Year of release : 1972
Director : Francis Ford Coppola
Cinematographer : Gordon Willis
Cast : Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Cann, Robert Duvall
Genre : Crime
"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." This dialogue came into existence in the 1972 crime film The Godfather, adapted from Mario Puzo's best-selling novel of the same name. The director Francis Ford Coppola, created this brilliant piece of cinema comprising of the then dark world of the Mafia in the United States, especially New York. The film is a period piece, based in the late 40s , post WWII and uncovers the harrowing nature of the world of organised crime.
There is no denying that The Godfather is one of the most celebrated and appreciated piece of cinema in the history of motion pictures. The brilliant progression of the story and the characters is quite marvelous. The film begins with a rather abnormal lighting technique (overhead lights) creating a very low key environment in the office of Vito Corleone. The film keeps it's trait of under exposed images throughout, with overhead and side lights on the characters without any fill showing the world of crime shrouded in darkness and the duality of the people in it. The cinematographer Gordon Willis, shows his astounding brilliance in his attention to detail even in the under lit scenes. The camera guides the eyes perfectly through the frame and accentuates the important subjects.
The cast of this film starting with Marlon Brando is remarkable. Brando's stupefying performance reels the eyes into the true nature of his character. Coppola and Puzo's efforts of presenting Vito Corleone as a man of justice and a family man in order to gain the audience's respect works throughout the film as we see. Even after his illegal ways of attaining justice for his people, the audience roots for him and his family throughout the film. The character arc of Vito, slowly hints towards his resignation from being the Godfather. This transition is staggering. Marlon Brando's journey of becoming a grandfather from the godfather is displayed beautifully by Coppola.
The character arc of Vito's youngest son, Michael(played by Al Pacino), is developed over the course of time. The acute use of lights,camera positions and blocking to visually underline the growth of Michael's dark side, from being a war hero to the Godfather (Mafia kingpin) is breathtaking. Starting from the Sollozo incident at the restaurant to the baptism scene. Coppola takes the audience on a journey with Michael Corleone eventually becoming the head of the family. Coppola gives the intellectual part of Vito's traits to Michael. This film shows us Vito putting family ahead of everything and Michael, lying to his wife in the end, thus getting deep into the abyss of the family business and crime.
You can't touch peoples' hearts on this level and not have a beautiful theme score to credit it with. The film's theme is "Speak Softly, Love" a song published in 1972, with music by Nino Rotaand lyrics by Larry Kusik. This beautiful theme, perfectly matches with the dark tones and environment of the movie.
The Godfather is undoubtedly one of the most influential movies in the history of world cinema. It did everything right and there is not a single scene I would change or a single frame removed. It's been almost 50 years since it's release and yet it makes an offer to the people to watch it and they still can't refuse it.
Rating : 4.7/5
- Siddharth Padhee
Everything-film
22-05-2020
FUN FACT : The cinematographer Gordon Willis got his name "The prince of darkness" due to his low key and underexposed cinematography in The Godfather.
Thank you. :)
Superb 💕
Marvellous!!!