An offer we couldn't refuse - "The Godfather, Part I" (1972)

Mat here. It was time for the godfather of all mafia movies.

Our gracious hosts for this film were Jen and Adam. Jen had never seen The Godfather, but afterwards she said it felt like she had already seen it due to how much pop culture has borrowed from the film.

The Godfather (1972) is the first in a trilogy of films based on Mario Puzo's award-winning novel of the same name. The first film tells the story of the Corleone crime family during the 1940's and 1950's. Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) tries to keep his business respectable by refusing to buy into drugs, but this results in an attempt on his life. His son Michael (Al Pacino in his first major role) takes his place as part of the crime family and avenges his father, which sparks a war between the families.

Pacino is excellent, portraying a young man certain he's never taking part in the family's criminal activities who gradually becomes more calculating and ruthless than any of his initiated bothers. Director Francis Ford Coppola campaigned hard for Marlon Brando to play Don Corleone. Brando was notoriously difficult to work with and the movie studio Paramount was against the idea. True to form, Brando read much of his dialogue from cue cards and refused to accept his Best Actor Academy Award, instead sending along Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather in his place.

George Lucas, a good friend of Coppola, put together the 'To The Mattresses' newspaper montage of real footage from the 1930s mob wars. This was in return for Coppola’s work on “American Graffiti” so Lucas asked to go uncredited. This sequence was supposed to bring us back from the intermission Coppola was going to include, due to the length of the film.

The film also won the Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) Oscar for Coppola and Puzo.

Unsurprisingly, we scored The Godfather well across the board with Danielle giving it 80%, Adam 83%, Jen 84% and 89% from me.

In addition to the outstanding acting; the direction, dialogue, cultural importance and believability all contributed to the film's high marks.

We're also looking forward to watching The Godfather Part II, as it also won a Best Picture Oscar.

NB – from Danielle: if you’re interested in movie making/mob history then check out the making of/behind the scenes stuff on the Godfather. Reportedly, when Coppola asked one of the supporting characters if he could spin a revolver for the shot, he replied “What, are you kidding?” And in true life imitating art (imitating the mafia) one character supposedly won the part based more ‘who he knew’ than sheer talent! But I can’t say anymore!