I know. Long title. But, bear with me. I was planning on writing just a regular movie review to accompany yet another one of my posts about the misadventures of a writer. However, as I was deciding which movie to write about, I hit a wall. I have watched so many great movies lately. Zodiac, which is now my favorite movie of all time. Million Dollar Baby, which… made me cry like a baby. And then the Godfather, which I re-watched after three years.
The Godfather was the movie which inspired me to write again, three years ago. Earlier, I wrote a post about Failure. But, the thing is… I didn’t know that back then. I had just finished Xenon Bane, and it was horrible. I talk a little bit about that in every post, but I’m going to fill you all in on the details. It was a disaster, and while I didn’t really stop writing for long… I had no intention to actually write again. By the end of Xenon Bane, I was having no fun at all, and it became a chore. Writing wasn’t as cool as it started out to be, and I was back to just doing whatever that struck my whimsy. Then, one night, I convinced my parents to let me watch Godfather. The CD we had of Godfather was horrible, and the voices weren’t synced properly, and there were tiny cracks in the disc. But, I loved the movie. There were no jokes at all, and it wasn’t a war film either. It didn’t have a lot of action, and it was in the dark most of the time.
The movie was two hours and forty-five minutes long, it was late, and I couldn’t understand what Marlon Brando was saying. Yet, I was spellbound by the movie. I was transfixed by the story about gangsters. They wore suits, they were smart, and they didn’t just go around raping women for no reason. In fact, it has been noted by a lot of critics that there isn’t a single innocent victim in the entire movie.
For me, the Godfather showed me the grey area. I’ve talked before about books which were about grey characters, but the Godfather was the movie which inspired me to write again. So, after watching all three Godfather movies, I started writing my second book – the City of Crime. Writing became fun again. It was interesting and new. I wrote about Asian gangsters, and about a dogged Asian prosecutor trying to catch the Triad in the act. It was awesome! I won’t tell you the story is brilliant – that’s for you guys to decide. But I will tell you that writing the City of Crime paved the road for me to start writing even more.
In more ways than one, I owe the Godfather for inspiring me to write again. I watched it two days ago, and it inspired me again. Lately, I’ve been trying to write scripts. But, I just can’t do it! I keep trying to be funny, and all of my jokes would fall flat. After watching the Godfather, I am reminded that you don’t need to be funny to be interesting.
And guess what, I wrote a few more scenes in my script. So, I guess you can say that I’m thinking too much into it. Heck, you can call me pretentious, but while the Godfather didn’t change my entire lifestyle… it did inspire me to write once more, and a year later, the way I did things did change.
So, yeah. I hope you enjoyed this post. I sure enjoyed writing ( Ahem, GUSHING ) about the Godfather. It’s a true story. I was inspired by it to write once more, and I guess you can say this is the “spin-off” for my Failure is Actually An Option post.
I’d appreciate if you’d Like, Follow, and Comment. Hopefully all three. Other than that, I’m going to inform some of my loyal followers ( You mean everyone that’s related to you? ) that I will now be posting a review accompanying each post I make about writing or about life in general. It’s a way of making up for the fact that I no longer post once a day like I used to do.
Interesting fact, Mario Puzo, who wrote The Godfather, also wrote the Sicilian. And the main character of the Sicilian is named Guiliano. Yup, I am named after him. My devoutly Catholic grandmother had my mother change the spelling and add Angelo as my middle name for fear of me becoming a gangster. Yup, that’s also why my middle name, in English, means Angel. To cancel out the Gangster first name. It’s a shame the Sicilian wasn’t made into a huge, blockbuster movie like the Godfather.
Thank you, and goodbye!
~J.A. Romano
Writer's Periodical 