“I believe in America.”

 

Fifty years ago today, those words were uttered in the very first scene of a film that changed cinema forever. It’s the 50th anniversary of the release of The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, John Cazale, Talia Shire, Richard S. Castellano, and Diane Keaton—among others in a deep and impressive cast. Fifty years later, The Godfather remains highly influential, with a notable impact on movies, television, Hollywood itself, and pop culture.

 

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably seen The Godfather and Part II (the rare sequel to somehow match—or at least come close—to the standards set by the original classic) numerous times. (If you haven’t, stop reading this article and try to find the time to give it a watch. Fifty years from the date of its premiere is as good of a time as any. Also, the entire trilogy recently became available in 4K UHD, so maybe pick up a copy of that this evening if you have a chance—and a 4K UHD player, though you can also watch the digital version on Apple TV or Vudu if you buy a physical copy.)

 

Because we’re all Godfather fans here, with the ability to recite lines (“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse”, “Leave the gun, take the cannoli”) from the movie with ease—people that hold Don Vito Corleone and his more gray-area son, Michael, and all the other complex characters and the plot—and everything about The Godfather—in extremely high regard, this won’t be a lengthy deep dive into the film.

 

So, we’ll leave alone interesting nuggets like Coppola’s issues with Paramount Pictures and Al Pacino improbably being cast and staying on as the iconic Michael Corleone. Sometimes things just come together, and the how’s and why’s become something to look back and laugh at. Instead, for this golden anniversary, we’ll look a little bit at The Godfather’s uniqueness at the time and its impact in creating a timeless masterpiece film.

 

Modern-Day Shakespeare

Based on the Mario Puzo novel, it’s not that The Godfather was heavily influenced by William Shakespeare, because it probably was not. But the elements involved in the story—murder, plotting, vengeance, violence, power, family, and more—naturally appear in both. The bottom line is that The Godfather is a classic tragedy.

 

From The Godfather to Game of Thrones to The Dark Knight, many of the greatest films and movies in history have that Shakespearean feel to them, at least at some point. The Godfather captures that throughout its three hours. It has unmatched re-watchability for many fans, and chances are just about anyone—at least in America (maybe we can count out some young people)—has at least heard of The Godfather. And in the end, Michael’s descent is about as Shakespearean as it gets in modern times.

 

England will always have William Shakespeare. America will always have The Godfather.

 

The Quality

The film is shot and edited beautifully. The music is superb. The acting is top-notch. Overall, The Godfather is just A+ quality from top to bottom, which can’t be said about much of anything—not just movies—over the past five decades. Coppola masterfully tells the story, seamlessly navigating and transitioning from both the lives and relationships of the Corleone family along with the life of crime that the other Corleone “family” is involved in. In between it’s easy to get caught in the moment of scenes and forget what the Corleones are involved in—like when Vito indirectly preaches to Sonny about the importance of family, or when Michael pleads to kill a police captain and rival gangster (who put a hit on his father) while discussing the “strictly business” and good-press optics of it.

 

Darkness in Film

The opening scene is extremely dark, and The Godfather utilized the darkness and shadows—along with the light—to help with the mood throughout the entire film. Noir films had used heavy darkness before The Godfather, but there might not have been any blockbuster type of movie at the time that did it like The Godfather, whose cinematographer Gordon Willis was nicknamed the “Prince of Darkness”. Unnecessary elements in a scene or shot could be left in darkness, while figures and faces could be heavily or lightly shadowed—and it put the important things into focus, improving the quality of the shots and fitting perfectly with the tone of the story. The darkness was also an allegory for the underbelly or dangerous side of the world, and dark movies, shows, and scenes of today were all probably influenced by the darkness in The Godfather.

 

The Gray Area

Sticking with color in a different way, The Godfather is filled with a bunch of gray-area characters—in other words, its characters feel like real people. Sure, there are crooked cops (Captain McCluskey) and ruthless businessmen (Virgil Sollozzo), but there are no purely evil “villains”. There’s certainly evil in our world, but found far more often than that pure evil is corruption, conflict, fights for power—real-life situations that play out in The Godfather.

 

Michael Corleone is the primary example of this gray area. Generally, the youngest son of Vito Corleone is very well liked by viewers—we mostly either cheer for him or at least just think he’s a fantastic character. When you think of Tony Soprano or Don Draper or Walter White, the influence of Michael Corleone feels like it’s there. Of course, there were antiheroes or tragic heroes long before Michael Corleone—thousands of years before him—but he’s arguably the first and prime modern example of a fictional antihero. Michael was a United States was a war hero for crying out loud, yet he eventually orders his own brother Fredo killed at the end of The Godfather Part II (and sticking with The Godfather, he becomes cold and calculated, ordering a massacre and becoming Don Corleone while shutting out his wife). Yet, it’s not even entirely clear that he should be considered a “villain” instead of an antihero or tragic hero.

 

The Gangster Impact

They still might have been made and had success, but would films like Goodfellas and shows like The Sopranos be what they were—and as well liked and well received as they were and are—if it wasn’t for The Godfather? Coppola’s take helped make the gangster movie a very, very serious endeavor. And, while there were critics, many Italian people became proud of the way Italians and Italian Americans were presented in The Godfather. The Corleones were a likable and respectable bunch for the most part, from Vito’s unforgettable voice, posture, and outlook to Michael’s steady hand to Sonny being both menacing and hilarious. Tom Hagan became iconic in his own right as a character by being the consigliere for the Corleone family. The Godfather set the tone for gangster characters and gangster stories being big business in Hollywood.

 

Lasting Icons

Marlon Brando was already Marlon Brando in 1972, and he’s widely considered one of the greatest actors of all-time. So that’s No. 1: having arguably the greatest actor in history headlining a film gives it instant longstanding credibility. But the choices made for the other roles could not have gone better, and some of America’s biggest icons were born because of it. Al Pacino is an absolute legend that stands along with Brando among the all-time greats, but everyone involved in the film will always be held in immense esteem and can probably get free meals wherever they go, most notably the Corleone brothers in James Caan and Robert Duvall (John Cazale unfortunately passed away due to lung cancer in 1978, but he was becoming a legend himself). Overall, The Godfather’s success in relation to its cast transcended its stay on the big screen, which is something you see today from some of the world’s most beloved television shows that run for years as opposed to a limited theatrical release.

 

The Final Shot

Finally, almost all truly great films find a way to stick the landing. The Godfather does just that, with one of the most memorable final shots in history. When Al shuts the door on Kay, while Michael is basically being crowned as Don by Clemenza and the others, it’s a shot that is at the same time chilling, triumphant, and funny. You could get goosebumps just thinking about the final shot in The Godfather. The landing sticks, as does the entire legendary epic fifty years later.