MAJOR difference in opinion...

Rating: 1/10 (16 February 2002)

I finally got a chance to see this movie. I tried to watch it with an open mind, without letting the hype dilute an even slight bit of impartiality - and I just can't say it's a very good movie. Perchance if soap opera was its own category, this may stand true to its title as "#1" on the IMDb.
It perplexes me how people can call this landmark moviemaking when they probably have not seen works from other directors - Kurosawa, Truffaut, Lang... - all of whom had a much better eye than Coppolla. Most of these greats are now forgotten, with the exceptions of occasional screenings at film schools where one discovers that the Contemporary filmmaking style overseas (1950s and 1960s) was duplicated by American directors in the 1970s.
So what was wrong with this movie? Nonexistent or loose plot: No suspense, climax, excitement, or outcome. I thought the acting/characters were forgettable. Any other actor could have pulled off what Brando did and the fact they went through all that trouble to make him 10 or 20 year older just proves they shot for name recognition.
There were only a few things that I remember in this 3 hours of triviality: the "offer you can't refuse" line, Don Vito collapsing in a garden while a child obliviously plays, Caan's Santino character getting holed up, and bullets consistently going into foreheads. Maybe the artful yet repellent depiction of gratuitous violence is what made this such a masterpiece. But style without substance does not a good movie make.
For those who say "oh, you just didn't get it, see it again", please get your mind out of the gutter - stop basing your opinions on what you're conditioned to like.
The Emperor's New Clothes, big time. End of review.