Maybe this has been overpraised but it remains a stunning achievement. Is there an epic more perfectly cast? Pretty much every role is perfect - from Brando and Pacino at the top (risky castings at the time), to James Caan and Robert Duvall (both Coppola favourites), down to the little kid playing with Brando when the latter dies of a heart attack, and the old man singing at the wedding.
The key to the success of this piece is its universality - everyone knows a family business where they're worried about staying current, where there's a hot head and a dopey son, and a daughter who marries a no good, and the young one who turns out to be smarted than any of them. Coppola focuses on family rituals - weddings, funerals, christenings, buying presents, cooking meals, courtships, wedding nights.
Full of so many touches - people singing at the wedding, Pacino's hand being still after facing an assassin, the sunken eyes of Pacino, the relative sprightliness of Marlon Brando's Godfather in the early bit of the film, Caan beating up his brother in law as water spurted around and his final death, Clemenza showing Michael how to cook. It's amazing.
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