The Godfather

The Godfather is one of the few franchises where the first two installments are the high-water mark for the entire medium. Coppola's 1972 film and its 1974 sequel, adapted from Mario Puzo's novel, redefined American cinema's idea of crime, family, and slow moral rot. Part III, arriving sixteen years later, is the divisive coda.

The property has been recut and repackaged endlessly, from the chronological television version to the epic 1901 to 1959 reassemblies that restore Vito and Michael's stories to calendar order.

It also crosses into print and games: Puzo's source novel plus a sequel continuation, and EA's two open-world games that drop you into the Corleone underworld. Those games are competent Grand Theft Auto riffs, but they only underline how unrepeatable the films are.

The The Godfather franchise spans 1 series, 2 books, 2 games, 6 films in the CrossBinge catalog.