The head of one of the major Mafia families in New York,
Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), is shot after he refuses to help another of the
families sell drugs. His sons attempt to deal with this and there’s quite a lot
of murdering. Eventually, Michael (Al Pacino), steps up and restores a sense of
balance, becoming the new Don Corleone.
The change in Michael’s character was brilliant. He starts
off as this sweet guy who doesn’t want to get involved in his family’s business
but as people come to rely on him he ends up being a total badass and sets
everything right. I didn’t like how he was just replacing the women in his
life though; first he’s with Kay (Diane Keaton) then he has to go away so he shacks up
with Apollonia (Simonetta Stefanelli), then she dies and he goes back to Kay
again. Women aren’t interchangeable, I don’t like the idea of just dropping one
and picking up another. Kay isn’t even a good choice for what you’d need in a
wife when you’re head of a mafia family, she asks way too many questions. And then
he had to lie to her at the end, I just can’t see it going well. I can't believe I'm saying Diane Keaton isn't a good choice for a wife, my brain must be broken.
When Carlo (Gianni Russo) was beating Connie (Talia Shire),
I was so angry I can’t even describe it properly. I’m not even sure I
understand how he thought he would get away with hitting her. She is the
daughter of Vito Corleone, are you just out of your idiot mind? My notes just
basically consist of lots of swearing and rage for any scene that he is in. I’m
glad Sonny (James Caan) beat him but he should’ve murdered him, I was just
hollering at the screen for him to kill him during that fight scene. Then when
Michael was letting him be part of the family, I was confused for a while but
then I realised what was going to happen and I literally could not wait. So
glad they strangled him, shooting would’ve been too quick. I’m the least
violent person but I just can’t handle it when people think it’s acceptable to
hit their spouses.
I was dreading watching this film (a gangster film that’s 3
hours long? Aah) but it turns out that I actually loved it. So brilliant, I
never once checked to see how long was left because I wasn’t sure I even wanted
it to end. The feeling of family running through each relationship was lovely,
and the suspicion of almost everyone kept everything nice and tense. Loved it.
9/10
