Happy 45th Birthday to “The Godfather”

As impossible as it may seem to believe, Francis Ford Coppola‘s seminal Mafia classic The Godfather opened 45 years ago today. (It’s been making audiences an offer they can’t refuse ever since!) Copolla redefined the gangster film genre with this landmark filming of Mario Puzo’s brutal novel of Mafia life that earned Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor Marlon Brando (though unaccepted) as aging mob boss Don Vito Corleone. James Caan, John Cazale, Robert Duvall, and Al Pacino co-star as Corleone’s sons, trying to save the family “business” in the midst of a mob war; with Diane Keaton, Talia Shire. Two sequels followed, along with countless imitators, spurring a global obsession will all things mob-related in the process. This movie is such a pop culture landmark that without it there would have been no Goodfellas or The Sopranos, and the 1970s movie landscape would have been forever changed…along with all that came after it. Its release was one of those monumental moments in movie history, so take some time to reflect upon how it has aged as well as the vino from Coppola’s vineyards on the film’s 45th birthday today.