7. The Godfather (1972)
Horrible Idea At The Time Because... Mafia Movies Directed By Non-Italians Made No Profit If you want to sound cool at any party where you don't know anybody, your best bet is to burst in at a randomly-decided time and shout: "My favourite movie is
The Godfather," because then people will know to respect your tastes and that you know a good movie when you see one. What I'm trying to say there is that
The Godfather is considered to be the cream of the crop when it comes to motion pictures in general; some will even proclaim it to be "the
Citizen Kane of movies." But before it was a surprise smash, it was actually considered to be a bad idea. Why? Well, The
Godfather is about the mafia, but at the time it was made, mafia movies never seemed to do very well unless they had been directed by full-on Italians. I don't know why or how that makes sense, but trust me when I say that that was the general consensus. So putting Francis Ford Coppola (who was born in Detroit) at the helm of this one seemed like a big risk; he was even on the verge of being fired several times, and the studio kept questioning his methods. Alas, the movie transcended all expectations and he was later hailed as a genius.