Words have it that the invitation card for Rep. Manny Pacquiao?s 32nd birthday is designed with a heavy influence by one of cinema?s all time classic, the movie adaptation of Mario Puzzo?s ?The Godfather?.
The Francis Ford Coppola opus later came in a trilogy, each distinctively defining eras of the Italy?s now infamous mob underworld.
The first movie part chronicled the bloody rise of the fictional Corleone Mafia crime family.
Pacquiao was not even born yet when The Godfather (Part I) debuted in the silver screen in 1972. The movie finally ?broke? Mafia?s Code of Silence, its omerta, by cinematographically revealing the workings of organized crime in the United States.
It had a powerhouse cast of Oscar Best Actor winners in the late Marlon Brando (who won his second Oscar for his role as patriarch of the Corleone Family), Al Pacino (who won for his role in Scent of a Woman), Diane Keaton, James Caan and Robert Duvall.
Brando however declined the trophy in protest over America?s treatment of American Indians.
The Godfather II (released in 1974) was equally impressive with Al Pacino reprising his role as Michael who took over the Corleone family business and Robert de Niro depicting the young Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando?s role in Godfather I).
The last of the ?The Godfather? trilogy was released in 1990 which ended with the death of Michael Corleone (Pacino) even as he struggled to legitimize his way and to gain acceptance into the Italian society.
It is not clear which part of the ?The Godfather? story Pacquiao is fixated with but he began sporting the classic Al Capone look (a role also played by Robert de Niro in another mobster film ?The Untouchables?) after he demolished Ricky Hatton.
About that time, too, people around Pacquiao started calling him ?Boss? which apparently has since stuck even an uncle by way of Jinky?s aunt is now addressing him by that name.
Pacquiao has always been fascinated with the movies he himself tried acting with poor results.
Major Pacquiao celebrations have been themed according to his and his media handlers? taste of the moment.
But as Yahoo Sports contributor Granville Ampong is now asking, is it the image Pacquiao is now painting of himself?
Pacquiao is not only boxing world?s top guy. He is also a member of the Philippine Congress and an iconic figure in the Philippines.
While the ?The Godfather? movies were all film classics, the characters and their way of living are not something worth emulating unless of course if you are a mob yourself.
Somebody has to remind Rep. Pacquiao that he has now bigger and greater responsibilities and that image is now everything.
While it (the movie) is a make believe, it has some truths in that the Corleone family is representative of the combined Mafia families in the US. These crime families represent all that are lumpens and everything that are anti-thesis to established norms of law-abiding citizenry.
Or has success already spoiled Pacquiao and his circle of friends they now think they can get away with anything?
