The Godfather (Blu-ray) Blu-ray, 1972

In late 1940s New York, Mafia 'Godfather' Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) gathers his three sons around him for daughter Connie's wedding - the hot-headed Sonny (James Caan), ineffectual Fredo (John Cazale) and war hero Michael (Al Pacino), who chooses to distance himself from the family 'business'. When Vito is shot and wounded for refusing to sanction a rival family's heroin sales on his territory, Sonny temporarily takes over and embarks on bloody gang warfare. This results in him being killed in an ambush, and Michael finds himself nominated to succeed the ailing Vito.

Brando won an Oscar (which he refused) for his striking, influential and occasionally ludicrous impersonation of a Mafioso Don, although Al Pacino, reflective, cautious and troubled as heir to the Corleone throne, represents the true soul of the movie. Nino Rota's score is masterful and, with half-lit faces and rich period texture, Gordon Willis seemed to reinvent New Hollywood cinematography. Francis Ford Coppola's epic treatment of Mario Puzo's novel was followed by two sequels.