The Godfather

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

5 August 2024

See

Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is known as Godfather to his family and criminal associates as the head of one of the five mafia families of New York. The original mob film, which balances the crime and the family lives of criminals with equal weight and gravitas. 

Think

Only my second viewing of the number 2 Greatest Film Of All Time (GOAT) according to IMDb's Top 250. To see the often quoted omertas not as cliches but in their original context is refreshing, like when asking a Scicilian for a favour on their daughter’s wedding day, making them an offer they can’t refuse, and of course “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” But that’s from The Godfather Part III. That’s because other actors portraying gangsters are imitating the gravitas of Marlon Brando’s creation, or the archetypes of his two sons; the reluctant civilian, Michael (Al Pacino) or (James Caan) the macho mafioso Sonny. I think it’s the omerta, or code of conduct that is most intriguing, and what makes the crime organised.

Feel

It’s the pauses to watch out for an enjoy, as one friend of mine noted when I told them I was rewatching the classic for the Checks and Balance podcast summer movie club.The time it takes for the dialogue to play out, how indirect the requests for murder and revenge are made, like the opening scene. Or the tension of Michael preparing and then shooting a rival mobster and a corrupt policeman.

That scene gets me every time. Especially compared to modern movie making which feels rushed. That’s why they never topple this film, which will continue to jostle with The Shawshank Redemption and Citizen Kane on the medal podium for GOAT.