THE Gangster Film!

Rating: 9/10 (26 January 2005)

As just a drama film, the Godfather is excellent, with it's engaging storyline, well drawn characters, tight script, and all the rest of the clichés. In the genre of the Gangster film it has no peer.
Where so many gangster pictures seem to just be commentaries on how quirky they are and how explosively violent, this film has so much more to say and explores the lives of it's characters from every perspective.
We see the aging Don playing with a grandchild. We have the family member who wants nothing to do with the life of a wise-guy but whose love for his father and murder of his wife by rivals draws him in. We also see a gangster using violence not to solidify his position or intimidate, but simply acting violently to mistreatment of his sister.
The film has such depth of realism and is so far above and beyond the scope of most gangster fare.