A Love-Hate Relationship

Rating: 9/10 (30 January 2018)

The Godfather, the mafia movie that knocks all others out of the other and known as the best movie of its kind. While I agree that it is extremely well made, written, and produced, there are some points that make me take a step back and need a second look.
The Godfather shows many points of the life of the Corleone family. Starting with the happy time of Connie Corleone's wedding and slowly spiraling into madness, finally ending with the "crowning" of a new Don and a new generation. But in-between, the pieces can be hard to fit together.
My biggest thing about it is that instead of feeling like a movie with a giant story, it feels more like multiple short films made to fit together. These short films as I call them have very little, if any, ties to each other. Obviously it is the same characters but these could be a movie all on their own. The stories seem to be: The Wedding, The Narcotics Saga/Vito's Close Call, The Corleone's Go to Sicily, Sonny and Connie's Troubles, The Vegas Move, and The Rise of the New Don.
The only other complaint I have with this movie is the fact that it is hard to narrow in on a specific timeline. It seems to open in the 1920's but between the opening scenes and the end of the movie, the scenes in between have no real sense of when this was happening. For example, time from when Michael has to flee the country to when he marries Apollonia feels like it should be a couple months, at the very least. But according to the shiner we see on Michael's face, it couldn't have been more than a week or two. Quite the reasonable amount of time to fall in love! Another would be the the time skip between when Michael takes over the family business to when Vito Corleone finally passes.
Other than that, I agree that the movie definitely deserves the praise and reputation it has created for itself for almost the past 50 years! The dialogue, the soundtrack, and the cast are nothing short of fantastic.