The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather (1972)

1972 R 175 Minutes

Drama | Crime

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, hi...

Overall Rating

9 / 10
Verdict: Great

User Review

  • WHAT I LIKED: Since not long after the very dawn of cinema people have enjoyed the worlds and alluring mysteries of gangster movies, but Francis Ford Coppola's 'The Godfather,' is a film that genuinely revolutionised the genre simply because it's one of such epic and serious proportions. Yes both in terms of narrative scope as well as literal length, this is a movie that indulges virtually every aspect of its source material as it takes itself very seriously and revels for almost three hours in those usual gangster themes and environments. Thankfully though, it mostly centres around Michael's tragic central arc, and when you couple that with the fact that everyone around him is equally given serious development too and are examined with genuine intent for psychological depth, all in all it's effectively a movie that takes its subject matter and dives as deeply and as seriously as one would think humanly possible.
    Of course though, none of that would have been remembered if the execution wasn't largely as successful as it is, as Coppola not only gives everything ample breathing room here, he also engineers some truly iconic and visceral scenes, and crucially builds a world and a culture that can be taken as seriously as the characters within it. Indeed with his New-Hollywood approach and his Italian-American influence, he's able to engineer such a tangible sense of overall world so that this family dynamic feels real. That makes it constantly engaging, and when you couple that with some truly excellent performances, you've got yourself a film that earns that right to take itself seriously and explore its themes and its world for the amount of time that it does.

    WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The fact it is such an indulgent adaptation of its source material means there's a lot of gangster politics in there that one won't necessarily feel are needed as they detract from Michael's arc so the themes don't translate as well as they could.

    VERDICT: Whilst I don't believe it's even close to being one of the best movies of all time, Coppola's fairly straight adaptation of 'The Godfather,' is an admirably indulgent and serious gangster film that rightfully revolutionised the genre.