The first part of Francis Ford Coppola's multi-Oscar winning Godfather trilogy, adapted from Mario Puzo's novel examining the workings of the Mafia from the perspective of one family. With a cast of relative unknowns at the time: Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall and Diane Keaton and a known risk: Marlon Brando, Coppola managed to construct a masterpiece that perfectly depicted the Mafia lifestyle without glamorising it.
The rise of the young Michael Corleone, who is slowly forced to take control of the 'family business', is a powerful and terrifying study of moral decay, political corruption and the breakdown of the family unit. Pacino gives a performance that literally sucks the audience in and slowly reveals the personal horror of the American-dream gone bad.
From the opening wedding scene to a severed horse's head in a Hollywood movie-mogul's bed and exile in peasant Sicily, the arc of the film is as grand, beautiful and dramatic as an opera. The exquisitely designed scenes, haunting musical score and superlative cast cement The Godfather in film history as one of the greatest films ever made.
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