Is Francis Coppola‘s The Godfather the all-time greatest American film ever?

I certainly wouldn’t argue against this notion. I’ve not only revered this 1972, epic-sized gangster drama for over a half-century, but I can quote much of the dialogue by memory. Plus I own three separate Bluray versions as well as The Godfather Saga on DVD so don’t tell me. If asked to sign a document stating that it is, in fact, the all-time greatest, I’d do it.

My own determination is that The Godfather ranks second to John Huston‘s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (’48), but it’s not worth arguing about.

I must take issue, however, with a Variety headline that quotes Steven Spielberg saying last night that The Godfather “is the greatest American film ever made.”

Again, no argument from this corner but that’s not what Spielberg said. Exact quote: “The Godfather, for me, is the greatest American film ever made.”

The words “for me” are major qualifiers, of course. They emphasize the subjective. They’re an admission that Spielberg is not speaking as some grand authoritative film pope, and that he’s basically just a movie lover shooting from the heart or the hip. This doesn’t devalue his respect and admiration for The Godfather — it just means “this is how I genuinely feel…this is my fully considered judgment in the face of God and my community. But I’m not the Big Kahuna.”