An offer you can't refuse

Rating: Null/10 (16 March 1999)

The Godfather is as beautifully directed, photographed, designed, edited, scored, and performed as any American film -- it is a masterpiece in the broadest sense; a colossal accomplishment for Francis Ford Coppola in the decade he virtually owned as a popular and artistic filmmaker. Indelible scenes need only a word or two to ignite the memory: the baptism, the horse head, Sonny's fate, the restaurant murder, and the list goes on. Brando and Pacino are fantastic, but I love to praise the work of James Caan and Robert Duvall. Their roles might be smaller, but I couldn't imagine the film without them. The fury with which Sonny unleashes the brutal beatdown of Carlo is palpable, and I adore the brilliant impartiality and distance kept by the camera (it seems to hover in medium shot just far enough to keep the children playing in the opened hydrant in frame during the course of the pounding) as well as the other onlookers who know better than to get in the middle.