Is The Godfather the greatest American film ever made?

First of all I think it's impossible to say that any one film is The Greatest. And I think Spielberg is not only very self-important but over-imports his friends, in general, and he was really just giving his old friend a public handjob as these people do. He probably really thinks it's one of his or maybe The General or maybe something else, but it was a nice thing to say about his buddy.
But then, thinking more seriously on the question, it's an awfully good movie. But to say it or any other is The Greatest I would have to watch and/or re-watch thousands of American movies in fairly close proximity; taking into account the context of the time that the films were made and what techniques narratively, artistically, and technically were available and what had been done before them; and compare (and I mean starting over right now so no, not even Spielberg is really qualified) all aspects of the films (writing, directing, cinematography, editing, sound, music, acting, etc.) as well as the sum of their parts... and then maybe I'd have a cloud of a hundred or so films any of which a person could say is The Greatest but people would probably just pick the most celebrated among those and The Godfather would win anyway.
I'm not just trying to be pedantic here, I'm saying There Is No Greatest Film.
And Spielberg should know better. And did but he loves his buddy.

Spielberg should've just said, "The Godfather is one of the greatest films."

"The Greatest" assumes that there is a benchmarked rating scale, agreed upon by a set of believable authorities. Since we have neither of those in the movie world, I think most of us will have to be satisfied with A Great Movie and even that's changeable. Of course, some will even disagree with that assessment.

Times change and raters change. I recall once hearing in a college class that The Birth of a Nation (the old horrifyingly racist, silent version) was the greatest movie ever made. Like a lot of things in life, and even more so in art, ratings depend on the rater and even the same rater can change.

The closest we've got is a combination of top ten appearances in magazines and collaborative rating sites, critical success among great masses and monetary success. For example, I made a post years ago about how the album that meets the majority of these standards, being one of the three highest selling album in the world and making many top ten appearances on the magazine and collab lists, as well as all the radio play for almost the whole damn album is Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. Now The Godfather is a contender for the above criteria, but we've got quite a few movies that meet this standard, and I certainly don't want anyone saying it because they feel they have to. I'd rather they did it because they believed it.

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Meh, hyperbole at a ceremony honoring an artist's work is tolerable. Basically, we are strongly reminded that Spielberg endorses this film. He's not settling the issues, but performing a speech act to keep it in the conversation. It's like a cultural game of hackey sack and he's keeping the Godfather circulating in the circle.

If I were at a ceremony honoring a talented friend's life works, I'd be inclined to offer some sincere puffery (true lies) in honor of the occasion (e.g., like when you go to a funeral and for 2 hours afterwards people really mean it when they say they're going to stay in better touch with each other).

>I'm not just trying to be pedantic here, I'm saying There Is No Greatest Film.
And Spielberg should know better.

He does know better. I doubt he believes there is only one singular film that should be called greatest? It's just a figure of speech. Also who cares what these people say? They're subjective opinions.

And what's wrong with Godfather being the greatest? We could have worse candidates.

Originally Posted by Hotel Security

>I'm not just trying to be pedantic here, I'm saying There Is No Greatest Film.
And Spielberg should know better.

I’m curious, why does anyone care what Spielberg says about ANYTHING, including this? Yeah, he’s a great director, but he’s ONE guy with ONE opinion.
I think there’s probably a dozen candidates that could objectively be called the “greatest” film, but everyone will see things differently.

>I’m curious, why does anyone care what Spielberg says about ANYTHING, including this?

Because it's the internet and people always look for excuses to start debate. "This famous person said this" is one of the more common conversation starters.

I hope he doesn't believe that there's only one single film in the history of cinema that is the greatest. That would be terribly dismissive and make him look like a hack. He's not a hack though he's walked the line.

Hotel Security & markdc you two need to get yourself avatars, you look like twins

That's not as powerful though. The ceremony or presentation was to honor Coppola completely, not partially. For someone on a message board to say, "Godfather is the greatest" is different than Spielberg saying "Godfather is the greatest" when presenting an award to his friend. I understand your idea. I just feel it's misplaced for this context. Normally saying "greatest ever" is misplaced. Here I think it's justified.

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I think you're taking it too literally. If Francis Ford Coppola presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Steven Spielberg and said, "Schindler's List is the greatest American movie ever made," everything in this thread would be exactly the same except the names. We'd be asking, "What about your Godfather, Coppola? You're excluding that!" and et cetera. One person saying one thing about one movie one day is hardly unique. Maybe Spielberg changed his mind today, or will change it tomorrow, or wasn't honest yesterday, or won't be tomorrow? I don't know. What I do know is that it makes for a lively discussion (as evidenced by our as-yet four-page thread).

Those posts were meant to be assertive without being aggressive or vicious.

We all perceive and process things differently. When my brain hears Spielberg saying at a ceremony to honor Coppola that The Godfather is the greatest film of all time, it sounds insincere to my ear. I'm not saying Spielberg was insincere he was probably very sincere. It just sounds like a used car salesman hyperbola.

Yes there's that too. I get what you mean. I think what he said wasn't necessarily dishonest but maybe contextual? He is capable of having that opinion, even if it feels weird to us, as well as probably others who heard it. I don't mean to discount what you have to say, because it is valid.

Yeah of course, on a scale of 1-10 Spielberg's comment is a 0. It doesn't matter at all, just something to yack about.

You know if there was a thread here called What Films Do You Think Are The Greatest of All Time...that could make for interesting convo.

We've done a good job yakking about it too. I get why he said it, even if it is hyperbolic.

Okay, but I'm not starting that thread.

Wouldn't that just be "post your top 10?"

I dunno. Hopefully people would say x y z movies are the greatest because of this and that. Myself I could never say what I personally think is the one greatest movie but I could name off a number of movies that I think are great.

I know you didn't ask me, but I thought I'd answer anyway, and say yeah people would just post a list. It's just... lists are boring without explanation. Now I fall guilty into making lists. At the same time, I love to make lists as a way to spring into discussion. "Here's my rando list, and here's why it is rando'ly like that." That's the fun part. I guess people have too much to do than do more than post a list. But I don't! I have plenty of time to sit with my computer and discuss a list ad infinitum. Hell yeah. Let's discuss those lists.

Spielberg obviously puts Godfather at #1. I wonder what his #2 through #10 are?

Steven Spielberg’s 20 favourite movies of all time

According to this article from last year, Spielberg's favorite movie isn't The Godfather, it's It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). His #2 was The Godfather.