Very-well made but -shock- it's all a tad dull

Rating: Null/10 (27 February 2002)

I really like the movie that was temporarily #1 - "The Fellowship of the Ring". I agree with a lot of what's in the charts though think some films here are over-rated. And this is what I felt about "The Godfather". It's very well made, etc. but it's also a bit boring.
On a production level, it's hard to fault "The Godfather" and Coppola's handling of events. There's an intense level of detail, as he charts the rise of Vito Corleone to prominence, and the lengths people go to attain power. The direction is great - there's a real sense of epic-ness here. The city and times seem alive before you. There's a great sense of realism - helped, for example, by the use of speaking Italian in the movies because - hey Hollywood - not everyone would want to, or choose to, constantly speak English. It's rich and lush and has a quality nearly all films lack nowadays in their haste to please the lowest-common-denominator.
The acting is spot on. In fact it's probably above that. It's excellent. Pacino is at his height here - wonderful as the naive Michael Corleone who has to learn the family trade. Marlon Brando's "Vito Corleone" has become so infamous that seeing him is almost like watching a caricature (as are many of the lines) but he's on fine form, though I preferred his fresher, more engaging role in "On the Waterfront".
And yet for all the unquestionable production values and acting... I found it all a tad dull. I don't have an aversion to the genre - "Goodfellas" and "The Sopranos" are superb - but I found the pacing slow, almost monotonous in places. There is an attention to detail, and an epic scope, but that doesn't necessarily translate to interesting viewing. "Lawrence of Arabia" dragged me into the sweeping sands, yet I wasn't dragged in here to anything approaching the same degree. There's character development but, as we touch up and down upon certain moments in the lives of the Corleones, we're never given any sense of more fluid developments. We see their actions from a distance and find it harder to empathise or care about them. It all adds up to a muted viewing experience for me, and I felt indifferent to his hailed classic.
I can't knock "The Godfather" too much, because it has a lot going for it. As one reviewer commented it, even those who don't like it feel forced to rate it highly because they must acknowledge the craftsmanship here. For all that I was quite disappointed by this movie and can only give it 8/10 (and that's because of the talent involved). The "sequel" was better, but not by much. Not deserving of #1 in my opinion.