no doubts, the best of all time

Rating: 10/10 (19 May 2001)

This film is basically the closest anyone is going to get to movie perfection. Coppola really hit the jackpot Puzo's novel and made the most out of it, I mean, many directors get their hands on some great stories and all they can do is mess the whole thing up. However, Coppola stayed true to the original novel, thanks in part to Puzo himself collaborating in the process of the screen writing, but also was able to give the movie his own feel, similar to what he did with Apocalypse Now. Also, visually, Coppola manages to show the 1940's mafia environment in the most stunning, and real, fashion.
WARNING:SEVERAL SPOILERS ALL THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THE COMMENT
The scene were the Don gets shot really shows what i'm talking about, and obviously the whole wedding at the beggining does the job of putting you in the environment perfectly, also it is a great introduction of all the major players. Also, the whole section were Michael is at Italy, it is downright beautiful, a great contrast to all of the violent stuff that happens in New York, all of this beauty ends with Michael's return to reallity, his wife's death. This then will make Michael the man that he becomes toward the end of the film, and through the other two films in the saga. Another great example of the "horror", is the scene with the decapitated horse is a showstopper and illustrates why Coppola is a genius. However, the heart of the film is in the perfomances themselves. Every single one of the characters is played to perfection, even after reading the novel, there is just no other way I can think of Vito Corleone, but by thinking of Brando. He is the Godfather, period. Well, so is Pacino, who shows that this is only the first of his many great performances. What can I say, to of the greatest performances in one film. The rest are not less great, Caan is convicingly stubburn and hotheaded Sonny, Duvall is great as a contrast to Sonny, always being more practical and reasonable (similar to Michael, yet lacks the superior IQ, and the coldheartedness), Cazale portrays the wimpy Fredo as what Fredo really is, whimpy. Diane Keaton plays great as the naive Kay, who in the end will finally realize what she has gotten herself into, but only too late, and all that is left is to accept her fate and learn to live with it. Shire is also very good as a drama queen, but not much else. The rest are just great mafiosi. Finally, to cap it all off, the music is beatiful. It is the trademark of the film, it is so famous that I know people that can recognize the music as the godfather tune, but have yet to see it, hey, even Slash used to play it live. Basically this film is perfect in everyway, ever since I saw it for the first time I compare every film to it, as a measuring stick, and to this day haven't been able to find a better one. This is one of those films that is not good enough to watch once, but to watch as many times as possible, it gets better everytime. After this, all the other films, are just that, other films.