Quite possibly the greatest motion picture ever made

Rating: 10/10 (15 February 2005)

The Godfather. So much praise has been showered upon it, forming a large mountain of critical excellence. It is almost difficult to quantify how many levels this movie succeeds on. I hesitate to even call this a "movie" because it is from the time when a movie was an artform. Sadly, these movies are now a dying breed. The Godfather is THE PINNACLE of excellence on the big screen.
You all know that it is a story of the Corleone Family, a large Sicilian Mafia syndicate living in New York and led by Vito Corleone, who is played perfectly by Marlon Brando (I will talk about this a bit later), a powerful Don who demands respect and friendship and offers favors in return. No movie has come close to this one in giving a portrait to organized crime. Not in terms of pure realism or insight, understand. Goodfellas, a great movie in its own right, is a much more realistic story of the way gangsters operate. The Godfather is a glorified Sicilian Mafia tale spun by Mario Puzo and later translated to film by Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, showing the near fall from power of the family.
The Godfather portrays so many different moral questions and considerations: how can power corrupt a man, how things look from different perspectives, is a man allowed to live outside of society, can a man reject society without punishment and live by his own laws, should someone be true to their family or to society, and much more. The result is a picture of astonishing efficacy and believability.
To be fair, a healthy portion of this movie's outward success is due to its acting. Never before and never again has there been such a powerful joint acting performance. It's almost insane to think about how amazing it was, how amazing and influential this entire movie is. Most great movies have one memorable acting performance, two if they are lucky. Four actors- Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, and Robert Duvall- are best known for their work in the Godfather, the latter three using this title as a springboard to fame. All four acting performances, playing Vito, Michael, and Sonny Corleone plus the Consigliere Tom Hagen, are among the best ever. Along with this, Vito Corleone is probably the most prominent figure in the public's mind when it comes to movies. His raspy voice has become the stuff of legends, and has been imitated by almost everyone at one point or another.
Here I will explain why classic movies in general are far superior to today's critical masterpieces. Many people find the Godfather too slow for their tastes. While opinions are different and I do not get mad at people who find other great movies to be superior to the Godfather, people who ridicule this film to be outwardly slow quite frankly do not have long enough attention spans. This is an epic. we are talking slow corruption for maximum effect. Slow unfolding to make it seem more real, not sudden jerks of the plot but carefully constructed twists that are slowly built up and make perfect sense upon further thought. Not to mention that the cinematography is absolutely chilling. Watch the baptism scene and you will know what I mean.
This motion picture also features what is considered by many as the single most powerful scene in movie history- I won't spoil anything, but you will know it when you see it. Not to mention the wonderful soundtrack, an instantly memorable score that does a lot to help the film.
But by saying that I betray the true beauty of this film. The most prominent reason for this movie's place at the top of the all-time greats is that most movies have a few scenes that stand out when you remember them. Everybody immediately knows what they are afterward. Empire Strikes Back has the final battle with Vader. Rocky has the run up the steps. All of these are obvious. But, while perhaps the scene mentioned above is a bit more prominent, every single scene is done with such consistency and perfection. Coppola is simply a genius, or at least was in the 1970s. There are absolutely no hitches in the screenplay. Every scene is equally intense. But the paradox of this is that not only will you be hanging on to every word and totally absorbed into the story your first time, The Godfather gets better every time you watch it! The first time I saw this, I had not been as exposed to the greatest movies ever. I didn't truly understand all the moral depths of this story, but I still thought it amazing simply for the intensity of the scenes, plot, and the wonderful balance between the characters. However, after watching it dozens of times afterward I now understand all of the tiny stuff in the plot that make it what it truly is. All of the quotes and tiny little things about it are simply fantastic. Once again, in this space I cannot explain all of the greatness. I have not even gotten into the plot. To close, every single thing about this movie just absolutely screams quality. It's hard to find any significant weaknesses with this film, except that unlike the book it does not show the perspective from an outsider's point of view, such as the novel did with Kay Adams. But that is simply a tiny nitpick that we would not mention about any other movie. The effort put into everything else is what makes this visible. Everything else- perfection. If you have not seen The Godfather, DO SO NOW! It will stimulate your mind and emotions like no other movie ever filmed before. This is simply the quintessential film experience. 9.8.
"I never listened to the big shots holding all the strings. But I hoped that someday you would be the one holding on the strings."