“You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance going to bring your son back to you or my boy to me?”

It really came to a point where watching this film has become a religious gathering for my family. I have seen this film as early as I was around the age of twelve. I got so accustomed to my dad’s commentary and spoilers whenever we would catch this film on a movie night that today, I would even finish his commentary for him. In my earlier years of watching this film with my family, I would almost always fall asleep midway not until I was around the age of fifteen where I finally sat for the entirety of it and actually found keen interest into finishing it. From that moment on, my great enthusiasm and appreciation for films has burgeoned.

Tonight was just another one of those movie nights with my family where my dad decides to take out his DVD off the shelf and spin it on our player. It had been the same as always, still the usual commentary from my dad. Still always feel like I am watching it as if it was my first time, still anticipating every act, still mouthing the iconic lines from Vito and Michael Corleone, still feeling like on the brink of death during that hospital scene with Michael and Enzo the baker. Every single thing about this film, the actors that I grew to love (specifically Marlon Brando and Al Pacino) and the familial takeaways that my dad would randomly spurt out during dinner or car rides (eg. “A  man is not a real man if he does not spend time with his family” as in the words of Vito Corleone). Just about the littlest of things about this film has me appreciating it down to its very core. 

There would not be a film that would be as close to my heart as The Godfather. I am forever grateful with all the moments that this film has forever engrained in my life time and if I could correlate a film to my home/family, it is The Godfather.