Look, if you’re trying to figure out how to watch the godfather movies in order, you’re probably expecting a simple 1-2-3 list. It isn't quite that tidy. Francis Ford Coppola didn’t just make three movies; he made a sprawling, generational epic that jumps through time like a caffeinated jazz musician. Most people just hit play on the first one and hope for the best.
That works. Mostly.
But honestly, if you want to understand why Michael Corleone’s soul slowly rots away or how Vito actually built an empire out of olive oil and favors, you have to look at the structure. It’s about the descent. You start with a wedding and you end with a scream on the steps of an opera house. Or, if you’re watching the re-cuts, you end with a very different kind of silence.
The Standard Release Order (The Way Most People Do It)
The most common way to experience the saga is simply watching them as they hit theaters. This is the intended emotional arc. You see the rise, the consolidation, and the eventual, painful decay of the Corleone family.
The Godfather (1972) starts it all. It’s basically the perfect movie. You’ve got Marlon Brando with the cotton balls in his cheeks—which was actually his idea to make Vito look like a bulldog—and a young, relatively unknown Al Pacino playing Michael. Michael starts the movie as a war hero who wants nothing to do with the family business. "That's my family, Kay, it's not me." By the end? He’s the one closing the door on her. It’s chilling.
Then comes The Godfather Part II (1974). This is where things get tricky. It’s both a sequel and a prequel. You’re watching Michael’s life fall apart in 1958 while simultaneously watching a young Vito (played by Robert De Niro) rise to power in the early 1900s. The contrast is the whole point. Vito is building something for his family; Michael is destroying his family to "protect" the thing Vito built.
Finally, there’s The Godfather Part III (1990). People love to hate this one. Sofia Coppola’s performance gets a lot of flak, and yeah, it’s a bit wooden, but the movie is actually a decent Greek tragedy if you ignore the weird incest subplot with the cousins. It’s about Michael trying to go "legit" and realizing that the corporate world and the Vatican are just as bloody as the mob.
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Wait, There’s a Chronological Version?
If you really want to see the godfather movies in order of historical events, you’re looking at The Godfather Saga. This was a television miniseries that aired in 1977. Coppola needed money for Apocalypse Now, so he took the first two movies, chopped them up, and put them in chronological order.
It starts with Vito as a boy in Sicily in 1901. Then it follows his arrival at Ellis Island. You see him grow up, kill Don Fanucci, and establish the Genco Pura Olive Oil Company. Only after all that do we get to the 1945 wedding from the first film.
Is it better? Not really. It ruins the pacing. The beautiful thing about Part II is the "rhyming" between father and son. When you watch it chronologically, you lose that poetic resonance. But, it does include about an hour of deleted scenes that aren't in the theatrical cuts, like Michael’s revenge on the man who killed his first wife in Sicily.
The Coda: Why the Third Movie Changed Its Name
In 2020, Coppola released The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. This is basically the "fixed" version of the third film. He changed the beginning and the end. He tightened the middle.
It’s actually the way you should watch the finale now.
The title change is important. Coppola and author Mario Puzo never wanted it to be called "Part III." They viewed the first two movies as the complete story. The third was always meant to be an epilogue—a coda. By watching Coda, you get a much clearer sense of Michael's spiritual exhaustion. He doesn't want power anymore; he wants redemption. But in this universe, redemption usually comes too late and costs too much.
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The Real-World Impact of the Cast
We can't talk about these movies without mentioning the casting drama. Paramount didn't want Brando. They thought he was "box office poison" and too difficult to work with. They didn't want Pacino either—they wanted Robert Redford or Ryan O'Neal. Can you imagine? A blonde, blue-eyed Michael Corleone would have changed the entire DNA of the film.
Coppola fought for his vision. He even faked screen tests to get what he wanted. That’s the kind of grit that makes these movies feel so lived-in. The extras in the wedding scenes weren't just actors; many were actual Italian-Americans from the neighborhood, eating real food and drinking real wine. It smells like authenticity because it was.
Breaking Down the Timeline
To keep your head straight, here is the basic flow of the narrative years.
- 1901–1923: Young Vito escapes Sicily, grows up in New York, and becomes a "Man of Honor" (Shown in Part II flashbacks).
- 1945–1955: The events of the first film. The transition of power from Vito to Michael.
- 1958–1959: Michael moves the family to Nevada, deals with Hyman Roth, and testifies before the Senate (The "modern" part of Part II).
- 1979–1980: Michael tries to buy his way into the Vatican’s good graces and finds a successor in his nephew, Vincent (The events of Part III or Coda).
What Most People Get Wrong About Michael Corleone
There is this massive misconception that Michael is the "cool" hero. He’s not. He’s a tragic figure.
By the time you get through the godfather movies in order, you realize Michael is a failure. He won the war against the other five families, but he lost his soul. He lost his wife, Kay. He killed his own brother, Fredo. He ended up alone in a chair in a dusty garden.
The movies aren't a celebration of the Mafia. They are a critique of the American Dream gone sour. Vito used crime to protect his family. Michael used his family to protect his crime empire. It’s a subtle distinction, but it’s the reason why the movies still matter fifty years later.
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A Note on the "Lost" Scenes
If you hunt down the Godfather Trilogy on 4K or Blu-ray, look for the additional footage. There’s a scene where Michael finds his father’s old bodyguard, Fabrizio, in America and blows him up. It explains Michael’s ruthlessness much better than the theatrical cut.
Also, keep an eye out for the performance of John Cazale (Fredo). He’s the only actor to appear in five films, and all five were nominated for Best Picture. He’s the emotional heart of the saga, and his performance in Part II is what makes the ending so devastating.
How to Take Your Next Watch to the Next Level
If you’re planning a marathon, don’t try to do all nine-plus hours in one day. You’ll get "Godfather fatigue." Instead, try this:
- Watch the 1972 original on a Friday night. Pay attention to the lighting; cinematographer Gordon Willis purposefully kept it dark to represent the "shady" nature of the business.
- Watch Part II on Saturday afternoon. Take a break between the Vito scenes and the Michael scenes to really think about how their lives mirror each other.
- Finish with The Godfather, Coda on Sunday. Skip the original theatrical version of the third film unless you’re a completionist.
For the best experience, watch the 4K restorations released for the 50th anniversary. The colors are corrected to look exactly like the original film grain intended, which makes the Sicily sequences look breathtaking rather than just "old."
Finally, if you want to dive deeper into the "why" behind the scenes, look up the book The Godfather Notebook by Coppola. It contains all his original notes and scribbles on the Puzo novel. It’s a masterclass in how to turn a pulp book into high art.