More violent than a horror movie, and more confusing than Inception, yet Francis Ford Coppola manages to pull it off. When it first came out in 1972, it was the most bloody and violent film of its time. In 2018, though, it is a little less than it is built up to be, but still a bit disturbing. After the fail of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas’ company, American Zoetrope, Coppola was offered the job of directing the newly adapted screenplay of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. He immediately took the job and wow are we glad he did. Coppola’s innovative way of directing made him a major part in the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking, and his talent shows through here, using sound and certain angles to add suspense and shock to the story. For example, Coppola’s use of silence adds an eerie disturbing feel to the night time streets of Brooklyn, much like how Stanley Kubrick’s use of silence to create the same effect on the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. As well as silence, Francis uses footsteps as the focused sound in some scenes. Running through an abandoned hospital, walking through the streets where you are never safe, and in a meeting, pacing the room to make others uncomfortable. The camera work, taking of certain angles, along with as sound, also is used to make scenes intense and suspenseful. In the infamous (Spoiler Alert!!) horse-head scene (gross comment needed), the camera slowly pans down the bed, revealing the horrifying scene that made audiences squirm in their seats and cover their mouths in disgust. Also, as a master of the close up, Coppola highlights the incredible facial acting of Al Pacino and Marlon Brando in many scenes.
   

Anyway, here’s the plot: the story follows the youngest son of a mob boss in New York as he works his way up through the family, while being at the center of tragedy. The Don of the family, or “Godfather,” runs the business. To put it as simply as possible, and what you can tell from the movie is that the family does deeds, such as killing or hiding people, in exchange for money and loyalty. The youngest, Michael, is still not yet considered able to carry out these deeds. However, when his father gets shot by one of the other families, Michael must step up to take his father’s place as the Don of the Corleone family. A very well written, heart wrenching and bloody thriller, and a movie on responsibility and loyalty as well as because of incredible directing work by Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather is one of the greatest films ever made.
   

My complaint: Marlon Brando, who plays Don Vito Corleone, mumbles A LOT with his accent, and the others respond in the same way. Now, I know that he is famous for that and I have no problem with his acting, it’s just hard to hear. Turn up the volume and turn on captions because every piece of dialogue is important. Great performance, just not great for a home audience volume-wise. Everything else looks good, great movie. My parents let me watch it after MONTHS of begging, and even while being the extremely desensitized kid I am, (Thanks Ken Burns), I still was a little disturbed. So, a great film, just don’t let your kids watch it.