The Godfather (1972) Paramount Pictures/Alfran Productions 📢 Director: Francis Ford Coppola 💰 Producer: Albert S. Ruddy 👫 Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, Diane Keaton. 🏆 Awards ceremony: -45th Academy Awards: March 27, 1973. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, California. 🎭 Other films nominated for Best Picture this year: -Cabaret. -Deliverance. -The Emigrants. -Sounder. 📕 Plot summary: Set in New York City 1945, the head of a Mafia organization, Don Vito Corleone (MARLON BRANDO), sends his confidant (ROBERT DUVALL) to try and persuade a film producer into casting Vito's godson in his next picture. When the film mogul refuses he finds that his prized horse won't be any further use to him (a very memorable scene). An attempt is then made on Vito's life which leads to the retaliation killings of drug baron Sollozzo and police captain McCluskey by Vito's son Michael (AL PACINO). Michael then has to lay low for a while and ends up marrying some young girl with great tits. When he finally returns to the States he is appointed the new Head of the family as Vito takes more of a back-seat role before he himself collapses and dies from a heart attack (another spoiler by the way!) Well, that's the gist of it without writing a whole scene-by-scene explanation on the entire 3-hour film. 💥 Standout scene: The anticipation we feel when Sonny receives the phone call from Connie after she gets beaten up by Carlo again! The enraged Sonny boils over and heads off to get his hands on him. In what was the most agonizingly frustrating moment in the entire film, Sonny only gets as far as the toll booth before being shot to death. I felt so robbed of what promised to be a brilliant showdown but given that we had already been treated to the first beating Carlo received from Sonny in the street I guess I just had to feel content with that! But Sonny's death scene - oh, spoiler by the way, was really well done. 🔑 Facts: -The 45th Academy Awards. -Nominated for 11 Academy Awards (although one of them was revoked), it won 3: Best Picture, Actor (Marlon Brando), Screenplay (adapted). -This was the second Best Picture starring Marlon Brando (On The Waterfront). -The first of three Best Picture winners for Talia Shire (The Godfather Part II, Rocky). -A sequel followed, THE GODFATHER PART II, which also won the Best Picture Oscar two years later. 🙂 Personal opinion: Regarded by many as the best movie ever made, I can sort-of see why this film appeals to a number of people but for me it's really nothing special at all. WHY do people obsess over it? Is it good? Yes. Is it entertaining? Yes. Is it a masterpiece? No. The cast is a strong ensemble, with easily identifiable stars and actors near the beginnings of their respective careers. Brando, Pacino, Caan, Duvall, Keaton. The negatives were Talia Shire's bad acting (hmmm, I wonder why she got the part? Not related to the director at all, eh?), as well as Marlon Brando's voice-box and Diane Keaton's eyebrows. The first 27 minutes were used up with a wedding, and a meeting involving Marlon Brando mumbling that required for me to turn on the subtitles so that I could understand him. There were some really good scenes too: The photo of the family taken at the wedding was a good touch as it featured so many famous actors all in one frame. Sonny kicking the ever-loving shit out of Carlo in the street after Carlo beat up Connie. And Carlo getting his comeuppance was a really well-shot sequence - puncturing the windscreen with his shoes and cracking the glass so that we could not see the violence unfolding inside the car. A word must also be made on the iconic and instantly-recognizable score by Giovanni "Nino" Rota Rinaldi too. What's all this "sleeping with the fishes" and "going to the mattresses" nonsense too? WHAT???? I guess not being Italian-American myself I have absolutely no idea what that was all about! So enclosing, this was the third time I had seen this film and I have to confess my opinion of it did improve - not significantly but enough to recognize it as slightly better than I remembered it. But I stand by my personal opinion that it is NOT "the greatest movie ever made" and is way over-rated by so many. Did it deserve the Oscar? ✅YES. Although personally I would rather be content watching The Poseidon Adventure. And I'm being serious! ⭐️7/10

Review date: 20 March 2025