The Godfather

The Godfather is a movie depicting the life of a family involved in the Italian mafia network in New York during the 1940s. The Corleone's, who proudly hail from Sicily, are a close knit family consisting of Don Vito Corleone (known to all as "Godfather"), his sons Sonny (who is seemingly next in line to "inherit" the family business), Fredo, and Michael (a military man who wants nothing to do with the family business), along with adopted son Tom Hagan (the family's consigliore, or lawyer) and daughter Connie. Together, they make up the Corleone family, a ruthless group of businessmen who will do anything, and I mean anything, to stay on top. But when the prevalence of drug related business starts to take over the mafia, conflict begins to ensue among the other mafia families to keep their dealings"honest" but competitive at the same time. This film goes through the rise and fall of the Godfather, and the Corleone's, and how they constantly fought to stay ahead of the other four families.

The main themes of this movie are the importance of loyalty, trust and respect within the family. The Godfather controls his family and all of his dealings with a strong emphasis on these elements, which everyone either lives or dies by with no questions asked. It is also a story of what people will do for family and friendship in the name of love and hate. The storyline is a constant portrayal of the love of family and tradition, but the hate of the Corleone enemies and anyone else who tries to betray them. This movie is wrought with emotional turmoil and struggle, with the overarching theme of being true to your family in the best of times and worst of times.


It was really hard for me to review The Godfather because I am ambivalent as to how I feel about this movie. To rate how I feel about it on a scale of 1 to 10, I'll give it a 6. I did really like it, because of the fact that I find movies from this genre to be really interesting to watch but there is something I don't like about it that I can't put my finger on. Maybe it was the overwhelming amount of death and violence, or the way in which Michael's character so drastically changes throughout the movie that made me disappointed in the end. I think that this is a film that just has to grow on me, and that I'll have to get past the violent bloodshed and intense dramatics to see the movie for what it really is- a classic mob movie that will certainly live as a cinematic legend for many more years to come.