The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972): USA
Reviewed by Kevin Tran. Viewed on DVD.
For many, The Godfather marked a turning point in American cinema. It transformed the crime genre, turning what once were action packed b films into intense drama with artistic substance. It goes out saying that director Francis Ford Coppola completely dominated the early 1970s, winning an Oscar for The Godfather, winning the Palm d’ Or at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival for The Conversation, then returning in ’74 to sweep the Oscars again with one of most successful sequels of all time, The Godfather Part II. But it all begins with the original, which changed the face of modern cinema forever.
The film centers around the Corleone crime family, headed by Godfather Don Corleone (played by a cotton-ball cheeked, heavily made-up Marlon Brando). The family is one generation removed from Sicily, and in order to achieve their success in America they have been required them to kill. However, the brutal murders and violence depicted in The Godfather should not take away from what Coppola mainly focuses on– the character of Michael Corleone (played by a very young Al Pacino, in what is still one of his greatest performances throughout his career)– Don’s son. Michael is a college kid and also a WWII war hero, and he is placed into a tough position after his father’s murder attempt, which he revenges proving his strength, courage, and intelligence to perhaps surpass his two brothers, Fredo and Sonny, in becoming next in line as the Godfather. Although Michael would rather enjoy living a proper life with his girlfriend Kay (Diane Keaton), who observes from the outside how the family functions and lives so prosperously, Michael is sucked in by his family roots and cannot escape what he has been born into and the war that Sonny (James Caan) begins with the other crime families.
The cast of The Godfather is outstanding, with every performance powerful and pitch-perfect. Pacino brings about a subtle power within himself. He is dazzling in the scene where Michael commits a double homicide avenging his father’s near-murder in an explosion of what was methodical acting and suspense. The complexity of Don Corleone can be largely contributed to Marlon Brando’s acting through his physical appearance and jarringly unique voice and walk; though he is in relatively few scenes, they are powerful and make the film all the more dramatic and intricate.
The script by Mario Puzo, based on his novel, and Coppola himself is perfect in form and structure. The famous first scene shows a man pleading with Don to carry out a revenge, which branches outside the justice of the law, in return for his love and loyalty to the family; it is a vow that can never be broken, and the Don accepts. The dark tone and sepia color of the room is contrasted by the occasion happening outside it: the wedding of the Godfather’s daughter. The script is taken into very precise shots of action that blends the obscure line that defines right and wrong, truth and lie, and most important of all, allies and enemies.
If you want to look at the film historically, it was a blockbuster–among one of the first films to be given that title. Massively marketed on television and with a saturation release, The Godfather was one of the top grossing films of all time. The film produced by Robert Evans (who eventually became a Hollywood playboy) would become a giant, with an even more ambitious, fully realized sequel.
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