The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather is a searing and brilliant film about a Mafia patriarchal family based on the best-selling novel of Mario Puzo. Francis Ford Coppola paints a terrifyingly sinister portrait on the way a crime syndicate operates and manages organized crime. There are quite a few differences between the novel and the film, but if Coppola had tried to incorporate everything, then this movie simply wouldn’t have worked.

Set in 1946, the film opens with the wedding of Don Vito Corleone’s (Marlon Brando) daughter where several people come to seek his favour as ‘no Sicilian can refuse a favour on his daughter’s wedding day’. This is a film which forces us to feel a deep sympathy with characters that are essentially evil. Here is a man who asks for nothing in return for the favors he grants to other people on one hand, and on the other hand ruthlessly mows down anyone who comes in his way. It is essentially a film about men, who refuse to live by the rules framed by society and get what they want through cynical use of their power. As Don Corleone famously puts it while promising his godson Johnny Fontane that he’ll make the Hollywood mogul give him a part in his movie,
“I’m gonna make him an offer that he can’t refuse.”

But most importantly it is about the transformation of a good man into an evil one. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), the youngest son of Don Corleone returns from the 2nd world war as a decorated war-veteran on the occasion of his sister’s wedding, wanting to have nothing to do with the family business. “That’s my family, Kay. That’s not me”, he tells his girlfriend Kay Adams (Diane Keaton) as he gives her a general idea as to what his family was all about. All that changes when the drug-lord Virgil Solozzo (played menacingly by Al Lettieri) launches a murderous attack on his father that almost proves fatal.

The movie has it share of brilliant and unforgettable images that are now part of motion picture folklore. Take for example the spine chilling scene where the arrogant movie producer Jack Woltz (John Marley) wakes up to find the severed head of his favourite horse at his feet. Or the scene where the Jewish mobster Moe Green is shot cleanly through his eye (now known as “the Moe Green shot”!!). Then there’s the death-scene in the tomato-and-orange garden. The famous baptism scene towards the end is an example of virtuoso film-making.

The performances in this film are exceptional. Acting doesn’t get any better than this. Marlon Brando puts in one of the greatest performances of his dazzling career (did his own make-up and stuffed cotton-balls in his jowls to give himself the sinister bulldog-like appearance). He portrays Don Corleone as a man of respect, a man who’s called ‘godfather’ by his friends and close associates. Al Pacino in his ‘supporting’ act as Michael Corleone is devastating (another example of Coppola’s genius and boldness as he picked a relatively-unknown Pacino at that time over actors like Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro!!). James Caan as the eldest son Sonny and Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen are excellent as well. The rest of the characters are examples of insightful and inspired casting. Take for example the casting of Richard Castellano as the fat capo régime Pete Clemenza, Abe Vigoda as the tough-looking capo Sal Tessio or Sterling Hayden as the obstinate police captain Mcluskey. Coppola couldn’t have got it any better.

The background score of Nino Rota is touching and heart-warming. There’s something of an imminent tragedy about the score that makes it so deeply moving. The cinematography, shooting locales, everything is perfect. It is undoubtedly the finest film ever made on organized crime.

Somehow one tends to have a sneaking admiration for Michael’s transformation into a cold and ruthless mafia boss. One gets the feeling it was kind of inevitable after the attack on his father, the cold-blooded killing of his brother and the tragic blow-up of his young Italian bride Apollonia. But unlike his father, he lacked the simple touch of humanity which ironically distances him from something that he actually fought for: his family. By the end of the film he becomes someone his father never intended him to become. Neither did Kay nor he himself. He becomes The Godfather.

Rating: Classic.

Schindler's List (1993)

Schindler’s List, arguably the best film of the 1990s, is a powerful and moving film about the horrors of the Holocaust. It paints a chilling portrait of the brutality of the Nazi regime in Krakow. The film is also essentially a clash between two powerful personalities. On the one hand is Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), the merciless Nazi lieutenant who kills just for pleasure. On the other hand stands Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson). A man who single-handedly saved the lives of more than a thousand Jews. A man who himself happens to be a Nazi.

The movie opens in 1939 when thousands of Jews were immigrating to Krakow, Poland. Alongside we get a glimpse of Schindler, the man. A man, who dresses expensively, is a womanizer and a greedy businessman driven by his own self-interest. In the beginning, he audaciously bribes the Nazi officials, who gleefully eat out of his hand without knowing who he actually is, where he came from and what he did. To them he is just Oskar Schindler. It never occurs to them that he’s actually trying to save lives instead of making money. And therein lies the beauty of the film. The audacity of this man is one of the most interesting aspects of the film. Take for example, the scene where Schindler boldly confronts a Nazi lieutenant. He’s about to direct a train full of Jewish refugees to an extermination camp, and Schindler tells him that the ‘workers’ are his.

This is essentially a movie about human compassion and an affirmation of the old Jewish saying that, ‘Whoever saves one life, saves the world in time’. It gives us an insight into the man called Schindler, who builds an arm-manufacturing factory and hires thousands of Jews to work for him. In the meantime, Amon Goeth sets about on an exterminating spree, wiping off thousands of Jews in the process. Schindler is not depicted as a great man, but rather as a man who had greatness thrust upon him. Yet it is not easy to describe the enigmatic nature of his personality. And the film never attempts to do that.

The film is also about the transformation of Schindler. A particularly poignant scene captures one moment of this transformation, where the body of a little girl in a red dress against a black-and-white backdrop is indifferently dumped along with other bodies and we get to see the horror and despair in Schindler’s eyes. The scene towards the end where the black-and-white shot transforms into colour and shows the modern-day Schindler Jews is heart-wrenchingly moving. Schindler’s List also contains one of the most famous shots in motion picture history. It’s that chilling scene where Goeth wakes up from bed, looks out of his balcony, surveys the scene below for a while, picks up a gun and nonchalantly shoots down a worker. He takes aim again and shoots down another worker. We also get an insight into the madness of Goeth, especially when it comes to the treatment of the Jewish woman who works for him, and whom he loves secretly.

And finally it is a film about the famous list. The list that is ‘an absolute good’. The list that has ‘life all around its margins’. The list that saved the lives of 1100 Jews. The list composed by Oskar Schindler.

The film is based on Thomas Keneally’s novel of the same name, based on the holocaust. Schindler’s List is a clever & intelligent piece of work that gives us an extremely accurate description of the madness of the Nazi system, of how it mercilessly slaughtered lives and how it took one man to outwit, con & outsmart the entire system.

Before he made ‘Schindler’s List’, Steven Spielberg had often been criticized for making ‘commercial’ films, films lacking depth and superficial in nature. This film helps establish the fact that Spielberg is easily one of the greatest film-makers of his generation and should also silence his critics forever. ‘Schindler’ lacks all of Spielberg’s trademark flourishes and is the kind of film one least expected Spielberg to make. This film is the result of the single-minded determination and focus of brilliant unit of highly talented individuals. The acting is excellent to say the least with Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes putting in the performances of their careers, coupled with splendid supporting acts from Ben Kingsley (Izhak Stern), Embeth Davidtz (Helen Hirrsch) and Jonathan Sagalle (Poldek Pfefferberg). The cinematography of Janitsz Kaminski (who also shot ‘Munich’ last year and has been working with Spielberg for quite some time) is breathtaking. This man can take his camera just about anywhere.

Schindler’s List is 184 minutes long and like all great movies it doesn’t seem that long. It’s full of unforgettable moments and enduring images. Schindler’s List is not only one of the greatest films of all time but also the greatest film made on the 2nd World War and the Holocaust.

Rating: Classic