Originally Posted by
SoggyFrog
The Godfather was one of the first "great films" that I saw when I was younger, and it's one that I've watched many times. I agree that it's superior to all of the other gangster films that followed, including Goodfellas. But one thing that I was reminded of during some recent reading was how much of a rut Hollywood was in during the years prior to The Godfather. So many of the great films of the 60s came out of Europe, but the 70s belongs to American cinema. Towards the late 60s, the New Hollywood movement begins, and while The Godfather wasn't the first, its success was so immense that it must be acknowledged as one of the anchors of this era. It's the arrival of Francis Ford Coppola, and it's followed by Friedkin's The Exorcist, Polanski's Chinatown, Spielberg's Jaws, and of course Scorsese's breakthrough with Taxi Driver.
Where The Godfather stands out in that modern American pantheon is in marrying the gravity of its wide narrative scope to the boldness of its dark, visceral presentation. I can respect why someone would personally hold it up as the best drama ever. And yet, I also think that designation depends on a narrow idea of what drama is. It's an essential American film, but also a film whose obsessions—violence and control—are essentially American.
For me, there's a whole world of films out there, because drama also belongs to the likes of Welles, Ozu, Bergman, Dreyer, De Sica, Kurosawa... There are films that I know I'll want to return to often, but to be honest, The Godfather is no longer one of them. That's not to say its power is diminished in my view, perhaps what I mean to say is that I've found a preference for other types of power in film.