Based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo, The Godfather was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, with the screenplay written by Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, and Robert Towne, although Towne's name doesn't appear in the credits. It became of one of the most potent film projects ever and oozed talent with Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall and Diane Keaton bringing the most powerful Mafia family to life right from scene one. For the audience it was 175 minutes of jaw-dropping awe and an experience that would live with each individual. I remember clearly the rich, dusky-dark rooms where Don Corleone, played with rare excellence by Marlon Brando, prowled and freely issued death as easily as Julius Caesar would send a slave to the lions. It was real and I breathed in every second hardly daring to blink. And then a scene would appear where Don Corleone played with his grandchildren like every grandfather throughout the world and the audience is forced to try and understand and struggle and find themselves trapped, but willing prisoners in Mario Puzo's and Francis Ford Coppola's world... Pure cinema magic...

Godfather II & III proved equally as potent and the Corleone family became a part of our history. Al Pacino became the next Don and we watched his brutal life grow old and we cried for him, because, in a secret place we tuck away deep inside, we loved him and choose to ignore the fact he has become an instrument of death. The same for his father, who was played as a young man with true brilliance by Robert De Niro. We had grown to love these men like the Italian families they ruled with the iron fist of fear loved them. At the end of The Godfather III we understood and mourned their passing into history. I particularly like the scenes with Robert De Niro playing the young Don Corleone. I remember thinking as I watch the young Don Corleone's life of crime unfolding, he is a good man with a good heart in a world of bad men with cruel hearts... I think maybe there is a point there. Don Corleone was a victim of his own culture as were, may be still are, many young Italian men... Or am I just making excuses because I have been seduced by great storytelling? But isn't that the point? In watching these great films we enjoy shared experience and we learn much about ourselves.

Tim Rees

My novel Raw Nerve is available on Kindle Click here.

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