'The Godfather' Is Hitting Cinemas for Its 50th Anniversary to Give You a Movie Offer You Can't Refuse

Friday, February 25, 2022 mightn't be the day of your daughter's wedding, but it is when that famous movie quote about offspring and nuptials will echo through cinemas once again. Delivered by Marlon Brando in one of his finest-ever performances — which won him a thoroughly deserved Oscar for Best Actor — the line has become one of the all-time great pieces of dialogue. Whether you know why or you've always been meaning to find out, here's your chance.

Some films demand a big-screen viewing at least once, and The Godfather is high among them — and, 50 years after it first flickered through picture palaces, the Francis Ford Coppola-directed mafia masterpiece is getting another theatrical run to mark that huge milestone. This really is the gangster flick that has it all, including equally superb performances from Al Pacino, Robert Duvall and James Caan. It isn't considered one of the best movies ever made without good reason.

Arriving a few weeks before the feature officially hits the big five-o — it premiered back in March 1972 and released in US cinemas later the same month — this season of The Godfather will also give movie-goers an offer they can't refuse: seeing the flick in a restored version overseen by Coppola's production company American Zoetrope and the film's distributor Paramount Pictures. All three Godfather features got the same treatment, as guided by the legendary filmmaker, who originally directed the movie when he was just 33; however, only the first film is returning to cinemas.

Story-wise, if you really are new to it all, the trilogy follows the Corleones — with the first film focusing on Vito Corleone (Brando) and his youngest son Michael (Pacino) as the latter reluctantly (at first) joins the family business.

All three movies, including 1974's The Godfather Part II and Coppola's recently re-edited version of 1990's The Godfather Part III, now called The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone and briefly released in cinemas back in 2020, will hit home entertainment on Wednesday, March 23, too. And yes, at home, that means you can see Lost in Translation and On the Rocks director Sofia Coppola as a baby in the OG flick and also play Michael's daughter Mary in the third film.

Check out the trailer for the 50th-anniversary restoration of The Godfather below:

The Godfather 50th-anniversary re-release will hit cinemas Down Under on February 25, 2022.