The daddy of the modern gangster film

Rating: 10/10 (22 April 2008)

There is no denying that the Godfather is a classic and one of the best movies ever made. It is a saga of a major Mafia father, the upper echelons and there struggles. It starts with Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) on the day of his daughter's wedding and doing favours for people invited to the wedding. The films shows the outcome of these favours, including the famous sense of the horse's head in the bed. The film then shows Vito refusing to take part in selling drugs and ends up having an assassination attempt against him. The Corleone family is forced into a tuft war before peace is made. At the same time the Godfather shows Michael's (Al Panico) rise in the family, from being a bit of an outsider not wanting to get involved to becoming the head of family after Vito's death. The film shows how person relationships developed and shows the characters as real people. It shows how the Mafia would have worked in the 1950s, focusing on deal making, rising up the ranks and showing acts of violence being conducted.
The gangster film was not a new genre, their were good films in the film noir period such as Scarface, Little Caesar and the Killing. However I am not aware of any major gangster films in the 60s. The Godfather focused on the characters and many different and complex plots and subplots. It was able to bring in more violence into the genre because by the late 60s films were allowed to show more violence. The film also benefits from a brilliant script, the excellent direction of Francis Ford Coppella (this film along with The Godfather Part II are his best films) and a brilliant cast. Marlon Brando was brought back into the mainstream after gaining a reputation for being an ego-maniac, and help made the careers of Al Panico, James Caan and Diane Keaton. This was also the first film I aware of focusing mainly on the Mafia and how it functions. I remember watching a document on the making of the film on Channel Four and how difficult it was for the filmmakers, fighting with the Italian-American community.
The Godfather and Godfather Part II are both classics and must watch films. I admit I have not watched Godfather Part III but that because I heard it wasn't as good and ruins the first two. It has been very influential in the gangster genre afterwards. They was Once Upon A Time in America which was similar in it approach, having many story lines and themes and similar filming of violence. They was Goodfellas which forced on foot-soldiers of the Mafia and set mainly in the 60s and 70s when it was filmed in the 80s. They are also films like Casino and American Gangster, the list goes on. They are also parodies such as Family Business and programmes such as the Simpsons, Futurama and Family Guy. Finally their was the Sopranos (one of the best programmes ever made), mixing elements of the Godfather and Goodfellas. All in all the Godfather is a very important film.