Nino Rota

After fifty years of non-stop praise and film history case study, The Godfather: Part I, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece about family patriarch Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is as young and looks as great as ever.   We were reminded of its overall importance by a special screening at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, with the Golden Globe and Academy award-winning Nino Rota’s score played live by a 60-piece orchestra of LA’s most talented orchestral musicians, conducted by Scott Terrell.

After dithering around with their music awards for so many years — nominations one year, no awards another -- the Hollywood Foreign Press Association finally decided to take the category seriously. Even though the 1970 Golden Globe for best song went to “Jean” from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, sidestepping the Academy’s choice, “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” the HFPA made amends by agreeing on Burt Bacharach’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as best score.