The best movie of all time?

I know most GF fans go back and forth on which is better between I and II, but do you believe it is the best? If so, which one (I or II) is your favorite and why?

If part I or II isn't your favorite movie of all time, which one is?

Part 1 is my favorite even though part 2 may actually be a better movie. If that makes any sense. I don't even differentiate the two anymore. For me, they're just 2 parts of 1 long story.

If the Godfather movies I & II were steak, I'd have to vote for
I because it had more sizzle.

The happiest contest in the world: which is better, I or II? No loser!

Have to agree with Just Lou and Turnbull...I just can't imagine having 1 without 2 and vice versa. There is no second place.

That is pretty much my feeling as well.

However, must admit neither of them is my all time favorite.

That honor goes to Billy Wilder's 'Double Indemnity'

Apple

Part 1 because:
- The story is more rapidly told and at the same time complex, while I believe that much of the mystery of GF2 is due to sloppy writing. (Honestly, I don't think that FFC knows who opened the drapes).
- Brando was better than DeNiro
- Caan was better than Strasberg
- Lettieri was better than Chianese

Pacino was better in II
Duvall was better in I
Shire was better in II(and even better in III)
Cazale was great in both.

DeNiro did an outtanding job of inhabiting the character Brando created without doing an impersonation. It was a difficult bit of acting and IMHO one of the best performances in the trilogy.

Don't forget about "Michael Corleone says hello", which wasn't in the script, per se, but FFC decided to leave it in even though it was a cause for great confusion at the time, and still is...

At one time, "Did Roth engineer Frankie's survival?" was the most-asked question on this board, but it hasn't come up for years.

First of all, I'll have to join Apple and say that neither is my favorite movie of all time (even tho I love both to the point of obsession)

My vote, as always, goes to one little movie from 1957 called "Sweet Smell of Success". I simply cant praise this movie enough.

As for choosing between GF I and II...I really cant because I hardly watch them as GF I and II. I watch the Saga instead, that's where everything is in one piece, all deleted scenes included. A GF paradise.

I've always considered GF II better but that's just my view on them. I can't really name a favorite movie, I have favorite movies from different genre's. But to actually name one fave movie is impossible for me. But GF I and GF II are both up there.

Hi, I'm new to the board (though I registered quite a while ago). This seemed like a good thread to introduce myself.

My favorite movie is always in flux (right now it IS "The Godfather Part II"), but I have an obsessive compulsive nature and my movie obsessions are cyclical... so if I had to honestly choose just one favorite movie it would be Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo." I also really love "The Magnificent Ambersons," "The Rules of the Game," and pretty much anything by John Ford, Howard Hawks and Akira Kurosawa.

The nice thing about the first "Godfather" (much like the first "Star Wars") is that it stands alone... it doesn't need Part II or III; whereas the two sequels really work better with a working knowledge of what has come before. That said... Part II makes Part I an even better movie... and I do think that Part II is the richer film. Of course I'll always have a special place in my heart for Part II because it was the movie that broke the R rated barrier for me (when I was 14 I begged, pleaded, cajoled my parents to take me to see it... they finally acquiesced, and from then on I could see pretty much anything I wanted... "Nashville," "Cuckoo's Nest," "Taxi Driver," "Network," return engagements of "Chinatown" and "The Exorcist," and even a re-release of "A Clockwork Orange"... ahhh, the '70's!).

Oh... and my favorite Coppola film isn't from "The Godfather" trilogy (though the first two movies are obviously among my favorites), it's "The Conversation." I'm very careful with my viewing of this movie, as I want it to always remain a little bit special.

This is a great question, which predates my coming on board, so to speak. I would say an emphatic YES to it, for the following reasons:

1. Roth knew the Rosatos were going to meet with Frankie, and surely knew where or when. We know that he had wind of the meeting by Ola's "wrong number" call to Fredo.

2. It would be easy enough for Roth to arrange for a beat cop to come into the bar at exactle the right moment.

3. It provides the only logical explanation for "Michael Corleone says 'hello.'"

4. It explains how Frankie's being alive was more or less kept a secret.

5. It explains how Fankie managed to be a local thug under NYPD jurisdiction to quickle become a Federal matter, and it further explains the lengths to which they
protected him (on an army base).

6. It allows Questadt to move the committee to investigate the rackets, to subpoena Michael Corleone, and to set the perjury trap.

7. It provides Roth a chance to get Michael out of his hair without firing a single shot.