The Story of a God-Father

According to the main protagonist, the mobster Vedral, the worst thing is to die of fear. That is perhaps what the filmmakers said to themselves, so the most notable aspect of Story of a Godfather is its complete predictability – not in terms of plot twists, however, but in terms of the whole concept. If we approach the film as if it’s another addition to the bountiful czechsploitation category, it has absolutely nothing with which it could surprise us. This is how it differs from other czechsploitation movies of recent years, such as Kajínek, Unknown Hour and Czech Made Man, where it was possible to appreciate at least the genre and stylistic ambitions of the filmmakers or, conversely, to laugh at their artlessness and incompetence. Story of a Godfather is just a straightforward tabloid feature-film version of an investigative-journalism TV show that indirectly confirms for us the decadence of contemporary Czech society, whose prejudices and values it indirectly reflects. (12/01/2013)

Here you can see why the best Scorsese films are about three hours long. Sure, it's nonsense to compare the technical and financial resources of Czech cinema with what has always been available to the aforementioned master (not to mention the talent pool of actors!), but the difference is simply abysmal. The premise of The Story of a God-Father isn’t pointless, it could be the base of a story about the criminal activities of the main "hero" and then add supporting pillars embracing both the two different political regimes and the diligent work of police investigators, but the screenplay is a waste of time. It's not that the story doesn't flow easily, because it does, with furious interludes somewhere on the level of a detective TV show that are separated by several years in a flash, and before we can fully realise what a bastard Vedral actually is and what a powerful empire he has built, we are already watching the closing credits. And that's a shame, because Nikolaev knows his craft, and when he has an interesting script, he’s proven he can make something interesting with it. The Story of a God-Father also has a great cast, who unfortunately are imprisoned in their cookie-cutter characters with basically no room for development. That said, it’s reasonably above-par, at least it shows us what our country is like and what kind of people actually run the politics. 70% (08/06/2014)

Actually, I don’t even know why I wanted to watch this movie. When I finally went to see it at the cinema, I just cursed and then some at the end of it, and the atmosphere hasn’t really left me yet. Petr Nikolaev surely filmed the Story of a God-Father Mrázek well and quite professionally. I minded the editing at the beginning. I couldn’t get used to the great number of effects that floated through the movie along with the cuts from one scene to another. But then I got used to it. It calmed down a lot, too. Because there came great acting performances, especially those of Vetchý and Vaculík. In Vaculík’s case, I even felt sorry because since he’s such a charismatic actor I almost never see him in roles like this. His acting was absolutely great in this movie. But as for the story itself, it made me sick to my stomach. Sick and sad. Mainly due to the fact that everything is basically very simple; I can’t actually believe how much. Well, I probably can… (11/15/2013)

The Czech Tony Scott directed the Czech version of American Gangster, and there is a noticeable difference unfortunately in most aspects, maybe except for Vica Kerekes, who’s always good. A shallow film with a bit too much humour and not enough mafia moments, terrible video clip-like music, and an absolute absence of anything seemingly epic. The effort is appreciated, but it’s not groundbreaking. (11/06/2019)

This is technically excellent, dosing the wild nineties in the visual diction of a striking music video, and drags behind itself the most "wannabe" mafia epic ever made here. Ployhar's camera can fly like at a fair, but later you begin to suspect that this is more traditional Czech shallowness, where you don't know if it's lacking a dramaturgist or just money for an extra half hour. (05/20/2014)