I'll make him an offer he can't refuse....

This weeks movie is The Godfather, ranked number 2 on IMDB.com highest ranked movies. It was made in 1972 and won 3 Academy awards - Best leading actor (Marlon Brando), Best Picture, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. Now I must say, first of all, that I have read this book a few years ago and I absolutely loved it, so I will probably make a lot of comparisons between the book and the movie. I must also say that I nearly always like the book much more than the movie that is made from it.

Well The Godfather sure has a cast of who's who in acting. We have Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, James Caan and Diane Keaton. So one thing I can't complain about in this review is the acting. Damn it! The cinematography, lighting, and music are also great so no complaints there. In fact I am glad The Godfather got nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score. I mean who doesn't know the theme from The Godfather?

The plot revolves around the Corleone family, an Italian family living in New York who specialise in the gambling and stand over industries. The head, or Don, of the family is Vito Corleone (played by Marlon Brando) and he has 3 sons, Sonny, Fredo and Michael. Michael is the only one of the sons who is not interested in being part of the family business. That is until his father has an assisination attempt on him, so he decides he will be the one who kills the organiser of the assisination and the chief of Police, who is also in on it. The Godfather survives the assisination attempt and as in all gangster movies, revenge killings then take place.

The thing I like in the book was the emphasis on how strong the Corleone family were as a unit and how great they were in running their business. This doesn't come across so much in the movie. I remember when reading the book I really embraced their family values and thought how their business structure could be used in real life. Sure, not the revenge killings and stand over tactics, but their strategies and strength.
I don't know what it is about these gangster movies, but I always get confused by who is who and who is allied with who and then who has been a traitor to who. I don't recall being confused when reading the book so it must just be the movie. I guess they can't dwell on each character for too long, especially when the movie goes for nearly 3 hours anyway. Speaking of the length of the movie, I think they could have shortened the wedding scene at the start. I suppose it develops the Godfather character and how important he is but I still think it dragged on for too long. Another thing that annoyed me was the bag of cotton wool that Brando had in his mouth. Sure it gave his Godfather character an edge but I also felt like I needed subtitles sometimes just to understand what he was saying. If it was a real life conversation it might go something like this -
Godfather: I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse
Other person: Huh? what did you say?
Godfather: I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse
Other person: I'm sorry I couldn't understand you, Can you say it again?
Godfather: I said I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse
Other: You're gonna make me an office in Santa Cruz? Huh?

It kind of loses it's impact.

It is actually really hard for me to rate this movie. I knew the storyline because I had read the book. That also gave away a lot that would happen, in particular who would double cross who, and who would get killed and by who. So in a way a lot of the movie was spoiled. The book is one of my all time favourites so the movie was never likely to live up to that. So I have to enjoy the movie for what it was, and for what it was I can't really fault it. As I have stated, I felt it was a little too long, though I didn't find myself looking at the clock while watching it. I guess the movie is as good as it could be. The book, like any book, allows much more character development than the time constraints of a movie. Therefore the rating of the movie is going to be less than the book.

I offer you these ratings -
The Godfather: 7 horse heads