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The godfather, common sense media reviewers.

The classic tale of a Mafia family, violence and all.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Movie explores double standards and hypocrisy of t

Positive aspects of Italian American life and cult

The Godfather relies on -- and firmly cemented in

Constant mob movie violence. Characters shot and k

Brief nudity (breasts), brief sex scene (fully clo

"Bastards," "goddamn," "son of a bitch," "ass," "h

Wine drinking. Cigarette smoking. Talk of marijuan

Parents need to know that The Godfather is the classic, genre-defining Mafia movie in which Marlon Brando plays the titular character, who's facing grave threats from rival families. Unsurprisingly, there's constant violence. Characters are shot and killed, often at close range in graphic scenes. Characters…

Positive Messages

Movie explores double standards and hypocrisy of the Mafia characters, as they profess to be religious, and family- and friend-centered, but their actions ultimately come down to "just business," no matter who gets hurt or killed. As in other Godfather movies, a theme is hypocrisy of American life: People successful and/or religious and family-oriented on one level are also cutthroat, willing to do whatever is necessary to provide for their families.

Positive Role Models

Positive aspects of Italian American life and culture are overshadowed by Mafia killings and double-crossing.

Diverse Representations

The Godfather relies on -- and firmly cemented in the public's mind -- the stereotype of Italian Americans as violent gangsters. Despite this, characters are shown with depth. Southern Italian and Sicilian culture, as it was brought over by immigrants from late 19th and early 20th century, is shown at length.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Constant mob movie violence. Characters shot and killed, often at close range and graphic. Attempted killings by gun. Characters choked to death. Character killed by a bomb in a car. Man stabbed in the hand with a knife. Domestic abuse: man shown beating his wife with a belt. Opening scene concerns a man asking Don Corleone for vengeance on two men who raped and violently beat his daughter. Movie executive wakes up covered in blood, with decapitated horse head in his bed.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Brief nudity (breasts), brief sex scene (fully clothed). At Connie's wedding, women at a table giggle while one makes reference to the size of Sonny's penis. Sonny is shown having sex with his mistress -- in their clothes, but audible. Reference to how Fredo is "banging cocktail waitresses two at a time."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Bastards," "goddamn," "son of a bitch," "ass," "hell," "bitch." Sonny uses the "N" word at the dinner table. Mafia don equates Black people with "animals." Ethnic slurs are used to describe German, Irish, and especially Italian Americans. Vito uses an Italian homosexual slur.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Wine drinking. Cigarette smoking. Talk of marijuana and heroin, and of the Mafia moving into drug trafficking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Godfather is the classic, genre-defining Mafia movie in which Marlon Brando plays the titular character, who's facing grave threats from rival families. Unsurprisingly, there's constant violence. Characters are shot and killed, often at close range in graphic scenes. Characters are strangled to death and die in car explosions. Domestic abuse is shown: A man beats his wife with a belt. In one of many iconic scenes, a movie executive wakes up covered in blood, with a decapitated horse's head in his bed. In the opening scene, a man asks Don Corleone for vengeance after two men raped and beat his daughter. Ethnic and racial slurs are heard, as well as some profanity, including the "N" word. The movie also depicts Italian American culture in a sympathetic but crude and stereotypical light. Characters smoke cigarettes and drink wine, and there's brief nudity (female breasts) and a scene of clothed but audible sex. References are made to the sexual behavior of Sonny ( James Caan ) and Fredo ( John Cazale ). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (58)
• Kids say (194)

Based on 58 parent reviews

Violence, mafia and brief nudity it is still as must watch for everybody

Slow and methodical masterpiece depiction of sociopathy, what's the story.

THE GODFATHER follows the Corleone family and their rapidly multiplying troubles. Don Corleone ( Marlon Brando ) is on his way out, and his most promising, but unwilling, potential heir is his war-hero son, Michael ( Al Pacino ). As family members cope with the trials of gangster life, the latent power structures of society and family become evident.

Is It Any Good?

Epic in scope while maintaining a patience and intimacy characteristic of European art cinema, this film is rightly considered one of the greatest ever made. Despite valid questions around its role in perpetuating stereotypes of Italian Americans, The Godfather continues to influence producers of films, TV shows, and video games decades after its release. Nino Rota's score, the sumptuous set design, and Brando's raspy pseudo-whisper have become part of our collective cultural memory.

The film has an operatic quality, yet it's more understated than it is flamboyant. It takes its subjects seriously, bestowing legitimacy upon the power struggles of the Mafia normally reserved for classical themes in high art. The film's release initiated a period when American filmmakers dared to take themselves and their artistic ambitions seriously (perhaps too seriously). There's something deeply resonant in the film's treatment of filial piety, the need for respect, and our culture's abiding interest in the parallel moral universe of the Mafia.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about classic movies. The Godfather is considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time. What makes a movie not only great, but a classic? How do you think it set the standard for the Mafia movies and TV shows to come?

How does the movie's violence serve to show what these characters are capable of in order to get what they want?

How does the movie explore hypocrisy, not only among the Corleones, but in society as a whole?

How does the movie depict Italian Americans? Do you think this was accurate? How do movies like this shape how people think about specific cultures and groups of people?

Movie Details

• In theaters : March 11, 1972
• On DVD or streaming : May 9, 2017
• Cast : Al Pacino , James Caan , Marlon Brando
• Director : Francis Ford Coppola
• Studio : Paramount Pictures
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : History
• Run time : 175 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : Violence, Language
• Last updated : April 23, 2024

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The Godfather: Part II

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The Godfather review – a brutal sweep of magnificent storytelling

Francis Ford Coppola’s first film in the series is still an epic, full of hypnotic acting, which reinvented mafia criminals as players in a dynastic psychodrama

W hen director Francis Ford Coppola and screenwriter-novelist Mario Puzo released The Godfather 50 years ago, the mobster had already been a stock figure in film for half a century. Their genius (and that of the film’s own godfather, producer Robert Evans) was to reinvent these criminals as a dysfunctional dynastic psychodrama.

They took the figure of the ageing don as seriously as Lear, the careworn ruler of a secret American state-within-a-state. Stomach-turning flourishes of violence are juxtaposed with elaborate rituals of familial piety and respect, which generations of real-life criminals in the United States treated as how-to behaviour manuals for decades afterwards. These Italian-American gangsters do not complain about the bigotry heading their way, and are themselves casually racist and antisemitic. Extravagant gestures of romantic adoration and solemn respect for womenfolk are combined with casual sexual abuse; and women have to reconcile themselves to their role: a pretext for revenge. (A tour guide in Sicily once told me that the word “mafia” is taken from the Italian phrase “ non toccare ma figlia” – don’t touch my daughter – an explanation I have yet to see confirmed anywhere else.) There is a toxic chill to the film’s opening speech, from a local undertaker piteously demanding the Don take revenge on his behalf against two over-privileged white boys who have raped and disfigured his daughter. Many cannot forgive this film for sentimentalising mob violence with this fantasy rationale.

Marlon Brando is as hypnotic as a cobra playing ageing gangster patriarch Vito Corleone, his cottonwool jowl-padding giving something extra to that unmistakable adenoidal wheeze. He is hosting a colossal family wedding for his daughter Connie (Talia Shire): a magnificent set-piece scene that itself has more energy, detail and dramatic interest than most entire films. The don will, with stately calm and an upheld finger, like a cardinal or the Pope himself, listen to murmured information or advice in his ear. Vito’s wife Carmela (a name that reverberated in the later 90s era of The Sopranos) says little or nothing. Vito’s aggressive hothead son Sonny (James Caan) is at the party, a married man furtively having sex with a bridesmaid; present also is the weakling son Fredo (John Cazale), who is drunk in an undignified, undisciplined way. But the old don is pining for his favourite son, Michael (a stunningly charismatic performance from Al Pacino), a decorated second world war veteran with no interest in the family business. Michael shows up late, handsome in his uniform: indicating the transferable military skills. With him is his wasp fiancee Kay (Diane Keaton).

Vito’s trusted consigliere , Tom Hagen, is the unofficial son: a brilliant, atypically self-effacing performance from Robert Duvall . It is quiet Tom who is to supervise, off-camera, the film’s most diabolical act of violence: kidnapping the racehorse (Godfather superfans will know the horse’s name) belonging to a Hollywood producer who has to be intimidated into giving a role to the Don’s Sinatra-esque godson Johnny Fontane (Al Martino), drugging it, cutting off its head and placing it in the sleeping man’s bed. Eerily, this producer (played by Cassavetes veteran John Marley) had the night before given an impassioned speech denouncing Fontane’s ruination of an innocent actress, a weird echo of the undertaker’s speech to the don about his daughter.

But all this is the calm before the storm, as the crime families’ peace accord disintegrates, with the coming of drugs. Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) offers Vito a piece of his growing new heroin business; the don refuses, apparently because he disapproves of this evil trade, or perhaps because he thinks his cut isn’t big enough. Affronted by the refusal and suspecting the Corleones simply intend to launch an attack for all of his business, Sollozzo’s men launch a pre-emptive strike, shooting Vito as he buys oranges from a market, and of course pathetic, incompetent Fredo is unable to protect his father. (Again: Godfather superfans can tell you which Jake LaMotta fight is being advertised on the poster in the background of this shot.) And as Vito lies in hospital, having miraculously survived, it is Michael who realises at this moment that his destiny is to abandon his claim to the respectable American dream and take over the family business. It is to culminate in the now legendary sequence in which Michael becomes a godfather to his sister’s child and the baptismal service is intercut with nightmarish vignettes showing the slaying of all the rival bosses. The point of course being: this is Michael’s own baptism.

Coppola’s epic storytelling sweep is magnificent: there is an electric charge in simply the shift from New York to California to Sicily and back to New York. This is the top-down approach to gangsters, the “great man” theory of organised crime. Later movies such as Scorsese’s Goodfellas will emphasise the more ragged lower ranks (although Paul Sorvino’s Paulie Cicero insists on the Corleone-esque murmuring in the ear) and David Chase’s The Sopranos showed the Italian-American mob in decline. My own view is that one of the greatest post-Godfather movies is Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral, which lays out the hellish sense of self-replicating sin and shame in the criminal world.

Coppola was to follow his epic masterpiece with the equally ambitious and audacious The Godfather Part II , a sequel/prequel that is often thought of as even better. Brilliant though that second film is, I think the original will always have the edge in its simplicity, clarity and brutal power.

• The Godfather
• Francis Ford Coppola
• Marlon Brando
• Film adaptations
• Crime films
• Diane Keaton

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By Pauline Kael

If ever there was a great example of how the best popular movies come out of a merger of commerce and art, “The Godfather” is it. The movie starts from a trash novel that is generally considered gripping and compulsively readable, though (maybe because movies more than satisfy my appetite for trash) I found it unreadable. You’re told who and what the characters are in a few pungent, punchy sentences, and that’s all they are. You’re briefed on their backgrounds and sex lives in a flashy anecdote or two, and the author moves on, from nugget to nugget. Mario Puzo has a reputation as a good writer, so his potboiler was treated as if it were special, and not in the Irving Wallace-Harold Robbins class, to which, by its itch and hype and juicy roman-à-clef treatment, it plainly belongs. What would this school of fiction do without Porfirio Rubirosa, Judy Garland, James Aubrey, Howard Hughes, and Frank Sinatra? The novel “The Godfather,” financed by Paramount during its writing, features a Sinatra stereotype, and sex and slaughter, and little gobbets of trouble and heartbreak. It’s gripping, maybe, in the same sense that Spiro Agnew’s speeches were a few years back. Francis Ford Coppola, who directed the film, and wrote the script with Puzo, has stayed very close to the book’s greased-lightning sensationalism and yet has made a movie with the spaciousness and strength that popular novels such as Dickens’ used to have. With the slop and sex reduced and the whoremongering guess-who material minimized (“Nino,” who sings with a highball in his hand, has been weeded out), the movie bears little relationship to other adaptations of books of this kind, such as “The Carpetbaggers” and “The Adventurers.” Puzo provided what Coppola needed: a storyteller’s outpouring of incidents and details to choose from, the folklore behind the headlines, heat and immediacy, the richly familiar. And Puzo’s shameless turn-on probably left Coppola looser than if he had been dealing with a better book; he could not have been cramped by worries about how best to convey its style. Puzo, who admits he was out to make money, wrote “below my gifts,” as he puts it, and one must agree. Coppola uses his gifts to reverse the process—to give the public the best a moviemaker can do with this very raw material. Coppola, a young director who has never had a big hit, may have done the movie for money, as he claims—in order to make the pictures he really wants to make, he says—but this picture was made at peak capacity. He has salvaged Puzo’s energy and lent the narrative dignity. Given the circumstances and the rush to complete the film and bring it to market, Coppola has not only done his best but pushed himself farther than he may realize. The movie is on the heroic scale of earlier pictures on broad themes, such as “On the Waterfront,” “From Here to Eternity,” and “The Nun’s Story.” It offers a wide, startlingly vivid view of a Mafia dynasty. The abundance is from the book; the quality of feeling is Coppola’s.

The beginning is set late in the summer of 1945; the film’s roots, however, are in the gangster films of the early thirties. The plot is still about rival gangs murdering each other, but now we see the system of patronage and terror, in which killing is a way of dealing with the competition. We see how the racketeering tribes encroach on each other and why this form of illegal business inevitably erupts in violence. We see the ethnic subculture, based on a split between the men’s conception of their responsibilities—all that they keep dark—and the sunny false Eden in which they try to shelter the women and children. The thirties films indicated some of this, but “The Godfather” gets into it at the primary level, the willingness to be basic and the attempt to understand the basic, to look at it without the usual preconceptions, are what give this picture its epic strength.

The visual scheme is based on the most obvious life-and-death contrasts; the men meet and conduct their business in deep-toned, shuttered rooms, lighted by lamps even in the daytime, and the story moves back and forth between this hidden, nocturnal world and the sunshine that they share with the women and children. The tension is in the meetings in the underworld darkness; one gets the sense that this secret life has its own poetry of fear, more real to the men (and perhaps to the excluded women also) than the sunlight world outside. The dark-and-light contrast is so operatic and so openly symbolic that it perfectly expresses the basic nature of the material. The contrast is integral to the Catholic background of the characters: innocence versus knowledge—knowledge in this sense being the same as guilt. It works as a visual style, because the Goyaesque shadings of dark brown into black in the interiors suggest (no matter how irrationally) an earlier period of history, while the sunny, soft-edge garden scenes have their own calendar-pretty pastness. Nino Rota’s score uses old popular songs to cue the varying moods, and at one climactic point swells in a crescendo that is both Italian opera and pure-forties movie music. There are rash, foolish acts in the movie but no acts of individual bravery. The killing, connived at in the darkness, is the secret horror, and it surfaces in one bloody outburst after another. It surfaces so often that after a while it doesn’t surprise us, and the recognition that the killing is an integral part of business policy takes us a long way from the fantasy outlaws of old movies. These gangsters don’t satisfy our adventurous fantasies of disobeying the law; they’re not defiant, they’re furtive and submissive. They are required to be more obedient than we are; they live by taking orders. There is no one on the screen we can identify with—unless we take a fancy to the pearly teeth of one shark in a pool of sharks.

Even when the plot strands go slack, about two-thirds of the way through, and the passage of a few years leaves us in doubt about whether certain actions have been concluded or postponed, the picture doesn’t become softheaded. The direction is tenaciously intelligent. Coppola holds on and pulls it all together. The trash novel is there underneath, but he attempts to draw the patterns out of the particulars. It’s amazing how encompassing the view seems to be—what a sense you get of a broad historical perspective, considering that the span is only from 1945 to the mid-fifties, at which time the Corleone family, already forced by competitive pressures into dealing in narcotics, is moving its base of operations to Las Vegas.

The enormous cast is headed by Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone, the “godfather” of a powerful Sicilian-American clan, with James Caan as his hothead son, Sonny, and Al Pacino as the thoughtful, educated son, Michael. Is Brando marvellous? Yes, he is, but then he often is; he was marvellous a few years ago in “Reflections in a Golden Eye,” and he’s shockingly effective as a working-class sadist in a current film, “The Nightcomers,” though the film itself isn’t worth seeing. The role of Don Vito—a patriarch in his early sixties—allows him to release more of the gentleness that was so seductive and unsettling in his braggart roles. Don Vito could be played as a magnificent old warrior, a noble killer, a handsome bull-patriarch, but Brando manages to debanalize him. It’s typical of Brando’s daring that he doesn’t capitalize on his broken-prow profile and the massive, sculptural head that has become the head of Rodin’s Balzac—he doesn’t play for statuesque nobility. The light, cracked voice comes out of a twisted mouth and clenched teeth; he has the battered face of a devious, combative old man, and a pugnacious thrust to his jaw. The rasp in his voice is particularly effective after Don Vito has been wounded; one almost feels that the bullets cracked it, and wishes it hadn’t been cracked before. Brando interiorizes Don Vito’s power, makes him less physically threatening and deeper , hidden within himself.

Brando’s acting has mellowed in recent years; it is less immediately exciting than it used to be, because there’s not the sudden, violent discharge of emotion. His effects are subtler, less showy, and he gives himself over to the material. He appears to have worked his way beyond the self-parody that was turning him into a comic, and that sometimes left the other performers dangling and laid bare the script. He has not acquired the polish of most famous actors; just the opposite—less mannered as he grows older, he seems to draw directly from life, and from himself. His Don is a primitive sacred monster, and the more powerful because he suggests not the strapping sacred monsters of movies (like Anthony Quinn) but actual ones—those old men who carry never-ending grudges and ancient hatreds inside a frail frame, those monsters who remember minute details of old business deals when they can no longer tie their shoelaces. No one has aged better on camera than Brando; he gradually takes Don Vito to the close of his life, when he moves into the sunshine world, a sleepy monster, near to innocence again. The character is all echoes and shadings, and no noise; his strength is in that armor of quiet. Brando has lent Don Vito some of his own mysterious, courtly reserve: the character is not explained; we simply assent to him and believe that, yes, he could become a king of the underworld. Brando doesn’t dominate the movie, yet he gives the story the legendary presence needed to raise it above gang warfare to archetypal tribal warfare.

Brando isn’t the whole show; James Caan is very fine, and so are Robert Duvall and many others in lesser roles. Don Vito’s sons suggest different aspects of Brando—Caan’s Sonny looks like the muscular young Brando but without the redeeming intuitiveness, while as the heir, Michael, Al Pacino comes to resemble him in manner and voice. Pacino creates a quiet, ominous space around himself; his performance—which is marvellous, too, big yet without ostentation—complements Brando’s. Like Brando in this film; Pacino is simple; you don’t catch him acting, yet he manages to change from a small, fresh-faced, darkly handsome college boy into an underworld lord, becoming more intense, smaller, and more isolated at every step. Coppola doesn’t stress the father-and-son links; they are simply there for us to notice when we will. Michael becomes like his father mostly from the inside, but we also get to see how his father’s face was formed (Michael’s mouth gets crooked and his cheeks jowly, like his father’s, after his jaw has been smashed). Pacino has an unusual gift for conveying the divided spirit of a man whose calculations often go against his inclinations. When Michael, warned that at a certain point he must come out shooting, delays, we are left to sense his mixed feelings. As his calculations will always win out, we can see that he will never be at peace. The director levels with almost everybody in the movie. The women’s complicity in their husbands’ activities is kept ambiguous, but it’s naggingly there—you can’t quite ignore it. And Coppola doesn’t make the subsidiary characters lovable; we look at Clemenza (Richard Castellano) as objectively when he is cooking spaghetti as we do when he is garroting a former associate. Many of the actors (and the incidents) carry the resonances of earlier gangster pictures, so that we almost unconsciously place them in the prehistory of this movie. Castellano, with his resemblance to Al Capone and Edward G. Robinson (plus a vagrant streak of Oscar Levant), belongs in this atmosphere; so does Richard Conte (as Barzini), who appeared in many of the predecessors of this movie, including “House of Strangers,” though perhaps Al Lettieri (as Sollozzo) acts too much like a B-picture hood. And perhaps the director goes off key when Sonny is blasted and blood-spattered at a toll booth; the effect is too garish.

The people dress in character and live in character—with just the gewgaws that seem right for them. The period details are there—a satin pillow, a modernistic apartment-house lobby, a child’s pasted-together greeting to Grandpa—but Coppola doesn’t turn the viewer into a guided tourist, told what to see. Nor does he go in for a lot of closeups, which are the simplest tool for fixing a director’s attitude. Diane Keaton (who plays Michael’s girlfriend) is seen casually; her attractiveness isn’t labored. The only character who is held in frame for us to see exactly as the character looking at her sees her is Apollonia (played by Simonetta Stefanelli), whom Michael falls in love with in Sicily. She is fixed by the camera as a ripe erotic image, because that is what she means to him, and Coppola, not having wasted his resources, can do it in a few frames. In general, he tries not to fix the images. In “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” John Schlesinger showed a messy knocked-over ashtray being picked up in closeup, so that there was nothing to perceive in the shot but the significance of the messiness. Coppola, I think, would have kept the camera on the room in which the woman bent over to retrieve the ashtray, and the messiness would have been just one element among many to be observed—perhaps the curve of her body could have told us much more than the actual picking-up motion. “The Godfather” keeps so much in front of us all the time that we’re never bored (though the picture runs just two minutes short of three hours)—we keep taking things in. This is a heritage from Jean Renoir—this uncoercive, “open” approach to the movie frame. Like Renoir, Coppola lets the spectator roam around in the images, lets a movie breathe, and this is extremely difficult in a period film, in which every detail must be carefully planted. But the details never look planted: you’re a few minutes into the movie before you’re fully conscious that it’s set in the past.

When one considers the different rates at which people read, it’s miraculous that films can ever solve the problem of a pace at which audiences can “read” a film together. A hack director solves the problem of pacing by making only a few points and making those so emphatically that the audience can hardly help getting them (this is why many of the movies from the studio-system days are unspeakably insulting); the tendency of a clever, careless director is to go too fast, assuming that he’s made everything clear when he hasn’t, and leaving the audience behind. When a film has as much novelistic detail as this one, the problem might seem to be almost insuperable. Yet, full as it is, “The Godfather” goes by evenly, so we don’t feel rushed, or restless, either; there’s classic grandeur to the narrative flow. But Coppola’s attitudes are specifically modern—more so than in many films with a more jagged surface. Renoir’s openness is an expression of an almost pagan love of people and landscape; his style is an embrace. Coppola’s openness is a reflection of an exploratory sense of complexity; he doesn’t feel the need to comment on what he shows us, and he doesn’t want to reduce the meanings in a shot by pushing us this way or that. The assumption behind this film is that complexity will engage the audience.

These gangsters like their life style, while we—seeing it from the outside—are appalled. If the movie gangster once did represent, as Robert Warshow suggested in the late forties, “what we want to be and what we are afraid we may become,” if he expressed “that part of the American psyche which rejects the qualities and the demands of modern life, which rejects ‘Americanism’ itself,” that was the attitude of another era. In “The Godfather” we see organized crime as an obscene symbolic extension of free enterprise and government policy, an extension of the worst in America—its feudal ruthlessness. Organized crime is not a rejection of Americanism, it’s what we fear Americanism to be. It’s our nightmare of the American system. When “Americanism” was a form of cheerful bland official optimism, the gangster used to be destroyed at the end of the movie and our feelings resolved. Now the mood of the whole country has darkened, guiltily; nothing is resolved at the end of “The Godfather,” because the family business goes on. Terry Malloy didn’t clean up the docks at the end of “On the Waterfront;” that was a lie. “The Godfather” is popular melodrama, but it expresses a new tragic realism. ♦

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By Jervis Anderson

By Ellen Willis

From 1972: ‘The Godfather’ is a film ‘close to the soul of modern man’

Editor’s note: “The Godfather” was released 50 years ago this month. This review appeared in America on March 25, 1972. The original grammar and style elements are preserved here.

Often films set at some distance lend a perspective to the here and now; they allow us to step back from our everyday skin to see who we really are. Bergman, for example, used a medieval knight in The Seventh Seal (1956) to reveal the crisis of faith in post-Christian Europe, and Robert Gardner, in Dead Birds (1963), used a primitive tribe of warriors in New Guinea to reveal the pathetic madness of a people, who like ourselves, have come to accept war as a normal way of life. And now The Godfather . How remote from actual experience, this world of violence and treachery, and yet how close to the soul of modern man.

With The Godfather , Francis Ford Coppola, at 33 years of age, has become a major new talent among American directors.

The mafiosi , murderers and extortionists all, emerge from the film as believable people, when they might easily have become comic gangsters or monsters. Their world tips wildly from the orbit of normalcy; it is a closed world, where their ghastly brutal work is considered an ordinary way to support a family. In the idyllic Sicily sequence, the quaint customs, the fierce family loyalties and the rigid patriarchal formality have a rustic lovely charm; in the New York underworld they are pathetic anachronisms. Yet it is precisely these grotesque rural customs that humanize the members of the famiglia . They are human in the midst of a sordid world, and they do what they must to survive. That is their way, and perhaps the way of all of us.

Don Vito Corleone, meaning lionhearted, is an aging racketeer whose empire and health both show the stress of old age. Brando brings depth and sensitivity to the part, but because of his long established “star” quality he has taken too much of the prerelease publicity. Al Pacino, as his son Michael, gives a virtuoso performance which should bring him instant recognition. He is an idealistic college graduate, marked for a career in the foreign land outside the mob, but gradually the destructive world of his father overwhelms him in its evil. He matures both in humanity and ruthlessness to become a calculating killer and worthy heir to the Don's empire.

At three hours,  The Godfather is by any reasonable standard too long to sustain interest, but most viewers will be sorry to see it end. 

With The Godfather , Francis Ford Coppola, at 33 years of age, has become a major new talent among American directors. Two sequences in particular are set pieces of editing and directing, and are even more remarkable because of their different styles. During a baptism at which Michael is godfather, his men plan and execute a series of assassinations designed to consolidate his power over the other famiglie . The ceremony drags on endlessly, but the intercutting of the preparations for the murders builds a palpable tension. The explosion of violence at the end of the sequence snaps the tension; it is almost a relief to end it all despite the horror of the bloodletting.

The second sequence, by contrast, is a tender, loving family portrait of Don Corleone and his infant grandson playing together in the garden of his estate. The Don is weak, but with his grandchild he appears perfectly at peace with himself. At this moment, when he appears most fully human, he dies quietly and gently, alone with his grandchild and his flowers. Alone, each of the two scenes is a cameo of directorial art; together they show Coppola's immense versatility.

Nino Rota, who prepared the music for all of Federico Felliní's great films, blends Italian folk themes and America kitsch of the 194O's into an effective comment on the dramatic action.

Richard A. Blake, S.J., served as managing editor and executive editor of America and director of the Catholic Book Club, as well as America 's regular film reviewer for many decades. He is the author of  Afterimage: The Indelible Catholic Imagination of Six American Filmmakers , among other books.

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‘The Godfather’ Review: After 50 Years, It’s Still a Movie You Can’t Refuse

In Collider’s look back at classic films, a first-time watcher reviews Francis Ford Coppola’s legendary 1972 mafia movie.

As part of Collider’s "retro review" series, I’ve been fortunate enough to watch and review Penny Marshall ’s heartfelt tear-jerker A League of Their Own and Alfred Hitchcock ’s suspenseful masterpiece Psycho , two very different, but very important films for any lover and admirer of cinema. But the title that inevitably rises to the top of all movie conversations is, of course, The Godfather . Usually, it involves someone's often cringe-worthy attempt at an impression of Vito Corleone saying those famous words: “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” (If only there was a way we could refuse to hear these impressions.) While that line of dialogue has been overstated, praise for the 1972 crime drama certainly has not.

Before we even dive into the meaty story and character development (or lack thereof), it’s important to take note of just how impressive the cast of The Godfather is. Marlon Brando , James Caan , Diane Keaton , Robert Duvall , and Al Pacino ? It doesn’t get much better than that. There was a special magic that was conjured up here that many subsequent ensemble films have tried—and failed—to replicate. Perhaps it’s because the screen time for each actor and their respective characters felt exactly right. Francis Ford Coppola , the esteemed director and co-writer with the source material’s author Mario Puzo , didn’t fall into the trap of trying to cram everyone’s storylines down the audience’s throat before the credits roll. Maybe it’s because he gave himself ample time to do so. The picture clocks in at a whopping 2 hr and 55 min, which is arguably more than enough time to tell this story. And, considering it was followed up with two sequels (one of which exceeded this indulgent runtime), the almost three-hour time stamp feels a smidge excessive.

Nevertheless, The Godfather never drags, which is a massive storytelling feat for any project, no matter the scope. At the helm of this deadly ship is Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone, the titular Godfather who turns a benign activity such as petting a cat into one of the most terrifying things you ever did see. He’s an aging, respected (but mostly feared) Sicilian crime boss of the very connected Corleone family in 1945 New York City. If you need something, shall we say, “taken care of,” then Vito is the man you call. There's no guarantee he will answer, but you will without a doubt know if he does. With the help of his character’s iconic look and sound, Brando becomes the embodiment of intimidation. He takes his time talking (mostly because he knows that whoever sits before him has no choice but to listen) and stealthily reminds his prey when and how they have let him down. This is effortlessly executed in the opening scene after he hears out the demanding request of a family friend. “I can’t remember the last time you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee,” Vito says while stroking his feline companion. “But let’s be frank here. You never wanted my friendship. And you were afraid to be in my debt.”

While this is often credited with being Brando’s movie, it’s his onscreen sons that are electric. James Caan plays Sonny, the stubborn hot head psychologically burdened by being the oldest. He toes the line his father so firmly established to the best of his ability, though his temper and ego often get the better of him. And when it does, Vito is sure to let him know, promptly shoving him back into his subordinate place. Sonny’s hypocritical behavior is maddening; one minute he is beating Carlo ( Gianni Russo ) for abusing his sister, Connie ( Talia Shire ), the next he is cheating on and beating his own wife without giving it a second thought. Misogyny and racism run rampant in the Corleone family, and Sonny is one of the worst offenders.

RELATED: How The Failure of Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope Birthed 'The Godfather'

Robert Duvall delivers an understated—but highly effective—performance as Tom Hagen, the consigliere and unofficial adopted son of Vito. Basically, he tells Vito who wants to see him and why, which helps the boss decide whether or not any of these meetings are worth his time at all. As consigliere, he also serves as Vito’s errand boy. His even, non-threatening, borderline robotic temperament makes his visits to the people that Vito is trying to persuade all the more powerful. When he meets with Hollywood executive Jack Woltz ( John Marley ) to ask him to give Vito’s godson Johnny Fontane ( Al Martino ) a role in his new movie, Jack gets hostile rather quickly, slinging racial slurs to his face with no end in sight. But rather than returning the favor, Tom keeps his cool, puts out his hand for a shake, and before leaving says, “By the way, I admire your pictures very much.” This out-of-place and subdued compliment was the secret weapon that convinced Jack to take a meeting with Tom after all.

The buffoonish middle son Fredo ( John Cazale ) provides a bit of comic relief. He’s not exactly loyal and is certainly not a leader, an overall stark contrast to Sonny and Tom. But no one is more of a black sheep than the youngest son Michael, who is played with precision by Al Pacino. When we first meet him, he wants nothing to do with his father’s shady business, and the family knows it. He’s a former Marine with an innocent demeanor and a queasy feeling about his father’s reputation. He tries to shield his doe-eyed girlfriend Kay (Diane Keaton) from the brutal reality, but is forced to catch her up to speed on who’s who while they attend his sister’s wedding. Michael’s reluctance is palpable, though, as he’s ashamed of his criminal bloodline. This is clear after he clumsily tries to change the subject from his family to something they are all equally passionate about: food. After explaining Tom’s odd origin story, he says with a child-like smile, “You like your lasagna?”

Pacino’s disturbing metamorphosis is the irregular heartbeat of The Godfather . He goes from being the literal laughingstock of his siblings to the one who calls the shots. What makes his moral descent so believable and scary is how slow said descent actually is. It’s a series of events and tasks that build on each other, subconsciously stroking his ego and beefing up his confidence. Michael whispering, “Just lie here, Pop. I’ll take care of you now. I’m with you now,” to his bedridden father is probably the most blatant indication that his character was starting to shed his skin, but the nonverbal moments are much more powerful. The way he lit a cigarette with ease for Enzo following the potentially-deadly situation in front of the hospital highlighted Michael’s growing coolness under pressure. In other words, his transformation was earned.

To everyone’s surprise, Michael also shows interest in and takes charge of orchestrating a meeting between him, drug lord and rival Sollozzo ( Al Lettieri ), and Captain McCluskey ( Sterling Hayden ), a crooked cop under Sollozzo. If all went according to plan, Michael would be the only one leaving the meeting alive. This proposition is met with laughs by his brothers (particularly Sonny) who all think it’s pretty darn cute that their little brother thinks he can be a family asset. Rather than being discouraged by this mockery, he puts his money where his mouth is and takes the necessary steps to prepare for this public meeting. First order of his business for Michael? Learning how to shoot a gun, something that is as second nature to his siblings as tying a shoe. Pacino’s performance in this scene was particularly potent and revealing for his character. Watching him try to properly hold a gun was like watching a Little Leaguer learn how to grip a baseball bat. But, once he pulls the trigger and got over how loud a gunshot is, he knew he was going to knock the meeting out of the park.

Though some moments in the second half of the film are a bit predictable, there are more than enough plot developments and twists that keep the narrative’s energy and tension. Sonny’s untimely demise at the toll booth, though somewhat expected, is a startling reminder that no one in this line of work is safe. Michael’s reunion with and eventual marriage to Kay after becoming fully invested in this corrupt world is an unsettling full-circle storyline. Vito’s tearful response to hearing that his son died adds a much-needed layer of humanity to the emotion-averse mobster, especially since he shamed a man for crying in the beginning of the film. That, coupled with Vito’s death while playing with his grandson in the tomato garden, is weirdly poetic.

The entire movie neatly tees up to that final scene, where Michael inevitably becomes his father’s son. He dismisses his sister as “hysterical” when she breaks down in tears over the murder of her husband and callously says, “Don’t ask me about my business, Kay” to his concerned wife. The final nail in the coffin comes when he’s referred to as “Don Corleone,” an esteemed title in the mafia world formerly held by his father. The Oscar winning crime drama paints a compelling portrait of how greed, ego, and loyalty can corrupt even the most unassuming individual. The Godfather is simply a movie you can’t refuse.

Rating : B+

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God Father Movie Review : Chiranjeevi delivers a charismatic performance in this worthy remake

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Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive . Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.

Suhas Jinka 180 414 days ago

chiru sir gave a exclusive work and he suits the film and Salman sir played a gud role ,but climax was bad

Surya Manupati 24 420 days ago

Aeko Raja vishwaroopa dhaari, sashinche dharmachari. Anthe leni aadipatya shali.

deepu rockzz 5 459 days ago

Saysavalisyed 492 days ago.

Ub hff. Hg m no hi hi hi hi hu ��hu ki vasta rapu hu ki vasta rapu na hu ki vasta rapu na

Karthi User 493 days ago

Nothing apart from Chiranjeevi's performance. Can’t deliver justice to the original (Lucifer). Chiru sir matched the Charishma of Mohanlal but the modified script made it a little boring. Salman khan has a cameo but it’s too routine. One time watchable that too just for Chiranjeevi. Else you can skip it 

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GodFather movie review: Chiranjeevi-Salman Khan starrer is a satisfying watch

Godfather review: filmmaker mohan raja has packed godfather with all the elements to satisfy the core fan base of chiranjeevi and salman khan..

Owing to the dismal performance of Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi’s recent movies (Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, Acharya ), there was some uneasiness in the trade about GodFather. Chiranjeevi, however, expressed a lot of confidence that GodFather would end his losing streak and satisfy his fan base. And he was correct. Director Mohan Raja has packed GodFather with plenty of energetic moments to ensure there isn’t a dull moment in the narration.

GodFather is the official remake of the Malayalam hit Lucifer. The film begins with the untimely death of Chief Minister PKR. His passing causes a power vacuum, creating an opening for the dubious minds in politics to make a bid for the top position. However, the power-grabbers are not aware that PKR has made arrangements, perhaps in anticipation of his sudden death, to protect his life’s work: his family and political party. The CM’s chair and family are guarded by one of the wickedest men and his name is Brahma (Chiranjeevi). As his name suggests, he creates and controls every move of everyone in this game of power.

Lucifer was in a way philosophical as its writer Murali Gopy had used big words to create the myth of Stephen Nedumpally. The Malayalam original begins with the question of who’s Stephen Nedumpally and that question sustains the entire movie to the end. Even though Lucifer was set against a political backdrop, the film gravitated more towards presenting Stephen as a mythical character. Director Mohan Raja, however, has steered clear of mystery and has turned GodFather into a full-fledged political drama.

The horse-trading, the fake public feud of politicians, the big corporations deciding the fate of the next government, the reverence that dynastic politics enjoys, and the submissive media, all are reminiscent of the current political climate. Conventionally, the protagonist has to fight the system which has been rigged by those in power in their favour. In GodFather, the director has turned the tables. The hero rigs the system for the villains to fail.

Mohan Raja has added some original twists to the narration, which were not present in Lucifer. For example, the confrontation scene between Brahma and Jaidev (Satyadev Kancharana). Jaidev gets to do all the shouting and aggressive gestures as Brahma remains calm, not reacting to any of the provocations. While Jaidev assumes a dominant position in the scene, in the end, he realises the reality. He has not got Brahma boxed in, but the opposite is true. Mohan uses clever and subtle ways to elevate Brahma’s heroism.

The scene where Brahma meets the investigative journalist, played by Puri Jagannadh, is also interesting as it’s a face-off between an idealist and a realist. For the first time, Brahma admits his limitations and reminds the idealist journalist that society can’t be changed overnight. And Brahma is okay with playing dirty if it serves a greater good.

Mohan Raja has also steered clear of unnecessary distractions in the form of parallel comedy tracks or special dance numbers. He has only kept those things that serve the main plot and within that space, he has indulged the superstardom of Chiranjeevi and Salman Khan for the amusement of their fans. In the middle of a gunfight, Salman’s Masoom Khan pushes an overturned car just with his shoulder, all the while firing a shotgun to create a safe passage for Chiranjeevi’s Brahma to get out of the car. The action scenes are too ridiculous to take them seriously. And Mohan knows it. But, he’s also aware that this kind of stunts will do the job of amusing fans.

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Release Date : October 05, 2022

123telugu.com Rating : 3.25/5

Starring: Megastar Chiranjeevi, Salman Khan, Nayanthara, Puri Jagannadh, Satya Dev, Samuthirakani, Murali Sharma, Sunil, Brahmaji

Director: Mohan Raja

Producers: Ram Charan, R B Choudary, N V Prasad

Music Director : Thaman S

Cinematography : Nirav Shah

Editor : Marthand K. Venkatesh

Related Links : Trailer

Post the debacle of Acharya, Chiranjeevi has taken a safe route and has remade a Malayalam hit Lucifer. Titled Godfather, this film has hit the screens today. Let’s see how it is.

The film starts with the death of a state CM. This leaves the key post open and in line to take over as the CM are Jai(Satyadev) and Satya(Nayanthara) the son in law and daughter of the late CM. But in comes one more power house in the party, Brahma(Chiranjeevi) to stop all this from happening. The rest of the story is about the cat and mouse game of who becomes the CM of the state finally.

Plus Points:

Godfather is the official remake of the Malayalam hit Lucifer but director Mohan Raja has made good changes to suit the sensibilities of the Telugu audience. Mohan Raja has stayed true to the story and narrated the film in an engaging manner.

The manner in which he has showcased Chiranjeevi is superb. All these years, we have seen Chiranjeevi in highly energetic roles but here in Godfather, he plays a mature politician and is very good. Chiranjeevi does not have many dialogues but he emotes superbly through his eyes. Though he does not dance or evoke comedy, his screen presence and settled performance will be loved by his fans.

Nayanthara plays a key role and brings a lot of depth to the film. But if there is one actor who steals the show it is none other than young hero Satyadev. He surprises you with his evil act and is a perfect enemy for Chiranjeevi. The manner in which Satyadev goes about his role is convincing and he impresses big time.

Murali Sharma gets a key role and he was impressive. The first half is filled with well written political moments which are well executed. Brahmaji, Sunil, Samutrakani do well in their roles.

The film has some really well written scenes. The jail episode between Chiranjeevi and Satyadev is executed superbly even though the megastar does not utter one dialogue.

Last but not the least, Salman Khan’s entry is perfectly timed into the narrative and gives the required mass moments for the fans. The climax fight, song and slow motion shots of Salman and Chiranjeevi are solid and end the film on a high.

Mini Points:

Lucifer had a very engaging drama and when compared to it, things are a bit low in Godfather. The second half becomes slow as there is not much story to showcase. That is the reason a song breaks out at the pre-climax time.

Also, Chiranjeevi looks a bit stiff in a few scenes during the end of the movie. The emotions in the second could have been more stronger. Salman Khan’s role looks fancy but is not justified properly by the end.

Also, the proceedings are a bit predictable. Though Satyadev is good, some more padding should have been given to him to enhance the villain angle in the film.

Technical Aspects:

Thaman is one more asset of the film as his BGM elevates the proceedings big time. The production design is very good and the colour tone used by the cameraman to showcase the political setup is amazing. Dialogues are decent and so was the editing part.

Coming to the director Mohan Raja, he is known as the remake specialist and he has done an impressive job with the film. He uses Chiranjeevi’s grace superbly and lets his eyes emote. The changes he makes or the mass elements he has added with Salman are good.

The best part of the film is that Mohan Raja does not force any over the top scenes or comedy and narrates the political thriller in a proper way. When you think the film is getting simple towards the end, he brings in Salman and ends the film on a high.

On the whole, Godfather is an impressive political thriller narrated in a sensible manner. A new age and mature Chiranjeevi, solid performance by Satyadev and Nayanthara and a fun cameo by Salman Khan are basic assets of the film. When compared to the original Lucifer, drama is missing a bit but that does not stop the fans and masses having a fun ride this Dussehra as the boss is back.

123telugu.com Rating: 3.25/5

Reviewed by 123telugu Team

Click Here For Telugu Review

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• తెలుగు

Godfather Movie Review: Tailormade Remake

Movie: Godfather Rating: 2.75/5 Banner: Mega Supergood Films, Konidela Productions Cast:  Chiranjeevi, Salman Khan, Nayanthara, Puri Jagannadh, Satya Dev, Murali Sharma, Samuthirakani, Sunil and others Music: Thaman S Director of Photography: Nirva Shah Editor: Marthand K Venkatesh Action: Ram-Laxman, Anl Arsu Producer: RB Choudary and NV Prasad Directed by: Mohan Raja Release Date: October 5, 2022

Any Chiranjeevi starrer evokes curiosity. “Godfather” has created more interest as Bollywood superstar Salman Khan played a guest role. The film marks Salman Khan’s Telugu debut.

Let’s find out whether the film lives up to the expectations.

Story: When Chief Minister PKR passed away, his daughter Satya Priya (Nayanthara) and his son-in-law Jaidev (Satya Dev) decided to take the reins of the party and the government. Not aware of her husband's true nature, Satya Priya proposes Jaidev's name as the new president, which is rejected by MLAs and party men as they follow Brahma (Chiranjeevi), the stepson of the deceased CM.

Satya Priya hates Brahma and wants to keep him away from the party. Jaidev wants to buy all the MLAs with the money from a Mumbai don. The Mumbai mafia don, in return, seeks the permission to set up a drugs production company in the state when Jaidev becomes CM of the state.

How Brahma plays his game and saves his sister Satya Priya and the state from the schemes of Jaidev forms the rest of the story.

Artistes’ Performances: Megastar Chiranjeevi has played a role that suits his age and image. The appearance is also closer to his real life. Chiranjeevi is quite effective when he speaks less and does the acting with his body language. This is the first time that the megastar played a role without a female interest in the film. 

Bollywood superstar Salman Khan in his Tollywood debut gets a raw deal. His entry into the film and his subsequent scenes look superficial.

Satyadev steps in the role played by Vivek Oberoi. Satyadev has put in his best efforts, but his role lacks evilness as Vivek showed in the original. He doesn’t pose as a strong villain to the mighty Chiranjeevi.

Nayanthara is dignified in her role. Sunil is okay. Murali Sharma shines. Puri Jagannadh as a journalist is impressive.

Technical Excellence: Nirav Shah’s cinematography is striking. Many shots in the film show his master touch. The sequences filmed on Necklace Road’s tricolor flag area are beautiful. Thaman’s music is a letdown. Lakshmi Bhupal’s dialogues are pale and normal. 

Highlights: Chiranjeevi’s act and style The first half

Drawback: Weak villain The climax portions Changes to the original story

Analysis “Godfather” is the official remake of the Malayalam blockbuster “Lucifer” featuring Mohanlal. The Malayalam version is a commercial film and a blockbuster. The film was narrated in a gripping manner. It was one of the best political thrillers. 

The basic storyline of “Godfather” is the same as that of “Lucifer”, but director Mohan Raja has made many changes that have diluted the impact.

Until the interval bang, the film is as gripping as the original. While certain changes worked for the image of Chiranjeevi, the other crucial changes, especially the removal of the brother’s character, have changed the course of the drama. 

The protagonist is the son of the deceased chief minister and that is never explicitly told in the original movie. It is only implied with the ‘silence’ of the main character. This angle has given room for suspense in the story. In “Godfather”, at the very beginning, it is revealed that Chiranjeevi is the son of the deceased Chief Minister. So, the drama about the identity of “Lucifer” or “Brahma” goes missing. Then the arrival of the Chief Minister’s younger son is quite dramatic in "Lucifer". In the “Godfather”, the role is completely chopped off. 

What “Godfather” gets right is it doesn’t spoil the spirit of the original. The first half is narrated in a gripping manner. Plus, additional sequences like adding a heroine to Chiranjeevi or songs are not incorporated. This is a major relief. 

The political dialogues used by Chiranjeevi are in ok with the story, there is no forced additional political track. Puri Jagannadh’s journalist role and the sequences have also come out well. 

Even after the interval, the film goes as per the story for a few sequences. But thereafter, it turned into a complete ‘Telugu commercial film’. 

Satya Dev’s character lacks the evilness of Vivek Oberoi’s. In turn, Satya Dev looks like a meek person in front of Chiranjeevi, who is called the boss of the bosses. And We don’t get any high moments when Chiranjeevi and Salman Khan appear together. In the original, the same sequences filmed on Mohanlal and Prithviraj Sukumar provide goosebumps. 

Having said that, “Godfather” is a better action drama compared to recent masala movies. When it sticks to the original, it works big time, when it deviates, it goes down. If we stop comparing it with the original, it looks interesting. However, Chiranjeevi’s charisma and his swag, and certain portions bring joy to his fans. For others, it is a strictly okay watch. It is difficult for the audience who watched 'Lucifer' to relish this film. But those who didn't watch the original may like it. This is the tailormade remake for Chiranjeevi. 

Bottom line: For fans

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GodFather Review : Remake aimed at Fans

GodFather 2022 Movie Review

Telugu360 rating : 3/5

After the debacle of Acharya, Megastar Chiranjeevi is testing his luck with a remake titled God Father. Mohan Raja directed a political drama that also has enough dose of action. The team says that they have made enough changes to suit the Telugu audience. Bollywood Superstar Salman Khan will be seen in a prominent role and Nayanthara, Satyadev and Samuthirakani will be seen playing other important roles. Thaman scored the music and Konidela Production Company; Super Good Films are the producers.Here is the complete review of God Father:

God Father is about BRAHMA (Chiranjeevi) the force behind the ruling party. As incumbent chief minister PKR dies, fight erupts within the party for the next Chief Minister post. Strong contenders for the next CM position are PKR’s daughter Satya Sri ( Nayanatara) , Jaya Dev ( Satya Dev) and Home minister Verma ( Murali Sharma). Brahma’s objective is to protect the JJParty and CKR’s daughter. Rest of the film is how Brahma and his rivals plan to take control of the state.

God Father Movie takes off with intense political drama and family feud around the chief minister’s family. Chiranjeevi role is characterized as a creator, and named after the same creator god.Brahma. Chiranjeevi is the invisible force behind the chief minister PKR family. After PKR death, PKR’s son-in-law Jaya dev tries to become the chief minister. Brahma intercepts and continuously foil Mr Jaya dev attempts. The bonding between PKR and Brahma has been established emotionally, but the growth of the Brahma as a force (Don) wasn’t established convincingly. The Dubai mafia support to Brahma, Masoombhai( Salman Khan) thread and international mafia dons’ meeting etc. scenes are not dealt well.

PKR’s daughter Satya Sri (Nayanatara ) is unaware of her husband Jaya Dev’s dark side. Under Jaya Dev’s trap, Satya Sri tries to make him as the Chief Minister. But, Brahma outwits Jaya Dev and how is able to make Satya Sri as the chief minister is rest of the story. Chiranjeevi’sBrahma characterization is a mixed bag. While it suits his age, the mass audience might not like the idea of protagonist being passively showing the heroism. As per the characterization Brahma is majority of the times shown taking back seat in the action than active. At some point, while Salman Khan Fights against the villains chiranjeevi is shown walking behind salman under his protection. Script wise this approach is absolutely fine but might be a negative with core masses. Last 30 minutes of the film is a clichéd one.

Overall, director Jayam Mohan Raja did a good job in balancing the remake and customizing to telugu audience. Konidela Pro production values are adequate, but the VFX work is poor. SS Thaman provides loud and mass appealing background score for Godfather. Nirav Shah Cinematography is good. Marthand K Venkatesh’s editing is adequate.

Performances :

Megastar Chiranjeevi getup suits his age, performance is subtle and Good. Satya Dev and Nayana Tara added solid performances and both are fantastic. Salman adds to the star power and it is nice to see both Megastars together on the screen. However, there is not much depth in his character. Murali Sharma, Sayaji Shinde got good roles. Puri Jagannath got a significant role as journalist.

• Mega Star’s performance
• Engaging political Story line
• Two mass appealing fights
• Salman Khan’s scenes
• Backstory Chiranjeevi’s Brahma character
• Lack of typical chiranjeevi elements like Dance, comedy for his fans

Godfather stays true to the original with adequate tweaks to appeal to Telugu audience. Brahma’s role is tailor made for the Megastar Chiranjeevi, which he plays in efficient manner. Overall, if you like political themed films, Godfather keeps you engaged .

Release date: 5 October 2022 Director: Mohan Raja Language: Telugu Cinematography: Nirav Shah Producers: Ram Charan, R B Choudary, Prasad N.V. Production companies: Konidela Production Company, Super Good Films Cast : Chiranjeevi, Salman Khan, Nayanthara, Satya Dev

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The Godfather, Part III

Where to watch.

Watch The Godfather, Part III with a subscription on Peacock, Paramount+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

The final installment of The Godfather saga recalls its predecessors' power when it's strictly business, but underwhelming performances and confused tonality brings less closure to the Corleone story.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Francis Ford Coppola

Don Michael Corleone

Diane Keaton

Talia Shire

Connie Corleone-Rizzi

Andy Garcia

Vincent Mancini-Corleone

Eli Wallach

Don Altobello

Movie Clips

More like this, movie news & guides, this movie is featured in the following articles., critics reviews.

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Godfather Movie Review

Article by Suman M Published by GulteDesk --> Published on: 6:30 am, 5 October 2022

2 hr 37 min   |   Action - Thriller   |   05-10-2022

Cast - Chiranjeevi, Nayanthara, Sathya Dev, Murli Sharma, Sunil, Salman Khan & others

Director - Mohan Raja

Producer - RB Choudary, Ram Charan, Prasad NV

Banner - Super Good Films, Konidela Production Company

Music - S Thaman

Megastar Chiranjeevi’s Godfather is the official remake of the Malayalam blockbuster Lucifer, starring Mohanlal and Prithviraj. The trailer of Godfather garnered a decent response. The starcast of Godfather is interesting with the very talented Nayanthara and Sathya Dev joining Chiru for this political action drama. Today, the movie was released in theaters. Here is the review.

What Is It About?

Chief Minister PK Ramadas’s (Sarvadaman Banerjee) sudden demise creates chaos in state politics. Home Minister Varma (Murli Sharma) and PKR’s son-in-law Jayadev (Sathyadev) plot on becoming the CM of the state in their ways. Brahma (Chiranjeevi) who was the right hand and great supporter of PKR stands against them both. Satya Priya (Nayanthara) hates Brahma for a reason. What is the rivalry between Sathya and Brahma? How Brahma saves the state and family from the wrong people? The answers to these questions are all about Godfather.

Performances

There is always something missing in Chiranjeevi’s roles since his comeback with Khaidi no 150. Now in Godfather, Chiru’s role appears complete and well arranged. Chiranjeevi gives a subtle performance and is precise for the role of Godfather. So far, we have seen Chiru dominating the show when he is onscreen, but with Godfather he keeps content and brings it up at the right moments.

Nayanthara performed well and is apt for the role. Her role is orderly and she did what is needed. She will be mostly passive in the first half, and her presence is better felt in the second half.

Sathyadev is a good choice for the role of Jayadev. Sathyadev is a performer and he gives his best as a baddie. The director’s choice to go for Sathyadev instead of a Bollywood villain is perfect.

Sunil, Shafi, Brahmaji, Murli Sharma and Anasuya were apt in their roles. Puri Jagannath appears in a crucial role as a gutsy investigative journalist. He is fine in his role.

Bollywood Superstar Salman Khan elevated the scenes to bigger levels with his presence. Salman’s role is brief and also not important. But Salman doing the role enthralls the masses, particularly when both of them were in one frame doing all the action parts.

Technicalities

Godfather is a political action drama. So writing is expected to be more thrilling with political and elevation punches. Godfather does not have many enticing dialogues. Most of the writing is from the original. Thaman’s background score is loud but it helped elevate many scenes. The cinematography is good. The screenplay is fine.

Chiranjeevi Sathya Dev & Nayanthara First Half

Thumbs Down

Poor Graphics Few Lengthy scenes

There were many doubts about why Chiranjeevi is keen on remaking the political action thriller Lucifer. But Godfather is an honest remake with some changes that did not spoil the essence of the original. The director Mohan Raja adapted the movie for the Telugu nativity and made it a bit more engaging.

The director kept the original plot intact with balanced elevations in regular intervals. There are a few twists that thrill the audience and there are some stretchy scenes as well. The first half engages with the smooth run and characters scheming against each other. Salman Khan’s appearance during the interval gives a high

We have seen the political ploy with MLAs shifting bases. Godfather also has similar episodes but the story slowly starts focusing on the confrontation between the protagonist and the antagonist in the second half. Some prison episodes and action sequences entertain the masses.

The latter part of the second half takes the route of routine mass drama with a kidnap rescue episode. The climax part is not any different from the usual fight sequence with lots of guns and bullets.

An item song followed by a rain of bullets, spilling blood, and fire in slow motion leaves us a feeling of action dominating the mature thrill that the movie so far carried. The fans might be missing Chiru getting into a muscle fight in the end, but Salman does that for him to keep the Godfather’s weightage.

Overall, Godfather is a neat remake with relevant changes. For those who already watched Lucifer, Godfather will be a decent remake, and for those who have not watched the original, this will be an entertaining watch.

Bottomline: Boss Is Back

Rating: 3/5

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the godfather, part iii.

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"The Godfather, Part III" continues the Corleone family history in 1979, as the sins of the parents are visited upon the children. Despite every attempt to go legit, to become respectable, the past cannot be silenced. The family has amassed unimaginable wealth, and as the film opens Michael Corleone ( Al Pacino ) is being invested with a great honor by the church. Later that day, at a reception, his daughter announces a Corleone family gift to the church and the charities of Sicily, "a check in the amount of $100 million." But the Corleones are about to find, as others have throughout history, that you cannot buy forgiveness. Sure, you can do business with evil men inside the church, for all men are fallible and capable of sin. But God does not take payoffs.

Michael is older now and walks with a stoop. He has a diabetic condition. He has spent the years since " The Godfather, Part II " trying to move the family out of crime and into legitimate businesses. He has turned over a lot of the old family rackets to a new generation, to people like Joey Zasa ( Joe Mantegna ), who is not scrupulous about dealing dope, who is capable of making deals that would offend the fastidious Michael. It is Michael's dream, now that he senses his life is coming to a close, that he can move his family into the light.

But the past is seductive. Because Michael knows how to run a Mafia family, there is great pressure on him to do so. And throughout "Godfather III" we are aware of the essential tragedy of this man, the fact that the sins that stain his soul will not wash off - especially the sin of having ordered the death of his brother Fredo.

Michael is positioned in the story between two characters who could come from " King Lear " - his daughter, Mary ( Sofia Coppola ), whom he loves and wants to give his kingdom to, and Sonny's son, Vincent ( Andy Garcia ), who sees the death of his enemies as the answer to every question. Michael is torn between the futures represented by the two characters, between Mary, quiet and naive, and the hot-blooded Vincent. And when Vincent seduces Mary and makes her his own, Michael's plans begin to go wrong.

There is also Kay Corleone ( Diane Keaton ), of course, still the woman Michael loves, and the mother of his children. He wants their son, Anthony, to join the family business. She defends his ambition to be an opera singer. They face each other like skilled opponents.

Perhaps she even still loves him, too, or would if she did not know him so well. She is the only person who can tell Michael what she really thinks, and in one of those dark, gloomy rooms, she lets him know that it doesn't matter what grand order he is invested in by the church, he is at heart still a gangster. The best scenes in "Godfather III" are between these two, Michael and Kay, Pacino and Keaton, fiercely locked in a battle that began too many years ago, at that wedding feast where Michael told Kay he was not part of his family business.

The plot of the movie, concocted by Coppola and Mario Puzo in a screenplay inspired by headlines, brings the Corleone family into the inner circles of corruption in the Vatican. Actual events - the untimely suddenness of John Paul I's death, the scandals at the Vatican Bank, the body of a Vatican banker found hanging from a London bridge - are cheerfully intertwined with the Corleone's fictional story, and it is suggested that the Vatican lost hundreds of millions in a fraud. We eavesdrop on corrupt Vatican officials, venal cardinals scheming in the vast Renaissance palaces that dwarf them, and we travel to Sicily so that Michael Corleone can consult with Don Tommasino, his trusted old friend, to discover who is plotting against him within the Mafia council.

They are so seductive, these byzantine intrigues. Alliances are forged with a pragmatic decision, betrayed with sudden violence.

Always there is someone in a corner, whispering even more devious advice. This trait of operatic plotting and betrayal is practiced beautifully by Connie Corleone ( Talia Shire ), Michael's sister, who has turned in middle age into a fierce, thin-faced woman in black, who stands in the deepest shadows, who schemes and lobbies for her favorites - especially for Vincent, whom she wants Michael to accept and embrace.

In the "Godfather" movies Coppola has made a world. Because we know it so intimately, because its rhythms and values are instantly recognizable to us, a film like "The Godfather Part III" probably works better than it should. If you stand back and look at it rationally, this is a confusing and disjointed film. It is said that Coppola was rewriting it as he went along, and indeed it lacks the confident forward sweep of a film that knows where it's going.

Some of the dialogue scenes, especially in the beginning, sound vaguely awkward; the answers do not fit the questions, and conversations seem to have been rewritten in the editing room. Other shots - long shots, into the light, so we cannot see the characters' lips -- look suspiciously like scenes that were filmed first and dubbed later. The whole ambitious final movement of the film - in which two separate intrigues are intercut with the progress of an opera being sung by Anthony -- is intended to be suspenseful but is so confusing, we are not even sure which place (Sicily, Rome, London?) one of the intrigues is occurring. The final scene of the movie, which is intended to echo Marlon Brando's famous death scene, is perfunctory and awkward.

And yet it's strange how the earlier movies fill in the gaps left by this one, and answer the questions. It is, I suspect, not even possible to understand this film without knowing the first two, and yet, knowing them, "Part III" works better than it should, evokes the same sense of wasted greatness, of misdirected genius. Both Don Vito Corleone and Don Michael Corleone could have been great men. But they lacked that final shred of character that would have allowed them to break free from their own pasts. Or perhaps their tragedies were dictated by circumstances. Perhaps they were simply born into the wrong family.

And so here we are back again, in the rich, deep brown rooms inhabited by the Corleone family, the rooms filled with shadows and memories, and regretful decisions that people may have to die. We have been taught this world so well by Francis Ford Coppola that we enter it effortlessly has there ever before been a film saga so seductive and compelling, so familiar to us that even after years we remember all of the names of the players? Here, for example, is a new character, introduced as "Sonny's illegitimate son," and, yes, we nod like cousins at a family reunion, yes, he does seem a lot like Sonny.

He's the same kind of hotheaded, trigger-happy lunatic.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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The Godfather, Part III (1990)

162 minutes

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172. Spider-Man: No Way Home

175. Catch Me If You Can

176. Warrior

177. Godzilla Minus One

178. Gran Torino

179. My Neighbor Totoro

180. Million Dollar Baby

181. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

182. Children of Heaven

183. 12 Years a Slave

184. Blade Runner

185. Before Sunrise

186. Ben-Hur

187. Barry Lyndon

188. The Grand Budapest Hotel

189. Gone Girl

190. Hacksaw Ridge

191. The Gold Rush

192. Memories of Murder

193. In the Name of the Father

194. Dead Poets Society

195. Wild Tales

196. Mad Max: Fury Road

197. The Deer Hunter

198. The General

199. On the Waterfront

200. Monsters, Inc.

201. Sherlock Jr.

202. The Third Man

203. The Wages of Fear

204. How to Train Your Dragon

206. Wild Strawberries

207. Mary and Max

208. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

209. Ratatouille

210. Ford v Ferrari

211. Tokyo Story

212. The Big Lebowski

214. The Seventh Seal

217. Spotlight

218. Hotel Rwanda

219. The Terminator

220. Platoon

221. The Passion of Joan of Arc

222. La haine

223. Before Sunset

224. The Best Years of Our Lives

225. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

226. The Exorcist

228. Jai Bhim

229. Network

230. Stand by Me

231. The Wizard of Oz

232. The Incredibles

233. Hachi: A Dog's Tale

234. The Handmaiden

235. Into the Wild

236. My Father and My Son

237. The Sound of Music

238. To Be or Not to Be

239. The Grapes of Wrath

240. The Battle of Algiers

241. Groundhog Day

242. Amores Perros

243. Rebecca

244. The Iron Giant

245. Cool Hand Luke

246. The Help

247. It Happened One Night

248. Aladdin

249. Dances with Wolves

250. Gangs of Wasseypur

The Top Rated Movie list only includes feature films.

• Shorts, TV movies, and documentaries are not included
• The list is ranked by a formula which includes the number of ratings each movie received from users, and value of ratings received from regular users
• To be included on the list, a movie must receive ratings from at least 25000 users

More to explore

Top box office (us), most popular movies, top rated english movies, most popular tv shows, top 250 tv shows, lowest rated movies, most popular celebs, top rated movies by genre, recently viewed.