This is one of the best films ever made, and it's flashback structure, intercut with the story set in the present, makes is a more narratively complex, and ambitious, film than the first Godfather. Somehow, the Godfather trilogy has entered the mythology of cinema, and modern history. Perhaps it is because the Corleone family symbolizes the modern capitalist system in America, and how one family rises to the top through vicious means. Most importantly, the Godfather movies question the American dream, and asks whether in the end, is it worth it to obtain the heavens, only to have to end up in Hell?