the first thing i done when studying the godfather is look at the critical reception and this is what i found at thatThe film is greatly respected among international critics and the public, it is routinely listed as one of the greatest films ever made. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 100% of 61 reviews were positive and Meteoritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received a perfect average score of 100, based on 14 reviews. It was voted greatest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly, and is now ranked as the second greatest film in American cinematic history – behind Citizen Kane by the American Film Institute. In the 2002 Sight & Sound poll of international critics, The Godfather (along with The Godfather Part II) was ranked as the fourth best film of all time. Both The Godfather and The Godfather Part II were selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1990 and 1993, respectively, while The Godfather Part III was not.
The soundtrack's main theme by nina Rota was also critically acclaimed; the main theme ("Speak Softly Love") is well-known and widely used.
Stanley Kubrick believed that The Godfather was possibly the greatest movie ever made, and without question the best cast.