HOW "GREAT" IS IT?
AFI Top 100: #2
IMDb Top 250: #2
Sight & Sound 2002 Critics' Top 10 Poll: #4 (with Part II)
Sight & Sound 2002 Directors' Top 10 Poll: #2 (with Part II)
"Possibly the greatest movie ever made, has without question the best cast." -A paraphrased Stanley Kubrick
"The Godfather is the best filmmaking ever in the history of cinema. There is nothing that speaks more to who we are, where we came from, what we stand for and where we're going to go. That's the work of a true genius." -Martin Sheen
"It's a movie that altered people's lives. It's just unbelievable the way people talk about it and the way people remember every little thing and recite the dialogue." -Julia Roberts
"One of the most brutal and moving chronicles of American life ever designed within the limits of popular entertainment." -Vincent Canby
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In my childhood I was very much a Rugrats fan, and I am not going out on a limb when I say it was likely my favorite television show. As such, when the inevitable film versions came, I was very much in a hurry to get myself to the nearest theater so I could sit down and observe the continuing adventures of Tommy Pickles and friends. The second film came in the year 2000, when I was merely 9 years old. It was Rugrats in Paris: The Movie. I don’t recall the specifics of the film, but I do know it involved the babies running off to Paris and getting into all types of shenanigans involve a gigantic Reptar robot. (Apparently this series was not incredibly commited to verisimilitude.) I imagine at the time I very much enjoyed it, but don’t get me started on the eventual series Rugrats: All Grown Up. They might as well have put my childhood in a wood chipper right before my very eyes.
Now you may be asking yourself what Rugrats in Paris has to do with The Godfather. Perhaps I have gone insane and have been convinced that this animated film with endless pee-pee jokes is the film many call one of the greatest of all time. Not the case. The reason is that the opening scenes of Rugrats in Paris are a parody of The Godfather. As a child, this was my first experience into the world of the Corleone family. I recall my mother being puzzled (understandably) as to why a G-rated kid’s film based on a Nickelodeon series was referencing a film in which Al Pacino brutally murders two men in a restaurant.
This, I believe, speaks to just how large The Godfather is in the pantheon of classic film. I suspect the good people at Rugrats didn’t include the Godfather spoof for the kids, but instead as a little treat for the adults before the film dove into the intricate Rugrats mythology. (In fact, I have a theory that the events in All Grown Up all took place in purgatory.) However, I suspect that there were certain children who understood the reference who were less sheltered than I. As I grew older, I even began to understand the Godfather references around me despite not having seen the film.
The Godfather is no longer a mere movie, but a landmark of sorts. There are two eras of cinema: Before The Godfather and After The Godfather. With his film, Coppola explored the gangster genre with unparalleled depth. Earlier films had James Cagney sneering about with his tommy gun, see? Now movie-goers could see how the mob from a new perspective. Earlier films depicted the mob as people without morals. Instead, they do live by a code, and the audience could finally sympathize if not wholly identify with the protagonists.
To this day The Godfather is a beautiful film, perfectly capturing the allure of gangster life. In their universe, family is everything, something Michael Corleone realizes as the film goes on. The key line comes during the opening wedding sequence, in which Michael tells Kay Adams, his girlfriend, the following: “That’s my family, Kay. That’s not me.” It is him, though. You might have guessed.
What follows is one of the great American epics of all time, and each and every ounce of praise heaped upon the film is rightfully earned. Michael is slowly brought back into the family business, and not wholly against his will. He volunteers to carry out a killing in the name of his hospitalized father. He comes back amidst a mob war and once his brother Sonny is killed he finds that he is now in charge. Immediately he must prove to everyone that he’s a boss to be reckoned with. By film’s end he is no longer the goody-two-shoes he started as. If anything, he’s far more brutal.
Of course The Godfather is a long movie. It had to be, and it’s all the better for it. To borrow a quote from Roger Ebert: “No good movie is too long, and no bad movie is short enough.” Some of the best movies of all time are incredibly long. One of my favorite movies from the 90’s is JFK, and I have only seen the 3-½ hour director’s cut. Yet it zooms by at an incredible pace while some 90-minute films wander on forever. The Godfather entrances you, and slowly brings you into the world until you can’t get out. The pace is slow and deliberate, and it is because of this The Godfather is so great, not in spite of it.
The Godfather does it all the hard way. It utilizes no fancy camera tricks, but instead the acting and writing tell the story and convey the emotions. Camera tricks and quick editing can be brilliant, but in a case such as this they are best left on the sidelines, as each performance in The Godfather has become iconic and rightfully so. Al Pacino, an actor who would later be known for leaving no scenery unchewed, is beautifully more subtle in the performance that made him a star. But of course you cannot discuss this film without mentioning Marlon Brando, who with Vito Corleone perhaps created his most immortal character. Any more praise for the acting and this post will likely devolve into a checklist (James Caan? Brilliant! Diane Keaton? Magnificent! Robert Duvall? Illustrious!) so let me just wrap up by saying it’s all good.
Let me also address the equally-lauded sequel The Godfather: Part II. Some call it the original’s equal, others call it superior. As a brilliantly-made film, the original stands tall, but I tend to agree that Part II packs a greater emotional punch. In the original film family is the most important thing, but by the end of Part II the motives of Michael are much more selfish. The great transformation of Michael Corleone takes two films to complete, and it is brilliant the whole way through.
On its own merits, however, The Godfather set the bar at another level. It is the textbook for all filmmaking that is to follow. Does it belong in its place as one of the best films of all time? Undoubtedly. Same with the sequel. There is a reason it has been endlessly quoted and referenced in later films, even in Rugrats movies. It is not only part of our popular culture, but if there were a National Mall of Film History it would be the Lincoln Memorial. It gives us a mob movie, but it tells us how the mob is controlled. Rarely do the main characters here get too involved, and when they do it’s a shock. These men are not customers in their own business. Instead they run the business, but not without getting their hands a little dirty along the way. In The Godfather there is no rise and fall. There’s just the way it is.
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