The Godfather, fifty years later

The Godfather, fifty years later: This March 24 marked fifty years since the release of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), a film that has garnered such praise since it first appeared in theaters that it hardly seems necessary to rehearse its countless and well-deserved accolades.  It is undoubtedly one of those few cinematic works of art that film historians, critics, and the public universally recognize as among the greatest films of all time.  What is perhaps most extraordinary is that The Godfather, Part II (1974) somehow managed to attain the same breathtaking pinnacle of aesthetic perfection when sequels are notoriously inferior to their predecessors.