The Godfather

This time, we bring ourselves to 1972 and Francis Ford Coppola’s magnum opus, The Godfather. The Godfather brings us to 1945 New York, a time when the city is ruled by five crime families. The film follows the Corleone crime family and their struggle to maintain relevance and power in uncertain times. It starts when the Corleone family is requested to share some of their power and influence to assist in developing the drug trade. Not realizing that drugs are awesome, patriarch Vito refuses the deal and then becomes a target of others in the group when his boy Sonny speaks out of turn in a meeting.  The Godfather ends up as the victim of a hit but does not perish, and his family is forced to deal with the fallout as he recovers from his injuries. What follows is a rich tale full of complex characters set against a dangerous and exciting landscape as the Corleone family lives and breathes the rocky road of revenge in New York and Italy. Beautifully scored by Nino Rota and starring Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, and the kitchen sink, The Godfather is the very definition of a classic and was the highest-grossing film of 1972, making $287M off of a $7.2M budget. But does it hold-up?  Listen in as Jon, Colin, and Brent meet with their consigliere and discuss all things mafia and see if the Godfather is feeling ambivalent on the day of his daughters wedding, granting our crew the honour of enjoying the first notable crime family epic, or if this film has lost a step and it trips over an orange stand, falls victim to a mafia hit, and deserves to sleep with the fishes.