Review of The Godfather (1972) by Zeldagiygaslord 6 — 28 Jun 2014

Is this a great film and a powerful story of crime and family? Absolutely. Does it deserve its reputation as the best movie of all time? Absolutely not.

Don't get me wrong - this is, indeed, a fantastic film. The acting is great, the script is great, and the cinematography and music are beautiful. But honestly, there are simply a lot of movies that are more powerful and complex than this one. I've seen many, many films that moved me emotionally far more than The Godfather did, and had more interesting stories and characters. This film has two flaws that, to me, kept it from being a complete masterpiece. First, the length. It's simply too long and has too many scenes with no significance of any kind. It's almost a full 30 minutes before anything interesting happens. If they had simply trimmed the fat from this movie, it would have been much better. The second flaw is....(getting ready for the hate comments)...Brando. I'm sorry, but how can anyone take him seriously? He talks and acts like a gangster from a Bugs Bunny cartoon. It's one of the most over-acted performances I've ever seen (that's supposed to be serious). He's ridiculous. And on top of that, I couldn't understand half of what he was saying.

Again, let me emphasize that this IS a great film. Almost everything about is is done beautifully, and everyone who loves movies should watch it at some point. But I feel that is reputation comes from the impact it had when it was made, rather than how it holds up now. It was probably much more impressive in 1972.