The Godfather

Considerd one of the greatest movies of all time. I haven't seen it in a long time and the movie comes with such high expectations that I wasn't sure if I would still like. But it really does hold up well over time.  It is one of those movies that you can watch multiple times and still find something new.  The plot is complex and intricate. You really have to pay attention to get all the details of what is going on. It is very engaging and really keeps your attention.



In case you dont know what the movie is about. In a nutshell Marlon Brando plays Vito Corleone the head of a mafia family in New York City.  As he is getting older other families are trying to muscle in on him and push his family out. It ends up being the relcutant younger brother played by a young Al Pacino who has to take the rise to the role of leader of the family business.  Obviously there is a lot more going on but to get into all the details would take forever.
The movie ended up winning 3 Academy Awards Best Picture, Best Actor for Marlon Brando, and Best Screenplay for Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo.  The most suprising thing is that it didn't win more awards. All the acting was amazing. Al Pacino, James Caan, and Robert Duvall all lost best supporting actor to Joel Gray for Cabaret. Al Pacino was great as Michael. He starts off as a war hero who wants to get out of the family business but after an assasination attempt on his father and the murder of his brother he ends up taking over the family. The transformation is played flawlessly by Pacino.  Of course the movie wouldn't be what it is without the great writing of Coppola. The amazingly complex plot works perfectly and produced some of the best quotes in movie history, like "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."

Oscar facts:
Cabaret won 8 academy awards but lost Best Picture. Making it the most awards won for a movie that lost best picture.
The Score of the Godfather by Nino Rota had its nomination withdrawn when it was determined that it was used in another film.
Marlon Brando declined the award and had a women claiming to be Native Amarican read a speech about how Hollywood has portratyed the Native American's poorley in TV and movies. "Sacheen Littlefeather" was really a Mexican actress named Maria Cruz.  Brando became the second person to decline the award after George C. Scott did in 1970 with his award for Patton.
The three best supporting actor nominations ties a record for most nominations in one acting category for a movie.
The only two actors in Sleuth(Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine) were both nominated for Best Actor making it the second of three movies where the entire cast was nominated for an Oscar(Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966, and Give 'em Hell, Harry in 1975 were the other two movies).
Al Pacino lost the BAFTA award for Most Promising Actor to Joel Gray from Cabaret. Looks like they got that one wrong.
Also that year Deliverance was nominated for 3 awards including Best Picture. But was not nominated for any acting awards or for the iconic Dueling Banjo's song.

By the Numbers:
The Godfather was ranked number 3 on AFI's 100 Greatest Movies of All time in 1997 and number 2 in 2007. It also ranked at number 11 for 100 Greatest Thrills.
On IMDB Top 250 movies of all time it is currently ranked at #2.