3 Reasons Why You No Longer Need To See The Godfather Trilogy

3. You See One Mafia Film, You've Seen 'Em All

Apart from The Godfather movies, I am sure I have seen most of the other Hollywood flicks that are definitive of this genre. There have been many. Thing is, although they are all great films in their own ways, they all basically tell the exact same story, again and again. I am not sure if this is due to lazy filmmaking or because writers are falling back on established traits, but it definitely seems like it sometimes. Now don't get me wrong: this can apply to all genres of the medium, and this does not mean I am not fond of some of them myself (Scarface, for example). But with Mafia films, they seem to be particularly guilty with this little crime of rehashing old, worn-out material. Not taking away from these movies, as some of them are truly great pieces of filmmaking, but storywise... have we not seen and heard it all before? This can also be applied to most period gangster films. You know, the ones about depression era prohibition. And how many times can you tell the same story, no matter how great the acting or direction is? A man either works his way into or is born into the Mafia, builds a successful criminal career and eventually rises to the top, usually through some type of manipulation or ultra violent means. Becomes the boss of bosses, then after much reflection wishes for redemption and a way out, usually to no avail and consequently leads to their death. And right there you have the basis of about 100 mafia films. The other 100 consist of a cop who infiltrates the criminal organization and gets too close and too involved with the people he is trying to bring down. I mean, come on. I know these are loosely based on real event sometimes but how about giving us a twist on the subject or something (I hope I am making sense)? Let's not forget about television shows like The Sopranos. This story arc has been done to death and nowadays just seems completely pointless to revisit. You know, a lot of people gave Gus Van Sant a ton of hateful rhetoric for his shot-for-shot remake of Psycho (and rightfully so - it was just terrible and completely pointless) but when other famous directors rehash the same tired old cliches and movie traits that - from what I have been told - were set in stone by The Godfather, you give them all the credit in the world. This is just an observation, of course, so keep those guns in your trench coats for now...