THE GODFATHER

MOVIE REVIEW BY JON NELSON

The Godfather has always been one of the most highly rated movies ever produced in Hollywood.  IMDb and The Hollywood Reporter rate it as number one while AFI puts it at the number three slot.  Clearly, this is a film that has gathered a great deal of attention over the years.  But is all this attention justified?  Is the Godfather really the greatest film ever made?

Not even close.  There are many obvious and glaring faults with the movie, and I shall list several of them, in no particular order.

In the first place, there is hardly any plot at all, and plot is, or should be, the focal point of any movie.  It all centers around the head of the Corleone mafia family’s head (Marlon Brando) who is passing the torch to his initially reluctant son (Al Pacino).  That’s it.  This is the extent of the plot.  Along the way there are numerous bloody killings as Pacino’s character becomes more and more hardened to the task before him.  Does this constitute character development?  I think not.  Rather, his increasing ruthlessness makes one search in vain for a less contemptible character.

This leads to the second and, in my opinion, most serious flaw in the movie: there are no heroes.  While Pacino may garner a small bit of affection at the beginning, by the end he is as ruthless as anyone else in the movie.  Where are the people we are supposed to admire?  It is impossible, for me at least, to warm to a bunch of cold-blooded killers none of whom display any recognizable virtues.    I was left with a distinctly apathetic attitude whether or not any of them emerged alive at the end.  How exactly does this make for an uplifting film?

Brando is his usual incoherent self, his stock-in-trade.  Even in the new, re-mastered version, half of his dialogue is indecipherable.  The other actors are competent, but certainly not worthy of any awards.

In short, this is the most over-rated film in cinematic history.  On a scale of one to ten, the best I can give it is a two.