The flashbacks are immensely important to the GF saga. Those of us who saw the GF at the movies in '72 hungered for info on Vito's background. We had read the book, so we knew what the background was. But, we needed its cinematic version to solidify the inages in our heads and make the GF experience complete.

"Generosity. That was my first mistake."
"Experience must be our only guide; reason may mislead us."
"Instagram is Twitter for people who can't read."