Distributor:
Paramount Home Entertainment Certificate: R18+ | 175
minutes
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Available to Buy Extras: Yes
ANYONE
IN IT WE KNOW?
Marlon
Brando, James Caan, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, John Cazale, Diane Keaton,
Talia Shire
WHAT’S
IT ABOUT THEN?
Inside
the world of a Mafia family as
the ageing Patriarch hands over
the reins to his initially
reluctant son who goes on to
play a pivotal role in the
family fortunes.
SO
IS IT ANY GOOD?
One
of the most famous movies of all time, winner of three Oscars in 1971
(best picture, best script and a statue for Brando), The Godfather is
now available in a single DVD edition for the first time. With so many
choice moments (the horses head in the bed; Brando; the emergence of Al
Pacino and James Caan; the notion of the family; ) and the fact that the
movie has laid the foundations for every mafia movie and series that has
followed actually makes the Godfather hard to catagorise, more a
phenomenon than a movie in fact.
Based on the pulp novel by Mario Puza The
Godfather actually had a difficult transition to the screen, Coppola
didn’t even want the job of director seeing himself as an auteur not a
mainstream movie maker but being in need of the cash relented, one
aspect of the source material appealed to him, the whole idea of the
family being all important, Coppola also decided that only one man could
play Don Corleone – Marlon Brando, the execs were none too pleased,
Brando hadn’t had a hit in awhile and was considered a menace by most
of the studios, they would have preferred George C. Scott or maybe even
Frank Sinatra.
Not
only that Coppola also took a punt on a young unknown – a certain Al
Pacino (who had only made one other movie The Panic in NeedlePark).
The
Godfather is also a very gory, violence filled movie with more than one
gruesome murder (the scene where Pacino murders police chief Captain
MacClusky (Sterling Hayden) by shooting him in the head (an effect
achieved by using a plastic tube filled with red face powder and run up
through the back of Hayden’s hair) has lost none of it’s power to
shock.
The
real star of the movie though has to be the fantastic lighting and
gorgeous set design, all dark and sombre interiors and almost painting
like cinematography, truly fantastic and seldom bettered in recent
times.
If
you have never seen the Godfather then you should try and rectify the
situation immediately and yes the horses head is real (bought from a New Jersey slaughterhouse).
ANY
SPECIAL FEATURES?
Intriguing
commentary from director Coppola.
Some
deleted scenes and a gag reel.
