To celebrate The Godfather‘s 45th anniversary and as part of Cineplex Events’ Classic Film Series, The Godfather will be screening at select Cineplex theatre’s on June 4th (today which has already screened) and June 7th.
In the days before the Hollywood summer blockbuster would fill the screens with fantastic creatures and events every summer hoping to entice audiences to spend billions on their movies, The Godfather was not only the highest grossing movie the year it came out and won tons of awards and acclaim, it was also the highest grossing movie film ever made at that time. Of course then Jaws came along and changed everything.
Based on Mario Puzo’s novel about the life of a crime family the movie starred a then fairly unknown Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, the youngest son in a crime family that eventually becomes the head of the family. Marlon Brando stars as Don Vito Corleone in a brilliant performance. The rest of the cast are all excellent too. James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Sterling Hayden, Richard Conte, Richard S. Castellano, Abe Vigoda and many more fill out the massive cast.
The movie is set during the late 1940s/50s and follows the Corleone crime family. The movie starts with the wedding of the youngest child of Don Corleone, Connie. Michael has returned home after the war and introduces his new wife Kay. Later Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo wants the Don’s blessing to help advance his drug business. The Turk has the backing of the Tattaglia crime family. Don Corleone refuses and later survives an assassination attack. The Corleone family retaliates.
The movie is a masterpiece of cinema and one of my favourites. If you haven’t seen The Godfather you probably should. They don’t make movies like this anymore.
