Based on Mario Puzo’s book by the same name, The Godfather series follows the trials of the Corleone family, Italian Americans whose patriarch Vito Corleone, rises to be a major figure in American organized crime. Part 1 is about Don Corleone declining an offer to partner with the narcotics, and how his elder son Sonny takes over the family. The Don’s second son, Micheal soon becomes a part of the family business in spite of not being very comfortable with what his family does. Part 2 can be deemed as a prequel and a sequel, and centers around Micheal who is now heading the family as well as dwells into the past showing a young Vito Corleone from his Sicilian childhood to the founding of his family enterprise in New York City. Part 3 continues Micheal’s story and shows the rise of Sonny Corleone’s illegitimate son Vincent Corleone as Michael’s successor.
The Godfather is an American film series that consists of three crime films directed by Francis Ford Coppola inspired by the 1969 novel of the same name by Italian American author Mario Puzo. The films follow the trials of the Italian American mafia Corleone family whose patriarch, Vito Corleone, rises to be a major figure in American organized crime. His youngest son, Michael Corleone, becomes his successor. The films were distributed by Paramount Pictures and released in 1972, 1974, and 1990. The series achieved success at the box office, with the films earning between $430 and $512 million worldwide. The Godfather is seen by many as one of the greatest films of all time, while The Godfather Part II is viewed as one of the best sequels in cinematic history. The series is heavily awarded, winning 9 out of 28 total Academy Award nominations.
The Godfather was released on March 15, 1972. The feature-length film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and based upon Mario Puzo‘s novel of the same name. The plot begins with Don Vito Corleone declining an offer to join in the narcotics business with notorious drug lord Virgil Sollozzo, which leads to an assassination attempt. Meanwhile, Vito’s oldest son Sonny takes over the family and Michael strikes back for the assassination attempt by killing Sollozzo and a corrupted police captain, forcing Michael to go to Sicily in hiding. While in Sicily, Michael travels around the country and meets a woman he marries but who is killed in a car bombing. Michael returns to America after the news of his brother Sonny’s murder. Vito then turns over the reins of the family to Michael. Michael plans to move the family business to Las Vegas; but before the move, his father dies, and he plots the killing of the heads of the five families on the day of his nephew’s baptism. Other subplots include Vito’s daughter’s abusive marriage, Johnny Fontane’s success in Hollywood and Vito’s second son Fredo‘s role in the family business in Las Vegas.
The Godfather Part II was released on December 20, 1974. The feature-length film was again directed by Francis Ford Coppola and based upon Mario Puzo’s novel of the same name. The film is in part both a sequel and a prequel to The Godfather, presenting two parallel dramas. The main storyline, following the first film’s events, centers on Michael Corleone, the new Don of the Corleone crime family, trying to hold his business ventures together from 1958 to 1959; the other is a series of flashbacks following his father, Vito Corleone, from his childhood in Sicily in 1901 to his founding of the Corleone family in New York City.
The Godfather Part III was released on December 25, 1990. Francis Ford Coppola returned as director for the feature-length film, while also writing the screenplay with the help of the author Mario Puzo. It completes the story of Michael Corleone, a Mafia kingpin who tries to legitimize his criminal empire, and shows the rise of Sonny Corleone‘s illegitimate son Vincent Corleone as Michael’s successor. The film also weaves into its plot a fictionalized account of real-life events, which include the 1978 death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal of 1981 and 1982, and links them with each other and with the affairs of Michael Corleone. Coppola felt that the first two films had told the complete Corleone saga. Coppola intended Part III to be an epilogue to the first two films. In his audio commentary for Part II, he stated that only a dire financial situation caused by the failure of One from the Heart (1982) compelled him to take up Paramount‘s long-standing offer to make a third installment
Movie Name: The Godfather (Part 1, 2 and 3)
Language: English
Genre: Crime Drama
Cast: Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Year Of Release: 1972, 1974, 1990