The Godfather (1972)

So The Godfather is, according to some polls, the greatest movie of all time? With that endorsement it's hard to go into the film without certain high expectations. And it's almost guaranteed that this or any film laden with this accolade is probably going to come up short, because it's a lot to live up to. We finally made the plunge and slipped this near-3 hour epic into the machine last Saturday night, fuelled by a Facebook poll which reminded us that we'd not seen what Empire's Top 500 movies found to be The Best Movie Ever. 

When the end credits eventually rolled, it turned out that I liked The Godfather more than Andrew, who's main complaint was that he didn't like any of the characters. And I can see what he means, they're mobsters with barely any redeeming qualities, meting out death with gay abandon. This isn't The Sopranos where the mobsters are humanised, or Analyze This where it's all played for laughs. No, here everything's played straight, female characters barely get a look in, and the male characters basically compete in a penis-length comparison contest. 

I had to keep turning up the volume when Marlon Brando appeared on screen, and almost reached for the subtitle button in order to tell what he was mumbling. He suffered from the same affliction that plagued Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain, where acting is replaced by incoherence. Very youthful Al Pacino, James Caan and Robert Duvall where the main core of the movie, playing the new heads of the Corleone family, once Brando's Godfather had been shot down, recovered, retired and eventually dropped dead in the vegetable patch in a truly creepy, weird scene with his grandson. 

While the acting was top notch, the whole was so drawn out and long that I had to stop nodding off at times. The iconic horse's head in the bed scene came early on, and I spotted various mobster 'cliches' that only became such after this movie, otherwise I agree with Andrew, the characters aren't particularly likable, so it's hard to care too much when one or other is killed off, especially since it's their business to murder left, right and centre. Having said all this, I didn't hate the film, I didn't love it, I thought it was good, but I am still intrigued enough to want to watch Part II, and possibly Part III although I've heard many bad things about that one - at least my expectations will be low going in to it.