Goodfellas or The Godfather ?

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Permalink Reply by MDS on September 8, 2009 at 6:01pm

Godfather 2.

While not subtracting from how wonderful Goodfellas is at all, Godfather 2 just seems to be a more "impactful" story to me. Granted, a BIG portion of that is the connections to Godfather 1. Just that Grandfather 2 seems to be so much more of a "central" story of rise of power, but decline of individual dreams.

Goodfellas on the other hand is really the rise and fall of 1 specific guy and the people around him. Godfather 2 is relevant to the whole concept of "Gangsters" and "organized crime".

What I like to do is to watch Godfather 1 & 2, THEN watch Goodfellas, THEN watch Casino.
In a way, it's almost like a "generational" decline of Mobsters in general. Godfather was the "High point" during the 40-50's, with the way they were shown. Godfather 2 picks up in the 50's-60's with how they were going "out of power", but still a force. Goodfellas shows their 70's-80's decline of being prosecuted by DEA agents, which is what Vito Corleone worried about in Godfather 1, and Casino shows how it was during the 80's-90's, where it became so important to be the "respectable" side of things that they lost their ability to even run an "honest gambling joint".

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Permalink Reply by Frisky_dingo on September 8, 2009 at 6:11pm

Man, great idea with the Godfather-Goodfellas-Casino marathon, you have just planned sunday for me :D

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Permalink Reply by Torrey AKA Tor Tor on September 8, 2009 at 6:27pm

Godfather for me and my reasons what MDS said....lol

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Permalink Reply by olivier on September 8, 2009 at 6:02pm

I love goodfellas. Now for the godfather, i was too young when i first watch the movies so it kinda ruined the magic of the first time :(

But whatever
Goodfellas is one of my favorite movies.

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Permalink Reply by AcE! on September 8, 2009 at 6:03pm

My favorite mob movie is probably A Bronx Tale (I really wish it was mentioned more often), though The Godfather 2 left more of an impression on me than any other film of its type I've seen.

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Permalink Reply by Devin on September 8, 2009 at 6:43pm

I go with The Godfather. I enjoy it more and it's overall a better movie.

Goodfellas is just one of those style-over-substance flicks that gets attention because it's a true story.

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Permalink Reply by Stanley Kubrick on September 8, 2009 at 6:53pm

Goodfellas is like a well presented cautionary morality tale; Godfather is more of an introspective into the monstrous lengths that people organize their lives / family lives for power.

I'd say Godfather Part 1/2 has the edge on Goodfellas for the corruption and power thing that it has going on. Alot of people slag off Godfather Part 3 and it is inferior to Goodfellas in my opinion but still to this day it holds up quite well (apart from the nepotism in this film).

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