‘The Godfather’: Looking back, 50 years later

Above : “The Godfather,” starring Marlon Brando, is celebrating its 50th anniversary. (Photo/Paramount Pictures)

It’s no secret that this year is the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Francis Ford Coppola’s film “The Godfather.” The film opened on March 14, 1972 , in New York City and then opened wide 10 days later.

And while a digitally restored, special 50th-anniversary edition of the film has been playing in area theaters for the last few weeks, the Magic Lantern on Friday also will begin showing it.

If you watched the Oscar broadcast on Sunday, you might have noticed – in addition to the famous slap that Will Smith delivered to comedian Chris Rock – the attention the film received. Coppola, joined by Al Pacino and Robert De Niro , was invited onstage to speak briefly.

Here’s what was curious, the montage of film clips the show’s producers ran were from all three of Coppola’s films, not just the first one whose anniversary was being celebrated. Moreover, De Niro wasn’t in “The Godfather”; he was in “The Godfather II.”

I’m not sure whether whoever was in charge of making those decisions was ignorant of all this or just didn’t care. Actually, considering everything that happened that night, I’m not sure anyone ever noticed.

In the intervening decades since 1972, that first film – which was adapted from Mario Puzo’s bestselling potboiler – has become known as one of the best ever made. The American Film Institute ranks it No. 3 of the “100 Greatest American Movies of All Time” (behind “Citizen Kane” and “Casablanca”), while the British Film Institute ranks it at No. 21 of the “100 Greatest Films of All Time” (curiously enough, behind Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” No. 14).

It’s curious, too, to go back and read the reviews of the day, long before even some of the reviewers even realized what they were seeing.

Roger Ebert , then writing for the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “Coppola has found a style and a visual look for all this material so ‘The Godfather’ becomes something of a rarity: a really good movie squeezed from a bestseller.”

In her typically lengthy review, New Yorker critic Pauline Kael wrote, “If ever there was a great example of how the best popular movies come out of a merger of commerce and art, ‘The Godfather’ is it.”

Some reviewers weren’t particularly good at predicting where the story would go.

Arthur Knight of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, “This is a curious film. One comes to understand, even to condone, the activities of the Godfather and his clan. And even though it frankly portrays the underworld’s influence in the sacrosanct worlds of Hollywood and Las Vegas, there is the feeling that, with young Michael there, these will be better worlds.”

And some reviewers, as always, just didn’t get it.

While praising the acting of both Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, Variety reviewer A.D. Murphy was far less impressed with the film overall. Murphy raised the film’s “excellent production values, flashes of excitement, and a well-picked cast,” but added that “it is also overlong at about 175 minutes (played without intermission), and occasionally confusing. While never so placid as to be boring, it is never so gripping as to be superior screen drama.”

Not “superior screen drama”? “The Godfather”? Those fighting words are enough to make any movie fan want to go to the mattresses.