Severed horse heads in beds, pregnant newlywed wives blown up in cars, backseat strangulation and an endless spray of bullets, brutal violence was throughout, yet proved a vital and valid part of the storytelling. The way The Godfather portrayed violence was also a game changer. It helped open the door for tougher, more critical tales in what became known as the ‘New Hollywood of the ’70s’. The Godfather took a cynical look at that dream, at a time when the US was embroiled in both Vietnam and Watergate. The first words uttered in the movie, “I believe in America” set up the tale that reflected the madness, glory and failure of the American dream, along with the moral decay of optimistic youth. Source: SBS The collapse of the American Dream The son also rises: favourite son Michael (Al Pacino) and his father, Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) in 'The Godfather'. Far more than that, it also changed cinema. The director even cast his sister Talia Shire in a central role.ĭespite all this, The Godfather created screen magic and was hailed as an instant classic from the moment it premiered on 24 March 1972, winning three Oscars including Best Picture.
Not adding any puff to the soufflé was the movie cast made up of relative unknowns and B-grade players like Al Pacino, James Caan and Diane Keaton. Even though the novel on which the film is based by Mario Puzo had been a best-seller, it’d been dismissed as pulp fiction, with The New York Times citing its ‘overdramatisation’. But creating an epic was not anticipated.ĭirector Francis Ford Coppola was something of a Hollywood joke, having just made a string of box office duds, while Marlon Brando was deemed a ‘has been’. Lauded today as one of cinema’s masterpieces, and launching a trilogy that earned nine Oscars, no one knew quite what to expect when the cameras began rolling on the movie in 1971.
For all its Oscars, acclaim and legacy, the fact is The Godfather really should have been a bomb.
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