the m0vie blog

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Philip Bagnall, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

So this week, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather.

Michael Corleone has spent most of his life running away from his family connections, enlisting in the United States Marines to avoid the siren call of his father’s organised crime empire. However, when Michael returns home for his sister’s wedding, events conspire to draw the prodigal son back into the family business.

At time of recording, it was ranked 2nd on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Show Notes:

• Recorded 7th February 2022.
• Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
• The Godfather at The Internet Movie Database.
• The IMDB Top 250 as it appeared at time of recording.
• Follow Phil on Twitter.
• Read Phil’s reviews at Scannain.
• Josh Spiegel at /Film looks at how The Shawshank Redemption became the greatest movie of all-time according to the Internet Movie Database, September 2019.
• Francis Ford Coppola talks to The New York Times aout restoring the 50th anniversary edition of The Godfather, February 2022.
• Marco Vito Oddo at Collider reports on plans to re-release The Godfather in theatres to mark its 50th anniversary, December 2021.
• Scott Mendelson at Forbes reports on Sony’s decision to movie Morbius to April, January 2022.
• Scott Mendelson at Forbes looks at the dearth of big releases between Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Batman, February 2022.
• Darren Mooney at The Escapist looks at Jackass Forever as an interesting example of millennial nostalgia, and an artform unto itself, February 2022.
• Owen Gleiberman at Variety looks at Bonnie and Clyde as a transition point for Hollywood, August 2017.
• David Pountain at Little White Lies looks at how Bonnie and Clyde brought the French New Wave to Hollywood, July 2017.
• Amy Chozick and Brooks Barnes at The New York Times look at the rising and falling fortunes of Paramount Pictures, January 2019.
• Ben Pivoz at Screen Culture Journal reflects on the decline of the western as a mainstream cinematic genre, April 2017.
• Doug Kenck-Crispin at Portland Monthly looks back on the embarrassing failure of Paint Your Wagon for Paramount Pictures, June 2018.
• Steve Lewis at Mystery*File looks back on the box office failure of The Brotherhood for Paramount Pictures, July 2016.
• Roman Coppola talks to Den of Geek about the use of old-fashioned movie magic in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, October 2020.
• Philippe Girard at Off|Screen looks at Francis Ford Coppola’s use of retro movie effects in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, April 2019.
• Willow Green at Empire discusses the “movie brats” as the first generation of filmmakers who had learned film as a distinct artform unto itself, August 2016.
• Naomi Fry at The New Yorker reflects on the life and career of Robert Evans, November 2019.
• Geoff Boucher at Deadline looks back on how Robert Evans saved Paramount, October 2019.
• Robert Evans talks to NPR about his vision for The Godfather, November 2019.
• Gail Johnson at Straight looks at Francis Ford Coppola’s Cafe Zoetrope, April 2018.
• Terri Ciccone at Eater takes a look inside the Francis Ford Coppola Winery, November 2021.
• Nate Rawlings at Time reports on the footage that George Lucas shot for The Godfather, March 2012.
• Tyler Knudsen at No Film School looks at how Roger Corman inspired an entire generation of filmmakers, February 2017.
• Tony Sokol at Den of Geek looks back on Francis Ford Coppola’s Director’s Cut of Dementia 13, September 2021.
• Felipe M. Guerra at Fanfare looks back on the two softcore porn movies directed by Francis Ford Coppola, September 2020.
• John Patterson at The Guardian looks back on the history of American Zoetrope, November 2011.
• John R. Quain at Entertainment Weekly reviews Microsoft Cinemania, November 1995.
• Darren Mooney at The Escapist looks at how Francis Ford Coppola and his collaborators turned a pulpy genre bestseller into one of the best movies ever made, February 2022.
• Reed Tucker at The New York Post looks at how Mario Puzo wrote The Godfather to get out of debt, March 2019.
• Raf Richardson-Carillo at LitHub reflects on the amount of time that Mario Puzo’s The Godfather spends on the genitalia of its major characters, March 2021.
• Francis Ford Coppola talks to The New Yorker about making The Godfather, March 1997.
• Peter Bart discusses the production of The Godfather in The Week, January 2015.
• Tony Sokol at Den of Geek looks back on how The Godfather could have been very different, March 2019.
• Yahoo reports on Francis Ford Coppola describing the making of The Godfather as “the worst experience”, January 2022.
• Tim Grierson at Rolling Stone reflects on the “Best Popular Movie” fiasco at the Oscars, December 2019.
• Adam B. Vary at Variety discusses the reaction to Spider-Man: No Way Home failing to secure a Best Picture nomination, February 2022.
• Imram Siddiquee at BuzzFeed discusses the complicated legacy of auteur theory, October 2017.
• Darren Mooney at The Escapist discusses the pushback against Nolan as an auteur, December 2020.
• Rob Bricken at Gizmodo argues that The Batman is too long, despite having not seen it yet, January 2022.
• Robbie Collins at The Telegraph looks at the weird backlash against critics, April 2021.
• A.O. Scott talks to Electric Literature about anti-intellectualism in American life, February 2016.
• Jason Guerrasio at Business Insider ranks the highest-grossing Best Picture winners ever, February 2019.
• Tim Gray at Variety looks back at how Hair changed Broadway, April 2018.
• Al Pacino explains to Digital Spy how he was almost fired from The Godfather, March 2015.
• Tom Santopietro talks to The Smithsonian Magazine about the nostalgia at play in The Godfather, January 2012.
• Tom Breihan at The A.V. Club discusses The Godfather as a movie about the American Dream, October 2019.
• David Thomson at Esquire reflects on the romantic allure of Michael Corleone, October 1995.
• Erich Kuersten at Acidemic reflects on the nostalgia that permeated seventies popular culture, March 2013.
• Rick McGinnis at The Mark Steyn Club reflects on the popularity of the postwar era in seventies cinema, October 2021.
• Lizzie Bramlett at The Vintage Traveller reflects on broader nostalgia in seventies pop culture beyond cinema, February 2012.
• Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal look back on Love Story for The Hollywood Reporter, February 2021.
• Aljean Harmetz at The New York Times reports on the break-up between Ali MacGraw and Robert Evans, March 1973.
• W. Bradford Wilcox at National Affairs looks at the evolution of divorce in America, Fall 2009.
• Sasha Aslanian at NPR reflects on how the seventies divorce boom affected children, January 2010.
• Susan King at The Los Angeles Times reflects on Nora Ephron’s positioning of The Godfather as “the ultimate guy movie”, December 1998.
• Graham Allison at The Atlantic asks “what would the Godfather do?” over war in Syria, Spetember 2013.
• Jonathan Freedland at The Irish Times reflects on the universality of The Godfather, November 2020.
• Ed Simon at The Los Angeles Review of Books reflects on how mobsters are obsessed with The Godfather, September 2021.
• Molly Haskell at The New York Times reflects on how the Godfather films treate their female character, March 1997.
• Gilbert Cruz at Time reflects on how Marlon Brando was a real prankster on the set of The Godfather, March 2012.
• Gianni Russo talks to Vice about working on The Godfather, March 2019.
• Gianni Russo talks to Entertainment Weekly about his relationship with James Caan on the set of The Godfather, April 2017.
• Devin Faraci at birth.movies.death looks at how the mafia, through Joe Columbo, protested The Godfather, March 2012.
• Gordon Willis talks to American Cinematographer about shooting The Godfather on location, February 2020.
• Mark London Williams at British Cinematographer talks about how Gordon Willis changes the way that movies were shot with The Godfather, 2020.
• Chris Nashawaty looks back on the life and career of Gordon Willis for Entertainment Weekly, May 2014.
• Gordon Willis talks to Below the Line about his life and career, 2006.
• Brian Cronin at Comic Book Resources looks at how Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino traded places in The Godfather and The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, October 2019.
• The original test footage for The Godfather cast.
• Walter Murch talks to IndieWire about his life and career, April 2019.
• Walter Murch talks to Empire about defining the role of “sound designer”, October 2017.
• Mike D’Angelo at The Dissolve argues for Brando’s Best Actor win as an example of category fraud, December 2013.
• Sacheen Littlefeather talks to The Guardian about declining the Academy Award on behalf of Marlon Brando, June 2021.
• Sacheen Littlefeather talks to Entertainment Weekly about declining Brando’s Academy Award, January 2013.
• Steve Volk at Philly Mag reflects on Angelo Bruno as “the gentle don”, December 2007.
• Ryan Parker at Billboard reflects on Frank Sinatra’s fued with Mario Puzo over The Godfather, December 2015.
• Michael Tolkin talks to Empire about Frank Sinatra’s fight against The Godfather, January 2022.
• Jon Burlingame at Variety looks at the history of declaring film soundtracks ineligible for Academy Awards, February 2014.
• Dustin Rowles at Uproxx reflects on the use of oranges to symbolise death, both inside and outside the Godfather movies, June 2013.
• Mark Seal at Vanity Fair reflects on the battles waged over The Godfather, February 2009.
• Tom Brueggemann at IndieWire looks at how The Godfather‘s radical distribution model paved the way for the modern blockbuster, December 2020.
• Time looks at the impact and legacy of Paramount President Frank Yablans, March 1974.
• John H. Allan at The New York Times looks at the revolutionary profit-sharing split between Paramount and theatres over The Godfather, April 1972.
• Nicholas Gage at The New York Times reflects on the box office success of The Godfather, March 1972.
• The Godthumb, 1999.
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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: al pacino, america, auteur, authorship, box office, cinema, crime, Diane Keaton, francis ford coppola, gangsters, Mafia, marlon brando, Movies, new hollywood, paramount, phil bagnall, philip bagnall, prestige, robert evans, the godfather |