despite the dent it’s made in all of cinema history, The Godfather – and its relentless legacy – can’t possibly be adored by any other group quite like New York-born, Long Island locals who either have Italian roots or pride themselves on existing in predominantly Italian-American circles.
For the most passionate students of Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo’s (once a Bay Shore resident) compelling universe that espouses everything from timeless family values, second-to-none business tactics, jaw-dropping death scenes, and weapons traded for pastries, it’s not just a movie; it’s a way of life.
“The Godfather is quite the experience,” said Anthony DeLisio, 27, of Ronkonkoma, “and you can’t even call it a singular one because two of them are masterpieces! Those movies are like scripture to those who know good movies (including his father, also named Anthony, pictured with Vito Corleone’s Hollywood Wax Museum figure alongside the scene it recreates above) and the people they proudly show them to.”
One such Godfather-screening film historian with a Long Island area code, Keith Crocker, also an adult education professor and independent film director, can’t help but admire the film that changed the medium for the better.
“The Godfather got the ball rolling,” said Crocker. “I remember that it played ‘The Calderone’ in Hempstead. At that time, The Calderone was the largest theater on Long Island. It was the theater to premiere films. It had a huge run there. Everyone in my family old enough to see it spoke about it at each occasion. Back then, movies had legs and they walked miles. Today, only The Godfather still does.”
Though he too did not get to see The Godfather in theaters, Frank Grucci, 50, of Setauket, agrees that the “family first” message it stresses has helped a film full of violence and organized crime stand the test of time.
“Everyone here can relate to it. Wherever you go in New York, whether in the metropolitan or Long Island area. If you’re Italian, especially, you can find many pieces of it to connect to. Even the most quoted line, ‘Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.’ This isn’t limited to the world of the movie; it applies to business. It applies to everything,” said Grucci.
As proven above, even moviegoers nearly half the age of the average Godfather-lover can speak to the film’s presence as an inherited family heirloom of sorts; a film you don’t spend too much time planning to watch – you are just expected to routinely consume and regurgitate it, and in no short order.
“Its lessons remain eternal,” said Phil Romano, 26, of Hauppauge. “‘Don’t ever take sides against the family,’ is just one of the many old school Italian and Sicilian sentiments we live by because “The Don” taught us to. And I’ll end the same way the news broke the announcement of James Brown’s death in 2006. Long live The Godfather.”
“The older I get, the more I appreciate The Godfather,” said Matt Wilson, owner of Movieland Cinemas of Coram, which screened the film Thursday night to commemorate its anniversary.
“That film set a new standard for dramatic storytelling that changed movies forever. I may not be an Italian New Yorker, but I sure feel a little ‘New York swagger’ any time I watch Godfather,” he added.
Don’t we all?
The film has obviously grown into much more than what it originally set out to be. Let the men above serve as living proof. To see yourself in a movie is one thing; but to take from what’s conjured, then turn it into a better reality for yourself tomorrow? That’s another thing entirely. And a testament to the power of art, family, and the film that keeps on giving half a century later.
The Godfather’s legacy is something that can never be taken away from it, either (Part II preferrentialists notwithstanding). It was an early-age blockbuster that did not require a green screen to capture obscenely iconic action when it could quicker make a landmark out of none other than the Mitchell Field airfields in Mineola (photo below).
And yet, we still can’t look away when they massacre our boy; both when we see it rerun on Thanksgiving surrounded by family, friends, and family friends, and when we pass where the scene was filmed on our treks to destinations we lost sight of at the corner of Memory Lane and the Corleone Compound.
I believe in America. And Long Islanders believe in The Godfather. That is the message. Don’t kill The Messenger!
