50th anniversary: The Godfather

Popularly viewed as one of the best American films ever made, this multi-generational crime saga is a touchstone of cinema: one of the most widely imitated, quoted, and lampooned movies of all time. Set in late 1940s New York, this bravura piece of work is a powerful, exciting and always well-directed film about the struggle for survival of one of the Mafia 'families,' the Corleones. Marlon Brando stars as its head as gangster boss Don Vito, with Al Pacino as his son Michael. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winning for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay, the elegiac mafia saga from the young Francis Ford Coppola ("Apocalypse Now") is one of the all-time high watermarks of cinema, rich with subtle acting and blessed with stunning cinematography.