Popularly viewed as one of the best American films ever made, the multi-generational crime saga The Godfather is a touchstone of cinema.

Rating: 10/10 (30 June 2010)

The film is one of the most brutal and moving chronicles of American life ever designed within the limits of popular entertainment. When, after ruling for two generations, the Mafia's New York Don (Marlon Brando) dies, his youngest son (Al Pacino) takes over reluctantly, but later learns the ruthlessness and brutality required to maintain his position.
The Godfather is a brilliantly-made film with all the fascination of a snake pit: a warm-hearted family saga except that the members are thieves and murderers. Its position as one of the great films of the last century is secure, in part because it works on so many levels: as a father-and-son story, as an epic account of the Mob's overt power and clandestine business empires in America; and as an apparently authentic glimpse into a closed world, with its own distinct and deadly codes of behaviour.