I know Coppola had not directed much if any but was known as a good writer, especially from "Patton." My gripe with the movie is it is basically an overblown melodrama with a lot of hype and gloss. The cinematography is good but not great. The acting: while a few minor people are good, Brando is terrible, mumbling more than ever with those cotton balls or whatever in his cheeks. Why did he think he had to play it this way? James Caan gives the best performance. And the flick is hackneyed, an old-time gangster one, full of violence and anger and crudeness. It is not film noir. They took the crime genre and Hollywooded it up, trying to make something grandiose. Two gangs pitted against each other, using gages and fifty caliber submachine guns. So what else is new? Little Caesar" was better.