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Marlon Brando (right) and Salvatore Corsitto in “The Godfather,” which premiered in New York on March 15, 1972.

Revisiting classic you can’t refuse

Colleen Walsh

Harvard Staff Writers

Harvard Film Archive scholar breaks down ‘The Godfather,’ which is turning 50, to explain its lasting appeal

Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather,” was an instant hit with fans and critics when it premiered in New York on March 15, 1972. In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby called the film, based on Mario Puzo’s mafia novel, “one of the most brutal and moving chronicles of American life ever designed within the limits of popular entertainment.” Now considered a film classic and cultural touchstone, the movie’s lasting appeal is rooted in its groundbreaking visual style and standout performances, says Haden Guest, director of the Harvard Film Archive. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Haden Guest

GAZETTE: Why is this film considered such a classic?

GUEST: The lasting hold of “The Godfather,” and its status as a milestone film, have been lavishly celebrated as it approaches its 50th year. I think it is also important to recognize Coppola’s film as a chapter in the rich and longer history of the American gangster film, a genre that began to capture the popular imagination in the late 1920s. “The Godfather,” in fact, readily acknowledges that history and legacy through a series of allusions to past gangster films such as “The Roaring Twenties” and “Little Caesar,” among many others. Beyond its engagement with the history of genre, “The Godfather” can more broadly be seen as a vital bridge between the classic Hollywood of the studio-era (seen early on in the film during the visit of consigliere Tom Hagen to make the infamous offer that can’t be refused) and the New Hollywood of the 1970s. Coppola draws from the deep well of film history in so many fascinating ways that I think contribute to the film’s continued resonance.

Of course, the performances are absolutely central to the film’s status as a classic. Here too “The Godfather” acknowledges its place in film history by staging a meeting of different generations of performers, most notably embodied in Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, two very different actor’s actors of the Method School now cast as father and son, as if emblematic the passing of the baton. Underscoring this is the presence of other amazing studio-era actors such as Sterling Hayden and Richard Conte, who was a really pivotal figure in two-fisted gangster films in the ’40s and ’50s.

GAZETTE: The film has been widely praised for its visual style. Who was really behind the look of the movie?

GUEST: One key to the remarkable look and feel of the film is the work and vision of the director of photography, Gordon Willis, an absolutely brilliant cinematographer. In the very first “I believe in America” shot of “The Godfather,” you have this incredible abstraction of the blackest, deepest blacks against the white of Brando’s tuxedo as he sits in his darkened office hearing the pleas of the father desperate for revenge. Here Willis announces immediately that the film’s exploration of right and wrong, of crime and justice, is going to be complex and difficult, set in different shades than the black-and-white terms through which gangster stories are often imagined. Willis took full advantage of existing technology, of film stocks and lenses that allowed him to created layers of black and shadow never before possible in a color film. He did so by responding to the script and to Coppola, but it was really his decision to go as dark as possible. There are many other shots that are seemingly underlit with deliberate purpose and effect. Willis played a pivotal role in defining the look and feel of key scenes, like the one in the Italian restaurant where Michael himself chooses to enact vengeance and kill Sollozzo.

“One key to the remarkable look and feel of the film is the work and vision of the director of photography, Gordon Willis, an absolutely brilliant cinematographer,” says Haden Guest.

Photo by Marcus Halevi

GAZETTE: Do you have a favorite scene? And can you break it down for us?

GUEST: I think that restaurant scene is one of the best in the film. From the very beginning to the end, from Michael climbing into the huge, glistening car to the moment of hesitation where he forgets to drop the gun, there is a constant building of tension that makes it absolutely riveting. When we enter the restaurant, we know that it is soon going to become a crime scene, and this knowledge ignites our imagination of this modest neighborhood place that is so vividly evoked and depicted. The loud pop of the cork when the waiter opens the wine and the tension while he fills the glasses, and the men wait to speak. Coppola’s fastidious attention to period details and evocative gestures, the tiles on the floor, Sterling Hayden’s napkin tucked high up in his collar — these demand our attention and pull the viewer intensely into the scene, drawing attention to the seemingly smallest detail.

And then the climatic shooting where Pacino shoots a bullet straight into the middle of the policeman’s forehead as he eats his veal scaloppine, that’s an image designed to have maximum impact. Like the broken glasses in Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin.” Of course, we can’t give credit solely to Coppola and Willis. They were working with a team of art directors and designers and as a team they allowed this scene to burn slowly before exploding in a moment of cataclysmic violence, with both the build-up and climax rendered as graphically and tonally impactful, and memorable, as possible.

Embodied in the modest Italian-American neighborhood restaurant is also the world that Michael is saying goodbye to, the quiet life he could have lived as a veteran, and seemed to want at the film’s beginning. When he kills the two men at the dinner table and calmly walks out with all the customers at the other tables staring at him, he is bidding farewell to what could have been, choosing to enter into a life of crime, a decision from which we know there will be no turning back.

GAZETTE: Do you remember when you first saw the film and can you recall your first impressions?

GUEST: I was born shortly before “The Godfather” was released so did not see it until many years later. I watched the film first when I was around 12 years old, too young I’m sure, and it had a huge impact on me less for the violence, although that was certainly disturbing, than for the way it conjured up the historical past with such a richness of detail and luster.

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The Godfather: Have we misunderstood America's greatest film?

Fifty years after its premiere, Francis Ford Coppola's classic gangster movie is still considered one of the greatest artworks made about the US, but have we overlooked a key element, asks Nicholas Barber.

Fancy watching The Godfather? It's an offer that most of us can't refuse. Adapted from Mario Puzo's bestselling novel, Francis Ford Coppola's gangster saga came second in BBC Culture's 2015 critics poll to find the 100 greatest American films , and there aren't many such lists that don't have it in the top 10. Fifty years on from its release in March 1972, it stands as the defining US artwork not just on organised crime, but on immigration, capitalism and corruption. Even people who aren't familiar with the film can recognise Marlon Brando's weary, wheezy Mafia boss, Vito Corleone, and his favourite son Michael, played by Al Pacino. They can also quote or misquote its most memorable lines – including the one at the top of this paragraph. And its aficionados know it off by heart. In You've Got Mail, Tom Hanks cites it as the source of all wisdom. ("What is it about The Godfather?" sighs Meg Ryan.) The characters in The Sopranos are such enthusiasts that they name their strip club Bada Bing! after another of its lines.

Finding New Meaning in The Godfather on Its 50th Anniversary

The Godfather is a movie about organized crime, focusing on one dynasty in particular. But it’s most specifically a movie about fathers and sons, which may be the quality that gives it such enduring power. Its violence is vigorous and brutal; in adapting Mario Puzo’s novel , Francis Ford Coppola gives us a portrait of domineering masculinity in overdrive. But there’s a strange tenderness at work in it too, all radiating from and toward Marlon Brando’s crime boss Don Vito Corleone. He wields power over every outsider who has come to—or been forced to—respect him. But his relationships with his sons by birth , James Caan’s Sonny, Al Pacino’s Michael and John Cazale’s Fredo, as well as his de facto adopted son, Robert Duvall’s Tom Hagen, generate the fierce energy that drives the film. He’s their sun king, the figure whose approval and affection they crave, a blazing light that can make or break them.

The movie opens with a wedding : Vito’s daughter, Connie (Talia Shire), is the bride, though unlike most brides, she isn’t the center of attention. Instead, we get a crash course in the men of the family: The married Sonny can’t keep his hands off one of the shapely bridesmaids. Michael is a veteran, just back from the war with a nice girl on his arm (Diane Keaton’s Kay), and it’s clear he’s the pride of the family. Tom is busy behind the scenes, arranging some heavy-duty arm-twisting for Vito, who isn’t technically his father, but who took him in when he was a boy. And Fredo is practically a vapor—his job is to fade into the background and cause minimal trouble, because everyone accepts that he’s the family’s dim bulb. The boys’ mother, played by Morgana King, is a plump, anonymous figure in the background, a warm, nurturing somebody that they used to know. You get the sense she’s revered by her children, as Italian mothers almost always are; yet they barely address her. All eyes are on their father, always.

THE GODFATHER, Salvatore Corsitto, Marlon Brando, 1972

As Vito Corleone, Brando is an imposing, unreadable figure rendered in guarded shadows, thanks in part to Gordon Willis’ famously muted cinematography. We often read actors through their eyes, but Brando’s Corleone doesn’t give us that luxury: His eyes are rarely visible—his sockets are like miniature grottos, velvety caves holding all the mysteries he prefers not to share. His intentionally garbled diction is so frequently mimicked that it’s easy to forget how strange and original it was in 1972. Brando makes even Corleone’s jocularity imposing. Late in the movie, as the aged, doting grandpa, he chases his adored grandson—Michael’s kid—around a patch of tomato plants, an orange peel stuffed into his mouth to simulate a gorilla’s grin. It’s all a game, but the child is terrified at first, and you can see why. Corleone is so used to intimidation as a way of life that lightness is beyond him, even when he’s trying to show affection.

No wonder his sons are so eager to please—in fact, all but Michael seem terrified by the possibility of not pleasing him. As Vito’s consigliere, Duvall’s Tom has everything under control every minute. His efficiency may seem effortless, but you understand that his life revolves around crossing every T and dotting every I for his boss and surrogate father, partly out of eternal gratitude but mostly out of duty. Their bond is one of affectionate practicality, but it’s strong as iron, as we see when Michael forces some distance between Tom and the family’s business.

Meanwhile, Sonny is the hothead, the womanizer, the one who needs the most reining in: after he expresses an unsolicited opinion during a business negotiation, his father gruffly sets him straight. Caan plays Sonny as the showboating son, the one with the shortest fuse, the one who’s trying hardest to please his father yet falling far short. What he feels for his father may not be affection; of all the members of the family, he’s closest to his sister, Connie, maybe because he doesn’t have to seek her approval. She looks to him for protection—he’s not afraid to beat the daylights out of her abusive husband—though ironically, his bond with her sets the stage for his downfall.

THE GODFATHER, Al Martino (microphone), Talia Shire (wedding dress), 1972

Vito Corleone expresses affection for Sonny only after his death: his grief manifests itself in the way he commands the undertaker to make his son’s bullet-ridden body presentable for the boy’s mother. The subtext is that he can barely bring himself to look upon it. But the most wrenching father-son triangle is the one between Vito, Michael and Fredo, and it plays out in one delicately rendered section of the film. After Vito is finally brought home to continue the long recovery following his attempted assassination, Tom fills him in on all that happened while he was unconscious. Vito can barely speak, but we see him mouth the words, “Where’s Michael?” When Tom explains that it was Michael who carried out the murder of drug baron Sollozzo (Al Lettieri ) and the crooked cop McCloskey (Sterling Haden), Vito’s face clouds over with anguish—we can see it even in those impossible-to-read eyes. He waves his sons off, but not because he wants to rest. This prideful man wants to be left alone with whatever it is he’s feeling; maybe he doesn’t even know that it’s despair.

Michael is the one Corleone who might have lent the family some conventional respectability. But even beyond that, he’s clearly Vito’s favorite, and the bond between the two is mutual. Despite his distaste for the family business, Michael steps right into it after his father is nearly killed. The café sequence, in which he ultimately does away with Sollozzo and McCloskey, represents one of the most wrenching turning points for a character in late-20th-century cinema. It also marks the moment Al Pacino, in his third film role , arrives: if, in 1972, Brando was one of our greatest living film actor s, Pacino’s performance in The Godfather shows him sidling up to take the crown.

The Michael we meet in the early part of The Godfather gives every appearance of being conscientious and principled—he’s too good for the family’s dirty work, and everyone, including his father, seems to know it. He also seems emotionally vulnerable, or at least open to building an honest, uneventful life with Kay. But the Michael who pulls the trigger in that café—the ruthless one, the one who’s always thinking two steps ahead of his enemies—is the true Michael, and Pacino’s brilliance lies in the seamlessness of that flip. When Michael pulls off that assassination, his jaw has recently been broken (by McCloskey, who’s obviously not going to get away with it). As a result, his diction now resembles that of his father, with the same mouthful-of-marbles cadences. (For extra realism, Pacino had his jaw wired while playing these scenes, though he probably could have pulled off a similar effect just by acting.) The openness in Michael’s soft brown eyes is gone, replaced by perpetual calculation. He’s becoming his father before our eyes—which makes you wonder if maybe, in his heart of hearts, Vito hadn’t once harbored a desire for a different kind of life, a simpler and happier one. That vicarious impulse saw its last flicker in Michael.

And what about Fredo, the hapless son who can’t be trusted with even the least complicated task? The one who’s shipped off to Vegas, as both an excuse to get him out of the way and to protect him, given his tendency to mess everything up? If the bond between Vito and Michael is one of simpatico devotion, where does that leave Fredo?

Out in the cold, and in the most heartbreaking way. The brilliant actor who plays Fredo, John Cazale, died of lung cancer at age 42, after appearing in only five films. (The Godfather was his first.) Fredo’s fragility, even as he tries to prove he’s as tough or as smart as anyone in his family, is right there on Cazale’s face: Fredo tries to keep up, but you can tell he has trouble following the trajectory of a sentence. There’s no way he’s cut out for the world he’s been born into—and therefore, he’s nearly invisible to his father, a truth that hits home in one fleeting but piercing moment. As Vito lies in bed, having just learned that his favorite son has set down a path that can’t be reversed, Fredo leaves the rest of his family, still partaking of a boisterous Sunday dinner, and steals back to his father’s room. He sits down at a remove—though it would hardly matter if he’d settled right by his father’s side—and gazes watchfully, protectively, at a man who doesn’t even see him. This is just a small moment in a movie filled with great ones, but its sadness cuts to the bone. Vito Corleone commands the respect of everyone, including his sons. He’s a man to be feared. But the love he withholds is the bluntest, most damaging weapon of all.

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‘The Godfather’ Review: After 50 Years, It’s Still a Movie You Can’t Refuse

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The 10 Worst Changes 'The Godfather' Movies Made From the Novels, Ranked

'across the river and into the trees' review: liev schreiber gives his best performance in this sobering adaptation, 'rebel moon' director’s cut review: somehow, zack snyder’s netflix movies got worse.

As part of Collider’s "retro review" series, I’ve been fortunate enough to watch and review Penny Marshall ’s heartfelt tear-jerker A League of Their Own and Alfred Hitchcock ’s suspenseful masterpiece Psycho , two very different, but very important films for any lover and admirer of cinema. But the title that inevitably rises to the top of all movie conversations is, of course, The Godfather . Usually, it involves someone's often cringe-worthy attempt at an impression of Vito Corleone saying those famous words: “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” (If only there was a way we could refuse to hear these impressions.) While that line of dialogue has been overstated, praise for the 1972 crime drama certainly has not.

Before we even dive into the meaty story and character development (or lack thereof), it’s important to take note of just how impressive the cast of The Godfather is. Marlon Brando , James Caan , Diane Keaton , Robert Duvall , and Al Pacino ? It doesn’t get much better than that. There was a special magic that was conjured up here that many subsequent ensemble films have tried—and failed—to replicate. Perhaps it’s because the screen time for each actor and their respective characters felt exactly right. Francis Ford Coppola , the esteemed director and co-writer with the source material’s author Mario Puzo , didn’t fall into the trap of trying to cram everyone’s storylines down the audience’s throat before the credits roll. Maybe it’s because he gave himself ample time to do so. The picture clocks in at a whopping 2 hr and 55 min, which is arguably more than enough time to tell this story. And, considering it was followed up with two sequels (one of which exceeded this indulgent runtime), the almost three-hour time stamp feels a smidge excessive.

Nevertheless, The Godfather never drags, which is a massive storytelling feat for any project, no matter the scope. At the helm of this deadly ship is Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone, the titular Godfather who turns a benign activity such as petting a cat into one of the most terrifying things you ever did see. He’s an aging, respected (but mostly feared) Sicilian crime boss of the very connected Corleone family in 1945 New York City. If you need something, shall we say, “taken care of,” then Vito is the man you call. There's no guarantee he will answer, but you will without a doubt know if he does. With the help of his character’s iconic look and sound, Brando becomes the embodiment of intimidation. He takes his time talking (mostly because he knows that whoever sits before him has no choice but to listen) and stealthily reminds his prey when and how they have let him down. This is effortlessly executed in the opening scene after he hears out the demanding request of a family friend. “I can’t remember the last time you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee,” Vito says while stroking his feline companion. “But let’s be frank here. You never wanted my friendship. And you were afraid to be in my debt.”

While this is often credited with being Brando’s movie, it’s his onscreen sons that are electric. James Caan plays Sonny, the stubborn hot head psychologically burdened by being the oldest. He toes the line his father so firmly established to the best of his ability, though his temper and ego often get the better of him. And when it does, Vito is sure to let him know, promptly shoving him back into his subordinate place. Sonny’s hypocritical behavior is maddening; one minute he is beating Carlo ( Gianni Russo ) for abusing his sister, Connie ( Talia Shire ), the next he is cheating on and beating his own wife without giving it a second thought. Misogyny and racism run rampant in the Corleone family, and Sonny is one of the worst offenders.

RELATED: How The Failure of Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope Birthed 'The Godfather'

Robert Duvall delivers an understated—but highly effective—performance as Tom Hagen, the consigliere and unofficial adopted son of Vito. Basically, he tells Vito who wants to see him and why, which helps the boss decide whether or not any of these meetings are worth his time at all. As consigliere, he also serves as Vito’s errand boy. His even, non-threatening, borderline robotic temperament makes his visits to the people that Vito is trying to persuade all the more powerful. When he meets with Hollywood executive Jack Woltz ( John Marley ) to ask him to give Vito’s godson Johnny Fontane ( Al Martino ) a role in his new movie, Jack gets hostile rather quickly, slinging racial slurs to his face with no end in sight. But rather than returning the favor, Tom keeps his cool, puts out his hand for a shake, and before leaving says, “By the way, I admire your pictures very much.” This out-of-place and subdued compliment was the secret weapon that convinced Jack to take a meeting with Tom after all.

The buffoonish middle son Fredo ( John Cazale ) provides a bit of comic relief. He’s not exactly loyal and is certainly not a leader, an overall stark contrast to Sonny and Tom. But no one is more of a black sheep than the youngest son Michael, who is played with precision by Al Pacino. When we first meet him, he wants nothing to do with his father’s shady business, and the family knows it. He’s a former Marine with an innocent demeanor and a queasy feeling about his father’s reputation. He tries to shield his doe-eyed girlfriend Kay (Diane Keaton) from the brutal reality, but is forced to catch her up to speed on who’s who while they attend his sister’s wedding. Michael’s reluctance is palpable, though, as he’s ashamed of his criminal bloodline. This is clear after he clumsily tries to change the subject from his family to something they are all equally passionate about: food. After explaining Tom’s odd origin story, he says with a child-like smile, “You like your lasagna?”

Pacino’s disturbing metamorphosis is the irregular heartbeat of The Godfather . He goes from being the literal laughingstock of his siblings to the one who calls the shots. What makes his moral descent so believable and scary is how slow said descent actually is. It’s a series of events and tasks that build on each other, subconsciously stroking his ego and beefing up his confidence. Michael whispering, “Just lie here, Pop. I’ll take care of you now. I’m with you now,” to his bedridden father is probably the most blatant indication that his character was starting to shed his skin, but the nonverbal moments are much more powerful. The way he lit a cigarette with ease for Enzo following the potentially-deadly situation in front of the hospital highlighted Michael’s growing coolness under pressure. In other words, his transformation was earned.

To everyone’s surprise, Michael also shows interest in and takes charge of orchestrating a meeting between him, drug lord and rival Sollozzo ( Al Lettieri ), and Captain McCluskey ( Sterling Hayden ), a crooked cop under Sollozzo. If all went according to plan, Michael would be the only one leaving the meeting alive. This proposition is met with laughs by his brothers (particularly Sonny) who all think it’s pretty darn cute that their little brother thinks he can be a family asset. Rather than being discouraged by this mockery, he puts his money where his mouth is and takes the necessary steps to prepare for this public meeting. First order of his business for Michael? Learning how to shoot a gun, something that is as second nature to his siblings as tying a shoe. Pacino’s performance in this scene was particularly potent and revealing for his character. Watching him try to properly hold a gun was like watching a Little Leaguer learn how to grip a baseball bat. But, once he pulls the trigger and got over how loud a gunshot is, he knew he was going to knock the meeting out of the park.

Though some moments in the second half of the film are a bit predictable, there are more than enough plot developments and twists that keep the narrative’s energy and tension. Sonny’s untimely demise at the toll booth, though somewhat expected, is a startling reminder that no one in this line of work is safe. Michael’s reunion with and eventual marriage to Kay after becoming fully invested in this corrupt world is an unsettling full-circle storyline. Vito’s tearful response to hearing that his son died adds a much-needed layer of humanity to the emotion-averse mobster, especially since he shamed a man for crying in the beginning of the film. That, coupled with Vito’s death while playing with his grandson in the tomato garden, is weirdly poetic.

The entire movie neatly tees up to that final scene, where Michael inevitably becomes his father’s son. He dismisses his sister as “hysterical” when she breaks down in tears over the murder of her husband and callously says, “Don’t ask me about my business, Kay” to his concerned wife. The final nail in the coffin comes when he’s referred to as “Don Corleone,” an esteemed title in the mafia world formerly held by his father. The Oscar winning crime drama paints a compelling portrait of how greed, ego, and loyalty can corrupt even the most unassuming individual. The Godfather is simply a movie you can’t refuse.

Rating : B+

Movie Reviews
The Godfather

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The Godfather

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Watch The Godfather with a subscription on Paramount+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

One of Hollywood's greatest critical and commercial successes, The Godfather gets everything right; not only did the movie transcend expectations, it established new benchmarks for American cinema.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Francis Ford Coppola

Marlon Brando

Don Vito Corleone

Michael Corleone

Santino "Sonny" Corleone

Richard S. Castellano

Pete Clemenza

Robert Duvall

Movie Clips

From 1972: ‘The Godfather’ is a film ‘close to the soul of modern man’

Editor’s note: “The Godfather” was released 50 years ago this month. This review appeared in America on March 25, 1972. The original grammar and style elements are preserved here.

Often films set at some distance lend a perspective to the here and now; they allow us to step back from our everyday skin to see who we really are. Bergman, for example, used a medieval knight in The Seventh Seal (1956) to reveal the crisis of faith in post-Christian Europe, and Robert Gardner, in Dead Birds (1963), used a primitive tribe of warriors in New Guinea to reveal the pathetic madness of a people, who like ourselves, have come to accept war as a normal way of life. And now The Godfather . How remote from actual experience, this world of violence and treachery, and yet how close to the soul of modern man.

With The Godfather , Francis Ford Coppola, at 33 years of age, has become a major new talent among American directors.

The mafiosi , murderers and extortionists all, emerge from the film as believable people, when they might easily have become comic gangsters or monsters. Their world tips wildly from the orbit of normalcy; it is a closed world, where their ghastly brutal work is considered an ordinary way to support a family. In the idyllic Sicily sequence, the quaint customs, the fierce family loyalties and the rigid patriarchal formality have a rustic lovely charm; in the New York underworld they are pathetic anachronisms. Yet it is precisely these grotesque rural customs that humanize the members of the famiglia . They are human in the midst of a sordid world, and they do what they must to survive. That is their way, and perhaps the way of all of us.

Don Vito Corleone, meaning lionhearted, is an aging racketeer whose empire and health both show the stress of old age. Brando brings depth and sensitivity to the part, but because of his long established “star” quality he has taken too much of the prerelease publicity. Al Pacino, as his son Michael, gives a virtuoso performance which should bring him instant recognition. He is an idealistic college graduate, marked for a career in the foreign land outside the mob, but gradually the destructive world of his father overwhelms him in its evil. He matures both in humanity and ruthlessness to become a calculating killer and worthy heir to the Don's empire.

At three hours, The Godfather is by any reasonable standard too long to sustain interest, but most viewers will be sorry to see it end.

With The Godfather , Francis Ford Coppola, at 33 years of age, has become a major new talent among American directors. Two sequences in particular are set pieces of editing and directing, and are even more remarkable because of their different styles. During a baptism at which Michael is godfather, his men plan and execute a series of assassinations designed to consolidate his power over the other famiglie . The ceremony drags on endlessly, but the intercutting of the preparations for the murders builds a palpable tension. The explosion of violence at the end of the sequence snaps the tension; it is almost a relief to end it all despite the horror of the bloodletting.

The second sequence, by contrast, is a tender, loving family portrait of Don Corleone and his infant grandson playing together in the garden of his estate. The Don is weak, but with his grandchild he appears perfectly at peace with himself. At this moment, when he appears most fully human, he dies quietly and gently, alone with his grandchild and his flowers. Alone, each of the two scenes is a cameo of directorial art; together they show Coppola's immense versatility.

Nino Rota, who prepared the music for all of Federico Felliní's great films, blends Italian folk themes and America kitsch of the 194O's into an effective comment on the dramatic action.

Richard A. Blake, S.J., served as managing editor and executive editor of America and director of the Catholic Book Club, as well as America 's regular film reviewer for many decades. He is the author of Afterimage: The Indelible Catholic Imagination of Six American Filmmakers , among other books.

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‘the godfather’: thr’s 1972 review.

On March 15, 1972, the Francis Ford Coppola epic was unveiled in theaters in New York City.

By Arthur Knight

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'The Godfather' Review: 1972 Original Movie

On March 15, 1972, The Godfather was unveiled in theaters in New York City. The Francis Ford Coppola film would go on to win three Oscars at the 45th Academy Awards, including best picture. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below.

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More energy and detail in one set-piece than most entire films … the wedding scene in The Godfather, with Talia Shire and Marlon Brando.

The Godfather review – a brutal sweep of magnificent storytelling

Francis Ford Coppola’s first film in the series is still an epic, full of hypnotic acting, which reinvented mafia criminals as players in a dynastic psychodrama

W hen director Francis Ford Coppola and screenwriter-novelist Mario Puzo released The Godfather 50 years ago, the mobster had already been a stock figure in film for half a century. Their genius (and that of the film’s own godfather, producer Robert Evans) was to reinvent these criminals as a dysfunctional dynastic psychodrama.

They took the figure of the ageing don as seriously as Lear, the careworn ruler of a secret American state-within-a-state. Stomach-turning flourishes of violence are juxtaposed with elaborate rituals of familial piety and respect, which generations of real-life criminals in the United States treated as how-to behaviour manuals for decades afterwards. These Italian-American gangsters do not complain about the bigotry heading their way, and are themselves casually racist and antisemitic. Extravagant gestures of romantic adoration and solemn respect for womenfolk are combined with casual sexual abuse; and women have to reconcile themselves to their role: a pretext for revenge. (A tour guide in Sicily once told me that the word “mafia” is taken from the Italian phrase “ non toccare ma figlia” – don’t touch my daughter – an explanation I have yet to see confirmed anywhere else.) There is a toxic chill to the film’s opening speech, from a local undertaker piteously demanding the Don take revenge on his behalf against two over-privileged white boys who have raped and disfigured his daughter. Many cannot forgive this film for sentimentalising mob violence with this fantasy rationale.

Marlon Brando is as hypnotic as a cobra playing ageing gangster patriarch Vito Corleone, his cottonwool jowl-padding giving something extra to that unmistakable adenoidal wheeze. He is hosting a colossal family wedding for his daughter Connie (Talia Shire): a magnificent set-piece scene that itself has more energy, detail and dramatic interest than most entire films. The don will, with stately calm and an upheld finger, like a cardinal or the Pope himself, listen to murmured information or advice in his ear. Vito’s wife Carmela (a name that reverberated in the later 90s era of The Sopranos) says little or nothing. Vito’s aggressive hothead son Sonny (James Caan) is at the party, a married man furtively having sex with a bridesmaid; present also is the weakling son Fredo (John Cazale), who is drunk in an undignified, undisciplined way. But the old don is pining for his favourite son, Michael (a stunningly charismatic performance from Al Pacino), a decorated second world war veteran with no interest in the family business. Michael shows up late, handsome in his uniform: indicating the transferable military skills. With him is his wasp fiancee Kay (Diane Keaton).

Vito’s trusted consigliere , Tom Hagen, is the unofficial son: a brilliant, atypically self-effacing performance from Robert Duvall . It is quiet Tom who is to supervise, off-camera, the film’s most diabolical act of violence: kidnapping the racehorse (Godfather superfans will know the horse’s name) belonging to a Hollywood producer who has to be intimidated into giving a role to the Don’s Sinatra-esque godson Johnny Fontane (Al Martino), drugging it, cutting off its head and placing it in the sleeping man’s bed. Eerily, this producer (played by Cassavetes veteran John Marley) had the night before given an impassioned speech denouncing Fontane’s ruination of an innocent actress, a weird echo of the undertaker’s speech to the don about his daughter.

But all this is the calm before the storm, as the crime families’ peace accord disintegrates, with the coming of drugs. Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) offers Vito a piece of his growing new heroin business; the don refuses, apparently because he disapproves of this evil trade, or perhaps because he thinks his cut isn’t big enough. Affronted by the refusal and suspecting the Corleones simply intend to launch an attack for all of his business, Sollozzo’s men launch a pre-emptive strike, shooting Vito as he buys oranges from a market, and of course pathetic, incompetent Fredo is unable to protect his father. (Again: Godfather superfans can tell you which Jake LaMotta fight is being advertised on the poster in the background of this shot.) And as Vito lies in hospital, having miraculously survived, it is Michael who realises at this moment that his destiny is to abandon his claim to the respectable American dream and take over the family business. It is to culminate in the now legendary sequence in which Michael becomes a godfather to his sister’s child and the baptismal service is intercut with nightmarish vignettes showing the slaying of all the rival bosses. The point of course being: this is Michael’s own baptism.

Coppola’s epic storytelling sweep is magnificent: there is an electric charge in simply the shift from New York to California to Sicily and back to New York. This is the top-down approach to gangsters, the “great man” theory of organised crime. Later movies such as Scorsese’s Goodfellas will emphasise the more ragged lower ranks (although Paul Sorvino’s Paulie Cicero insists on the Corleone-esque murmuring in the ear) and David Chase’s The Sopranos showed the Italian-American mob in decline. My own view is that one of the greatest post-Godfather movies is Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral, which lays out the hellish sense of self-replicating sin and shame in the criminal world.

Coppola was to follow his epic masterpiece with the equally ambitious and audacious The Godfather Part II , a sequel/prequel that is often thought of as even better. Brilliant though that second film is, I think the original will always have the edge in its simplicity, clarity and brutal power.

The Godfather
Francis Ford Coppola
Marlon Brando
Film adaptations
Crime films
Diane Keaton

The Godfather Review

24 Aug 1972

175 minutes

Godfather, The

It could be argued that Francis Ford Coppola's film of Mario Puzo's bestseller, at once an art movie and a commercial blockbuster, marked the dawn of the age of the mega-movie. Appropriately, the film is about a similar transition in organised crime, as the gentlemanly but sinister world of Don Vito (Brando) is eclipsed by the more brutal and expedient organisation represented by the doomed Sonny (Caan) and the calculating Michael (Pacino).

The old gangster movie is represented by Richard Conte and Sterling Hayden in bit parts, while Brando's cotton-cheeked patriarch represents everything about old Hollywood that Coppola aspired to. The younger generation is represented by the then fresh, exciting talents who remain respected names in their profession (Pacino, Robert Duvall, Caan, Diane Keaton). This is a film that has entered popular culture: even if you've never seen it, you know the lines ("Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes"), and some of the scenes (the horse's head). But there's more to it than moments imprinted on the psyche.

With a period setting evoked by amber-tinted photography and Nino Rota's elegantly decadent score, The Godfather has dated a lot less than most films of the early 70s. It paces itself deliberately, making its moments of action and horror more telling for the leisurely paths it weaves between them. With performances, style and substance to savour, this shows how it is possible to smash box office records without being mindless.

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"The Godfather," which opened at five theaters here yesterday, is a superb Hollywood movie that was photographed mostly in New York (with locations in Las Vegas, Sicily and Hollywood). It's the gangster melodrama come-of-age, truly sorrowful and truly exciting, without the false piety of the films that flourished 40 years ago, scaring the delighted hell out of us while cautioning that crime doesn't (or, at least, shouldn't) pay.

It still doesn't, but the punishments suffered by the members of the Corleone Family aren't limited to sudden ambushes on street corners or to the more elaborately choreographed assassinations on thruways. They also include life-long sentences of ostracism in terrible, bourgeois confinement, of money and power but of not much more glory than can be obtained by the ability to purchase expensive bedroom suites, the kind that include everything from the rug on the floor to the pictures on the wall with, perhaps, a horrible satin bedspread thrown in.

Yet "The Godfather" is not quite that simple. It was Mr. Puzo's point, which has been made somehow more ambiguous and more interesting in the film, that the experience of the Corleone Family, as particular as it is, may be the mid-20th-century equivalent of the oil and lumber and railroad barons of 19th-century America. In the course of the 10 years of intra-Mafia gang wars (1945-1955) dramatized by the film, the Corleones are, in fact, inching toward social and financial respectability.

For the Corleones, the land of opportunity is America the Ugly, in which almost everyone who is not Sicilian or, more narrowly, not a Corleone, is a potential enemy. Mr. Coppola captures this feeling of remoteness through the physical look of place and period, and through the narrative's point of view. "The Godfather" seems to take place entirely inside a huge smoky plastic dome, through which the Corleones see our real world only dimly.

Thus, at the crucial meeting of Mafia families, when the decision is made to take over the hard drug market, one old don argues in favor, saying he would keep the trade confined to blacks--"they are animals anyway."

This is all the more terrifying because, within their isolation, there is such a sense of love and honor, no matter how bizarre.

The film is affecting for many reasons, including the return of Marlon Brando, who has been away only in spirit, as Don Vito Corleone, the magnificent, shrewd, old Corleone patriarch. It's not a large role, but he is the key to the film, and to the contributions of all of the other performers, so many actors that it is impossible to give everyone his due.

Some, however, must be cited, especially Al Pacino, as the college-educated son who takes over the family business and becomes, in the process, an actor worthy to have Brando as his father; as well as James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Al Lettieri, Abe Vigoda, Gianni Russo, Al Martino and Morgana King. Mr. Coppola has not denied the characters' Italian heritage (as can be gathered by a quick reading of the cast), and by emphasizing it, he has made a movie that transcends its immediate milieu and genre.

"The Godfather" plays havoc with the emotions as the sweet things of life--marriages, baptisms, family feasts--become an inextricable part of the background for explicitly depicted murders by shotgun, garrote, machine gun and booby-trapped automobile. The film is about an empire run from a dark, suburban Tudor palace where people, in siege, eat out of cardboard containers while babies cry and get under foot. It is also more than a little disturbing to realize that characters, who are so moving one minute, are likely, in the next scene, to be blowing out the brains of a competitor over a white tablecloth. It's nothing personal, just their way of doing business as usual.

Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, Diane Keaton and Al Lettieri.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola; screenplay by Mario Puzo and Mr. Coppola, based on the novel by Mr. Puzo; director of photography, Gordon Willis; editors, William Reynolds and Peter Zinner; music composed by Nino Rota; produced by Albert S. Ruddy; distributed by Paramount Pictures. Running time: 175 minutes. At Loew's State I and II.

Paramount Pictures

Summary Francis Ford Coppola's epic features Marlon Brando in his Oscar-winning role as the patriarch of the Corleone family. Director Coppola paints a chilling portrait of the Sicilian clan's rise and near fall from power in America, masterfully balancing the story between the Corleone's family life and the ugly crime business in which they are ... Read More

Directed By : Francis Ford Coppola

Written By : Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola

The Godfather

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The godfather.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 59 Reviews
Kids Say 195 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

By Elliot Panek , based on child development research. How do we rate?

The classic tale of a Mafia family, violence and all.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 16+?

Constant mob movie violence. Characters shot and killed, often at close range an

"Bastards," "goddamn," "son of a bitch," "ass," "hell," "bitch." Sonny uses the

Brief nudity (breasts), brief sex scene (fully clothed). At Connie's wedding, wo

Wine drinking. Cigarette smoking. Talk of marijuana and heroin, and of the Mafia

Any Positive Content?

Movie explores double standards and hypocrisy of the Mafia characters, as they p

Positive aspects of Italian American life and culture are overshadowed by Mafia

The Godfather relies on -- and firmly cemented in the public's mind -- the stere

Violence & Scariness

Constant mob movie violence. Characters shot and killed, often at close range and graphic. Attempted killings by gun. Characters choked to death. Character killed by a bomb in a car. Man stabbed in the hand with a knife. Domestic abuse: man shown beating his wife with a belt. Opening scene concerns a man asking Don Corleone for vengeance on two men who raped and violently beat his daughter. Movie executive wakes up covered in blood, with decapitated horse head in his bed.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Bastards," "goddamn," "son of a bitch," "ass," "hell," "bitch." Sonny uses the "N" word at the dinner table. Mafia don equates Black people with "animals." Ethnic slurs are used to describe German, Irish, and especially Italian Americans. Vito uses an Italian homosexual slur.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Brief nudity (breasts), brief sex scene (fully clothed). At Connie's wedding, women at a table giggle while one makes reference to the size of Sonny's penis. Sonny is shown having sex with his mistress -- in their clothes, but audible. Reference to how Fredo is "banging cocktail waitresses two at a time."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Wine drinking. Cigarette smoking. Talk of marijuana and heroin, and of the Mafia moving into drug trafficking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Movie explores double standards and hypocrisy of the Mafia characters, as they profess to be religious, and family- and friend-centered, but their actions ultimately come down to "just business," no matter who gets hurt or killed. As in other Godfather movies, a theme is hypocrisy of American life: People successful and/or religious and family-oriented on one level are also cutthroat, willing to do whatever is necessary to provide for their families.

Positive Role Models

Positive aspects of Italian American life and culture are overshadowed by Mafia killings and double-crossing.

Diverse Representations

The Godfather relies on -- and firmly cemented in the public's mind -- the stereotype of Italian Americans as violent gangsters. Despite this, characters are shown with depth. Southern Italian and Sicilian culture, as it was brought over by immigrants from late 19th and early 20th century, is shown at length.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that The Godfather is the classic, genre-defining Mafia movie in which Marlon Brando plays the titular character, who's facing grave threats from rival families. Unsurprisingly, there's constant violence. Characters are shot and killed, often at close range in graphic scenes. Characters are strangled to death and die in car explosions. Domestic abuse is shown: A man beats his wife with a belt. In one of many iconic scenes, a movie executive wakes up covered in blood, with a decapitated horse's head in his bed. In the opening scene, a man asks Don Corleone for vengeance after two men raped and beat his daughter. Ethnic and racial slurs are heard, as well as some profanity, including the "N" word. The movie also depicts Italian American culture in a sympathetic but crude and stereotypical light. Characters smoke cigarettes and drink wine, and there's brief nudity (female breasts) and a scene of clothed but audible sex. References are made to the sexual behavior of Sonny ( James Caan ) and Fredo ( John Cazale ). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (59)
Kids say (195)

Based on 59 parent reviews

Violence, mafia and brief nudity it is still as must watch for everybody

Slow and methodical masterpiece depiction of sociopathy, what's the story.

THE GODFATHER follows the Corleone family and their rapidly multiplying troubles. Don Corleone ( Marlon Brando ) is on his way out, and his most promising, but unwilling, potential heir is his war-hero son, Michael ( Al Pacino ). As family members cope with the trials of gangster life, the latent power structures of society and family become evident.

Is It Any Good?

Epic in scope while maintaining a patience and intimacy characteristic of European art cinema, this film is rightly considered one of the greatest ever made. Despite valid questions around its role in perpetuating stereotypes of Italian Americans, The Godfather continues to influence producers of films, TV shows, and video games decades after its release. Nino Rota's score, the sumptuous set design, and Brando's raspy pseudo-whisper have become part of our collective cultural memory.

The film has an operatic quality, yet it's more understated than it is flamboyant. It takes its subjects seriously, bestowing legitimacy upon the power struggles of the Mafia normally reserved for classical themes in high art. The film's release initiated a period when American filmmakers dared to take themselves and their artistic ambitions seriously (perhaps too seriously). There's something deeply resonant in the film's treatment of filial piety, the need for respect, and our culture's abiding interest in the parallel moral universe of the Mafia.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about classic movies. The Godfather is considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time. What makes a movie not only great, but a classic? How do you think it set the standard for the Mafia movies and TV shows to come?

How does the movie's violence serve to show what these characters are capable of in order to get what they want?

How does the movie explore hypocrisy, not only among the Corleones, but in society as a whole?

How does the movie depict Italian Americans? Do you think this was accurate? How do movies like this shape how people think about specific cultures and groups of people?

Movie Details

In theaters : March 11, 1972
On DVD or streaming : May 9, 2017
Cast : Al Pacino , James Caan , Marlon Brando
Director : Francis Ford Coppola
Studio : Paramount Pictures
Genre : Drama
Topics : History
Run time : 175 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : Violence, Language
Last updated : April 23, 2024

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The 60 Best Movies Of All Time

“no other gangster film ever did”: the godfather has 1 surprising secret to success, coppola says, genius star wars theory reveals rey's secret force power can tie two new movies together.

The Godfather movies, particularly The Godfather Part II, are iconic representations of the gangster genre, featuring exceptional performances and compelling narratives.
The newly released version of The Godfather Part III, called The Godfather Coda, addresses many of the flaws of the original, improving the film's narrative integrity and ending.
The original 1972 release of The Godfather remains the best in the trilogy, exemplifying the legacy of the Corleone clan and showcasing Michael Corleone's transformation into a cold-blooded killer.

The Godfather movies are considered among the greatest movies ever made, but which Godfather movie is best? Based on Mario Puzo’s bestselling crime novel, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy has had an indelible mark on cinema, changing the way in which mob dramas are made and perceived. In addition to stellar performances and taut narrative storytelling, The Godfather movie's success as a whole can be attributed to its underlying themes — mainly the warped version of the American Dream. An unforgettable manifesto on organized crime, The Godfather and The Godfather Part II , in particular, have been deemed prime representations of the gangster genre.

Exceptionally well-written characters superbly cast like Al Pacino's Michael Corleone helped The Godfather secure legendary status as the textbook American Gangster movie. The theme of family is also a powerful aspect of these movies with the contrast between Vito Corleone and his son Michael offering a captivating, heartbreaking, and brilliant framing for much of the series. Even the third movie, which doesn't have the same legacy, has been made better by Coppola’s newest cut of The Godfather III , Keeping this in mind, which Godfather movie is best?

A collection of characters from the greatest movies of all time including Woody the Cowboy from Toy Story, the Godfather, and Frodo Baggins

Screen Rant breaks down the best movies of all time, from old classics to modern masterpieces across multiple genres of cinema.

4 The Godfather Part III (1990)

The godfather part iii.

Considered the weakest link in the trilogy of Godfather movies, The Godfather Part III was heavily criticized for its convoluted plot and Sofia Coppola’s awkward performance as Mary Corleone in The Godfather Part III cast . All valid critiques, but it's important to note that The Godfather Part III was originally intended by both Coppola and Puzo as an epilogue, and not a grand finale. Due to unavoidable circumstantial reasons and Universal’s insistence on framing the movie as a conclusive piece, The Godfather III suffered from a narrative standpoint. Unfortunately, a flaw that was exacerbated by several unimpressive performances and long-drawn-out introductory sequences that marred the pacing of the movie.

While Coppola’s new rendition, The Coda Cut , addresses some of these flaws, it is crucial to consider the merit of The Godfather III 's reception in its own right. Al Pacino’s performance as a lost, broken, and increasingly guilt-ridden Michael Corleone adds more layers to the character, and it's interesting to witness the trajectory of the new Corleone head, Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia), as he navigates the same trappings as those before him. There’s also the issue of the absence of Robert Duvall as Corleone consigliere Tom Hagen, which hampers the final installment, and the strong critical dislike when it came to Sofia Coppola’s wooden performance as Mary.

Although Sofia Coppola went on to become a masterful director in her own right, while not allowing harsh criticism of her role as Mary to get to her, it is also important to note that it must’ve been immensely difficult for her to assume last-minute responsibility on a project of such magnitude (Winona Ryder was originally cast as Mary in The Godfather Part III ). Nonetheless, due to a mixture of these factors, and much more, the problematic The Godfather III ranks lowest in the trilogy. While The Godfather Part III isn't the best Godfather movie, the threequel was still nominated for seven Academy Awards.

3 The Godfather, Coda: The Death Of Michael Corleone (2020)

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone staring intently into the camera in The Godfather 3

Coppola is no stranger to revisiting his creations over time, as exemplified in the multiple renditions of his Vietnam masterpiece, Apocalypse Now . The criticisms surrounding The Godfather Part III were finally addressed through the recent release of a new cut, named The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone , through which Coppola aimed to mold the third installment more as a fitting epilogue to the saga, as opposed to a grand conclusion that the film was popularly expected to be. The Godfather Coda does not differ wildly from the original, although the changes made massively improve the film.

This is especially true in the case of Michael’s journey, whose deeper motivations are spelled out more in the Godfather Part III: Coda cut, tracing his arc as a man doomed to suffer the repercussions of his actions as mob boss over the years. Coppola fixes the original’s meandering plot by editing it into a much shorter film, mainly via shuffling key scene sequences and altering the beginning and the end altogether. These creative decisions undoubtedly improve the narrative integrity of the film, as it leads with a strong opening featuring a key conversation between Michael and Archbishop Gilday. By positioning this exchange as the opening sequence, Coppola clarifies Michael’s stance as someone seeking legitimacy and redemption, two concepts that elude him right up till the end.

Another crucial change in The Godfather III is the new cut’s ending , which ends instead with Michael’s anguished scream when he finds that his only source of comfort and hope, his daughter Mary, has been shot dead as a result of his sins. Utterly broken and forever lost, Michael undergoes a spiritual death instead of a literal one, which grants his story a more urgent tint, while greatly improving upon the core narrative thread that unifies the final installment. This also means that audience don't see the widely ridiculed prosthetics on Al Pacino when Michael dies in the original, which brings the film's quality closer to the best Godfather movie.

2 The Godfather Part II (1974)

The Godfather Part II

The successor to the genre-altering The Godfather was one that evoked nostalgia for a lost era, heightened by the film’s moody, atmospheric tint and mournful musical score. The Godfather Part II excels on various fronts, especially from a narrative standpoint, as the film chronicles the Corleone regime, built on murder, extortion, and ruthless will with startling emotional depth. The movie was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including three different actors competing for Best Supporting Actor. The Godfather Part II went on to win five of those nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for Robert De Niro.

The Godfather Part II flashes back to Don Vito’s story featuring Robert De Niro's Oscar-winning Godfather Part II performance as Vito. The Godfather Part II is an interesting look into the past that shaped Vito into the man he is in The Godfather , and then moves on to Michael losing the remaining shreds of his morality, as he has embarked upon a journey that can never warrant him peace. A strange duality pervades the film, urging audiences to critically evaluate the actions of the men center place within the saga, while also witnessing them slowly descend into empty shells of who they were.

This gives to a powerful sense of catharsis with the purging of pity and fear, especially when Michael’s journey is contrasted with that of his father. The latter’s existence is still steeped in suffering despite the upholding of certain values that made Don Corleone the man he was. Paying the way for movies and shows like Goodfellas and The Sopranos, the sheer brilliance of The Godfather II culminates in a now-iconic sequence, in which Michael grants Fredo the kiss of death on learning about his act of betrayal — a scene that feels especially heavy in retrospect.

1 The Godfather (1972)

The godfather (1972).

Aptly the godfather of gangster shows and movies, the original 1972 release is still the best Godfather movie. The movie won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Marlon Brando. The start of The Godfather trilogy brought Mario Puzo’s vision to life, chronicling a tale entrenched in diasporic politics and emotional quandaries, allowing audiences to empathize with the characters despite being acutely aware of their morally doubtful acts. The movie exemplifies the legacy of the Corleone clan, established through characters like Don Vito, Tom Hagen, and Sonny.

The 1972 movie also marks the inception of the metamorphosis of Michael Corleone in The Godfather 's treacherous gangster world as he resembles his father in more ways than one. However, with time, an almost cruel ruthlessness embodies Michael, which can be attributed to his plurality of vision when it comes to reconciling two distinct cultures - the American way and his own Italian traditions. This culminates after the death of Apollonia, after which Michael comes to internalize the Mafia mob gangster ethos, which includes the concepts of justified vendetta, honor, and omertà (law of silence).

Michael’s transition from, “ That’s my family, Kay. Not me ”, to a cold-blooded killer is horrifying to behold, especially when he murders Sollozzo and McClusky in cold blood in the restaurant, through whom he assumes great power to the point of alienating those who love him. Dripping with grandeur, tragedy, doomed romances, and high-stakes drama, The Godfather remains unparalleled within The Godfather saga, granting it the much-deserved status of critical acclaim.

Why The Canceled Godfather IV Never Happened

Al Pacino sitting in a chair in The Godfather Part II.

Francis Ford Coppola very nearly made The Godfather IV , but the fourth Godfather movie only got as far as a script. The Godfather IV was in the early stages of development in the late '90s. A pre-Scorsese Leonardo DiCaprio was discussed as an option for portraying the young Sonny Corleone, and De Niro's involvement was also rumored. However, when Godfather author Mario Puzo passed away in 1999, Coppola decided to retire the series. Work on The Godfather IV, which would have been a prequel, was abruptly halted. Paramount again tried to push forward with a Godfather IV prequel movie in 2012, but they were unsuccessfully sued by Puzo's estate.

Despite winning the rights to turn a posthumously released 2012 novel, The Family Corleone (written by Ed Falco based on a Puzo screenplay), into a movie, Paramount never pushed forward with the project. There has been more Godfather content released since the Coda cut, so fans aren't completely left wanting. The Offer series on Paramount+ dramatizes the production of The Godfather, covering how the best Godfather movie made it from Coppola and Puzo's imagination to screens. Yet even with its iconic status, it is best to leave The Godfather franchise as it is.

The Godfather

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Newly Re-Edited, “The Godfather: Part III” Is the Masterpiece It Already Was

There’s a Serbian proverb that an idled priest would baptize goats; Francis Ford Coppola , whose formidable artistry has unfortunately not been channelled toward making a new movie for quite a while, is instead turning back to tinker with his earlier work. He did so last year with “Apocalypse Now” and has now done so again, to greater effect, with “The Godfather: Part III.” It’s back, in his new cut (available digitally and on Blu-ray) under the heavy-duty new title “Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.” The re-edited version is a puckish paradox: it is only slightly different from the original—yet, now, this movie, which was widely derided at the time of its release, in 1990, is being acclaimed by a (mainly) new generation of critics, even if not quite as the masterwork that some of us knew it to be from the start.

As a reminder, “The Godfather: Part II” ended with Michael (Al Pacino) supreme, guilt-ridden, and alone atop the Corleone empire of crime, which he resolves to leave and go straight. In “Part III,” Michael, having divested himself of his criminal enterprises, makes a six-hundred-million-dollar “contribution” to cover up the Vatican Bank’s losses in exchange for a promise to head the Vatican’s vastly lucrative international real-estate business. His son, Anthony (Franc D’Ambrosio), defies him to become an opera singer; his daughter, Mary (Sofia Coppola), who runs his entirely legitimate family foundation, falls in love with the hotheaded gangster Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia), her first cousin. (He’s the illegitimate son of Michael’s late brother Sonny.) Vincent’s conflict with a local Mafia capo, Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna), leads to a Mob war that threatens the Corleones, forcing Michael to retake bloody control of the crime family. Meanwhile, Michael’s promised Vatican enterprise is threatened by the Vatican’s internal political chicanery—which turns out to be equally dominated by the Mafia—and the two webs of criminal conflict get tangled up in a colossal and horrific maelstrom of violence.

New Yorker writers reflect on the year’s highs and lows.

In the new version, the story is identical; so, for that matter, are its emphases. The main changes to the film are seen at the beginning, where Coppola has eliminated the sumptuous papal knighting of Michael and replaced it with an in-chambers discussion between Michael and Archbishop Gilday (Donal Donnelly), which sets the quid pro quo of his “contribution.” In the middle of the film, Coppola has eliminated a brief scene between Michael and the aged Don Altobello (Eli Wallach). The one emotionally and dramatically significant re-edit is to the movie’s very ending—we’ll get to that. Yet over all, these edits are inconsequential both for the plot or the affect of “The Godfather: Part III,” and it’s hard to imagine why a viewer who disliked the film in its original version would be moved to enthusiasm by the new one, or why anyone who admired the original would be disappointed by the recut. The real story of the reissue and restoration of “Part III” is, rather, why the film was received so poorly in 1990 and why, now, with negligible adjustments, its time has come.

There’s a carefully parsed opulence to Coppola’s direction of “Part III”; the film’s tautly controlled turbulence guides the eye to salient details, its clarified lines of dramatic tension calmly burst into images of an explosive yet nearly static intensity. I’m haunted by several key moments in the film (both versions): Michael looming over Joey Zasa in their first backroom confrontation; the quietly fiery intimacy between Mary and Vincent in a restaurant-kitchen scene; the deadly exchange of glances between Mary and Michael after Vincent pushes her away on his orders; the gory ingenuity of an attempted bedroom hit on Vincent; the audacious staging of another gory scene, of a big Mob hit in a ballroom; and, above all, the kitchen scene in which Michael keeps his cool about the killings but delivers, with heat, the single greatest line in the whole “Godfather” cycle, an enduring bit of existential poetry: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”

Coppola had made other films in between “Part II” and “Part III” that are far ahead of where he’d been at the time of the early-seventies diptych—in particular, “ One from the Heart ,” “ Tucker: The Man and His Dream ,” and “Rumble Fish.” They weren’t commercially successful (and he had sunk his own money into “One from the Heart,” which was both thrillingly original and a box-office disaster). In his subsequent career to date, Coppola has had only one other flare of such audacious and original directorial accomplishment, the absurd and glorious image-frenzy of the film he made after “Part III,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” from 1992, which may also have been the last best flourish of practical, optical, scenographic effects, just ahead of the C.G.I. revolution. By contrast,“The Godfather: Part III” is directed quite as well as the first two films in the series—no differently and no better, which is a terrible thing to say about a sixteen-year span in the career of a great filmmaker. On the other hand, the stylistic continuity among the three installments is one of the reasons for “Part III” ’s belated acclaim, now, with its reissue. The kind of romantic classicism that Coppola’s grandiose and meticulous style embodies—along with its conspicuous professionalism—is very much in vogue now, owing both to nostalgia for a time, so recent yet so distant, when Hollywood made such substantial movies on such high budgets, and to the generalized shift (at a time when a mere foothold on stability in the arts is woefully rare) from idealizing the struggling outsider to hailing the insider who has found or forged a place in the world.

The difference between “Part III” and the first two films isn’t in style; it’s that, with the third film, Coppola was passionately interested in his subject. The first two “Godfathers,” made during the age of the Vietnam War and Watergate, reflect a generalized recognition that American self-congratulatory mythology was a hollow veneer; they tore away the veil of civic virtue to show that gangsters are us, that corporate power and Mafia power were indissociable. In “Part III,” Coppola did with and to the Catholic Church what he’d previously done with and to American mythology. Where “Part I” and “Part II” tapped into a general Zeitgeist of disillusionment (which accounts significantly for its success), “Part III,” though a box-office success, is a much more personal film, with a political and emotional engine that is Coppola’s alone. In “Part III,” Coppola challenges the religion in which he was raised; he confronts the rituals of the Church, the hierarchy on which it depends, the virtual cult of personality—running in a chain from the parish priest to the archbishop to the Pope—on which it is based, and even the Church’s very notion of a mediated relationship to God. (It’s no coincidence that the movie’s voice of conscience is Michael’s ex-wife, Kay, the daughter of a Baptist minister; she’s played by Diane Keaton.) The movie is an audacious, self-scourging drama of a crisis of faith.

The movie’s theological passion is inseparable from another, obviously personal aspect of the film, one that’s too painful and intimate even to discuss in detail: the crucial dramatization (spoiler alert!) of the death of a child and of the guilt that comes with a parent’s grief. It’s a horror that Coppola and his wife, the writer and filmmaker Eleanor Coppola, endured, with the death of their son Gian-Carlo, in a boating accident, in 1986; what’s more, Gian-Carlo had been part of the family business, working with Francis Ford Coppola on the production of “Gardens of Stone” at the time of his death. The death of Mary is “Part III” ’s climactic incident, its tragic culmination—but the role of Mary, played by Coppola’s daughter, Sofia, who was nineteen years old and a nonprofessional actor, was the focus of critical hostility toward the movie at the time of its release.

Sofia had appeared in bit parts in many of her father’s previous films but never in a major dramatic role. In “Part III,” she was called on at the last minute to replace one of the most acclaimed young actors of the time, Winona Ryder, who withdrew from the role of Mary because of illness. Sofia Coppola’s performance was wrongly, absurdly, frenetically reviled by many critics at the time of the film’s release (though not by Pauline Kael , who wrote, in The New Yorker , that Coppola “has a lovely and unusual presence; she gives the film a breath of life” and added, “I grew to like her.”) Her tremulously expressive performance, which seemed so idiosyncratically low-key and indeed unusual, comes off now as utterly contemporary, in the same vein as the younger generation of actors who have populated Sofia Coppola’s own films and many low-budget independent films of the past decade.

The dreadful scene of Mary’s death moves swiftly to the ending of “Part III,” and that ending, in “The Godfather, Coda,” is indeed radically—yet infinitesimally—different. Despite the new title of the new version, Michael doesn’t die. The aged Michael, sitting alone in his garden in Sicily, doesn’t keel over; instead, he is condemned to live—and to remember—as a newly added title card explains, with wry and bitter irony, that “a Sicilian never forgets.” (Moreover, in the original, flashbacks show the aged Michael recalling Mary and his other loves in their youth, including Kay and his first wife, Apollonia; in the recut, his thoughts are only of Mary.) In 1990, with “Part III,” Coppola, barely in his fifties, imagined the consolation and the deliverance of death, and endured a cinematic terror that played like his “To be or not to be” moment, his confrontation with the horrific prospect that death would nonetheless be no relief. Now, thirty years later, Michael is cursed with a long life—and has borne the long sentence of too much time on his hands, too much time to fill with one tormenting memory. Coppola has remade the ending to fold himself back, agonizingly, into the very substance of the film.

2020 in Review

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Michael Schulman on ten great performances .

“Mank,” Reviewed: David Fincher’s Impassioned Dive Into Hollywood Politics

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Famed ‘Godfather’ director wants new movie to avoid being ‘some woke Hollywood' lecture

Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola defended his upcoming film, "Megalopolis" in an interview as one that features actors from a variety of political backgrounds. The filmmaker's goal is to avoid having the movie "deemed some woke Hollywood production that’s simply lecturing viewers."

Coppola, famous for films such as "The Godfather" series, as well as "Apocalypse Now" and "Bram Stoker’s Dracula," recently gave an interview about his upcoming futuristic epic, "Megalopolis," which will be released in September.

The passion project, into which Coppola has reportedly invested $120 million of his own fortune after pondering it for decades, will feature a wide range of famous actors, including Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Shia LaBeouf, and many more.

During an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, the magazine’s senior editor David Fear noted, "You cast Jon Voight in a role that bears a strong resemblance to Donald Trump, and I’m going to guess that there are some political viewpoints he holds that you don’t share."

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA DEBUTS 'MEGALOPOLIS' IN CANNES, AND THE REVIEWS ARE IN

Coppola offered a candid response, "What I didn’t want to happen is that we’re deemed some woke Hollywood production that’s simply lecturing viewers. The cast features people who were canceled at one point or another. There were people who are archconservatives and others who are extremely politically progressive. But we were all working on one film together. That was interesting, I thought."

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Fear later suggested that "'Megalopolis' is a film about the death and rebirth of a republic. And I think it’s safe to say that I feel like our republic is as close to being within its death throes—"

"As it’s ever been. Yes," Coppola agreed. "Maybe the War of 1812. That was dicey, too. They burned the White House."

The Internet Movie Database summarized the film as being one about how "The city of New Rome is the main conflict between Cesar Catilina, a brilliant artist in favor of a utopian future, and the greedy mayor Franklyn Cicero. Between them is Julia Cicero, her loyalty divided between her father and her beloved."

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Coppola explained further to the interviewer that he wants his "hopeful" film to provoke a conversation among Americans about their political divide and what the future of their country might look like.

LIONSGATE PULLS FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA'S ‘MEGALOPOLIS’ TRAILER OVER FABRICATED CRITICS QUOTES

"This steers me toward politics, and my publicist will yell at me if I start talking about politics," the director said as he laughed. "This movie won’t cure our ills. But I honestly believe that what will save us is the fact that we’ve got to talk about the future."

He went on to suggest, "We want to be able to ask any questions we have to ask in order to really look at why this country is divided right now, and that’s going to provide an energy that will defeat those people who want to destroy our republic. I made this film to contribute to that. And all I want is for this movie to start a conversation. You can’t have a utopia without a conversation."

Original article source: Famed ‘Godfather’ director wants new movie to avoid being ‘some woke Hollywood' lecture

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The Sydney Morning Herald

There’s a new generation of cinema lovers. if only they knew how to behave, by nell geraets, save articles for later.

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I’ve always believed the cinema is a sacred place for movie lovers. Like any hallowed space, it comes with a set of unspoken rules: keep your phone tucked away and your thoughts to yourself until the end of the film. So, you can understand my horror when I saw someone whip out their phone in the middle of a Melbourne International Film Festival screening last week to write a review on the film-focused social network Letterboxd.

The perpetrator, dressed in a Pulp Fiction t-shirt, was seated beside me during a screening of the political satire Rumours . It was at about the 40-minute mark that he began writing the review, his phone’s light glaring into my face. All of a sudden, I was completely disengaged from the fictional world I had been enjoying. Instead, my eyes were drawn to this random man’s screen and his lukewarm takes.

Letterboxd created the “film bro”. Now, film bros are ruining the cinema. Credit: Compiled by Aresna Villanueva

This was only one of many disruptions during the festival and other recent screenings. While watching David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds , parts of the crowd would chat and laugh – nay, guffaw – during poignant or serious scenes, entirely ruining the tone of the film. During the horror Cuckoo , large groups were still filtering into the cinema 20 minutes into the movie, shining phone flashlights into faces as they searched for rows empty enough to seat their entire flock.

These disgraceful acts were usually committed by the same type of person: film bros, aka bearded guys in film tees who berate you for thinking The Godfather III is actually enjoyable. While film bros have always existed, there appears to be a new breed, largely Gen Z and Gen Alpha fans that don’t have much respect for the cinema space itself. It’s instead treated as a performative and competitive space to deliver the hottest take and rack up reviews in real-time.

Intended as social media for film lovers, Letterboxd has inadvertently created legions of toxic film bros. Credit: Letterboxd

The culprit is arguably a combination of streaming, lockdowns and Letterboxd. Launched in 2011, Letterboxd is a platform where anyone can create movie lists, give films a star rating and publish their opinion. Sounds great, right? To a certain extent, it is. Letterboxd has created a global community for movie buffs, and has encouraged critical reflection on all sorts of films, not just mainstream flicks.

Its popularity surged during the lockdowns , when cinemas shuttered and film lovers had nowhere to go but online to discuss movies. In 2021, it had about 5 million users. By the end of 2023, it had over 11 million .

However, as more people joined the platform and used it more frequently, a darker side reared its head. It became an arena for feral competition and pointless one-upmanship between film bros, a space where liking Adam Sandler movies is sacrilege and titles like Fight Club are treated like a visual bible. Letterboxd gamified the movie-watching experience, challenging people to deliver the “hottest take” possible. Suddenly, star-ratings and witty (yet shallow) zingers were more important than the actual film itself.

Lockdowns have since ended, but Letterboxd remains as popular as ever. Those who were sucked into the Letterboxd game during the pandemic, and who became accustomed to streaming movies in the comfort of their own homes, are now going back to the cinema, which is generally a good thing (the industry has been doing it rough recently), but it also means they’re taking the habits they formed online to the real world.

Writing a review on Letterboxd halfway through a streaming movie is fine – the lights may be on, so it won’t distract people around you, and no one paid over $20 to watch the movie. Doing it in the middle of a pricey cinema screening? That should be punishable by deactivation of one’s Letterboxd account. The same goes for chatting during a movie, or rocking up significantly late. You can do whatever you want when streaming at home, but you should respect the shared experience of the cinema.

Letterboxd, like any social media platform, has also arguably normalised judgement within the movie community, as people compare reviews and ratings to determine who the “true” cinephile is. This was especially apparent when film bros laughed at an obnoxious volume during screenings. It was giving: “I understand this auteur’s vision better than the rest of you.” Again, cinema is a sacred shared experience, one that should unite everyone involved. Judgement, competition and alienation may be social media’s bread and butter, but not the cinema’s.

As relieved as I am to see people rediscovering the beauty of cinema after years of lockdowns, the last thing I want it to become is a real-world Letterboxd. So, let’s keep our phones (and opinions) off until lights up. Deal?

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday .

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‘Reagan’ the movie: Just say no

Dennis quaid stars in this interminable hagiography..

“Reagan” is the worst kind of hagiography. It’s a wretched 2½-hour bore that’s uncurious about its subject. This poorly constructed, hole-filled biopic is also so sanitized that it feels like Darryl Zanuck or Reagan’s old boss Jack Warner would have slapped it onscreen back in the 1940s.

I’m not surprised a movie about Reagan would lean so heavily into the myth of Saint Ronnie. I’m more stunned by the terrible performance of Dennis Quaid, an actor I’ve liked in many films from “The Right Stuff” to “Innerspace” to “Postcards from the Edge.” Made up to look like Reagan, Quaid instead resembles one of those puppets from Genesis’s “Land of Confusion” video ; the movie does him no favors by showing footage of that video at one point.

Even worse, Quaid’s Reagan lacks any of the spark the genuine article had in his heyday. The contrast is most blatant when the film forces him to act alongside actual footage of politicians like Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. At least Penelope Ann Miller manages to convey some of Nancy Reagan’s personality.

I don’t think Reagan himself could have saved this execrable, poorly made movie. It’s narrated by Jon Voight, who plays a fictionalized former Russian spy named Viktor Petrovich. It’s Petrovich’s job to school the young Russian who stands in for us, the audience, about Soviet history. Voight’s Russian accent is as bad as his Spanish one in the killer giant snake movie “Anaconda,” but at least that movie was fun.

Here, we have to listen to a guy who sounds like Bullwinkle’s nemesis, Boris Badenov, tell us about Reagan’s life from his earliest childhood days until his presidency. Petrovich refers to Reagan as “the Crusader,” presumably because this film is based on Paul Kengor’s 2006 book, “ The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism .”

“Reagan” is cast with a who’s who of has-beens and questionable choices. Creed’s Scott Stapp plays Frank Sinatra, Kevin Dillon has a small part as Jack Warner. Kevin Sorbo is the preacher who introduces Reagan to religion. And in a scene that must be seen to be believed, Pat Boone plays a reverend opposite an actor who is supposed to be him. The real Boone tells the fake Reagan that he’ll be president if he stays faithful to God.

The relentless religious message is here because this is a movie written by Howard Klausner, the guy who wrote 2018′s “God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness.” So, not only is this a biopic with the kind of clichés shredded by the parody “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” it’s also a pander to the Evangelicals who attend those “God’s Not Dead” movies.

This means you get to sit through self-righteous twaddle about how Reagan was ordained by Jesus to defeat those godless communists and student protesters at Berkeley. Though the movie sidesteps all the gay men who died of AIDS whom Reagan ignored in real life (and the Just Say No war on drugs campaign as well), it works the AIDS quilt and ACT UP protesters into a montage of things Petrovich says were enemies of Reagan.

Great movies can be made about polarizing figures — see Oliver Stone’s “Nixon” with its fantastic Anthony Hopkins performance. “Reagan” is too busy pushing a false sainthood to care about complexity.

Directed by Sean McNamara. Written by Howard Klausner. Starring Dennis Quaid, Penelope Ann Miller, Jon Voight, Scott Stapp, Pat Boone, Kevin Sorbo. At AMC Boston Common, suburbs. 140 min. PG-13 (violence)

Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.

The Godfather, Part II

Moving through the deep shadows and heavy glooms of his vast estate, Michael Corleone presides over the destruction of his own spirit in “The Godfather, Part II.” The character we recall from “ The Godfather ” as the best and brightest of Don Vito’s sons, the one who went to college and enlisted in the Marines, grows into a cold and ruthless man, obsessed with power. The film’s closing scenes give us first a memory of a long-ago family dinner, and then Michael at mid-life, cruel, closed, and lonely. He’s clearly intended as a tragic figure.

The Corleone saga, as painted by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo in two films totaling nearly seven hours, has been a sort of success story in reverse. In a crazy way, “The Godfather” and its sequel belong in the same category with those other epics of immigrant achievement in America, “ The Emigrants ” and “The New Land.” The Corleone family worked hard, was ambitious, remembered friends, never forgave disloyalty, and started from humble beginnings to become the most powerful Mafia organization in the country. If it were not that the family business was crime, these films could be an inspiration for us all.

Coppola seems to hold a certain ambivalence toward his material. Don Vito Corleone as portrayed by Marlon Brando in “The Godfather” was a man of honor and dignity, and it was difficult not to sympathize with him, playing with his grandchild in the garden, at peace after a long lifetime of murder, extortion, and the rackets. What exactly were we supposed to think about him? How did Coppola feel toward the Godfather?

“The Godfather, Part II” moves both forward and backward in time from the events in “The Godfather,” in an attempt to resolve our feelings about the Corleones. In doing so, it provides for itself a structural weakness from which the film never recovers, but it does something even more disappointing: It reveals a certain simplicity in Coppola’s notions of motivation and characterization that wasn’t there in the elegant masterpiece of his earlier film.

He gives us, first of all, the opening chapters in Don Vito’s life. His family is killed by a Mafia don in Sicily, he comes to America at the age of nine, he grows up (to be played by Robert De Niro ), and edges into a career of crime, first as a penny-ante crook and then as a neighborhood arranger and power broker: a man, as the movie never tires of reminding us, of respect.

This story, of Don Vito’s younger days, occupies perhaps a fourth of the film’s 200 minutes. Coppola devotes the rest to Michael Corleone, who has taken over the family’s business after his father’s death, has pulled out of New York, and consolidated operations in Nevada, and has ambitions to expand in Florida and Cuba. Michael is played, again and brilliantly, by Al Pacino , and among the other familiar faces are Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, the family’s lawyer; Diane Keaton as Michael’s increasingly despairing wife Kay; and John Cazale as the weak older brother Fredo.

Coppola handles a lot of this material very well. As in the earlier film, he reveals himself as a master of mood, atmosphere, and period. And his exposition is inventive and subtle. The film requires the intelligent participation of the viewer; as Michael attempts to discover who betrayed him and attempted his assassination, he tells different stories to different people, keeping his own counsel, and we have to think as he does so we can tell the truth from the lies.

Pacino is very good at suggesting the furies and passions that lie just beneath his character’s controlled exterior. He gives us a Michael who took over the family with the intention of making it “legitimate” in five years, but who is drawn more and more deeply into a byzantine web of deceit and betrayal, all papered over with code words like respect, honor, and gratitude. By the film’s end he has been abandoned by almost everyone except those who work for him and fear him, and he is a very lonely man.

But what was his sin? It was not, as we might have imagined or hoped, that he presided over a bloody enterprise of murder and destruction. No, Michael’s fault seems to be pride. He has lost the common touch, the dignity he should have inherited from his father. And because he has misplaced his humanity he must suffer.

Coppola suggests this by contrast. His scenes about Don Vito’s early life could almost be taken as a campaign biography, and in the most unfortunate flashbacks we’re given the young Vito intervening on behalf of a poor widow who is being evicted from her apartment. The don seems more like a precinct captain than a gangster, and we’re left with the unsettling impression that Coppola thinks things would have turned out all right for Michael if he’d had the old man’s touch.

The flashbacks give Coppola the greatest difficulty in maintaining his pace and narrative force. The story of Michael, told chronologically and without the other material, would have had really substantial impact, but Coppola prevents our complete involvement by breaking the tension. The flashbacks to New York in the early 1900s have a different, a nostalgic tone, and the audience has to keep shifting gears. Coppola was reportedly advised by friends to forget the Don Vito material and stick with Michael, and that was good advice.

There’s also some evidence in the film that Coppola never completely mastered the chaotic mass of material in his screenplay. Some scenes seem oddly pointless (why do we get almost no sense of Michael’s actual dealings in Cuba, but lots of expensive footage about the night of Castro’s takeover?), and others seem not completely explained (I am still not quite sure who really did order that attempted garroting in the Brooklyn saloon).

What we’re left with, then, are a lot of good scenes and good performances set in the midst of a mass of undisciplined material and handicapped by plot construction that prevents the story from ever really building.

There is, for example, the brilliant audacity of the first communion party for Michael’s son, which Coppola directs as counterpoint to the wedding scene that opened “The Godfather.” There is Lee Strasberg ’s two-edged performance as Hyman Roth, the boss of the Florida and Cuban operations; Strasberg gives us a soft-spoken, almost kindly old man, and then reveals his steel-hard interior. There is Coppola’s use of sudden, brutal bursts of violence to punctuate the film’s brooding progress. There is Pacino, suggesting everything, telling nothing.

But Coppola is unable to draw all this together and make it work on the level of simple, absorbing narrative. The stunning text of “The Godfather” is replaced in “Part II” with prologues, epilogues, footnotes, and good intentions.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Spooky season is officially upon us, and this month's new releases are in tune with the change of weather. There's a gothic dark comedy, several science fiction survival stories and a war journalist biopic. The leaves are falling; the topics are somber.

'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' (Sept. 6)

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE | Official Trailer - YouTube

The "ghost with the most" is born again. A long-awaited sequel to one of Tim Burton's directorial crown jewels, 1988's cult hit "Beetlejuice," brings back Winona Ryder as fang-banged goth gal Lydia Deetz, Catherine O'Hara as her fire-haired mother and Michael Keaton as the titular zombified demon. "Wednesday" star Jenna Ortega, often dubbed a Gen Z version of Winona, joins the cast as — fittingly — Lydia's daughter. Danny Elfman's bombastic score is back too, as is Burton's angular and unmistakable production design.

'His Three Daughters' (Sept. 6)

His Three Daughters | Official Trailer | Netflix - YouTube

The second flick on this list that is about the inevitability of death, Azazel Jacobs' "His Three Daughters" depicts the tricky time in a person's life when they must begin to care for a parent. Three acting titans — Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen — star as estranged sisters who reunite around their father's sick bed. "Jacobs gamely captures the out-of-time emotional shearing and bizarre mundanity of palliative care, how the walls, memories, hours warp and metastasize around waiting for the inevitable," said The Guardian .

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'Lee' (Sept. 27)

LEE | Official Theatrical Trailer | In Theaters September 27 - YouTube

"Lee" marks the directorial debut of Ellen Kuras, an Oscar-nominated cinematographer best known for shooting "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." The biopic is led by Kate Winslet (reteaming with Kuras after "Eternal Sunshine") who plays photojournalist and World War II correspondent Lee Miller. The real-life Miller began her career as a model for Vogue before enlisting as a photographer to cover the war for the magazine; the film follows her perilous journey. The star-studded cast includes Alexander Skarsgard, Andy Samberg and Marion Cotillard.

'Megapolis' (Sept. 27)

Megalopolis - Official Trailer (2024) Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza - YouTube

Francis Ford Coppola's new epic took decades to make and loads of his own money to fund. It has been marred by recent controversies about the director forcibly kissing extras on set. And yet, the latest project from the visionary behind "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now" is also supposed to be unlike anything else coming out this year (or perhaps this century).

Set during the collapse of an imagined American empire "while referencing the fall of Rome," said Variety , the film is a work of "absolute madness," said Vulture critic Bilge Ebiri. "There is nothing in 'Megalopolis' that feels like something out of a 'normal' movie. It has its own logic and cadence and vernacular." Time magazine's Stephanie Zacharek called the film "so weird, so ungainly and yet in some places so glorious that anyone who squints at it and says, 'I don't get it' is playing right into its wiggy strategy." Ultimately, the critic added, "I'll take a messy, imaginative sprawl over a waxen, tasteful enterprise any day." It stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito and Aubrey Plaza.

'The Wild Robot' (Sept. 27)

THE WILD ROBOT | Official Trailer - YouTube

In the mood for something lighter after all this list's darkness? Take heart with Dreamworks' new animation "The Wild Robot," based on a New York Times-bestselling middle grade novel by Peter Brown and directed by Oscar-nominated Chris Sanders ("Lilo & Stitch," "How to Train Your Dragon"). The story follows Roz, a robot voiced by Lupita Nyong'o, who is accidentally stranded by his kind on an uninhabited island. Well, uninhabited by humans: The robot makes friends with foxes, ducklings and deer. Sanders said he took inspiration from Disney classics and Japanese master animator Hayao Miyazaki , resulting in a style described as "a Monet painting in a Miyazaki forest," said Variety .

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Anya Jaremko-Greenwold has worked as a story editor at The Week since 2024. She previously worked at FLOOD Magazine, Woman's World, First for Women, DGO Magazine and BOMB Magazine. Anya's culture writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Jezebel, Vice and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others.

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COMMENTS

The Godfather movie review & film summary (1997)
March 16, 1997. 7 min read. A Corleone family portrait. "The Godfather" is told entirely within a closed world. That's why we sympathize with characters who are essentially evil. The story by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola is a brilliant conjuring act, inviting us to consider the Mafia entirely on its own terms.
Film scholar explains why 'The Godfather' has lasting appeal
Harvard Film Archive scholar breaks down 'The Godfather,' which is turning 50, to explain its lasting appeal. Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather," was an instant hit with fans and critics when it premiered in New York on March 15, 1972. In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby called the film, based on Mario Puzo's ...
The Godfather movie review & film summary (1972)
The Godfather. We know from Gay Talese's book Honor Thy Father that being a professional mobster isn't all sunshine and roses. More often, it's the boredom of stuffy rooms and a bad diet of carry-out food, punctuated by brief, terrible bursts of violence. This is exactly the feel of "The Godfather," which brushes aside the flashy ...
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Fifty years on from its release in March 1972, it stands as the defining US artwork not just on organised crime, but on immigration, capitalism and corruption. Even people who aren't familiar with ...
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There's just something about the protagonists of certain movies that makes it hard to shake them off—the Fast Eddie Felsons, the Vincent & Neils, the Red & Andys, and above all, the Corleones. "The Godfather, Part II" deals with the continuing story of that family, as new patriarch Michael tries to expand its many businesses.
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Now for the 50th anniversary of "The Godfather," which opened in New York on March 15, 1972, Coppola and these studios have produced a new restoration. This latest edition was created with ...
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James Caan, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, and John Cazale, in The Godfather Everett Collection. By Stephanie Zacharek. March 4, 2022 1:27 PM EST. The Godfather is a movie about organized crime ...
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The Godfather is as much about America, and the American experience, as any other great movie is (50th anniversary) Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 25, 2022. Skepticism of American ...
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The Oscar winning crime drama paints a compelling portrait of how greed, ego, and loyalty can corrupt even the most unassuming individual. The Godfather is simply a movie you can't refuse ...
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From 1972: 'The Godfather' is a film 'close to the soul of modern man'
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March 15, 2017 8:34am. Photofest. On March 15, 1972, The Godfather was unveiled in theaters in New York City. The Francis Ford Coppola film would go on to win three Oscars at the 45th Academy ...
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The Godfather Review
The Godfather Review. Don Vito Corleone (Brando) is brutally persued when he refuses to sulley the family business with drugs. His eldest, Sonny (Caan), steps in to take the helm in his father's ...
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The movie received mixed reviews from critics and posted lackluster box-office results. And while the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, it walked away empty-handed. 2008
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"The Godfather" seems to take place entirely inside a huge smoky plastic dome, through which the Corleones see our real world only dimly. Thus, at the crucial meeting of Mafia families, when the decision is made to take over the hard drug market, one old don argues in favor, saying he would keep the trade confined to blacks--"they are animals ...
The Godfather [Reviews]
Adapted from Mario Puzo's best-selling novel, Francis Ford Coppola's epic masterpiece features Marlon Brando in his Oscar-winning role as the patriarch of the Corleones.
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The legacy of The Godfather directly connects with family. The movie follows Vito's youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino), after being discharged from the Marines and reluctant to join the family ...
The Godfather
Francis Ford Coppola's epic features Marlon Brando in his Oscar-winning role as the patriarch of the Corleone family. Director Coppola paints a chilling portrait of the Sicilian clan's rise and near fall from power in America, masterfully balancing the story between the Corleone's family life and the ugly crime business in which they are engaged. Based on Mario Puzo's best-selling novel and ...
The Godfather Movie Review
While having a reputation for its slow pace, The Godfather's performances and tense atmosphere make every scene a pleasure to watch. In the end, the duration feels just right. The film does border on sentimentalism at times, but never departs from its earnest depiction of sociopathic barbarism that masquerades itself as "honest business."
The Godfather, Part II movie review (1974)
At the end of Francis Ford Coppola 's masterwork " The Godfather " (1972), we have seen Michael Corleone ( Al Pacino) change from a young man who wanted to stand apart from his family to one who did not hesitate to take up the reigns of control. In "Part II" (1974), we see him lose his remaining shreds of morality and become an empty ...
Every Godfather Movie Ranked From Worst To Best
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Newly Re-Edited, "The Godfather: Part III" Is the Masterpiece It
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The Godfather, Part II movie review (1974)
The character we recall from " The Godfather " as the best and brightest of Don Vito's sons, the one who went to college and enlisted in the Marines, grows into a cold and ruthless man, obsessed with power. The film's closing scenes give us first a memory of a long-ago family dinner, and then Michael at mid-life, cruel, closed, and lonely.
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