A perfect movie.

Rating: 10/10 (11 August 2016)

"For justice, we must go to Don Corleone."
Out of the vast amount of movies, more than 50,000 total to date as of this review, only a few films are described by many a noted film critic as a "perfect movie". However, one of those movies, to me, deserves the title of being the most perfect movie out of 'em all. That movie is the 1972 crime drama by the name of "The Godfather".
Based on the novel by Italian-American author Mario Puzo, this was the movie that revolutionized the art of gangster pictures since its inception. This wasn't like films such as The Roaring Twenties (1939) or The Public Enemy (1931), which were about ordinary mobster life. Instead, we focus on an entire family of the mafia that runs a vast empire in New York City, lead by the aging, yet all powerful Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). He's retiring from the business, and has to choose which one of his sons to take his place, either the hair-trigger tempered Sonny (James Caan), adopted son, consigliere, and lawyer Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), or his youngest son and war hero Michael (Al Pacino). However, as this is happening, unexpected things are happening within the Corleone family itself including selling out and betrayal, and an all-out war between all of the five families (Corleone, Barzini, Tattaglia, Stracci, and Cuneo) is brewing that turns the entire city into a blood-drenched war zone where only one can remain supreme.
The film is directed by Francis Ford Coppola, whom prior to this was also responsible for movies like Finian's Rainbow (1968), You're A Big Boy Now (1966) and The Rain People (1969), none of which were very successful box office-wise. The Godfather was the turning point of Coppola's career, not just because most of his future pictures would be smash hits, but would also earn him his first Best Picture win. The film itself is poetic, thanks to the assistance from the book's author Mario Puzo, who also wrote the screenplay for the picture. Coppola illustrates both the positive and negative sides of mafia life, the fall and rise of an underground empire, and the meaning of loyalty all at once. All of the main characters in the film are also relatable and three-dimensional to a tee. You actually feel for them and understand their mindset, making it true to life, to where even actual mobsters commend the film for its realism.
Future gangster pictures like Brian De Palma's Scarface (1983), Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990), and Mike Newell's Donnie Brasco (1997) owe something to this movie, aside from the fact that two of those films also star Pacino, making it about not just about the career of a mobster, but also about the mobster himself and the relationship between his colleagues. In other words, they're in-depth character studies, and that's what makes The Godfather a truly epic and moving film, let alone a film that, as I've mentioned in the beginning, is described as a "perfect movie". Even teachers in colleges and universities that teach film studies or any form of filmmaking would refer to showing this film as part of a curriculum. Overall, it's a film that is considered mandatory viewing for every moviegoer, even if you don't like sitting through films that are nearly or over 3 hours. If you haven't seen it, stop what you're doing right now and see it.