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The Godfather, the Mafia, and Revisionist History
How one film changed everything
As a straight piece of dramatic storytelling, The Godfather has few equals in American cinema. It’s one of the rare instances where an excellent novel was adapted into an even better film. From the script to the acting to the direction, it is rightly ranked among the Top Five films of all time. It inspired a plethora of great Mafia films, from Goodfellas to Casino to Donnie Brasco, and gave us lines we still use today, like “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse,” and “It’s not personal, it’s strictly business.”
It did something unexpected as well: it turned the bad guys into the good guys for the generations of viewers who have seen it over the nearly 50 years since its 1972 release. Movies about the Mafia had existed for decades before The Godfather, starting with Scarface, Public Enemy, and Little Caesar in the 1930s, but until The Godfather, the criminals in these films were always clearly seen as criminals, even if they were the main characters. Much like the classic Hollywood Westerns, the guys in the black hats might have been more interesting at times, but the guys in the white hats were clearly the good guys and would always win in the end.
The Godfather changed that, first with Mario Puzo’s bestselling 1969 novel and then forever with Francis…
