Utterly brilliant!

Rating: 10/10 (11 February 2007)

This is probably one of the most nearly perfect films ever made. A dark and twisted version of the "immigrant to America makes good" story is wonderfully presented. No small amount of credit for the quality of this movie should go to Mario Puzo's original novel. That novel helped make terms like "make your bones" and "have a sit-down" and "capos" popular. Francis Ford Coppola likes to dump on the whole "gynecological repair job" section of the novel but that seems like petty griping compared with the way that book gave him a can't-miss blueprint for the film. Coppola's change of the closing ceremony to a baptism instead of a confirmation was inspired but for the most part the book is so closely followed Puzo practically deserved a co-director credit.
This film proved you don't need constant footage of guns blazing to make a successful and memorable gangster movie. The fact that it nicely retains the source material's sub-text ensured its greatness.