THE GODFATHER review

(Review by Daniel Shakespeare)
About the film
The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy, based on Mario Puzo's best-selling novel of the same name. It stars Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of a fictional New York crime family. The story, spanning 1945 to 1955, chronicles the family under the patriarch Vito Corleone (Brando), focusing on the transformation of Michael Corleone (Pacino) from reluctant family outsider to ruthless mafia boss.

But I'm sure you knew that (well, at least some of it). This film is engraved in American pop culture, and for good reason. I watched it for the first time recently, and here are my thoughts.


Positives
+ Production Value. The first thing that stands out for me when watching the film is how expensive it looks. Now, that sounds weird, considering the $150 million plus "blockbusters" we see churned out all the time by all the major studios. But this movie always has a degree of sophistication about it. The costumes, the settings, the props, the cars etc. have a certain class about them. Thblocking employed by Coppola and Gordon Willis (Cinematographer) helps too, in that regard.




+ Nino Rota. His music for this film strikes a chord in a way few other films have done, before or since. There's almost always a sense of melancholy, making the few bits of happiness in "Connie's Wedding" seem almost jarring. You know a soundtrack is good when happiness feels wrong. The main theme is simply astounding, and has a peculiar quality about it. You see, most themes feel dependent on their arrangement in terms of tone. A peaceful arrangement of "Duel of the Fates" (John Williams), a stressful arrangement of "Time" (Hans Zimmer), neither of these are out of the question. However, you cannot make a happy and triumphant arrangement of this theme. At times, it seems that Rota himself tries this out, especially in the Finale. But this almost makes it sadder, given the context of the scenes it is used on. One of the greatest film scores of the last fifty years, without a doubt.



+ EVERYTHING ELSE. There were so many positives in this movie, I probably can't list them all. The performances of everyone involved (especially Brando), the script (that was tightly based on the novel with the few alterations working in the film's favour), the camera movement, certain individual scenes which became iconic pieces of cinema (the opening of this film rivals the title sequence of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" in terms of pure memorableness). This movie raised the bar for filmmakers in America, a bar which hasn't been reached too often.




Negatives
(Please note that this isn't really a negative, and no points are deducted because of it. This is however something that has to be mentioned in a modern review.)
- Rampant political incorrectness. This is a huge "turn off" for a lot of today's generation when it comes to watching this film. It does feel weird to watch a movie like this as a 21st century viewer. That being said, pretty much all of the racism and sexism in the film can be put down to historical accuracy. If you're a young man/woman who has already watched this film, and do not like it because of the political incorrectness, I understand where you come from, but do remember that while this is a work of fiction, this is how life was during those times. Instead, be thankful that the world has come such a long way since then, and we are now able to live (mostly) without the racism we see in the movie.

SUMMARY
The Godfather is a one of a kind movie, a true monolith of the film industry. While I still prefer The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (While I didn't take any points off, there re a few scenes which felt a bit too drawn out here, bits which could've been cut short and the film would've lost nothing, something I didn't feel in TGTBATU), there is a clear reason that this movie is regarded as highly as it is now. And that's because it is an absolute gem of a movie.

FINAL VERDICT=>10/10

Comments

Popular articles