Events

Come see The Godfather presented on 35mm film on the big screen in L3!

In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola was hired to direct a film adaptation of the novel The Godfather by Mario Puzo. The result would change gangster cinema forever. It stormed the box office and took three Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando) and Best Adapted Screenplay. Even now it ranks as the second greatest American film in history, beaten only by Citizen Kane.

Spanning ten years of one family’s history from 1945 to 1955, the film tells the story of the powerful Corleone family, an Italian American Mafia clan ruled over by Don Vito Corleone (Brando). Like Shakespeare’s King Lear, the Don knows that his empire’s future rests with his three sons: Sonny (Caan), Fredo (John Cazale) and Michael (Pacino), who is at first reluctant to be drawn into the dark dealings of his father’s empire. But when an attempt is made on the Don’s life by rival gangs, Michael must take up his father’s mantle to exact revenge on their enemies and to secure the future of the family business.

At once violent and poetic, brutal and majestic, this is a film that remains a landmark. It not only cemented Coppola and Brando’s places in cinema history, but marked the rise of Pacino, whose depiction of Michael’s transformation from reluctant outsider to ruthless mafia boss became the heart of the Godfather trilogy. It is a rare film that strikes a perfect balance in direction, performances, the quality of the writing and the Shakespearean magnitude of the story. Do not miss this classic.

Charles Eades