Letterboxd has become an essential social networking platform for cinephiles, as it allows for the rating, ranking, and analysis of films throughout the course of cinematic history. Letterboxd profiles include a given user’s four favorite films of all time, and it has become common to ask celebrities what their top picks are. Letterboxd has conducted interviews with dozens of actors, writers, directors, and crew members, and films like Spirited Away, 2001: A Space Odyssey, La La Land, Jaws, and The Shining come up very often. However, The Godfather is cited the most often in Letterboxd’s “Four Favorites” list, as Francis Ford Coppola’s Best Picture-winning masterpiece is still beloved after over half a century.
‘The Godfather’ Is Hollywood’s Favorite Film
The Godfather is the all-time favorite film of many legendary actors, including Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Michael Fassbender, Ralph Macchio, and Richard E. Grant; some other interviewees, such as Matt Damon, cited both the film and its sequel, The Godfather: Part II, as their combined top pick. The Godfather is obviously a film that appeals to actors, as it features all-time great performances from Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, and James Caan. However, the film is also remembered for the brilliance of Coppola’s direction; it has also been listed by directors like J.J. Perry, Peter Ramsey, Robert Rodriguez, George Clooney, and Robert Zemeckis as one of their favorites.
The Godfather was a legitimate smash hit at the time of its release, as it briefly served as the highest-grossing film of all time until it was dethroned only three years later by Jaws. The film’s popularity was only matched by its critical reception, as it was cited by the American Film Institute as the second greatest film ever made (behind Citizen Kane) and currently holds the #2 spot on IMDB’s list of the 250 greatest films (behind The Shawshank Redemption). The Godfather became even more popular because of the influence that it had on the crime genre, as subsequent classics like Scarface, Goodfellas, The Untouchables, and even HBO’s The Sopranos were all inspired by the model that Coppola crafted. The film was also considered to be a major breakthrough in terms of its status as an adaptation; while more often than not, films are criticized for not living up to the book, The Godfather is a rare example in which it overshadows and improves upon the original novel by Mario Puzo.
‘The Godfather’ Resonantes With Different Generations
The Godfather is cited so often by film scholars that it may have become an “easy” choice for celebrities that have to make a selection without preparation, but it’s also a film that has been passed down between generations. Those that saw The Godfather when it was first in theaters certainly felt what it was like to experience such a cultural shift as a result of the “New Hollywood” movement, and an entirely new group of fans were exposed to the film as a result of how often it played on television; George Lucas even edited together a version of the first two films for television that aired as The Godfather Legacy. Many modern favorites among younger cinephiles have a connection to The Godfather; the “Order 66” sequence in Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith was inspired by the mob killing montage, and Barbie even includes a joke about how men like to “explain” The Godfather to their girlfriends.
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The success that Coppola earned from his early work allowed him to pursue more artistically minded projects later on in his career.
Many of the creators of the original The Godfather are still actively involved in Hollywood; Damon worked with Coppola on the legal drama The Rainmaker, Cranston co-starred with Caan in the underrated education drama Detachment, and Clooney would later appear alongside Pacino in Ocean’s Thirteen. Viewing The Godfather for the first time is certainly considered to be a “rite of passage” for cinephiles that want to be taken seriously, but it’s also a film that feels decidedly modern because of how it shaped the way that studio productions were crafted moving forward. While sitting down to watch other classics like Gone With The Wind or How Green Was My Valley may feel like “homework,” The Godfather is a film that has benefited from just how purely entertaining and rewatchable it is.
