The Don Is Dead

They usually hide in concrete foundations or holes in the desert, but when an ambitious consigliere starts a trap war between families, the corpses will end up scattered everywhere. It’s a weaker sibling of Coppola's masterpiece from the previous year, but don’t underestimate it. Richard Fleischer's focused direction, the fiery young Robert Forster pitted against the thoughtful Anthony Quinn, Jerry Goldsmith's banal yet effective main theme, and a solid mob showdown from the halfway point, all benefit from not being set in the usual East Coast environment. What increases your chances of surviving until the peace agreement between the Dons? You need to be brainy or spend most of the time holed up in prison. (25/06/2024)

An obvious answer to year-older The Godfather, especially at the end, when the mobsters shoot each other (an excellent scene, the highlight of the film), cut each other’s throats in barber's chairs and load bodies into barrels and otherwise disposed of them in a successful manner. That's also when The Don Is Dead finally picks up the pace. Until then, it is a very, very, very slow film, in which something happens, but it cannot be said that the "something" is worth anything. Anthony Quinn, however, does not disappoint, nor does Jerry Goldsmith's music. (31/03/2014)