City Slickers. Every bit as good as it was when it was brand new. And since most of it occurs out in the country, not a ton of time-specific things in it to date it. Change a few things from the beginning 20 minutes, and it could have been made yesterday, actors ages notwithstanding.
Reawakening this thread as I just watched The Godfather for the first time in many years (it’s on Paramount+). It has generally held up really well, especially considering that everything about it has become a Hollywood cliche
Though a couple of things have definitely not held up…
- The whole Appollonia sub plot. Oh boy, surely the most egregious example of “fridging”. Her character is introduced, marries the protagonist, all the while having no more than a handful of lines in Italian and broken English, and then gets blown up so the protagonist has a stronger revenge motivation (and can get back together with his ex). Arguably it’s also a way of showing that Michael Corleone is not in fact a good guy, but still.
- It’s not usually something that bothers me (and not exactly central to the plot) but the fight choreography is laughably bad by modern standards. The scene when Sonny beats up his brother in law is comical, the punches are so blatantly pulled it just looks silly.
Gianni Russo claims that he broke two ribs and chipped his elbow. Caen claimed he was exaggerating. It’s pretty clear that it didn’t go as choreographed. There are differing accounts as to why Caen went hard on Russo. Possibly because he just didn’t like him. Possibly because he went too hard on Talia Shire in the scene where he beats her.