The Godfather: A Quick Review

DISCLAIMER: Anything I say about this film would be a huge understatement to just how great it really is.

"The Godfather," released in 1972, was directed and co-written by Francis Ford Coppola.  It has a great cast which includes Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Abe Vigoda, and Talia Shire.  The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, winning three: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for Marlon Brando.  "The Godfather" goes through 10 years in the lives of the Corleone family.  For those who don't know, they are a mafia family led by Don Vito Corleone, played excellently by Marlon Brando...another one of the best actors in American film history.  The rest of the cast is just as great...they just don't have Oscars to prove it...although the majority of the cast was nominated.  Everything about "The Godfather" is pretty perfect.  The movie is almost 3 hours long but just about every minute is essential to the movie and the pacing is perfect.  Add to that great cinematography, lighting, direction by Francis Ford Coppola, etc and you've got yourself a classic American film.  One scene towards the end in particular uses cross cutting extremely well, making two scenes (the christening and some mob killings) going on at the same time much more effective.  It took me a while, but I finally saw "The Godfather," for the first time.  If you haven't seen it yet, you really should, it's kind of essential to being an American.  According to the American Film Institute it is the #2 film in American film history.  I'd say it more that earned that kind of recognition.  The film is exceptionally well acted and well made in every single regard, spawned two sequels, and changed the way that the mafia was dealt with in films.  "The Godfather" has definitely stood the test of time...


-Joseph Sbrilli 


Alternate Review: Aside from some brilliant acting, i.e. Robert Duvall, Al Pacino, Marlon Brando (could you expect anything less than perfect in the acting department from those three? No, you can't.) I found this movie to be much too long and a little boring. Then again I am terrible at judging movies before 1985, but I found "The Godfather" to drag on forever and several times I almost turned it off. Lies, it was only once, near the end.


-Christopher O'Connell