Review of The Godfather (1972) by Sean W — 04 May 2014
Its hard to think of many films in this day and age that can match the bar setting behemoth that is the Godfather. The fact that over forty years have went by and it still destroys many films that cross its path lays testiment to the work of Coppola and an astounding cast.
Don Vito Corleone, a blistering performance by Brando, is the head of a massive italian/american mafia, one of 5 families operating within the new york area. After his daughters wedding he is gunned down and one of his close associates is murdered by a rival family, with Don vito left fighting for his life, his empire is handed over to his son, Sonny, Caan, who goes on a self destructing path of revenge.
This act drags brothers, Fredo, Cazale, Michael, Pacino and orphaned brother Tom, Duvall, into a dangerous game of revenge and destruction. Eventually leaving Michael to pick up the pieces and raise the Corleone status to its once Exceedingly high reputation.
Its hard to find any fault with this film what so ever. The acting is just phenomenal,everyone is cast perfectly and allowed time to mature as characters, the ensmeble pull off so much belieability as a close knit family its a joy to watch.
The writing helps this futher by being volumptous and full of extremely well crafted dialogue. All the actors really need to do is read the lines and were onto a winner here. The cinematography is just astounding, gorgeous lighting, entrancing tracking shots, engrossing pacing, that can see such a large volume of themes and story telling that even with its almost 3 hours running time it still struggles to fit everything in comfortably.
This film is huge, in every sense of the word, there is so much going on that some viewers may need a second watch through to chew down on all the material but its worth the effort. The Godfather is one of cinemas rare masterpieces that not only influenced decades of film making, but it also helped bounce some extraordinary talent to a stratospheric level.
An absolute must watch by everyone.
This review of The Godfather (1972) was written by Sean W on 04 May 2014.
The Godfather has generally received very positive reviews.
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