The Godfather (1972, R)

In the history of cinema, the Godfather undoubtedly has become one of the most acclaimed, influential, well-casted and impressively mounted films ever made.  Can any other movie, big or small, meet the Godfather's standards of style?  As far as I can tell, no.  

            It follows the first part of the saga of the Corleone family, and their war with the four other major crime families of New York. 

            The film opens with the wedding day for the daughter of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), while he is making deals with various other criminals.  His youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino) arrives back from World War II with his new girlfriend, Kay Adams (Diane Keaton).   It’s a big family reunion for the family of gangsters, Michael haven’t seen his brothers: Santino ‘Sonny’ (James Caan), Tom (Robert Duvall), Fredo (John Cazale) or his sister Connie (Talia Shire) for years.  Michael plans to stay out of the family’s business, respecting his father’s wishes.

            However, things abruptly change when Don Vito is shot numerous times in an assassination attempt by hitmen but survives.  For the temporary period of Don Vito being nursed back to health in the hospital, Sonny takes charge of the family’s business for the meantime.  Michael stops another assassination attempt on Don Vito’s life, and proceeds to kill both of the gangsters responsible for ordering Don Vito’s death.  While Michael goes into hiding in Sicily, Sonny is gunned down back in the States, causing Michael to becoming sucked in to the ‘family business’.

            While it’s an all-out, big, grande and epic gangster film, the focus of the movie is always on Michael, who we see him slowly but steadily evolve from the inexperienced youngster into a hardened and brutal gangster even more ruthless then his father.

            Of all the movies in cinematic history, the Godfather is undoubtedly one of the best casted. It’s one of the few movies where I can honestly say that I don’t think any of the other actors chosen could have done any better than the actors chosen for the film.

            In addition, the Godfather contains a number of memorable lines and scenes.  A man wakes up to find the bloody head of his prized race horse under his bed.  Gangsters gun down a guy near a toll booth.  The romantic subplot actually gains some ground.  The drama is engaging and intense.  There are plenty of shootings, fist fights, stabbings, strangling and cars being blown up, and whenever someone is killed or in the unfortunate process of getting killed, Coppola gives brief close up shots of the stinging and desperate emotions in their faces.  It’s an offer you can’t refuse.

            And throughout it all, the focus of the film is constantly on the story, and the characters.  It appropriately takes three hours to unfold.  It’s an engaging gangster classic.

            Nobody can write a review over the Godfather without somewhere at least commenting on the haunting musical score.  The musical score is so haunting, so mysterious, so catchy, and so memorable.  We all know James Bond and Indiana Jones, etc, from their theme songs.  Same goes for here: we know the Godfather by it's theme song, and ultimately it's the music that outplays the movie itself to great effect.

            The Godfather is one of the best movies ever made, because everything about it is so captivating, so original and so great.  The direction by Francis Ford Coppola (today considered one of Hollywood’s best movie directors), the acting, the cinematography, the haunting music, the film editing—just the overall quality of the film is sublime and superb.  It doesn’t just make for a near excellent mob movie; if makes for a near excellent movie period.  That's what qualifies the Godfather as a masterpiece that sets new standards for films that are yet to be broken.

                                *****/5