45 years old and still young.
The first film of the two films, which wore down director Francis Ford Coppola, studies the transformation of an innocent son that is systematically transformed through a series of violent events into a mafia leader despite his desire to stay out of the ‘family business’. On the outside that is what the story is about before you add the delicate plot points to get said son to his Don status.
How he gets to that Don status is a masterfully crafted piece of film work that is hard to rival. Let’s get right into it.
The story revolves around the most powerful mafia family in New York, the Corleone family, which is led by Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). The crux of the story surrounds the family’s difficulty in shifting out of their old ways of making money and into the new ways, which is drug trafficking. Vito Corleone doesn’t want the family getting involved with such a terrible import/export because its ripple effect will shatter relationships both personally and business-wise.
As with all things that refuse to change, the family experiences consequences from their decision to not work with the local drug dealer Sollozzo (Al Lettieri), which results in Vito’s execution, though not seen through successfully. One bad move rom one family means another violent retaliation from the Corleone’s, when Vito’s son, Sonny Corleone (James Caan), a hothead with a quick trigger finger, opens up an all-out war by allowing his brother, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), to take revenge for their father’s shooting. Michael ends up killing Sollozzo and a corrupt police officer and ignites a family war that sees the Corleone is a violent blood bath with other families, while Michael is shipped off to Italy for safekeeping.
From there, the movie hits its zenith when Sonny is executed for his retaliation against the other families, which brings Vito out of recovery to stop the violence and make a truce with the other families and assure Michael’s safe return back home. Michael returns home and quickly takes over the family business once Vito calls it quits. The takeover has Michael finally shedding his life as a normal human being to become the Don of the Corleone family. Once he is the head, and Vito quietly passes away, Michael assures the Corleone family’s permanent dominance by giving the order to eliminate the competition, which includes literally killing all the Dons of the rest of the families.
The entire film is well-crafted with a complicated web of characters and storylines colliding with each other in a beautiful opus. There is never a dull moment nor a moment where someone’s actions seem out of place. All of it is a woven tapestry that is meticulously put together with the greatest of care without any flaws to be seen. It is considered the best work that Francis Ford Coppola has achieved, at least debated (some prefer Godfather II), and rightfully so as it truly is a masterpiece from beginning to end. The film celebrates its 45th anniversary this year and let me just assure you that it has not aged, at least in the entertainment category, one bit. It still is relevant and a timeless piece of art that shows you exactly what good directing, fabulous acting and stunning execution can do when given the time and the right set of conditions to make a film.
Sadly, though, the same cannot be said for the Blu-ray transfer of this film. Somehow it has aged quite a bit, where the clean-up job of the frames didn’t quite hit the mark for such a masterpiece. Given the film’s dark nature, literal dark nature onscreen (heavy shadows and darks), the Blu-ray transfer suffers from a terrible case of graininess and color banding here and there, as well as film imperfections that didn’t seem to get worked out in the transfer process. In the brighter moments of the film, you get some beautiful HD transfer, but for the most part the film is tough to visually love on Blu-ray. It is better than the DVD transfer, but still should have gotten some extra work and love in the upscale to HD.
On the bright side of the Blu-ray release, you get commentary from Francis Ford Coppola. That is never a bad thing.
