Hailed
by many as the greatest film to ever grace the big screen, it can usually be
hard to agree with such statement when hundreds of ground breaking films have
also been released but in this case, when the Godfather Part I is considered
the greatest of all time, I without hesitation, will agree!
Focusing
around the Corleone Family, the story’s essential focus is that of their
youngest son, Michael Corleone, a World War II patriotic veteran who has
returned home just in time for his sister’s wedding. The film depicts the fall
and rise to power of Michael Corleone as well as various other family
businesses movements.
The
greatest strength of the film, which is extremely tough to pick one when
everything about this movie is flawless and perfection, but the greatest aspect
of the film is the acting. Marlon Brando’s performance of Vito Corleone is what
I believe one of the all time greatest performances ever. It is chilling,
calming, intense but completely believable. If I were to ever have a godfather,
I would imagine him as Brando’s Vito. He embodies that, he is the Godfather!
You remember the poster to Forrest Gump that says “TOM HANKS….IS FORREST GUMP”,
in this case it should most certainly say ‘MARLON BRANDO IS THE GODFATHER” He
is the scene stealer of the film, he owns the film, he motivates the film and
he is simply the driving force of the film.
However, the supporting cast is
unbelievable. Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, adopted son of the family and lawyer,
Duvall is fantastic in his role and is welcome! His character is also superbly
done. James Caan as the oldest brother, Sonny, is unbelievable and believe me,
right up there with Al Pacino’s performance in this film. It’s a truly
remarkable performance, that everything I see him, I’m left with the biggest of
smiles on my face! Caan and Brando are the ones that are sorely missed in The
Godfather Part II. Diane Keaton is great in her role, despite heavy criticism
towards her performance. It isn’t most
definitely the greatest she could give but it is a believable performance.
However, what would acting be without a strong performance by our lead star: Al
Pacino. Despite not being the scene stealer, it is mainly Michael’s story and
Al Pacino is the only man to possibly play Michael. He is innocent when he
needs to be, caring and lovable and simply, the one character you wouldn’t want
to fall into the family business but when he does, it is one of the greatest
performances ever. Like Brando, it is extremely relaxed yet extremely
intimidating.
The
acting is flawless, the direction taken by Francis Ford Coppola is only
described by the word ‘flawless’ and that’s what every aspect of the film is.
The writing is superb and obviously helps from incredibly strong source
material by Mario Puzo and the amazing cinematography is just gorgeous to look
at. Every scene is filmed in the most gorgeous of ways even though it does not
seem like they try to do so. That’s what good filming does! Gorgeously filmed
and executed, along with strong writing, The Godfather is still flawless.
When you
have a three hour epic like The Godfather, the pacing to the film must be
strong and that’s exactly what this film is. It is paced unbelievably well. For
a three hour film, a lot of important events happen such as the death of a
character. Francis Ford Coppola shows his mastery here by leaving a clear
indication to how it affects Michael but has the brain to not have any further
discussions about this, therefore not wasting any time unnecessarily. Whilst
this may be considered too packed, believe it or not, it isn’t. There isn’t one
moment that feels too slow nor too packed. The dialogue is downright amazing,
the music is legendary. One of the most iconic soundtracks ever to grace the
screen, everything it plays throughout this film, I fall in love with it.
Whereas Part II uses it, it doesn’t have the effect that the score has on this
film.
The
Godfather is packed with many iconic scenes and dialogue. Dialogue from ‘I’m
gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse’ to ‘Look how they massacred my boy!’
to ‘It’s a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes!” are
the definition of iconic dialogue. Then, the iconic scenes in this movie do not
stop. Unlike Part II, which despite being a masterpiece, offers very little
iconic sequences or if they are iconic, aren’t anywhere to the extent of the
power in this film. The film is packed with iconic sequences to the horse head,
to Luca Brasi, to the Sollozo/McCluskey incident, to Vito being shot, to the
baptism, Vito’s talk with Michael, the agreement with the Five Families to the
tollbooth sequence. The word iconic graces every minute of the film and that’s
no joke!
And that is no joke too! That being said, The Godfather
is the definition of a masterpiece and quite possibly, the greatest film ever
made. A gorgeously shot movie with masterful directing and writing, to
legendary acting and story-telling alongside one of the greatest film scores of
all time, The Godfather is the definition of an iconic movie. It’s a
legend…Everyone needs to see The Godfather…Or else…Vito Corleone will catch
you!
Grade- 10/10
No comments:
Post a Comment