How a reluctant criminal becomes the Godfather

Rating: 7/10 (3 March 2012)

This was the biggest grossing film in 1972 when it was released and I am told that it follows closely to the Mario Puzo novel of the same name. The movie is followed by two sequels, which at first I believed were a part of the novel, but later realised that in fact they were separate. They seem to all meld together into one epic, though I will treat them all as separate movies, though I will refer back to the previous films occasionally.
In this movie (which I believe to be the best) we watch the internal and external struggles of the Corleone family and how things slowly change in the life of young Michael Corleone. Michael (Al Pachino) is the central character in the film, though the others of his family, Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), Sonito Corleone (James Caan), and Tom Hagan (Robert Duval) are of importance. Looking at the cast though, there are some very competent, and surprising, actors that appear in here. In fact I was surprised to see Diane Keaton (who plays Kay Adams, Michael Corleone's wife) in the film, but then I only just recently saw it for the first time.
This movie is a tale of epic proportions and we watch here how Michael changes through the events of the movie. In the background of war and violence in the streets of New York, Michael, who wants to remain distant from the criminal ways of his family, yet feeling ties of loyalty to his family, is slowly pulled into it. The turning point comes when he is in the hospital to find that all of his father's guards have vanished and he has to make a decision to remain apart from the criminal aspects of his family, or to dive in and save his father's life.
I guess one of the major things here is that you are what you are. No matter how much Michael tries to deny his family's business, he cannot escape the inevitable fact that it is criminal. Even though he could simply walk away from him family, he feels loyal and devoted to him, and even though his father his a criminal, he loves him.
Another interesting thing that I read was in regards to the treatment of women in the film. The film is divided into spheres: the domestic and the business sphere. In the movie all of the women are in the domestic sphere and are not allowed to enter into the business sphere. The movie also details violence towards women to force them into that domestic role. We have the woman that is talked about at the beginning who is violently violated and the man seeking justice. We have the young Corrie who is married at the beginning, kept away from the family business, and beaten up when she refuses to work in the domestic sphere. We have Michael's first wife who is learning to drive, only to be blown up when she starts the car and finally there is Kay Adams, who at the end of the movie is shut out of the business end of the family, after being lied to by Michael.
The movie also deals with respect, in a little bit. At the beginning, Marlon Brando gives a monologue regarding how the man petitioning him only comes to him when he is in trouble, and is never treating him as a friend or even a Godfather. It is not that he does not want to help him, but that he would like to be a friend to the man as opposed to somebody who is only visited when there is trouble.
This movie is epic in proportions, but it is too detailed in places. It is long, and even though some long movies, such as Thin Red Line, are good despite their length, others are simply way too long to really want to sit down and watch. In fact, it took me a while to actually sit and watch these movies because of their length.