Not a masterpiece

Rating: 7/10 (27 July 1999)

This movie is one of the most famous in the history of cinema, but I can't see the reasons. It's true that Marlon Brando plays like a god and that Al Pacino begins to show why he is one of the best living actors... but there are too many dialogues that choke the breath of the movie. There are also some "holes" in the screenplay: for instance, why do we see one of the Godfather's sons (Al Pacino) first like a shy guy and then like a determined and blood-thirsty beast? Only because they killed his sicilian wife that he forgets soon to marry another girl? The direction of Coppola is flat: I don't like the way he just throws away the "crescendo" of some thrilling scenes and the way he doesn't emphasized the story. Besides after some killings we get to know their ways, so the last killings are "phoned"... we exactly know what is going to happen and so the surprise goes wasted. Only in the final Coppola succeeds in finding a beautiful alternated editing where he shows the deep contradictions of the members of the Mafia: Michael Corleone is in a Church where he swears to renounce the Devil and in the meanwhile his men are making a massacre. So: a good film but not a masterpiece as many people think.