Rating: 
Summary: NOW THATS ENTERTAINMENT
Review: Along with other crime greats,Scarface,GoodFellas,Carlito's Way,
e.t.c.This one stands out.With Marlon Brando(fat and italian)in
an oscar winning performance,Al Pacino,James Caan(loose cannon
gung-ho type charactor),Robert Duvall,and others.James Caan was
great as the loose cannon Sunny and Al Pacino was great as the
brains of the whole movie.For it's time this is a violent movie,
with al sorts of gangland brutality.This movie is a classic and
one of the most respected films of all time.Under smooth slick
direction and brilliant script writing,GodFather will be the movie of all time.
Rating:
Summary: An All-time Classic
Review: One of the best films I have ever seen with a lot of memorable scenes and classic lines. On top of that probably the best directing ever and a perfect cast.Don Corleone, I honor you! Memorable dialogue to the last word (Michael is it true? No!).
Rating:
Summary: Flawless Filmmaking
Review: I stumbled across this classic on cable TV a few evenings ago and that was it: I abandoned all other plans for the evening and watched the movie. Then I retrieved Mario Puzo's novel from my book collection and plowed through it, savoring and relishing this extraordinary piece of literature that had such an impact on our cultural landscape thirty-plus years ago. Francis Ford Coppola's THE GODFATHER is a triumphant, magnificent screen portrayal of Puzo's epic book. The story of an Italian-American mob "family" entrenched in inherent and often desperate violence, Coppola weaves this film with compelling, moving, and haunting visuals that are as beautiful as they are disturbing. The scenes are at once simplistic and complex, yet such a dichotomy is not lost on the viewer, but embraced--appreciated for its overwhelming genius. I've seen more than my fair share of Marlon Brando films, and in my opinion the character of Don Vito Corleone is this actor's signature role. Brando effectively portrays the Godfather's compassion, love and devotion to his family, and calm acumen to make "business" decisions that literally mean life or death to countless men. Don Vito is both a family man and a killer: two seemingly inconsistent characteristics that make Brando's portrayal even more remarkable. The rest of the cast, including James Caan and Robert Duvall, is exceptional, but it is Al Pacino as young Michael Corleone--Don Vito's "baby boy" who was not meant to enter the family business--who provides the most telling role in this film. Before our very eyes, we see Michael change from a man eager to remain at arms-length to the Corleone family ventures to a ruthless, cold-blooded Godfather himself--a transformation both astounding and eery. THE GODFATHER is a feast of unforgettable cinematic moments: from an ambush at a toll booth to a bloody horse head wrapped in satin sheets. Puzo's story is told--told through filmmaking as good as it gets.
--D. Mikels
Rating:
Summary: The Great Hollywood Tragedy
Review: The Godfather has ensnared generations of moviegoers with its indefinable and spellbinding mystique. Every decade a new generation wonders what all the hullabaloo is about, as it hears tales from its preceding one told with the awe reserved for having witnessed a real-life experience, and seeks to explore, simply out of curiosity. And emerges from that 3-hour experience with the same wistful look in its eye. Of having felt - "This is a different world I've entered, cut-off from the one I left outside the theatre. It works according to its own laws. I'm not sure I want to leave, but I'll always carry it with me." And thus, we go back, again, and again, and again, to see this film supposedly about mafias and gangs and their rulers and their mighty tiffs. We are ready to see men being strangulated in the back seat of cars, bullets battering a body on a lone highway, a girl being blown up, a blood-stained bath-tub, and the beheaded horse, if only we could get to see one more torturous time, Michael sitting alone on a bench, when all is over in Part 2, staring into the distance. And then to see the credits roll, and hear Nino Rota's mournful score, one more time. Yes this is a world of sordid crime, but to us it is a haven of respite. Yes its protagonist is the warlord of the underworld, but we find his story more bewitching than that of many heroes. Yes do speak softly love, for this is a timeless romance.
What is it about the Godfather that reduces, critics and viewers alike, to mawkish rhapsodies? I think we owe this experience to the staggering technical achievements of this film. We see the Godfather as visual, sonic, dramatic, and musical poetry; it is poetry that is painstakingly crafted.
Every time one sees the movie one discovers new things, a hallmark of a great work. One of the most interesting things is the sound. Not the music; the sound of feet, the screeching wheels and car engines, children playing in the background, the clap of thunder, the jazz playing on the streets, the dialing of a phone, an eagle cawing, the slow measured voices, and also the silences; the sound editing is perfectly executed and significantly heightens the tension of the movie. This is a movie that one could hear, not see, and yet be enthralled.
Coppola makes great use of contrasting sounds and images at the same time. For instance, ominous dialogues are set against backdrop of chatter of children playing and playful jazz music. After Hagen is kidnapped by Solozzo there is a cynical shot of a Santa Claus in a shop window.
There are many subtle symbolisms. There is the scene where when Michael learns that his father has been shot he is agitated and calling home from a public booth. In the background Kay is standing outside the booth, with the glass separating them looking anxiously at him. It is a sign of the rift that will now develop between them.
A notable feature is the transition of one scene to another. After the shot showing the cut off head of Woltz's horse the picture dissolves into a shot of the Godfather, his face impassive, his chin determined. After the bridal scene of Michael and Apollonia, the shot changes to Kay entering the Corleone house. Such transitions speak volumes.
Coppola takes time with his scenes. The scene with Michael and Solozzo in the restaurant is an example. It's builds up very slowly. At one point the camera waits for the waiter to cork open a bottle of wine while Solozzo and Michael eye each other, one with suspicion, and the other with suppressed hostility. Coppola very painstakingly builds the ambience of each scene with his measured progression, so that we are completely drawn into this haunting world. Whether it's the Don holding court, the Woltz mansion, a street, a hospital, a restaurant, Sicily, a graveyard or a church, all the time we are there, in the scene, living it all the way. Though this is a thoroughly romanticized depiction of the gangster world, it all seems real. The director slowly engrosses the viewer into the scene and builds it up to a climax. This approach is carried scene by scene. Each scene ends with a mini-climax and the movie progresses climax by climax to its thundering and numbing end.
The last segment of Part 1 - the baptism, the end of Carlo Rizzi, and the confrontation between Kay and Michael - is nothing short of a cinematic masterpiece.
There is nothing superfluous in the film, each little detail builds the picture into a whole, heightening the drama, increasing our understanding of characters and adding additional strokes to the large and sprawling canvas on which it is depicted.
Today, three generations on, the Godfather films remain, in addition to being shattering celluloid masterpieces, an educating experience in the art of film-making to movie artisans and a lesson to audiences in the discerning skill of film appreciation.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Ever!
Review: Look all You Reall need to know is that The Godfather part1 is the best and greatest movie ever made, its got everything a good movie should have action, Suspence, familys sticking together to do what ever it takes to survive. You might be thinking to yourself well that movies like 3 hours, and it is but when the movie ends you'll want it to keep going, Marlon Brando is awsome in this film, and so is Al Pacheno. My personal favorite character in the Goodfather is Sonny, He is the tuff guy/ Hot head who you grow to love and then murder stricks, but you know all this because you have watched this movie a hundred times and loved it every time, And if you havent seen this movie by now there is really something wrong with you and you must see this movie at once, And you also need to see parts 2 and 3, though those two arent as good as the first tey are still excelent!
Rating:
Summary: Another review, another voice of praise
Review: There's little left to be said. Time has not diminshed The Godfather. It's still just a fresh, just as powerful today. Amazing. And one thing's for sure: they don't make them like this anymore. The Godfather is a deeply American film, because the Corleone family is, in many ways, a shattering reflection of American enterprise and capitalism. A handful of unknown faces (along with Brando, who somehow made it through the entire production) and a young, unknown director crafted a film that set a standard for filmmaking matched only by its sequel. The story is told from within the halls of Mafia power; we are forced to sympathize with these people because we never the civilian victims. As such, the Corleones are accessible, understandable, tragic, noble. The cinematography, screenplay, and score are perfect. If you have not seen it, it is essential viewing.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Three Godfather Films
Review: After I purchased Mario Puzo's novel, I stayed up most of that night reading it. Two years later, this film adaptation appeared and I have since seen it (as well as Godfather Part II) more than a dozen times. Francis Ford Coppola deserves all of the praise and awards these films have received over the years. He should also be admired for insisting that Pacino and Brando be cast in two of the major roles despite strong opposition from Paramount. Coppola assembled a superb cast but also an equally talented crew. Those who share my high regard for it no doubt have their own favorite scenes. Mine include Michael's enlistment of a bewildered young man's assistance at the hospital until members of the Corleone family arrive to protect their don, the sequence in the restaurant which results in the killing of Sollozzo and McCluskey, Tom Hagen's discussion with Jack Woltz during dinner, Michael's reunion conversation with Kay as they stroll in a New England village, and the montage of executions during the baptism. None of the extensive violence in the film seems gratuitous. Each major character is fully developed. The cinematography and score are outstanding, although neither was even nominated for an Academy Award. Dark as this film often is, it also has its lighter moments, as during the wedding celebration when Luca Brasi rehearses his remarks before presenting a gift and later when Clemenza teases Michael good-naturedly about Kay Adams. For me, the single most interesting element in the film is Michael's gradual development from his family's baby brother (albeit a war hero) to its ruthlessly efficient don. Once he volunteers to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, his destiny is assured. In some respects, this film reminds me of an opera but one with a multi-dimensional plot as well as grandeur in its style, scope, and emotional impact. In 1998, the American Film Institute selected The Godfather as one of the three greatest American films. Only Citizen Kane and Casablanca were ranked higher.
Rating:
Summary: Movie of All Time! Everyone: SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!
Review: "The Godfather" of all movies is what some could call this 1973 phoenomenom, that chronicals the rise and fall of mob boss Vito Corleone, and the rise of his astranged son Michael (I love movies about people's rise and fall!). The movie is also one of my favorites for featuring some of my favorite actors of all time: including Marlon Brandon (The Man!!!), Al Pachino (The Man!!!!!), and James Caan!! It was the beginning of a series of movies that could not compare in hell to this masterpiece. Director Francis Ford Coppola knocked out the compition with this film.
Rating:
Summary: One of the landmark films in American film history
Review: A host of factors make this one of the greatest American films. First, the directing is impeccable. Coppola allows the story to unfold simply, employing for the most part a static, immobile camera, allowing each scene to unfold like a series of tableaux. Second, the cinematography. Most of the craft of the cinematography went into the lighting, which generates some of the greatest use of light and shadows since the demise of black and white film noir. Coppola also intensifies each scene by using surprisingly little music in the film. Although the film is famous for its outstanding score by Nina Rota (later discovered to have been partially reused from an obscure film he scored in the late 1950s in Italy, which led to his nomination for an Oscar to be withdrawn, an award he certainly would have won), the fact is that the music is used selectively and comparatively rarely. Silence engulfs most of the scenes. And although there are many famous lines in the film, it is driven as much by the silence between the characters as by what they say. Also accounting for the brilliance of the film is the script, which is brilliant for its simplicity. Coppola distills the tale down to only the most essential elements, with nearly every shot moving the story along or imparting a crucial piece of information to the viewer, allowing the crucial tensions of the story to unfold early on. The enormous simplicity in the telling of the tale makes the more complex moments'for instance, the crosscutting during the baptismal scene'all that much more effective. And any listing of all the reasons for the brilliance of the film leaving out the extraordinary art design would be woefully incomplete. This was one of the first films made that made historical accuracy a high art form, and has exerted a profound influence on any historical film since then.
Of course, one of the main reasons this is a great, great film is the acting. Few films have ever featured so many memorable performances, and no film had featured so many performances by so many actors who were explicitly Italian. In fact, the film was a 'coming out' for one aspect of Italian culture in the United States. Even in films that were fairly transparently about the Mafia and crime families in New York and Chicago, ethnicity was completely left out of the picture. After THE GODFATHER, everything changed. The film was Marlon Brando's triumphant return to star status after a series of failures, garnering a well-served Oscar that he turned down. The quality of the acting is shown by the fact that no less than three of the other actors'Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, and James Caan'received nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Joel Grey won for CABERET, in what might have been the greatest group of performances in the history of Oscar for the award). There are a million stories that whirl around THE GODFATHER. My favorite, and one of the happier accidents in casting history, was that originally Robert De Niro was cast in a small part in THE GODFATHER. Al Pacino, on the other hand, was wanted for the part of Michael Corleone, but was already obligated for the film BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY. Francis Ford Coppola worked out a deal whereby De Niro would replace Pacino in the one picture. Unfortunately/fortunately this meant that De Niro was unable to be in THE GODFATHER, which meant that he was free to appear in THE GODFATHER II as the young Vito Corleone. THE GODFATHER was a film where just about everything seemed to work out best for all involved, and this illustrates this perfectly.
Rating:
Summary: Overrated, but Great
Review: The Godfather is quite a good movie. Let me say to people that it is not your typical gangster movie. It is more storytelling and deals with the Corleone family more than anything else. It is a great movie, but I personally feel that is is overrated. I don't feel that it is the best movie ever but it is different. Al Pacino is young in this movie and plays as Michael Corleone. He is the youngest son of "The Godfather" Vito Corleone who is played by Marlon Brando. In this film, Vito Corleone is trying to increase his crime organization, but will always say no to narcotics. He ends up being the victim of a hit. Now the rest of the Corleone family try to fix things up and this is where the story begins to pick up. I don't want to say too much more, but this is a must see, because many more people like the movie more than I do and it is known by everyone, so it is like a basic movie that is important to the history of movies. Have fun.
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