Romanticism In The Godfather

Influenced as he was by European cinema, he was considered a great experimentalist in American cinema of the time. His film The Godfather alone produced a revenue of over 30 million dollars, which for the time was an enormous amount of money, and is also an insight to how much the general populace loved his films. They addressed what the world was thinking at the time and put into words the distrust and paranoia of people in power.
Like practically no other Hollywood film of recent years the tale of the New York Mafia clan Corleone reflects the divisions, the compulsions and the fears afflicting American Society. Damaged by Vietnam, and shaken by a profound crisis of faith in the nation Americans hallowed norms of good and evil were looking more beleaguered than ever. –Kolner

As opposed to older crime genres there is a significantly more sceptical look at human values and the outcomes in conflicts.
As happened with a lot of film in the 1970’s Coppolas’ godfather movies were created in an almost nostalgic way, hinting back to the earlier days of Hollywood cinema. The films also have five acts rather than the three used stereotypical Hollywood films. He uses underexposed imagery rendered darker than the norm, which was considered old style and uncultured of the time. While the films themselves have such an operatic grandeur it is hard to put them into a simply category, at the heart of all the grandeur is a pulpy crime story, the genesis of old noir films. It might not fall strictly speaking into the neo noir category, but it was certainly a tip of the hat to the old