No, Georgia, I Have Not Seen “The Godfather”

This morning in our weekly meeting with myself, Georgia, and Joe Kelly, Georgia had a meltdown when she learned that neither myself nor Joe Kelly have ever seen "The Godfather" or "The Godfather Part II."

I mean, she seriously had a fit the same way a person would who was just told Walmart is out of $299 TVs on Black Friday after they just waited 30 hours in line for one (alright, maybe not that bad, but you get my point). No, I have never seen "The Godfather" or the sequel. Now, I know it's supposed to be one of the best movies ever made, but I have never seen it.

Now, let me say this: I like movies. I am not a movie nerd, but I like movies. If you are of my age, you remember the day your parents bought their first VCR (it cost about a thousand dollars) and you remember going to the video store and renting movies and stuff. And I remember us getting cable for the first time -- it was in the early 80s and we got a whopping 14 channels, one of which was HBO. And even before that (if you remember this, you get a gold star), my parents subscribed to SelecTV (which later became the old Prism channel), which was on channel 57 in Philadelphia (basically, channel 57 showed movies all day and if you had a set-top box you could unscramble the picture and watch 'em. I remember this because as a kid I broke the knob off the box and the TV got stuck on the unscrambled setting).

Georgia's little "OMG!!!" moment this morning got me thinking about how cinematically deprived I am.  Going by the American Films Institute's 100 greatest American films of all time list (which changes every few years), I have seen 14 of the greatest films of all time.

14.

Alright, maybe Georgia has a point.  I've seen things like, "Psycho," "Forest Gump" (one of the best movie soundtracks ever as far as I'm concerned), "Silence of the Lambs," and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," but I have not seen 9 out of the top 10 movies -- that one being "The Wizard of Oz," which I honestly am not a fan of (save the hate mail -- sorry, I don't like "The Wizard of Oz.") To feel better, I looked up a list of the 100 worst movies of all time and I am happy to report that I haven't seen any of them. So, somewhere in between the 100 greatest films and the 100 worst films lies my taste in movies.

In the near future, I will make an effort to at least see the top ten movies ever made -- but I will watch "The Godfather" last just to frustrate Georgia.