The best movie ever made without question

Rating: 10/10 (20 February 2014)

There are certain films that you watch where you know by the end that this isn't just a film but a masterpiece in cinema, a piece of artwork that live forever and is simply untouchable by any film studio who has run out of ideas and wants to remake a film.
Every aspect of the film is utterly brilliant. From the characters and their individual development down to the lighting. It is difficult to put into words how this film makes you feel. It certainly is not just another gangster film that categorises or stereotypes Italian-Americans. Instead it is a tale of man, who despite everything his father wanted for him, is hurled into a life that he is totally wrong for at the start of the movie. But given the events that take place over the course of his life he loses everything that is good inside of him, and he becomes cold and calculated and perfect for the life his father shielded him from.
You become immersed in 1940's America, and through the trilogy far beyond that. It is the only film where I refuse to watch the first one, without subsequently watching the other three in the days that follow. It is an epic that words cannot do justice.
If I recommend just one film to anyone for the rest of my life it will be this one. I judge my friends who have not seen this film, and pressure them into watching it. I mistrust anyone who says they don't like this film.
Marlon Brando is sublime, Al Pacino is excellent, James Caan is fantastic and Robert Duvall is incredible. This is the peak of their collective careers. Francis Ford Coppola isn't a director. He's a genius.
Do not watch any other film before watching this one. Buy it, rent it, steal it if you must. But watch it.