"The Godfather" is turning 40 this month, and he still looks swell.
What's your favorite moment or line or character from "The Godfather" or even the sequel? We don't have to talk about "The Godfather, Part III" if you don't want to, and I know that most of you don't.
People ask me all the time: What's my favorite movie? The answer has been the same for more than three decades: "The Godfather," which along with "The Godfather, Part II," I have always considered to be one big cinematic masterpiece.
That's probably because that's how I always watched them on DVD, back-to-back on at least an annual basis for many years.
Then my daughters were born. Six-hour marathons of shoot-outs and Sicilian revenge have become less frequent.
I usually preface that answer by saying, "I know this is very much a 'guy' answer" because so many men cite "The Godfather" among their best-ever movies.
It's simply an offer we can't refuse.
When "The Godfather" premiered 40 years ago this week in New York, it became a sensation at the box office (if selling tickets at today's prices, it would have grossed $617 million) and in our cultural consciousness.
For me, it did what many of the best movies do: It immersed me in another world completely, one so different and, in this case, dangerous compared to my own, and I couldn't look away.
If you've never seen "The Godfather" on the big screen, a restored version is playing at Cinemark Tulsa on Thursday, with 2 and 7 p.m. showings.
