The Godfather: Movie Classic of the Baby Boomer Era

The Godfather movie has been called the best film of the 1970s and the best gangster movie of the Baby Boomer period. It’s a compelling story of an immigrant family that rises to the pinnacle of success as the ‘family business’ makes the transition from one generation to the next and from one historic epoch to another. That the family employs extortion, blackmail and murder to further its aims only adds poignancy to their struggle to capture a piece of the American Dream.

Despite Director Francis Ford Coppola’s concern that the project was commercially unviable and lacking seriousness, he and novelist Mario Puzo transformed the latter’s bestselling novel from a classy potboiler into a classic Baby Boomer movie. Combining an inter-generational family saga with an inside look at life in the Mafia, they wedded two popular genres into a powerful story of family honor and villainous treachery.

As the head of the family business, Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) struggles to resist changes to the way the Mafia does business while grooming his hot-headed oldest son, Sonny (James Caan), for a position of leadership and finding a legitimate career for his straight-arrow youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino). When the Don resists going into the narcotics trade, one of his rivals decides to have him assassinated. In the ensuing gang war, Sonny is murdered and Michael is drawn into the family’s revenge plots. When the Don dies of a heart attack, Michael succeeds him as leader of the family. He shows the same cunning and ruthlessness as his father but little of the benevolence.

The Godfather includes a remarkable set of unforgettable scenes. From the early scene at Connie’s wedding as Don Corleone dispenses mob justice for the baker, Enzo Bonasera; Sonny’s murder at the toll booth; the severed horse head on the bed of film director, Jack Woltz; the two fish wrapped in Brasi’s bulletproof vest to show that “he sleeps with the fishes;” the series of revenge killings intercut with the baptism of Connie’s son; Michael closing the door on Kay as he accepts tribute as the new Don; and, of course, Vito Corleone’s infamous line, “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

Not surprisingly, the success of The Godfather movie revived the career of Marlon Brando and made stars of James Caan, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall (as Tom Hagen, the family’s lawyer), Diane Keaton (as Kay, Michael’s non-Italian wife) and Talia Shire (Michael’s sister and real-life sister of director Francis Ford Coppola).

The film was nominated for 10 Oscars and won three: Best Picture, Best Actor (for Brando, who refused to accept the award) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Coppola and Puzo). Caan, Duvall and Pacino were all nominated for Best Supporting Actor. An astounding hit, The Godfather was the first movie to take in over $100 million in first release and eventually made $135 million (that’s an incredible $627 million in inflation-adjusted dollars). The film is ranked no. 2 on the 2007 AFI list, no. 2 at IMDb with a 9.2 customer ranking and entered into the National Film Registry.

The Godfather movie originally clocked in at 175 mins. and received an R rating for violence and language. The film is available on VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray by itself and in sets with The Godfather Part II and/or The Godfather Part III. In addition, there are versions of the film as it appeared in its original release and in various director’s cuts and restorations. Also available is the The Godfather Saga, a made-for-TV version (currently only on VHS) of the first two movies in the trilogy re-assembled in chronological order with new scenes and additional scenes cut from the original movies.

Brando was second choice for the part of Vito Corleone after Sir Laurence Olivier who was unavailable due to illness. Brando knew he had to appear older during his audition so he stuffed cotton wool in his cheeks to give himself jowls and a slur. He took his style of speaking as the Don from real-life Mafia boss Frank Costello who Brando remembered seeing (and hearing) during televised Congressional hearings. Even though Brando slighted the Academy by declining his Best Actor Award for playing the aging Mafia boss, he was nominated for the same award the next year for his part in Last Tango in Paris.