2:31 a.m. - 2008-11-28
Seventies Movie Minutiae Roundup, Part I
The Godfather Part II: Few would deny the film's greatness. There's acting, editing, directing, portent, betrayal, cake and much more. And yet...
Is there something a little off about the congressional hearings scenes? The costumes, sets and dialogue all seem convincing enough. The actors seem committed in their readings. But bear in mind that these scenes take place during the ouster of Batista from Cuba in the late fifties and were shot when the congressional hearings to determine the extent of Nixon's criminality were ongoing. Bearing this in mind, don't the congressional hearings scenes more resemble the various Watergate hearings from the seventies than the Army-McCarthy hearings from the fifties? For some reason? Maybe because actors in seventies movies seemed slouchier and less poised than actors and indeed newsreel subjects from a generation earlier?
And, more important: Was this disparity intentional? Was Coppola making some sort of "statement" about his time, via the gangsterey chronicle of an earlier era? If so, what does this say about Coppola's histori-filmic agenda? About film in the seventies generally? About changing mores throughout the cold war?
EXTRA CREDIT: Diane Keaton: possibly related to BUSTER Keaton???? If not, why? (Please show your work for full credit.)
