Maybe a better Michael Corleone was in there

Rating: 7/10 (4 March 2013)

I recently watched the Godfather again on DVD after many years - actually watched it twice. Obviously, this film is an icon in American pop-culture and there probably is nothing new to be said about it. But I will try to make a few fresh observations here.
After the first viewing about a week ago, I thought, this movie is sloppier and more sprawling than I remembered. After the second viewing, I saw how all the pieces came together to redefine the Hollywood gangster movie.
The sets, lighting, sound, dialogue and the entire atmosphere really draws the viewer into the past, even if the effect romanticizes gangster life. Most of the performers seemed to bring their best stuff to their roles. But, most of the main roles could have been fleshed-out more, in the script.
For example, two of the main actors, Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone and James Caan as Sonny, were very good and they could have carried more scenes. Also very good were some of the supporting actors like Richard Castellano as Clemenza, Sterling Hayden as McCluskey and especially Al Lettieri as Sollozzo. In fact, Lettieri was so compelling in his brief role as the criminal rival to the Corleone family that I wondered if he would have been better cast as the "hero" Michael Corleone.
Which brings me to Al Pacino's portrayal of Michael: Of course Pacino is one the great actors ever, but he underplayed the role and made Michael so lacking in charm and charisma, that I found it hard, not only to like him, but to believe he could pull off the things he did, like controlling a powerful crime family or even marrying a beautiful native girl during his time in Sicily.
I also found the portrayal of Tom Hagen a bit bland, probably more to do with the script than with the acting of Robert Duvall. Hagen was supposed to be an adopted family member, who was brought into the family as a boy and raised like a son and brother. Yet throughout the whole film, he never gets out of lawyer mode. Even actual lawyers frequently stop being a lawyer for a few minutes here and there.
A few scenes were a bit superfluous, particularly those featuring Diane Keaton as Michael's fiancé (maybe I'm just biased against Diane Keaton), but the Godfather is worth sitting through more than once.
Disclaimer: I never read the book by Mario Puzo. This review only concerns the film itself, independent of the source material.