Godfather (1972)

"In Coppola's brilliant crime saga, the director transformed the lowly gangster drama into an American epic capable of rivaling the western.  Find-A-Video
"Pulp fiction raised to the highest level; a film of epic proportions, masterfully done, and set to Nino Rota's memorable music.  Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"...one of the greatest films in history. The Godfather is still a classic, even 25 years later!  The Weekly Movie Review
"A great American picture, full of incredible images and lasting moments.  Desson Thomson, The Washington Post
"...a landmark in American cinema...an enduring, undisputed masterpiece.  Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle
"Overflowing with life, rich with all the grand emotions and vital juices of existence, up to and including blood.  Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"Just about as great as a movie's ever gonna be...The Godfather is an intricately constructed gem that simultaneously kicks ass.  Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
"One of the most brutal and moving chronicles of American life ever designed within the limits of popular entertainment.  Vincent Canby, The New York Times

Editor's Note Based on the bestselling novel by Mario Puzo (who co-wrote the screenplay with director Francis Ford Coppola), THE GODFATHER tells an epic tale of Mafia life in America during the 1940s and '50s. Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is the family patriarch balancing a love of his family with an ambitious criminal instinct. At the wedding of the Don's daughter, Connie (Talia Shire), youngest son Michael (Al Pacino) is reunited with his family. A subsequent assassination attempt leaves the Don too ill to run the family business, forcing Michael and Sonny (James Caan), with the help of consigliere Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), to lead the Corleones into a vendetta-filled war with other mob families. Violent revenge ensues as the family tries to change from its old criminal ways into legitimacy. Coppola's certified masterpiece, which won three Oscars (including Best Picture) and spawned an Oscar-winning sequel (THE GODFATHER PART II), set a new screen standard for merging blood-soaked violence with intimate family drama. In the process, Coppola single-handedly established the Mafia as an industry in film and television (GOODFELLAS, THE SOPRANOS). Featuring truly unforgettable performances, including the Best Actor-winning Brando, the riveting Pacino, and an unexpectedly dramatic Diane Keaton, THE GODFATHER is the pinnacle of Hollywood cinema in the 1970s.

	Abe Vigoda
	Al Lettieri
	Al Pacino
	Diane Keaton
	Gianni Russo
	James Caan
	John Cazale
	John Marley
	Marlon Brando
	Richard Conte
	Richard S. Castellano
	Robert Duvall
	Rudy Bond
	Sterling Hayden
	Talia Shire
	Albert S. Ruddy - Producer
	Anna Hill Johnstone - Costume Designer
	Francis Ford Coppola - Director
	Francis Ford Coppola - Writer/Story
	Gordon Willis - Cinematography
	Gray Frederickson - Producer
	Mario Puzo - Based on Novel By
	Nino Rota - Musical Score

Based on Mario Puzo's best-selling novel, THE GODFATHER is Francis Ford Coppola's Mafia masterpiece. The film tells the story of the powerful Corleone family, headed by patriarch Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). Coppola sets a new standard for cinematic violence intercut with Italian-American family life. Al Pacino, in his breakout role, is riveting as youngest son Michael, a war hero turned ruthless gangster. The musical score by Nino Rota along with such classic lines as, "I made him an offer he couldn't refuse," make this epic mobster movie unforgettable. Entertainment Weekly
Rating: A 05/31/1996 p.67

Chicago Sun-Times
"...Gordon Willis' cinematography is celebrated for its darkness; it is rich, atmospheric, expressive..." 03/16/1997 p.5

Premiere
"[A] superlative achievement....[With] Gordon Willis's exquisitely dark Technicolor cinematography..." 12/01/2003 p.11

Total Film
"[Brando] astounded just about everyone with his performance 03/01/2004 p.5

Entertainment Weekly
"Brando turns from Method to myth, with an Oscar-winning performance so calculatedly eccentric and full of inspired surprises that his character stands apart from all the others..." 07/16/2004 p.31

San Francisco Examiner 10 of 10
One of the reasons that Francis Coppola's The Godfather is so good is that unlike many of its - Barbara Shulgasser

Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
We know from Gay Talese's book Honor Thy Father that being a professional mobster isn't all sunshine and roses. More often, it's the boredom of stuffy rooms and a bad diet of carry-out food, punctuated by brief, terrible bursts of violence. This is exactly the feel of "The Godfather," which brushes aside the flashy glamour of the traditional gangster picture and gives us what's left: fierce tribal loyalties, deadly little neighborhood quarrels in Brooklyn, and a form of vengeance to match every affront...The remarkable thing about Mario Puzo's novel was the way it seemed to be told from the inside out; he didn't give us a world of international intrigue, but a private club as constricted as the seventh grade. Everybody knew everybody else and had a pretty shrewd hunch what they were up to...The movie (based on a script labored over for some time by Puzo and then finally given form, I suspect, by director Francis Ford Coppola) gets the same feel. We tend to identify with Don Corleone's family not because we dig gang wars, but because we have been with them from the beginning, watching them wait for battle while sitting at the kitchen table and eating chow mein out of paper cartons...Coppola has found a style and a visual look for all this material so "The Godfather" becomes something of a rarity: a really good movie squeezed from a bestseller. - Roger Ebert

ReelViews 10 of 10
Rarely can it be said that a film has defined a genre, but never is that more true than in the case of The Godfather. Since the release of the 1972 epic (which garnered ten Academy Award nominations and was named Best Picture), all "gangster movies" have been judged by the standards of this one...If The Godfather was only about gun-toting Mafia types, it would never have garnered as many accolades. The characteristic that sets this film apart from so many of its predecessors and successors is its ability to weave the often-disparate layers of story into a cohesive whole. Any of the individual issues explored by The Godfather are strong enough to form the foundation of a movie. Here, however, bolstered by so many complimentary themes, each is given added resonance. The picture is a series of mini-climaxes, all building to the devastating, definitive conclusion...Rarely does a film tell as many diverse-yet-interconnected stories. Strong performances, solid directing, and a tightly-plotted script all contribute to The Godfather's success. This motion picture was not slapped together to satiate the appetite of the masses; it was carefully and painstakingly crafted. Every major character - and more than a few minor ones - is molded into a distinct, complex individual. Stereotypes did not influence Coppola's film, although certain ones were formed as a result of it. - James Berardinelli