This gangster movie is the highest rated movie on Letterboxd, the social media app for film lovers.
Letterboxd is a social media and online catalogoing service for films. Its users can log, rate, review and discuss movies, while sharing their film-watching experiences with others and also creating watch lists as well as spotlighting their top four favourite films. It’s been compared to Goodreads due to its focus on community and film discovery.
Many other websites and film critics have highlighted this film as the best of all time and Letterboxd is no different.
Its users have voted The Godfather as the highest rated film in its history, having held the top spot for six years.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and co-written with Mario Puzo, and based on Puzo’s best-selling 1969 novel, the American epic gangster film is about Michael Corleone, the war-hero youngest son of a powerful New York crime boss, who joins the family business when his father is targeted for assassination.
The film’s synopsis reads: “Widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, this mob drama, based on Mario Puzo’s novel of the same name, focuses on the powerful Italian-American crime family of Don Vito Corleone. When the don’s youngest son, Michael, reluctantly joins the Mafia, he becomes involved in the inevitable cycle of violence and betrayal. Although Michael tries to maintain a normal relationship with his wife, Kay (Diane Keaton), he is drawn deeper into the family business.”
It stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley and Richard Conte, among others.
The Godfather was instantly met with success upon its release and it became the highest grossing film of 1972.
It won countless awards, most notably the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Marlon Brando), the Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) for Coppola and Mario Puzo and the Adademy Award for Best Picture.
The film has more than one million five-star ratings on Letterboxd.
The Godfather has a 97% rating from critics and audience users on Rotten Tomatoes.
The critics consensus says: “One of Hollywood’s greatest critical and commercial successes, The Godfather gets everything right; not only did the movie transcend expectations, it established new benchmarks for American cinema.”
The Godfather is available to watch on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.