Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Mar 2008
- Posts
- 12,751
My own personal review. Yes, I'm 38 years too late, but hey 
The bestselling book by Mario Puzo comes to the big screen. This is one offer you cannot refuse.
Music: Nino Rota
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Screenplay: Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola
With: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino
Runtime: 170 mins
Cert: 18
There has never before been a film that defined a genre. For every crime film released since The Godfather has been judged against it and to an extent this comparison is unfair. This film has set the bar to an incredibly high level, so much so that almost every crime film has failed to meet this standard and has thus been unjustly criticised for not living up to it.
However, The Godfather would not have been such a huge success had it been just like many of its predecessors and successors: just another film about gun wielding gangsters fighting over territory. The main thing that sets this film apart from the crowd is its ability to consolidate several plot strands together to make a coherent package. All the little episodes manage to weave themselves into each other and are brought together for an extremely satisfying climax.
Marlon Brando is Don Vito Corleone, the head of the Corleone family, one of the five Italian America mafia families of New York. It seems as if he is ruling the family with an iron fist, but things take a turn for the worse when a man named Virgil Sollozzo comes with a supposedly simple narcotics deal. The family is launched into a huge war and Don Vito’s plans for his children’s future, especially his favourite son Michael (Al Pacino), are rapidly changed.
The film starts with Don Vito Corleone, flawlessly played by Marlon Brando, playing host for his daughter Connie’s (Talia Shire) wedding. As is stressed in the film, a true Sicilian can never refuse a request on his daughter’s wedding. Immediately one is aware that Don Vito is no ordinary gangster, as he tells his first client that he cannot do a murder as it wouldn’t justify the crime against the client (his daughter beaten up by two boys). This gives the audience a very good taste of what makes Don Vito so great: he is incredibly rational and this leads him to making informed decisions.
A few days later the Don is confronted with Virgil Sollozzo, a businessman wanting $1,000,000 in return for 30% of his heroin trade. The great Don once again shows his extraordinary temperament by declining the offer, claiming, in his raspy voice, “Drugs is a dirty business.”
It is at this point that Michael is slowly transformed from a war hero into a man with the right mentality to take the reigns at the head of the family. By the end of the film, the man who once said he would never be involved with the family business becomes more brutal a leader than Don Vito ever was.
This movie has sealed Brando’s and Pacino’s places as two of the best actors in history. Brando hits the perfect tone as the ageing Don, showing incredibly compassion, dignity and during the whole film, the way Brando plays him really emits a sense of influence and respect, as he is man no one can touch. This is particularly evident when he manifests his reasons for refusing the narcotics deal: everybody listens when he speaks, they don’t interrupt, and their attention never wavers. Pacino on the other hand displays copious discipline by not going over the top with Michael, aided by a superb script, Pacino shines by portraying Michael exactly as he should be: cool headed, rarely ever angry, and very intelligent. When Michael attempts to buy out a casino, his own brother takes sides against him. You can tell that he is emotionally very hurt, but all that is visible is a man speaking prudently, just like his father.
Not only a top class movie, Coppola and Puzo have managed to keep fans of the book really happy by, despite missing out chunks of the story, sticking firmly and wholeheartedly to the book, recreating the memorable moments exactly as one would have imagined them to be when reading the book. Yet, despite this, there is something unexpected about the way this fabulous story has been performed, possibly it is the very fact that everything has been acted out exactly the way it should be. Perhaps it is the fact that every part in the movie is unforgettable, right from the first scene of the Don’s head deep in thought, to the last scene of Michael’s solemn face.
Another thing which at times is forgotten but was a key ingredient to The Godfather’s success is the theme tune: it’s perfect. The music at the beginning of the film represents the storyline, especially the life of the Corleone family, excellently: happy at times, sad at times, but always a sense of honour and respect. The individual bits and pieces of the soundtrack really do hit the mood spot on, sometimes the music builds up slowly to a climax and slowly eases of, at other times it’s a sudden jolt that really gets your heart going. Both ways, it relates directly to what is occurring on screen and very much helps amplify key moments.
Coppola and Puzo’s impeccable choice of ingredients for their cinematic blender is a major factor of sculpting this masterpiece: power, influence, inheritance of an empire, the necessity for respect, greed and corruption.
To be honest, there is so much in this film that I could write 10 pages of deep analysis filled with superlatives and still have only covered a third of what makes this film great. I can testify that I cannot find a flaw with this film; it manages to tell 10 years of story in 3 hours. Is there possibly as good a movie as The Godfather? Perhaps The Godfather Part II, but even then, to understand its storyline, The Godfather must be seen first. I do actually have one problem with this film, in that every film I have seen since just doesn’t seem as good as it should be. In truth it is difficult for me to finish praising this film on 2 pages, but if a single picture can speak a thousand words, then this movie is definitely worth seeing. You’ll see what I mean.
The bestselling book by Mario Puzo comes to the big screen. This is one offer you cannot refuse.
Music: Nino Rota
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Screenplay: Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola
With: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino
Runtime: 170 mins
Cert: 18
There has never before been a film that defined a genre. For every crime film released since The Godfather has been judged against it and to an extent this comparison is unfair. This film has set the bar to an incredibly high level, so much so that almost every crime film has failed to meet this standard and has thus been unjustly criticised for not living up to it.
However, The Godfather would not have been such a huge success had it been just like many of its predecessors and successors: just another film about gun wielding gangsters fighting over territory. The main thing that sets this film apart from the crowd is its ability to consolidate several plot strands together to make a coherent package. All the little episodes manage to weave themselves into each other and are brought together for an extremely satisfying climax.
Marlon Brando is Don Vito Corleone, the head of the Corleone family, one of the five Italian America mafia families of New York. It seems as if he is ruling the family with an iron fist, but things take a turn for the worse when a man named Virgil Sollozzo comes with a supposedly simple narcotics deal. The family is launched into a huge war and Don Vito’s plans for his children’s future, especially his favourite son Michael (Al Pacino), are rapidly changed.
The film starts with Don Vito Corleone, flawlessly played by Marlon Brando, playing host for his daughter Connie’s (Talia Shire) wedding. As is stressed in the film, a true Sicilian can never refuse a request on his daughter’s wedding. Immediately one is aware that Don Vito is no ordinary gangster, as he tells his first client that he cannot do a murder as it wouldn’t justify the crime against the client (his daughter beaten up by two boys). This gives the audience a very good taste of what makes Don Vito so great: he is incredibly rational and this leads him to making informed decisions.
A few days later the Don is confronted with Virgil Sollozzo, a businessman wanting $1,000,000 in return for 30% of his heroin trade. The great Don once again shows his extraordinary temperament by declining the offer, claiming, in his raspy voice, “Drugs is a dirty business.”
It is at this point that Michael is slowly transformed from a war hero into a man with the right mentality to take the reigns at the head of the family. By the end of the film, the man who once said he would never be involved with the family business becomes more brutal a leader than Don Vito ever was.
This movie has sealed Brando’s and Pacino’s places as two of the best actors in history. Brando hits the perfect tone as the ageing Don, showing incredibly compassion, dignity and during the whole film, the way Brando plays him really emits a sense of influence and respect, as he is man no one can touch. This is particularly evident when he manifests his reasons for refusing the narcotics deal: everybody listens when he speaks, they don’t interrupt, and their attention never wavers. Pacino on the other hand displays copious discipline by not going over the top with Michael, aided by a superb script, Pacino shines by portraying Michael exactly as he should be: cool headed, rarely ever angry, and very intelligent. When Michael attempts to buy out a casino, his own brother takes sides against him. You can tell that he is emotionally very hurt, but all that is visible is a man speaking prudently, just like his father.
Not only a top class movie, Coppola and Puzo have managed to keep fans of the book really happy by, despite missing out chunks of the story, sticking firmly and wholeheartedly to the book, recreating the memorable moments exactly as one would have imagined them to be when reading the book. Yet, despite this, there is something unexpected about the way this fabulous story has been performed, possibly it is the very fact that everything has been acted out exactly the way it should be. Perhaps it is the fact that every part in the movie is unforgettable, right from the first scene of the Don’s head deep in thought, to the last scene of Michael’s solemn face.
Another thing which at times is forgotten but was a key ingredient to The Godfather’s success is the theme tune: it’s perfect. The music at the beginning of the film represents the storyline, especially the life of the Corleone family, excellently: happy at times, sad at times, but always a sense of honour and respect. The individual bits and pieces of the soundtrack really do hit the mood spot on, sometimes the music builds up slowly to a climax and slowly eases of, at other times it’s a sudden jolt that really gets your heart going. Both ways, it relates directly to what is occurring on screen and very much helps amplify key moments.
Coppola and Puzo’s impeccable choice of ingredients for their cinematic blender is a major factor of sculpting this masterpiece: power, influence, inheritance of an empire, the necessity for respect, greed and corruption.
To be honest, there is so much in this film that I could write 10 pages of deep analysis filled with superlatives and still have only covered a third of what makes this film great. I can testify that I cannot find a flaw with this film; it manages to tell 10 years of story in 3 hours. Is there possibly as good a movie as The Godfather? Perhaps The Godfather Part II, but even then, to understand its storyline, The Godfather must be seen first. I do actually have one problem with this film, in that every film I have seen since just doesn’t seem as good as it should be. In truth it is difficult for me to finish praising this film on 2 pages, but if a single picture can speak a thousand words, then this movie is definitely worth seeing. You’ll see what I mean.
