The Godfather

Released: March 15, 1972

Studio: Paramount

Genre: gangster/epic

Box Office (numbers in millions)

Domestic: 135.00 Worldwide: 245.10

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: 775.72 Worldwide: 1288.50

Directing: Francis Ford Coppola

Screenwriting: Francis Ford Coppola, Mario Puzo

Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, John Cazale

Review:

Francis Ford Coppola’s “bravura, genre-defining, epic-length…gangster classic” ^FS “is considered one of the greatest films ever made and deservedly so.” ^VD Based on Mario Puzo’s pulp fiction novel of the same name, this “operatic, violent drama” ^FS “is entertainment raised to the level of art.” ^RS “The 1970s’ answer to Gone with the Wind” ^LM is “a film of epic proportions, masterfully done, and set to Nino Rota’s memorable music. Absolutely irresistible.” ^LM

This is “a gloriously-detailed – if romanticized – historical look at the ethics of American business, family values and food consumption (all that pasta!).” ^T98 “This sepia-toned Sicilian saga” ^TV “evokes the mid and late 1940’s period with powerful character development, lighting, costumes, and settings.” ^FS “The film follows the fortunes of the fictitious Corleones, a powerful Mafia family with its own family rituals and separate code of honor, revenge, justice, law and loyalty that transcends all other codes.” ^FS “Don Vito and his three sons are as familiar to us as our own family.” ^RS “Brando is Don Vito Corleone, the sympathetic head of a New York crime family, whose business it is to make offers people can’t refuse.” ^A07 When he “is shot by rivals, his sons Sonny (Caan), Fredo (Cazale) and favorite young son Michael (Pacino) assume control, with Michael ascending to a prominent position of power.” ^FS

“The horror, rage, violence, and paranoia of being in the thick of organized crime is told with brutal realism.” ^VD “Visually beautiful images of times and locales contrast with the film’s graphic violence” ^A98 such as the famous “grotesque, severed horse-head scene.” ^FS Coppola introduced “ that piano/fortissimo style of crosscutting between religious ritual and bloody machine-gun massacre,” ^T95

The movie was loaded with “career-launching performances. Al Pacino, Robert Duvall and James Caan became household names; John Cazale should have.” ^TV “Pacino’s performance…is arguably the finest in cinema” ^RS as the film traces “his rise from white sheep of the family to budding don and fully-fledged bad guy.” ^T95 This was “Brando’s finest hour, the mannerisms and mouth full of cottonwool not withstanding,” ^T98 as he “made the most startling comeback Hollywood had ever – make that has ever – seen.” ^TV

“Coppola had just turned thirty when he started work on the first chapter. Even later (The Conversation, Apocalypse Now), he never topped it. Nobody has.” ^RS “We remember all the lines, profound (‘I believe in America’) and silly (‘Leave the gun, take the cannolis’) .” ^RS This film and its two sequels “grow in stature with the years, their power to move us undimmed, their influence as up-to-date as The Sopranos.” ^RS

Sources:

^A98 American Film Institute (1998). “AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Movies”
^A07 American Film Institute (2007). “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition”
^FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films”
^LM Leonard Maltin “100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century”
^RS Rolling Stone (12/30/1999). “100 Maverick Movies of the Last 100 Years”
^T95 Time Out (1995). “Centenary Top One Hundred Films”
^T98 Time Out (1998). “Readers’ Top 100 Films”
^TV TV Guide (August 8-14, 1998 issue). “50 Greatest Movies on TV and Video”
^VD Video Detective (1997). “Top 100 Films of All Time”

Awards/Honors/Lists:

Dave’s Movie Database Lists:

Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists:

Box Office:

Awards:

Oscars:

Wins: 3 – Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando), Best Adapted Screenplay

Nominations: 10 – including Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Caan), Best Supporting Actor (Duvall), Best Supporting Actor (Pacino), Best Sound, Best Original Score