When Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather arrived in theaters in March of 1973, the award-winning film depicted for the world a new vision of the American gangster: He laughs, he cries, he loves his family, and if you cross him, he won’t hesitate to put a horse’s bloody head in your bed.
The Godfather quickly became a blockbuster and a cultural phenomenon, offering a fresh model for film and television gangster shows. In the mob stories that followed in its wake—shows like “The Sopranos,” and films like Scarface and Goodfellas—we see its influences in the shorthand language, the unexpected humor, the costumes, the graphic violence and the use of music.
