Godfather, The (1972)

Although there have been many,many movies made about The Mob,long before this one and right up to today,The Godfather is arguably the most influential one.It deserves its status as a classic film,with excellent acting & fine directing throughout.

A great example of a film that had an impact on the popular culture of the day, was influential in the making of films in the almost four decades since it was released and still stands up as a great film upon viewing today. Probably defines the term "classic".

Profound affect on the culture. After "The Godfather", mobsters for many Americans came to supplant cowboys as cultural icons. After "The Godfather", it became far easier for anti-Italian bigots to blame much of the crime in America on "Eye-talians" (although organized crime is, and always has been, comprised of every nationality there is). White-collar corporate crime, which costs our nation far more money than John Gotti or Frank Costello ever thought to steal in their wildest pipe-dreams, was easily forgotten as ambitious prosecutors prattled on knowingly about "Omerta" and "La Cosa Nostra" and "Gummares". What publicity was there in prosecuting a drab Wall Street executive or a corrupt Governmental factotum when every 2-bit criminal with a vowel on the end of his name could be elevated to a "capo" or a "consiglieri" or maybe even a "capo di tutti capi". Before "The Godfather", even the most powerful of Italian mobsters were basically regarded as crude, semiliterate thugs (not to me... Read more

Incalculably so to this day.