Thanks to NetFlix I’ve seen one of the best films ever made: The Godfather
Words really don’t do justice to the mastery of this film. From the first moment at the Corleone wedding, Coppola presents us with dozens of interesting, round characters. He captures not only the story, but also several picturesque locations: 1946 New York, Sicily. Color, texture, and smell flow from the screen to your cortex.
The main thread of the story involves the Corleone family, most prominent of organized crime’s “5 Families”. As the story opens we see Brando as Don Corleone, aged patriarch, founder of the family. His three sons, hot-head Sonny (James Caan), simpleton Fredo, and college-kid-cum-war-hero Michael (Al Pachino) lead the magnificent cast of surrounding characters. Mainly, we see the story through Michael’s eye, his feelings of duty, honor, loss, rage. As he becomes first a pawn, then a killer, then a victim, then a calculating leader, we go through the changes with him. By then end, I was scheming with him.
Michael Corleone is the most developed character I’ve ever seen. Coppola transcends even Shakespeare here, IMHO. Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, each transitions through two or possibly three emotional waypoints in his respective tragedy. For Michael, it’s at least four reinventions of himself, and yet more to come in the sequel.
Unbelievably good film; novel cinematography, compelling storytelling, dramatic irony, foreshadowing, genuine suprises throughout.