Over the past few days I have been watching The Godfather trilogy on AMC. They are long movies, with a lot of subtlety and nuances in between the action (which is brutal, when it does come) and the adverts on AMC do not make them any shorter.

Within those ads, upcoming movies are, of course, advertised and among them has been the gangster classic The Untouchables, with Kevin Costner and Sean Connery (who can forget that shoot-out scene in the train station?). What is significant about it is that it is advertised as the 20-year anniversary celebration of the film.

Twenty years? Damn! I remember when it was the hottest film around, known for not only the action but also the acting, as well as the reality of the gangster Al Capone, played by Robert DeNiro ('I want him dead, I want his family dead'.)

It occurred to me that in many ways we mark our lives through significant cultural events. I remember how old I was when The Untouchables came out, being in high school and even get a sense of my mental state at the time. The same goes for Bob Marley's death in 1981, as well as when Dancehall Queen came out in 1997.

The thing with these cultural landmarks is that they not only take us back to a particular date in our lives, but also the associated emotions and state of mind. It emphasises just how powerful art, which after all is based on emotional impact, is.

And the earlier they make that impact in your life the longer they stay with you.

So, for a generation way after mine, The Matrix and Lord of The Rings trilogy will one day take them back to their early high school days, they will remember their teenage years when Assassin and Kartel 'jus buss' and think about when Shebada was on 'the borderline'.

The effects of The Godfather are still with us in Jamaican popular culture, one which loves the gangster lifestyle, in a way that the connection might escape some. One of the hottest record labels around is Don Corleone, the title bestowed on three generations of The Godfather in the epic trilogy.

Oh. George Bush and his friends obviously did not watch Godfather II. In Cuba, ahead of the revolution led by Fidel Castro, Michael Corleone sees a rebel, on being arrested by the police, explodes a grenade and takes out the leader of the police party, rather than be captured. He tells a gangster colleague who is optimistic that the government will hold on to power about the incident and the commitment it emphasises, a commitment that is hard to beat.

The people at the White House who are hopeful of subduing Iraq would do well to tune in to AMC.

- mel