Goodfellas better than the Godfather?

[DB]

"Goodfellas" better than "The Godfather"?

I've always thought that Goodfellas was way better but I want your opinions.

 

[misskitty]

Al Pacino kicked butt in The Godfather.

 

[dextercioby]

The Godfather (all parts) is one of the greatest altogether,the greatest mob/gangster movie...There's no competition...

Daniel.

 

[misskitty]

Francis Ford Coppala did a phenominal job directing that film. It deserved all the Oscars it received.

 

[JasonRox]

Never seen either of them.

 

[loseyourname]

Goodfellas was definitely better than Dances With Wolves. It should have won Best Picture that year. It isn't better than The Godfather, though. It is a damn good movie, and the editing and cinematography in particular have been highly influential (not to mention the use of rock songs rather than orchestral compositions as a score), but the stories just don't compare.

 

[dextercioby]

Never seen either of them.

Shame on you,Jason.See the Godfather.It's a brilliant movie.

Daniel.

 

[Evo]

Shame on you,Jason.See the Godfather.It's a brilliant movie.

Daniel.

Jason, don't let Marlon find out you haven't seen the Godfather! You may want to check your bed tomorrow.

I read both the book and saw the movie (The Godfather). Both were good. That's kind of rare.

 

[cragwolf]

They're both average, overrated movies, although I think that Scorcese's direction is better. I hate to say it, but I think the whole genre of Mafia movies stinks. There really is nothing much to be gained from an examination of a violent thug culture. I think the phrase is "banality of evil".

 

[motai]

I guess I'm ignorant... I thought both of them were the same thing until now.

 

[singleton]

Godfather was about as crappy as Scarface.

Goodfellas was great. Ray Liotta owned that role. Pacino and De Niro are very overrated.

 

[Artman]

They're both average, overrated movies, although I think that Scorcese's direction is better. I hate to say it, but I think the whole genre of Mafia movies stinks. There really is nothing much to be gained from an examination of a violent thug culture. I think the phrase is "banality of evil".

It seems you miss the point of the Godfather and the reason i find it a better movie. The Godfather was a movie about family not just about Mafia. The director and writers managed to make the audience side with the Corleone (sp?) family when the Godfather was shot and in the hospital, the audience was anxiously watching and secretly hoping that their enemies would not get him.

The movie also is an excellent study in how to show power and control subtily. We are aware of the Godfatehr s power in the first few minutes of that movie. It's not just some ganster flick.

 

[DB]

Pacino and De Niro are very overrated.

Pacino yes, De Niro? Naww, he's great.

 

[so-crates]

I liked Goodfellas better because I disliked that whole "honor among thieves" theme in The Godfather. Goodfellas was, I believe, a more realistic depiction of the Mafia - the thuggery, the treachery, the outright stupidity of criminals. The Godfather glorified the Mafia too much, and it was a bit too melodramatic.

 

[BobG]

It seems you miss the point of the Godfather and the reason i find it a better movie. The Godfather was a movie about family not just about Mafia. The director and writers managed to make the audience side with the Corleone (sp?) family when the Godfather was shot and in the hospital, the audience was anxiously watching and secretly hoping that their enemies would not get him.

The movie also is an excellent study in how to show power and control subtily. We are aware of the Godfatehr s power in the first few minutes of that movie. It's not just some ganster flick.

They're both average, overrated movies, although I think that Scorcese's direction is better. I hate to say it, but I think the whole genre of Mafia movies stinks. There really is nothing much to be gained from an examination of a violent thug culture. I think the phrase is "banality of evil".

While I agree with cragwolf's general sentiment, Artman's right. Godfather was different than the typical mafia movie and that's what made it good.

I can't even remember which mob movie Goodfellas was, but it must have starred Robert DeNiro and Joe Peschi - if movie makers could find more than two actors (DeNiro and Peschi) who could play gangsters, maybe they wouldn't all just run together in the memory.

 

[loseyourname]

I liked Goodfellas better because I disliked that whole "honor among thieves" theme in The Godfather. Goodfellas was, I believe, a more realistic depiction of the Mafia - the thuggery, the treachery, the outright stupidity of criminals. The Godfather glorified the Mafia too much, and it was a bit too melodramatic.

Either you don't understand sublety or you never saw Godfather II. By the end of the saga, Michael had lost his wife, both of his brothers (one whom he had killed himself), both parents, and was, for all intents, completely alone in the world, swept up by an overwhelming sense of duty in a life he never wanted. I would hardly call that glorification. That film is a beautiful depiction of how misguided honor and misplaced loyalty can ruin a man with the best of intentions but a terribly archaic ethic that has no place in the contemporary world. The second installment begins with Vito as an immigrant sent here with nothing to escape death from vengeance, having lost his entire family before he was old enough to know them. It is tragic irony that the ethic that allowed him to survive, indeed thrive, in the new world, lead his beloved youngest son Michael into a spiral of death and misdeed in which he loses his entire family - not through the vengeance of another, but through his own.

The Godfather begins with the introduction of drug trafficking into the mafia, a pursuit that eventually brought down the entire structure, vindicating Vito's decision not to buy in (a decision for which he lost his oldest son and was himself shot). Goodfellas takes place at the end of the run for these crime families, 20 years later when the drug trafficking finally caught up to them and did them in. I've always seen these respective films as wonderful bookends that serve to catalogue the rise and fall of an incredibly fascinating immigrant subculture.

 

[hypatia]

I've seen both and I liked them both. I had to go with Goodfellows as my faveroit. It was more interesting for me to see the everyday going on's of the low level mafia/street thugs.

Plus...






In goodfellows people got "wacked".