"Sweetness Follows"

Critical perception is a funny thing. When I hear that a new movie is getting good reviews, I normally accept that fact, and deem it worthy of a listen or a screening. But for movies that were made before I was born, it's a lot more difficult to have an opinion about them because I was not alive to get the first hand information needed to determine if I should see them or not. Let me explain this a little further.

Back in 1972, The Godfather was released. Unless you have been locked in Buffalo Bill's basement hole for the last couple of decades, you are aware of the fact that Coppola's gangster masterpiece is generally considered one of the greatest movies of all time. So, being born when I was, I was never able to fully understand the fact that at the 1972 Oscars, The Godfather took home only 3 Oscars. Now, in all fairness, one of those awards was indeed the Best Picture honor, but the amazing thing is that another film, Cabaret, won 8 statues that year. Now, because I have always associated the former movie as "one of the greatest of all greats", my perception of Cabaret has always been rather low. I've never really had any desire to see it because I've always expected it to be over rated. A movie that was only appreciated around the time it was released, and one that has not aged as well as The Godfather.

In case you can't tell where I'm going with this, I'll just let the cat out of the bag. I have now seen Cabaret and it is really quite brilliant. To the point where I eventually had no problem admitting that Bob Fosse may have in fact done a better directing job that Francis Ford Coppola. I know, I know. That's kind of a bold statement, but it's true. And I may never have known this if I looked beyond the critical perception of these two movies and given Cabaret the chance it deserved.

I don't want to say much more because the movie may be appearing eventually on my "Top 100 Movies of All Time" list, so I'll just leave you with my favourite song and end it there. Unfortunately embedding was disabled, so click the link instead.

"Money"