the first, and best

Rating: Null/10 (10 March 2001)

At the time of its release, this was the best American movie since "Citizen Kane." "Star Wars" has since exceeded it as a more influential movie, serving as a bridge between "Kane" and the future as did "Kane" between "Birth of a Nation" and the silents. But this is master filmmaking, sure to grip a viewer even on repeated showings.
I saw "The Godfather" for the first time in 1973, after turning 18, and it marked the only occasion that I was "carded" at a movie. The dialogue borrows heavily from the book, but what source material! From "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse" to "Leave the gun; take the cannoli," this was inspired stuff. (In fairness, I must admit that Coppola and Puzo took the screenplay for Part II to an even higher level.)
Brando's performance secured his place in movie history. Although his on-screen time is limited, he dominates in every frame that he appears. From a simple whisper ("Where's Michael?") on his sickbed to the scene where he peers at an aquarium while Michael conducts family business to the final scene in the garden, Brando becomes Vito Corleone and, like Clark Gable in Rhett Butler, is the only actor one can imagine playing the part so well. The transfer of power between Brando and Pacino in the garden, a scene written by Robert Towne ("Chinatown"), ranks with that in the taxicab between Brando and Rod Steiger in "On the Waterfront" as the most powerful in American cinema.
What we have is a cinematic masterpiece, pulsating with excitement until the final scene, when Al Neri shuts the study door on Kay in the kitchen _ Coppola here paying homage to the final scene of "The Searchers," as he would do also in the two sequels.
I'm torn between "The Godfather" and "Casablanca" as my favorite movie. Perhaps the difference is that I saw "The Godfather" first, at an impressionable moment of my life. For me, no sequel was necessary. The first look at the Corleone Family remains the best.