God the Father (2014) Reviews

• Not the best doc I ever saw, but I love the use of different formats

  bbickley13-921-586642014-11-04

  Documentaries have changed over the years and God the Father is possibly the best examples of this changed. A discussion of the life of Michael Franzese, called by the media the Prince of Crime during his time as a mobster from 1975 to 1995, then after 20 years, he was able to walk away from the life with the help of Jesus Christ. The documentary interviews this man and we get a look at his life from his own mouth. I like this part because he preaches how Jesus changed his life referring to this man (and that's exactly what he called him too) as a the one and only real Man's Man because of the way he lived his life, I'll agree with that one. Fitting that a "man's man" can changed an Italian mobsters life so much that he becomes loyal to him. This was also the weakest part of the doc because outside of his immediate family and church friends, no one else was intensely interviewed, but in all fairness, anyone else who could have gave insight is either dead, doing life behind bars or would consider it snitching. The doc makes up for this with Television coverage of Franzese during his hey day, in a move that I've seen in a lot of recent documentaries. Which makes perfect sense as man cannot bite dog anymore with out it being caught on camera. Also to make up for the lack of interviews, the filmmakers did a lot of Dramatization with actors acting out the words of Franzese. As well as having animated clips that mostly gave insight on how Franzese felt in certain situations that would be milestones in his life. But the most interesting segments were these dance interpretations that told the story of the relationship between he and his wife, the woman that he thanks for giving him a reason to want to change. the funny thing about it is that his wife is interviewed in the movie as well, and it's mentioned that she's a dancer. Wink, Wink. I'm not saying that I did not like the dance numbers, watching thick legged women prance around the screen is never bad, but it is interesting that his wife is a dancer and they have these dance numbers in the movie that don't really move the story along, per say. Just saying. Once again, not the best doc but it had some unique features in it worth seeing if you are a fan of documentaries.

• SUPERB

  emily-334992019-05-12

  A profoundly moving, suspenseful and inspirational journey!