A new beginning for the American gangster film

Rating: 9/10 (30 October 2006)

The key to the success of this defining gangster movie is the faultless casting. All the characters are strong and eminently believable. The central masterpiece is, of course, Brando's Don Corleone, a feudal mafia warlord of the old school who can distribute largess or initiate mayhem with no more than a mumbled whisper to his ever-attentive mobster acolytes. Excellent performances from Al Pacino , James Caan, and Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden as the tough, bad cop and one of my favorite screen thugs, Al Lettieri as "The Turk" Solozzo. A fairly predictable plot, even if you haven't first read the book , but so what? Its not meant to be a mystery. We the audience KNOW that the enemies of the family are going to get what's coming to them by way of the usual methods, and the director does not disappoint us. The traditional christening juxtaposed with the scenes of vengeful carnage are a masterful touch.
Is it possible to be a good son of the Church and a mass murderer all at the same time ? The director poses this question to us and we are discomforted. We have to take on board the new reality that not ALL mobsters are flamboyant psychopaths in the erstwhile Hollywood tradition of James Cagney, Edward G Robinson etc; doomed to perish in a hail of police bullets or in the electric chair. The mafia boss could be the family man next door, the theme picked up and carried to new heights in "The Sopranos". At the end of "The Godfather", we are left in no doubt that Michael Corleone and his henchmen are highly unlikely to be brought to book for their crimes, and more to the point, we the audience don't mind this one bit.
In that respect, that is probably the secret to this films enduring popularity everywhere in the World that it has been screened. Al Pacino's Michael Corleone defends his family and protects their livelihood by doing the hard yards and making the tough decisions. We can all identify with that, but in balance, we are also presented with the down side of Michael's effectiveness as a mob boss. His brother-in-law is dispatched without mercy and he lies without remorse to his wife. These themes were effectively developed in "The Godfather Pt 2", which is mostly concerned with the subsequent and inevitable degradation of Michael's humanity, culminating in fratricide.
The violence depicted in "The Godfather" was extreme at the time of its release and still has the power to shock. This is no bad thing as the mayhem is fully in context with the plot and is in no way glamorized. Real gangsters DO commit horrible crimes and often die in their turn bleeding in a gutter.
R. B.