Film Review: The Godfather Part I

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Many films are described as epic in this day and age but The Godfather truly is an epic film which follows the Corleone family. It is based on the fantastic book of the same name by Mario Puzo which I highly recommend after I read it in about 2 days on holiday last year which is a record for me. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time and is regularly at the top of the polls for greatest film ever including the Empire Magazine top 500. It's legacy within world cinema is well regarded and is undoubtedly the film that lead the way for other gangster films like Goodfellas and Casino to come later.

Vito Corleone or The Godfather (Marlon Brando)

The film charts the mafia war between the five families of New York City which sees family members and henchmen killed on both sides of this feud over selling drugs within the city as Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) disapproves of drugs. It also follows the story within the Corleone family of who will take over from Vito when he retires as he is unsure which of his sons has the right mind and temperament to run the family business during the difficult times.

The casting for the film is absolutely perfect with Marlon Brando putting in a era defining performance as Vito Corleone which saw him rightly win an Oscar (which he turned down). His performance is now synonymous in Hollywood which is the same for Al Pacino as his son Michael who also won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (which he also turned down for different reasons).

Michael Corleone (Al Pacino)

The epic crime drama catches the tone of Mario Puzo's book superbly and I don't think I've ever seen a film which lives up to the book as well as this one. It was one of the first films to show the mafia from the inside and showed that the people in charge were incredibly intelligent normal people rather than gun totting mad men. It showed them as men of honour who always think of family first. Many real-life gangsters said it accurately portrayed their lifestyle which is huge praise in itself.

4/4 worthy of it's acclaim.