A genre-defining masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2015)

New York, 1945. Don Vito Corleone (played by Marlon Brando) is the aging Godfather of a mafia family. He has three sons - Sonny (James Caan), Fredo (John Cazale) and Michael (Al Pacino). Sonny is his natural successor but is impulsive, short-tempered and not much of a thinker. Fredo is overly passive. Michael is a war hero and looking to stay out of the family business. The Corleone family and the other four mafia families of New York and New Jersey have been at peace for several years now. Then one of the families decides to get into the illegal narcotics business and wants Don Corleone's help. Don Corleone decides that his family should stay out of narcotics. This has disastrous and far-reaching consequences, consequences that will suck Michael deeper and deeper into the family business.
Hard to come up with any more superlatives for this movie, as it is rightfully regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time. Great story, based on the book by Mario Puzo and adapted by Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola. Superb direction by Coppola - some wonderful moments of sensitivity and great drama scenes. Despite being nearly three hours long it doesn't feel like it at all. The movie is very well paced and there's always something happening. Coppola sucks you in from the word go and keeps you enthralled and engaged the whole time.
Excellent performances too. Marlon Brando well deserved his Best Actor Oscar, as did Al Pacino, Robert Duvall and James Caan their nominations for Best Supporting Actor. The movie launched Pacino's career and revitalised Brando's.
Beyond the pure art and entertainment of the movie, it defined, and set the benchmark for, the gangster-drama. There had been gritty crime-dramas before. In the 1930s and 40s we had several excellent James Cagney movies (White Heat from 1949 being the pick of the bunch), as well as the original Scarface and other crime dramas. In the 1940s and 50s there were some great film noir dramas. However, none of these had the grittiness, profundity and sheer breadth and depth of story of The Godfather.
So monumental its influence can be seen in the works of Scorsese (Goodfellas, especially), Tarantino, many other directors and, most overtly, the excellent TV series The Sopranos.
An all-time classic.