10 Brilliant Movies That Surprised Everyone

Whilst it has been canonised as one of the greatest films ever made, on its 1972 release The Godfather was no sure thing. The blockbusting, genre defining masterpiece was a true sensation, but came from an inauspicious background.

Mario Puzo’s source novel is a fine book, but it’s essentially pulp - a blood and guts romp about honour and betrayal in the mafia. By no means does it contain the stately depth of the finished product. Director Francis Ford Coppola had to be talked into the project, finding the material sleazy.

Production was troubled throughout, with Coppola a long way down the list of prospective directors and Al Pacino an unpopular choice for the lead role of Michael Corleone. It seemed like this was going to be the most expensive, shlockiest movie ever made.

Instead, it was a triumph in every sense, making Pacino’s career, revitalising Marlon Brando’s (for a bit), dominating the Oscars and the box office, and boosting the gangster genre to one of America’s most beloved, lucrative, and often creatively successful. It could so easily have been one of cinema’s great disasters.