I read the book first and thought it was a bit tripey.

The film though was really good. It was like a hymn to the Italian American experience. Beautifully composed dark pictures - almost like Pasolini's biblical stuff. Beautifully composed juxtapositions like children running in a carefee sinless manner,   while the evil Luca Brasi comes to pay his homage.

There was a lyricism - even to the violence.

I was dreading to see the film - people having their legs hacked off while they were still alive. A baby thrown alive into a furnace. Mercifully such heavy duty sadism was left out of the film.

I'm sure the mafia was quite as ghastly as Puzo's novel - probably much worse. But the film, to me, was creation of great beauty.