The Godfather

Widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, The Godfather won three Academy Awards, was a huge success at the box office, and influenced a half-century of filmmaking. Director Francis Ford Coppola's magnum opus, which he co-scripted with Mario Puzo based on his novel, is at once a richly textured period gangster film and a cinematic tragedy of Shakespearean succession. The intergenerational Corleone crime family, from Don Vito (Marlon Brando) to Michael (Al Pacino), spin their powerful friends, enemies, and a few unlucky relatives, through a breathtaking cycle of violence, vengeance and American myth-making.