When you consider the greatest Oscar-winning film trilogies, there’s actually only a couple. The Lord of the Rings famously won 17 Academy Awards, while The Dark Knight took three. And then there’s The Godfather trilogy, which won 9 Oscars, and became the first trilogy ever to be nominated for Best Picture across all three films.
Based on the novel and screenplay of Mario Puzo, the first two movies (considered two of the greatest films ever made) chart the fictional rise and trials of the mafia boss Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) and his youngest son Michael (Al Pacino), who succeeds him.
Meanwhile, The Godfather Part III, acts as an epilogue to the first two films, as an older Michael justifies his empire alongside the rise of his nephew Vincent (Andy Garcia). Francis Ford Coppola’s epic has been showing nightly on BBC Two this bank holiday weekend, with The Godfather Part II on tonight and The Godfather Part III following tomorrow. But don’t worry if you missed The Godfather last night, as it’s streaming on BBC iPlayer for the next 29 days, as will the sequels once they’ve been broadcast.
