The Godfather

The Godfather is the ultimate gangster movie; there’s hardly anything more to add. Marlon Brando is spectacular and not even Al Pacino can surpass him. This is mainly because Marlon Brando’s performance is perhaps one of the greatest acting performances I have ever experienced in a film. Excellent from start to finish. Although the film has 175 minutes, what is it compared to one decade of in the lives of a mobster family, which is everything but boring. (12/03/2012)

Puzo's book was once recommended to me by my grandmother and, it completely captivated me. I felt the atmosphere of the family and from the first page it was as though I already knew them all - it felt like they were my own family. Still, I was a little worried about what the movie would end up being like, but Coppola handled the adaptation perfectly. He preserved the atmosphere, honed all the details, and, with amazing precision, made sure to keep the fans of the original happy. Marlon Brando, as Don Vito, made an indelible mark on cinema history, and Al Pacino gave one of the best performances of his career. The Godfather is a legend, and I'm glad I finally got to see it. (10/06/2006)

A story of gigantic proportions, its adaptation into a screenplay undoubtedly required a very skillful hand. Coppola’s direction is excellent, the pace is indeed very slow, but the scenes from Sicily are captivating and overshadow the relative feeling of emptiness from the beginning of the film. There are many characters and someone who hasn't read the book, will need to see the film multiple times. The performances by the actors are stunning. Above all, Al Pacino's transformation is masterfully portrayed. The enormous running time, of course, is understandable and most likely it couldn't have been done differently. The action is nothing special, but that can be overlooked. The relationships between the characters are well depicted, but in my opinion, The Godfather is not the best mafia movie of all time. (04/12/2004)

It was only the silver screen that finally allowed me to feel the greatness of this gem, which, in the limited and shallow surface of the TV screen, always felt kind of convoluted and without the depth of some of Coppola's other works. It was, of course, a mistake. The Godfather is an extraordinarily robust epic, a purely narrative film whose monumentality is full of fine details and scenes constructed with architectural precision (the way the director masterfully combines different elements of storytelling to amplify intense tension is unique). It cannot be consumed in parts, it cannot be turned off. Coppola is intense, the scenes logically blend into each other (the interlining edit is not self-serving), and it is fascinating to watch the transformations of characters who seem to have aged with the film and radically reshaped themselves internally. The Godfather is "film-life," a radical manifesto of a fictional time that, with its grip and power, can completely control the current time. A captivating, contemplative experience that really needs this great canvas. (01/12/2011)

Amazing. If The Godfather was more than four hours long, I still wouldn’t even blink, because I’d be afraid to miss a major or dominant moment – that’s how deep Coppola’s flawless narration draws me in and how opulently the twists flow. Precise in every aspect, from the layering of storylines that depend on the most personal acquaintance with the characters and the nature of their world, to the performances, which have received all the possible praise. Chilling, realistic and timeless. Godfather of the Cinema. (11/16/2018)