The Godfather

This movie is one that is an all-time classic and is now one of my personal favorites. Before this screening I had never watched the movie in its entirety. Upon watch the full film, I have come to appreciate this movie and the way in which it was filmed. This movie is set in 1945 and begins with a time of celebration at a wedding. Vito Corleone (aka Don Corleone, the Godfather) is the head of the Corleone mafia family and is throwing a lavish party for his daughters wedding. His youngest son Michael has just returned from war but wishes to stay separated from his fathers business of crime. Soon after, a drug dealer by the name of Virgil Sollozzo moves into town. Sollozzo wants mafia protection and is willing to pay a percentage of the drug money for the protection. He knows that Don Corleone is the only family head who has all of the politicians "in his pocket" and realizes that he is the only one capable of making the protection work. The Don refuses to offer protection seeing it as dirty work. Sollozzo then has some of his men gun down Corleone in retaliation for his refusal and in order to deal with the Don's sons instead. The Don survives and Michael volunteers to eliminate the drug dealer and his corrupt police partner. This action is his first step towards becoming more and more involved in his fathers business. The attempt on Don Corleones life set in motion a mafia war between the five families. This war inevitably tears apart the Corleone family and makes a vaacum for power.

This movie is a very long movie but it is well done. There is a lot of plot activity to follow throughout the movie but there is also enough action spread throughout to keep the viewer pulled into the story. The way this movie was shot also makes it unique because there and many representative scenes and several lighting techniques that add to the film's atmosphere. Overall I liked the plot of the movie and the sequence of how it was shot and put together. This is one of my new favorite movies.