A Must See

Rating: 9/10 (22 September 2013)

I recently watched the film The Godfather directed by Francis Ford Coppolla and based on the book by Mario Puzo. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, and Robert Duvall. The film takes place in New York in a post-World War II setting. The films is a stirring drama filled with poignant moments throughout.
This film follows the lives of the Corleone family who is one of the five organized crime families that control the city and state of New York. This film takes you through the good and the bad sides of an organized crime family. The film has moments where you forget that this family is a mob family who commits murders like others commit minor traffic violations. Some of the more memorable scenes in the movie include the very opening scene in the movie when The Godfather (Vito Corleone) is sitting in a dark home office setting where he is receiving any guest to his daughter's wedding who has a request for him. Apparently there is an old Sicilian tradition that says that a father cannot refuse any reasonable request on the day that his daughter is to be married. Why haven't I been invited to more Italian weddings? I'm getting really tired of dealing with my wife telling me to clean up after I make a mess. Where is a Godfather when you need him? Another scene that caught my attention is a meeting that the Corleone family has with a man by the name of Sollozzo. This man has an offer for the family to begin moving the family into the drug business. The scene gets me because you would think that a mob boss would be up for whatever if it means making money, but not Don Corleone. He almost seems like a respectable business man who would not do anything that has to do with drugs. This scene is pivotal as it sets in motion the events of the rest of the movie. Upon the refusal of Sollozzo's offer he sets up an assassination attempt on The Godfather's life which is carried out but fails as the Don lives through the attempt. After the assassination attempt there has to be a reaction from the family and to everyone's surprise this gets Michael Corleone involved in the family business that he swore he would never be involved with. Michael's involvement leads him to carry out the assassination of Sollozzo and the chief of police. This act of vengeance leads Michael to a yearlong hide out in Italy while the rest of the family and their associates go to the mats for a bitter mob war. There are many other moments in the film to be seen and the film moves in a very unpredictable way that has to be seen rather than told in a film review.
One of the best aspects of the movie is the background music that plays at certain times in the movie. It is nothing that is going to blow you away, and it isn't anything that you are going to recognize unless you are familiar with some sort of dark orchestra that I have never heard of before. The movie plays music at the right times and it does an amazing job of building the suspense of the scenes where it has been included. One example is toward the end of the movie when Michael's nephew is being baptized and the movie is going through a series of parallel cuts and the music does an amazing job of building the suspense during this scene. This is a classic example of someone doing their homework and realizing that sometimes music can be done to the point of overkill. No worries of that here just a great job by the sound crew.
Another fine job in the movie is the acting. The cast of this movie was brilliantly put together and each character is played absolutely brilliantly. From The Godfather down to the Mafioso's who work for him each character is played with precision and by men and women who seem to fit the roles that they were cast for as if they were leading their normal lives. The casting crew gets a round of applause from me for the job that they did with this film.
The Godfather is a film that will stand the test of time when it comes to motion pictures. With a brilliant plot and a moving storyline this movie is one of the best that I have ever seen. The characters portray a group that seem for all intents and purposes to be a real family who love and care about one another while going about their daily lives of committing murders and breaking the law. This film will be one of the greats of all time and it will leave viewers with a sense of wanting to be a part of a crime syndicate like the Corleone family. I encourage anyone who enjoys movies that tell a story in a moving and powerful way to go and see The Godfather. I promise that you will not be disappointed and you will be begging for more by the time that the movie is over. My overall film rating for this movie is a resounding 5 out of 5 trigger fingers because I think that they work better for this movie than stars or thumbs. Go see the movie and enjoy!