Wednesday, 7 October 2015

And now for something completely different...

THE GODFATHER (1972)

Mobster movies used to follow a simple recipe: thugs hanging for dear life from fast moving jalopies while mowing down rival gang members with their Tommy guns, followed by the obligatory counter attacks in retaliation. But in 1972 Francis Ford Coppola came along and set a whole new standard for this genre. Just think of movies made since, like Scarface (1983), Goodfellas (1990), Carlito's Way (1993), Casino (1995) and more recently Martin Scorsese's The Departed (2006) to name but a few.

Based on the series of books by Mario Puzo, this legendary masterpiece follows the trials and tribulations of the Corleone crime family of New York stretching over several generations. The character build and development is excellent while the acting is absolutely superb. It then also earned the late great Marlon Brando the second of two Oscars he received as Best Actor. The first one was for the 1953 film On The Waterfront. Curiously enough he refused to accept this second one.

Although the movie contains some violence it is almost negligible measured against the epic scale of the film. This trilogy (I hope to write about the other two in the coming weeks) is again a definite must have for any serious movie collector. For this first one in the series, I gave 3 out of 5 stars.

Trailer link:  


Al Pacino and Marlon Brando

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