The Godfather (1972)
Yesterday, I dealt my lethargy another blow by watching 1972’s Best Picture winner, The Godfather. Currently ranked by AFI as the second-greatest movie of all time (behind Citizen Kane), my expectations were high…too high, I feared. After my lukewarm reaction to Casablanca, I was crossing my fingers that I would not having similar feelings about The Godfather. Luckily, my fears were unfounded.
The Godfather deals with the Corleones, a mob family living in New York. Vito Corleone, the family patriarch and a prominent mob boss, is getting on in years and has begun to experience issues with his health. He has three sons – Sonny, Fredo, and Michael – who help him out with mob business to various degrees. At the beginning of the film, Michael is the least involved of the three sons…by the end, he has succeeded his father as head of the Corleone mob family. Also prominent is the informally-adopted “fourth son” of the family, Tom Hagen, who serves as consigliere (advisor/counselor).
Bad blood comes between the Corleones and several other New York mob families, especially after Michael Corleone murders a heroin dealer and police captain with ties to another family, the Tattaglias. This action proves to be the catalyst for many of the events that follow. Michael Corleone flees to Sicily immediately following the murders, but he eventually returns to America and assumes the role of ruthless mob boss.
After watching this movie, I was definitely impressed but found myself with a couple of minor questions regarding the plot. I decided to watch a few parts of the film again in the hope of clearing some of those questions up. Sure enough, things seemed much clearer after watching those parts a second time. For example, Don Barzini (the head of another prominent New York mob family) attends the wedding of Vito’s daughter Connie at the beginning of the movie. Barzini plays a bigger part much later in the film, and I didn’t even notice the establishment of the character in the wedding scene until I watched it the second time.
And so, having had some time for the movie to sink in, I have arrived at the opinion that this really is a fantastic film. It’s not the easiest of plots to follow, but it’s so compelling anyway – the whole saga is engrossing and has left me eager to watch The Godfather Part II. There are many characters in this film, most sporting very Italian names, so it helps to pay attention to the faces of the actors because the names can sometimes get hard to distinguish from one another.
Speaking of the actors, they’re fantastic also. For his role as Vito Corleone, Marlon Brando won the Academy Award for Best Actor (and famously refused it) – the mumbling way in which he speaks has become iconic and much-parodied. James Caan (as Sonny Corleone), Robert Duvall (as Tom Hagen), and Al Pacino (as Michael Corleone) all got Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations, but lost to Joel Grey for Cabaret. They’re all outstanding. In fact, I was surprised how much Al Pacino is featured in this movie – in terms of both screen time and plot, he’s as much of a lead actor as Brando is. An argument could be made that he should have been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar (where he would have been tough competition for Brando) rather than for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar against Caan and Duvall. All the other actors in this movie deserve praise, too – there really isn’t one subpar performance in the entire film.
I would definitely recommend this film to anyone – even to those who are not fans of crime/mobster movies. This film manages to transcend its genre and deliver an enthralling cinematic experience to a wide audience. The plot is great, the performances are memorable, and the direction is also impressive – Francis Ford Coppola really managed to capture the feel of the 1940s/1950s mobster culture in New York City. I am definitely looking forward to watching The Godfather Part II and observing the continuation of the Corleone family saga. Rating: 10
The winner of the 1972 Academy Award for Best Picture.
Matt's Blog 
Nice review. This was one of those movies that just made me forget that I was watching a movie. You should definitely follow this up with “The Godfather, Part II” as soon as possible. Al Pacino’s character takes center-stage, as set up by the first part, and you’ll love Robert De Niro brilliantly channeling Brando as a young Vito Corleone.
Thanks for commenting! I actually watched “The Godfather Part II” like two days after “The Godfather,” but just haven’t gotten around to posting my review yet (I’ve also seen “Driving Miss Daisy” since then and need to write that one up, too). I’m gonna be away tomorrow and Saturday but hopefully I’ll find some time either tonight or on Sunday to write the reviews for both movies.