The Godfather

Jon Lewis's study of The Godfather (1972) examines the film's audacious visual style and its principal themes: Vito and Michael's attempt to balance the obligations of business and family, their struggle with assimilation, the temptations and pitfalls of capitalist accumulation, and the larger drama of succession from father to son, from one generation to the next. Lewis's production history goes behind the scenes to uncover the film's real-life gangster backstory, and places it in the context of Hollywood's dramatic box-office turnaround in the early 1970s, revealing how The Godfather saved Paramount Studios and the rest of Hollywood as well. In his foreword to this new edition, Lewis revisits the iconic film and its lasting significance through the decades.