Anticlimaxes

The Godfather is widely heralded as one of the greatest films ever made. It was for a time the highest grossing film ever made; it won an Oscar for best picture; it’s been called one of the most influential films in American cinematic history and perhaps the most influential ‘gangster’ film ever. Generally, everyone loves it. And I suspect this is why I found it to be such a huge anticlimax.

It wasn’t bad – far from it. The performances were fabulous. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino especially stood out (naturally, I wouldn’t have expected otherwise), but I felt that since I expected such great things, I was rather let down. The film itself seemed to reach a few anticlimaxes, and I felt it never reached any particular crescendo, and it just wasn’t what I expected it to be, or what I wanted it to be. In this respect, it reminded me of a few other things.

Life, I am discovering, is often a rather large and disappointing anticlimax. Not always, but lots of the time. What I wanted it to be, it isn’t. What I wanted people to be, they aren’t (mostly). It’s still early days so I won’t give up all together, and maybe we can even take some comfort in life’s talent for falling short. For example, Trump may never live up to expectations, Brexit may never come to any significant head, we may all die having never experienced anything too out of the ordinary. The Godfather is fairly representative of what we can hope for; a series of bluffs and mountains out of mole hills that we don’t suffer too much as a result of, or alternatively, of terrible events we’re totally at a loss to prevent. Regardless, don’t get your hopes up too much that films are going to change your life, or that people’s opinions can be trusted when they talk about them, because people aren’t always right and films are just films. If you expect too much you will be let down. Similarly, don’t watch The Godfather when you’re questioning your existence; it’s just depressing.