The greatest movie ever made.

Rating: 10/10 (3 July 2001)

Francis Ford Coppola achieved perfection on film with this great work. He directs so subtly that he makes it seem simple. But watch the subtleness of the scene outside the hospital when Michael (Al Pacino, at his best) lights the cigarette of Enzo the baker. One quick shot of Michael's hands, and they aren't shaking, and we know that he was born for the family business. The great Marlon Brando ad-libbed the films most important scene, that in the garden with his grandson, as the Don dies in peace, ironic for a man that lived such a violent life. The moody cinematography of Gordon Willis is the best ever caught on film. And the score by Nino Rota (I know the Academy didn't believe it belonged entirely to Rota, but who cares what the Academy thinks?) is a classic. The rest of the cast, which includes Robert Duvall, James Caan, John Cazale, Talia Shire, Diane Keaton, Abe Vigoda, Richard Castellano, Richard Bright, Alex Rocco, Richard Conte, John Marley and Sterling Hayden is in top form. Every film and television show about the mafia since this one has borrowed or outright stolen from this film. It is a story of profound depth, an American tragedy, told in three acts, and this, the first act, is the best. And yet at its root, it is a very simple story, as Don Corleone prepares his children for the lives they will have to live and the world they will have to live in. It can be summed up as family values, mafia style.