Four Decades Of 'The Godfather'

                         On the March of 1972, a movie released in America, which topped many viewers list as the 'best movie ever.' This movie served as the definition for a great cinema. Now some four decades later, those of you who haven't seen it may wonder, "What's so good about the Godfather?, "is it really the greatest film of all time?" so, this post is mostly to describe the greatness of the movie 'Godfather.' If you either don't like this movie or haven't got the stomach to watch a violent movie, please ignore the post.

"Is Godfather the greatest movie of all time?"

                          That's a hard question to answer, even for a good critic. You could say that, Godfather is a great movie, which got the popular attention of many viewers. And, its also hard to compare movies. Like any movies, it is subject to personal opinion and reception. All movies are equally as mind numbingly boring when you don't personally find it as a engrossing one. So, leaving aside each of yours personal opinion, let me point out some points, which makes 'Godfather' great.

• "The Godfather", is such a great film is because it lets audiences decide whether they like the characters or not. Too many movies made about organized crime begin with some seemingly random act of violence. We judge the characters based on their type of personality rather than the activities, they may engage in.

• Crime is merely the family business, and crime is the way in which the author of the novel in which this film is based on used to set up the interactions and conflicts between the members of the Corleone family. At heart it is just a movie about the structure of a family from generation to generation.

• It's not that it's a "great" film in the sense that it keeps you interested in what's going on, but that it shows a mastery of the art of film production.

• When we think of Godfather, we immediately reminisce about the extremely involved and award-worthy performances. It never over-stretches itself or tries too hard to put across a message or reach out to humanity. It wonderfully presents some realistic and fairly cold, calculating characters who plot and scheme and kill each other. 

• The baptism scene at the end : All aspiring filmmakers should watch this movie for a lot of reasons, but especially  for that scene in particular. The building of tension, the symbolism, the sacred-corrupt juxtaposition. The scene encapsulates everything I love about the movie into just a few minutes.

• And finally, the film has no real weak points to attack. You can call the happy ending of 'The Shawshank Redemption' soppy, you can say the shark in 'Jaws' looks fake, you can say 'Star Wars' is out dated, you can say the dialogue in 'Pulp Fiction' is trying too hard to be cool and annoying , but it's really hard to criticize 'The Godfather' except to say you personally didn't like it.                          

                                     Unfortunately, some won't see the beauty because so many grittier mobster films have come out, that don't involve heavy monologues and intricate performances, and pop culture has greatly subtracted the impact the film once had. But still, Godfather is an "offer you can't refuse."

Godfather Opening Scene :

The Godfather - Imdb