Amena Brown:
Hey everybody. Welcome back to a new episode of HER with Amena Brown. And yo, I hope y'all are really getting into these fall vibes. I really have to contemplate. Is fall my favorite season now? And I'm pretty sure that's true and not for the pumpkin spice reason some of y'all might think, but I love fall. I love the inbetweenness of it. I love the air getting crisp in the mornings and at night. I love the want to drink more warm beverages. I love the leaves and all the changing of the colors. This is, for me this is the most wonderful time of the year. I know for some of you it is Christmas. Shout out to those of you that left your Christmas trees up all year. I feel you. I feel like that's kind of fall decor for me. It's the pumpkins and the acorn squash and the cornucopias.
It is all of the nice earth tone kind of candles. It's all of that red, orange, yellow kind of color scheme. This is the mood board right now. So I hope that y'all are enjoying a little bit of the fall-time. I also wanted to thank y'all for something. A few of y'all have reached out to me about these last couple of episodes, and I just want to tell y'all that it really means the world to me. I got some DMs about the episode where I was talking about the times in my life that I threw away my air quote secular music. And it was just wonderful to get a chance to dialogue with a couple of y'all about that episode in particular. And was lovely reading and interacting with the comments on the episode about my favorite Atlanta eats. So love to see that. I saw that a few of you are going to be traveling to Atlanta soon. So yes, please continue to use this podcast episode and that social media post as a resource. And if you discover any new eats, a girl wants to know about it.
For this episode and my next episode, I have thought about two books that also became movies that were very influential in my life. So I am starting that with my favorite movie of all time, all time, The Godfather. Let's dig into it. Okay. First, let's talk about how I discovered The Godfather. And what's interesting is when I think about the art that I discovered that really had a big impact on me, it is interesting to think that there was this time between 12 and 16 where a lot of the art that I came to love, that really influenced my ability to want to tell a story, it's just interesting to think that I was that age when I was discovering a lot of this art.
That's a wild thing to think now because I was about 12 when I first tried to read Toni Morrison's Beloved. I just remember being like, I don't understand what's going on at all, but this is beautiful. And that sort of putting in me these early feelings of wanting to become a writer. And I was not far from that age the first time I saw The Godfather. And I'm pretty sure I was not catching this movie from the beginning. And I think it was just a scene of two people in the car, that were in the back of a car talking while they were riding somewhere.
And I just remember for the first time, there was the first film I remember noticing the use of shadow and the use of the beautiful cinematography to also tell the story, not just the dialogue and not just what the actors were doing as they played their roles, but how the shadow and the lighting was also trying to communicate to you as a viewer, who is this person you're watching? What is it that they're about? Is it dangerous? Are we watching something that's cloaked or clouded in some way? And I was like, what is this? I just remember being very, very attracted to it.
But to continue to tell my age on this podcast, I caught the movie on television. So there wasn't a way at that time for me to rewind it or anything. And I'm not sure if at this age we still had a membership or whatever you paid. What am I saying? No, there wasn't a membership to Blockbuster. You just went there and rented things. You paid when you rented it. So I don't know, I feel like we were sort of out of that time of life where we were using Blockbuster a lot. So it didn't even occur to me to rent The Godfather and watch it. I caught it on TV and then I kind of had to wait, look through TV guide, woo child tell our age on the podcast, honey, look through TV guide or something so you would know the next time the movie was coming on, but that could be a while.
So I just remember seeing that and being like, whatever that is, I need to find out more information. And I am to this day, not sure how I discovered that Mario Puzo was the author, but I actually went and read the book first before I saw the full film. And I just fell in love with the book. I remember very distinctly, by this time I'm probably, I don't know, maybe I'm late high school, early college time or something, I don't know why it's all muddying together, that I remember watching that little snippet of the movie and then I remember reading the book and I'm wondering if I read it again. I think I read it again in my late high school, early college.
But I get the book, I read the book. And what fascinated me about reading this book, especially probably trying to read it so young, is by this time I'm probably 13 or 14, I'm thinking reading this book. And what I loved about the beginning of this book is it really had a cyclone kind of structure to me, very how the top of a tornado is so wide and then you get down further and further into the cyclone and it narrows and narrows and narrows. To me, that was really the beauty of Mario Puzo's writing is you're reading these different chapters and you're like, huh, okay, here's a character, okay, here's a character. And you're not quite sure how they're connected or why they matter to the story really. And then the more you read, the more you see how all of their lives are kind of intertwined. Chefs kiss.
Okay, so after I read the book, I then went back and watched the first two movies. And these are not short films, these are long movies. But I finally went back and watched the first one, which to me, and it's hard to say, the first Godfather to me has this element of moving very slowly in some places. If you don't truly love the sense of storytelling or if you're not into watching film for its storytelling, and especially now, I mean to think of the timeframe that The Godfather was being released in the seventies versus a lot of the movies that are released in a mainstream way now, you're just not used to that kind of slower pace of allowing a story to be told unless you watch a lot of independent films. I feel like there are still a lot of independent films being made that allow that sort of slow presence. For those of you that watched the movie, The Hours, The Hours was a very slow kind of film, but woo, when it started wrapping up and coming together, it was so satisfying.
And so I think it's important for those of you that love storytelling and those of you who love film, to try your hand at watching something that isn't going to be this quick action packed kind of story. Watch something that you have to have more of a braising kind of experience. You're not going to be able to do a quick fry on this situation. And that's very much like the first Godfather to me, that it moves very slowly. You're trying to figure out and discover what it is that's happening. And what I loved about The Godfather One is this presentation of the idea of the Don. And of course we're watching this in this Italian family that is being presented in the film and getting a little bit of what is being presented in the movie as something that could be a part of Italian culture for some Italian folks.
And it's just fascinating to me, the layers of the business that the family is doing and the additional family layers that were there. And the director of Francis Ford Coppola, who also does some really nice wines. Shout out to that. He talked a lot about how he didn't want it to just be a movie about crime. He wanted it to be a movie that was about a family. And I think The Godfather set this very interesting precedent that you then see a lot of movies following. I think The Godfather is a very foundational film to watch as an artist or as a storytelling person, because once you watch it, then you can see, oh, I can see how these other shows got built around this type of story. I can see how these other movies got put out after that because of some of the decisions that Francis Ford Coppola and the Godfather crew made at the time.
And this idea that this is a family that is doing crime, it's living a life of crime and this is still a family with the parents and the siblings and the sibling rivalry and who felt they were important and who didn't feel they were important. And all of those dynamics that you are seeing the characters there, but you're also immediately maybe thinking of your own family or thinking of friends of yours. And I think that is a beautiful thing that happens when something is really well written and well done like the Godfather was. I also want to give a special shout out to the Godfather showing the importance of having a true gangsta boo. And I'm hoping these are not spoilers, but if you haven't watched The Godfather, these probably are spoilers, but the Godfather's also been out since the seventies. So this is not as if I am spoiling a episode of something that's coming out every week right now. So it's a spoiler, but it's okay. It's spoilers all over the internet about the Godfather.
So in Godfather One we are meeting the father, Vito Corleone. We are meeting him and his children, his sons and one daughter. And we are meeting Michael who is the unwilling heir to the crime family. And if you haven't watched, all of this will make even more sense of course once you watch it. And Michael is dating a woman named Kate and how the Godfather, and how the first movie ends is still so wonderful and so telling for me, that Kate is of the impression that she is dating and then subsequently marries this man who is from a family whose values he now rejects. And it's her job as his lady, as his now wife, to be about a life that he really wants for himself that is in opposition to the life of the rest of his family, of his parents and his siblings.
Well of course Kate realizes way too slowly for me, that it is not that her husband is the opposite of his family. He is exactly like his family. He is all of the things that he did not want to become, and now she has to decide will she or will she not, be a gangsta boo? Let's talk about what a gangsta boo is. Okay. A gangsta boo is someone who is in a romantic relationship with someone who is doing gangster activities, some elements of crime activities. And to me, a true gangsta boo is someone who will not put their head in the sand regarding what their boo actually does. You're not going to be like, oh no, he told me he's an accountant during the day. I'm ignoring the wads of cash that I find sometimes in the bathroom cabinet.
That to me is not a true gangsta boo. You are putting your head in the sand regarding the fact that you are probably dating someone who has maybe had to murder other people in order to keep the family intact or whatever. You're talking about, someone who would resort to violence or whatever other things needed to be done. And I feel like you need to just go ahead and acknowledge your boo is a gangster, that makes you a gangster boo. And every time I watch various sundry things that are organized crime related, I will definitely turn to my husband in the middle of it and be like, "Oh, this person is not being a good gangsta boo".
You need to just go ahead and just get in there, you need to get involved. And we're going to talk a little bit about other shows to me that fall in the category of also being about organized crime here in a minute. But you need to go ahead to me if you're going to be, I'm talking fictional gangsta boos in these types of stories, it's like, go ahead and just jump in there. Go ahead and be like, "Okay, so we in a crime family, what are the vibes? If the cops come and pull me over, what's the stuff I need to say? Where are we hiding things so that I can be cool and be calm and be collected?"
Now of course there are times where the gangster character in the story wants their boo to remain totally clueless and they do that intentionally for protection. I think that's a different thing. I think it's different with the gangster person is like, I'm going to make sure you don't know anything that way. The cops, the FBI, whoever come in here looking for me, they pull you into the station, start asking you a bunch of questions. You could literally be like, you really don't know because I didn't tell you anything on purpose because I don't want you to go to jail.
I think that's one thing. I think it's another thing when the boo maybe doesn't have all the details, but they know that that money is not coming from a corporate job. They know that their boo or their spouse is not going to sit at a desk every day for 40 hours a week, and come home with wads of cash, when you're like, I'm going to ignore the signs that I'm dating a gangster, that's when I feel like you need to just choose either you just ignorant and you're not going to know anything or go on and know everything. Go on and jump in there be a gangsta boo.
Okay. The Godfather's also how I learned that I just have a great love for TV shows, movies, stories, that are about organized crime. There's something about organized crime that I just find it so fascinating. I don't want to ever do crime, but organized crime, I really like how it's set up. I like the hierarchical structure of leadership. I like that you know who to speak to about this or that. I like that depending on the type of organized crime you're running, you know if you need to not communicate on your cell phone, you need to use a burner phone. Or I've watched some TV shows and movies where the people are like, we don't even speak on the phone at all. I don't care. We're not going to take chances of being recorded or anything. So we only speak in person. Or the person who's actually the head of the organization, removes themselves layer for layer for layer so that you don't never talk to them directly.
There's so many things about organized crime that are really great and that's making me wonder if that is a part of my type A situation. I mean those of you that are Enneagram folks, I think that there's some One going on with me somewhere. I don't know what the vibes are about that, but organized crime, I want to say for the win, but mainly you go to jail, but for the win for entertainment purposes when you're watching a story. So I feel like The Godfather One was this gateway into other movies about organized crime. And I have to say for the record, of The Godfather films, is sometimes I want to say if I picked a favorite, I think that Godfather Two is my favorite. Although it's almost hard to say it because Godfather One is such a seminal work, that it's really hard to be like Godfather Two is more of my favorite. It's like there wouldn't be a Godfather Two without Godfather One.
These are nerdy things. But I have to say, I think if I were to be totally honest, Godfather Two is my favorite of The Godfather films because you're getting this wonderful opportunity to see Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the same film, even though according to the plot of the film, you're not ever going to see them on screen in a scene together because Robert De Niro is playing the younger version of what is Al Pacino's character's father. But the genius of going in and out of both of their stories of how they both became the Godfather in their eras of time, man. And there's just something when you're watching a movie in particular, I've experienced this in watching television also, but there's something about watching a movie in particular, where you get the opportunity to see two amazing actors play in it together, that just gives it a certain crackle and a certain electricity and fire that I really, really like. And I loved that about Godfather Too.
Like most Godfather fans, Godfather Three, it's like I have to watch Godfather Three because I wanted to know how does this resolve? How does Michael's life resolve? What happens to the family? But it was not as enjoyable to watch as the first two. If it ended at the second movie, it's still super great. But I always love a ... I always love I was going to say, a nice denoument but even beyond that, I truly love a good epilogue. And I feel like Godfather Three gives us this wrap up of some of those characters in this way I liked. And there has technically been a fourth Godfather film as well, I believe. Because I did watch that one, but I don't know. I just watch it because I want to know what the story's doing now. I don't know if y'all ever watched a movie or a TV show where you love the characters so much that if there is a movie to come out, even if you don't love the movie, you're just like, well, at least I got to see how they're doing.
I kind of feel that way sometimes about the Downtown Abbey films and things like that, where you're like, Oh, it's so nice, so nice to just see. Want to see how y'all are doing? I know you're fictional, but it's just great to know how you are. So here are the other things that watching The Godfather and loving the show of led me to also be into. Other movies and TV shows about organized crime. Obviously this led me into Scarface and Goodfellas and Donnie Brasco, which also led into New Jack City, which is a fantastic organized crime family movie. The family setup is different. You have all of these Black characters sort of running this crime family during the crack era in New York. Wonderful film. We have American Gangster with Denzel Washington playing a character from real life, Frank Lucas.
And then I love also, to watch shows that are about corporate crime because I think when we start talking about organized crime and we think about the movies and TV shows that have been made, there are certain narratives that those types of stories lean on. And some of those narratives are coming from things that we do watch happen in real life, that people who have been immigrants in America, people who have experienced poverty in America, that they create opportunities for themselves around organized crime in a way to help themselves in a way that the system in America was not created to help them. And then in some ways, as we find out through some of these organized crime stories, that the system in America was totally created to make it so that crime is the way that you would need to try to create sustenance for your family, which is wild. Wild.
Okay, so because I also love corporate crime, this got me into some TV shows. I love Succession. Okay, yes, I love Succession. This succession is giving me the combination of feeling like this is a show that is somehow about organized corporate crime while also being a bit Shakespearean and love to see that. Shout out to Damaged as a TV show. To the Power Universe that is on television, to Narcos on Netflix.
Also, I got down this rabbit hole of these documentaries and dramatized series based on the corporate crime at WeWork and Uber and Theranos. Woo, y'all. I mean. I also have to give a TV shout out to Breaking Bad and The Wire, also two shows that were really built on the ideas of organized crime. And The Wire was a particularly seminal work to me because The Wire was saying organized crime isn't just about people who deal drugs. It isn't just about people who are running gambling and prostitution. It's also about the education system. It's also about the government, that these are places that organized crime also exists. Yes, yes, yes. Love a layered story, love to see it.
So just giving you a little bit of ideas of how organized crime is not just mafia stories. That organized crime can show up in a lot of different ways in TV and film and almost any time it shows up, ooh, yes count me in, because I love a good organized crime story. So do I own the Godfather Box set? Yes, I do. That has all three films, that has the behind the scenes kind of little documentary thing, that has commentary from Francis Ford Coppola. Yes, Yes, I own that. And it is great.
And I am currently reading, I haven't finished it yet, but I'm currently reading Leave the Gun, Take The Cannoli by Mark Seal, which is fascinating as a fan of The Godfather to hear what is in a way feels like this kind of book of the oral history of how the Godfather got made. And as a storyteller, as an artist, it is inspiring to think about, when I think about Francis Ford Coppola now, how revered he is as a director, and to think that when he was directing this movie, he got fired more than one time and was almost about to get fired several times in the film. To think that Pacino was not who the movie studio wanted to play the character of Michael Corleone. I mean, it's wild to think that Marlon Brando was seen to have been a washed up actor before he played Vito Corleone in this movie. So that book has been fascinating.
And then a TV show called The Offer, which is a dramatized series about the making of the Godfather premiered. And I watched it every minute and just loved it. A lot of the story of that seems very similar to what Mark Seal is bringing out in his book with all the different interviews he did of the different characters. So it's very meta to watch The Offer because you're watching actors not only play who was involved in the production of The Godfather, but also play the actors. And you have these very quintessential scenes of the movie that you're not quite seeing them being played, but you're seeing how the scenes got set up and so great, so great.
To this day, what do I love about The Godfather? I love that when you watch The Godfather, no matter if you watch it today and you've never seen it, you will immediately understand so many other movie references. Because there are so many other movies that have been made post The Godfather that make little references here. There are a lot of pop culture references that came out of The Godfather, the horse's head in the bed, the phrase "Take the gun, leave the cannoli" always get it confused y'all. I want to say is leave the gun. It's actually "Leave the Gun, take the cannoli". But I say it the opposite way sometimes. But yes, that phrase or even that idea, even if it's not gun and cannoli, even that phrasing, you will see pop up in other movies and TV shows.
My husband and I always think about the sentence, "Oh Paulie. Won't see him no more," because there's a scene in The Godfather where someone named Paulie betrayed the family and made it easy for someone else to attack one of the capos in the family. The phrase "Sleeps with the fishes," the phrase "Go to the mattresses." All those are things that come from the Godfather. So there's something about watching it and then thinking about other movies you've seen, and you will now, it's like a whole other technicolor world of things will open up to you that you will get.
And another thing I love about The Godfather is just this idea of how powerful storytelling can be. That this movie that was not an easy movie to make actually made such a huge impact. This movie that did not fit in the confines of what people thought could be a successful movie at the time and was absolutely successful. And so thinking about that just encourages me to not feel like I need to create in the box. And I honestly, y'all, I am a personality that loves structure. I love a box. I am not a person who's automatically always going to be just thinking way out in left field somewhere.
But I think it is important to not feel like you have to keep to the conventions of whatever it seems like people are doing in your industry or in your field. You don't have to stay in that box. You can make things that can be really successful that people may not be used to, that people may not know what to do with at first. Those things don't mean that that thing shouldn't be made or shouldn't be created. So shout out to the Godfather, shout out to all of the other organized crime stories to come. And even bigger than that, shout out to all of the storytellers. For the storytellers that are listening here, there are a lot of ways to be a storyteller, and I hope that we all remain encouraged to tell the stories that need to be told, to tell the stories that are important to us, to take Toni Morrison's advice and write the stories that we would want to read.
So I hope you've got a little inspiration. If you have not seen The Godfather, I really personally want you to watch it so we can talk about it. That's how I feel. Thanks y'all for listening. See y'all next week.
HER with Amena Brown is produced by Matt Owen for Sol Graffiti Productions as a part of the Seneca Women Podcast Network in partnership with iHeart Radio. Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review the podcast.