The Godfather (1972)

With 3 Academy Awards to its name, its placement as the second highest rated movie on IMDb and its genre-defining depiction of the mafia, “The Godfather” is one of the most iconic and critically acclaimed films of all time. Widely considered to be the definitive crime epic and an all-round perfect film, the reputation of “The Godfather” clearly precedes it.

Watching “The Godfather” for the first time in 2021 is an interesting, if predictable experience. Whilst I was engaged by the character arcs and appreciated the filmmaking artistry on display here, I knew what to expect throughout most of the movie, as “The Godfather” is one of the most commonly referenced and parodied movies of the 20th Century. It inspired gags in such films as “Zootropolis” and heavily influenced everyone’s favourite “Star Wars” prequel (“Episode III- Revenge of the Sith"). From Marlon Brando’s unintentionally funny whispering, to the horse’s head in the bed or the scene when Al Pacino executes Order 66 on a horde of mobsters, I was already aware of most of the film’s major beats via context from multiple other movies. I certainly liked “The Godfather”, but I don’t think this will end up in my list of favourite films.

It’s impossible to deny that the performances in “The Godfather” are truly exceptional, each actor brings something unique to the table that helps differentiate the characters and adds another layer to the saga. Marlon Brando is great as Don Vito Corleone, he has a suitably commanding screen presence and manages to hold the audience’s attention without overplaying any of the movie’s more dramatic moments. I couldn’t help but chuckle during some of his more sombre scenes, but that’s mainly due to the dozens of parodies of this character that appear in everything from “Little Fockers” to “The Simpsons.” I don’t think he gives the greatest performance in cinema history and, if the stories are to be believed, he was an absolute nightmare to work with in most of the productions he appeared in, but Brando is undoubtedly one of the most memorable aspects of “The Godfather.”

Al Pacino is excellent as Michael Corleone, the protagonist of the story. Pacino delivers a subtle performance as the war hero who’s reluctance to enter the “family business” eventually crumbles as he falls to the dark side, becoming a deceitful and murderous crime lord. This journey of the corruption of a decent person is an arc as old as time itself, but I was compelled by Corleone’s story for the most part, which was largely due to Pacino’s brilliant acting throughout.

Although “The Godfather” belongs to Brando and Pacino, the supporting cast are also excellent. James Caan, Robert Duvall and Diane Keaton are all fantastic in their various roles and aren’t overshadowed by the more iconic players in the narrative.

As I just alluded to, the plot of “The Godfather” is nothing we haven’t seen multiple times before. Boy meets girl, girl discovers boy is part of a gangster family, boy hides in Italy for an unspecified amount of time, boy reunites with girl, boy gets a promotion, gets some people murdered and lies to girl. The End. Despite this, I was invested in the narrative for the majority of the movie, as I wanted certain characters to get their comeuppance and others to escape from the mafia underworld.

However, I do have criticisms with “The Godfather”, which mostly tie into the film’s story and structure. I don’t want to sound like a disinterested zombie with no attention span, but this movie is at least 20 minutes too long. I understand that this is an epic tale of patriarchal hierarchy, revenge and deception that interweaves the stories of an ensemble of characters, but I won’t deny that the film dragged by the end. Most of the scenes revolve around groups of people chatting, before someone is brutally murdered (the violence that shocked audiences of the early 70s feels tame by today’s standards), and another conversation ensues. It doesn’t help that the timeline of “The Godfather” is challenging to follow; a scene will end, transition to the next one, before a line of dialogue reveals that an entire year has passed. A main character has a child off-screen who immediately appears as a toddler and another child enters the movie almost completely unannounced, simply so their christening can offer contrast to some more murders. This wouldn’t have bothered me if “The Godfather” was two hours or so, but the film trundles along for almost three. Why couldn’t a few of the superfluous conversations have been trimmed down so that the audience could experience the key character’s family growing, which would obviously be a major event in their arc and would neatly tie into the overall themes of the story?

Finally, I was surprised how obvious the themes of “The Godfather” were. Usually in these kind of films, the filmmakers leave certain elements ambiguous so that the audience can mull things over in their mind and make their conclusions about what the main themes of the movie are. In “The Godfather” however, the final scene makes the main message of the film so blindingly obvious that a six year old could tell you what the core idea was. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked the way that the protagonist’s arc wrapped up, but I left the movie with the feeling that you didn’t really need three hours to reach that very straightforward point. Consequently, I wasn’t thinking about “The Godfather” for days trying to decipher some hidden meaning about the movie, I simply watched it, ticked it off my mental watch list and moved on.

In summary, I enjoyed “The Godfather.” I realise I sounded quite negative throughout this review, but I think that‘s mainly due to the fact that, although I liked the film, I don’t view “The Godfather” as one of the greatest movies ever made like many clearly do. I appreciated it, the cast are outstanding and the cinematography is superb, but “The Godfather” isn’t the sort of film I naturally gravitate towards. I’ll definitely get around to watching the other two films in the trilogy at some point, but I don’t see myself revisiting “The Godfather” anytime soon.