Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is the patriarch of the notorious Corleone family, one of five families who control the organized crime syndicates in New York City in the 1950s. But he is getting older, and may not be able to continue running the ‘family business’ for much longer.
Two potential replacements are son Sonny (James Caan) and adopted son/family lawyer Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall). Sure, there is another son, Michael (Al Pacino), but he doesn’t seem as keen to carry on the family tradition.
When Vito is gunned down in the middle of the street by representatives of another competing family, the clock seems to be ticking even faster. Who will take over the reins of the business? What, if anything, will they do to retaliate?
I’ll leave the answers for you to discover for yourself. There are a few things I want to mention though.
Firstly, the screenplay, written by Mario Puzo and director Francis Ford Coppola. This screenplay is absolutely amazing, a fact confirmed by the Academy when they awarded it the Oscar. The way all the various threads criss-cross each other throughout is a wonder to behold. There are so many subplots here, so many events going on at the same time, so many backroom discussions about what is going on, to keep this all together takes a lot of skill.
Naturally, a lot of these things were present in the novel. But, of course, a novel and a screenplay are vastly different things. This film doesn’t simply put the novel on the screen; it uses events and scenes and characters and developments from the novel, and translates them to the screen. And it does so in such a seamless way, it can be easy to forget you’re not just watching the novel on screen, but rather, a masterclass in adaptation.
The performances by all the cast are very convincing. Every person on screen, every moment, is recreated so well, the suspension of disbelief is easy to maintain. Brando in particular is chillingly manipulative as Vito, but special mention must go to Al Pacino as Michael, a very different role to the ‘standard’ roles he seems to play nowadays.
The film is quite violent, considering its age. Of course, it is the nature of the genre, the story that is actually being told. None of the violence is as such unnecessary or gratuitous, though it is shocking in most instances. Those who are opposed to screen violence may need to avoid this one, but those who can look past these brief moments to the genius behind the on-screen action will find much to appreciate here.
The score, composed by Nino Rota, is also well done. The score was nominated for an Oscar, but was later deemed ineligible, as there is a portion of the score that used music that was not completely original. However, the majority of the score is original, and it is well-matched to the picture.
If you haven’t seen this film, and think you can handle the occasional moments of violence, I suggest you check it out. If you have seen it, why not watch it again? I did, and I definitely feel the better for it.
9 out of 10.
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