Short Take: The Godfather

The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, has a pretty fair claim to being the Great American Movie. It begins in 1945. At a wedding reception, the youngest son (Al Pacino) of a wealthy Italian-American family sits with his fiancée (Diane Keaton). He tells her a story about the ruthlessness of his Mafia don father (Marlon Brando). After seeing her shock, he reassures her, in complete sincerity, "That's my family... It's not me." The story ends a decade later, when she, now his wife, sees him called out for murder, and watches his father's lieutenants swear fealty to him as the new don. In between, the film dramatizes how the son became what he thought he would never be. One is also shown the irony that, despite two older brothers, he was the only one with the qualities necessary to be his father's true heir. It's a story of organized-crime intrigues, family loyalties, and hopes dashed by circumstance. In short, it's an epic about the corruption of the American Dream. Coppola presents much of the material with a quiet, stately tone. He renders the characters and situations with subtlety and nuance. On the occasions when violence inevitably rears its head, the horror has a grandeur that surpasses that of perhaps any other film. The cast is one of the finest ever assembled: Pacino, Brando, Keaton, James Caan, Richard Castellano, John Cazale, Richard Conte, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, Al Lettieri, John Marley, Talia Shire, and Abe Vigoda. Production designer Dean Tavoularis and costumer Anna Hill Johnstone do a fine, unobtrusive job of evoking the period setting. Gordon Willis provided the handsome, dramatic cinematography. The superb screenplay, based on the novel by Mario Puzo, is by Coppola, Puzo, and an uncredited Robert Towne.