Gangster film Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" was released. The epic story of the Corleone family, its generational transition from post-prohibition to post-war, its fratricidal intrigues, and its tapestry of mid-century America's criminal underworld became a huge critical and commercial success. It accounted for nearly 10% of gross proceeds for all films for the entire year. It won the Oscar for Best Picture, as well as the award for Best Actor for Marlon Brando and is widely considered one of the greatest American films of all time. Two years later, "The Godfather Part II" became the fifth-highest-grossing film of the year and garnered
American Gangster (film) with its lead performers firing on all cylinders." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean score out of 100 to reviews from film critics, the film has a score of 76 based on 38 reviews. Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film a perfect four star rating and opined, "This is an engrossing story, told smoothly and well." Ebert also praised Crowe's performance, saying that his contribution to the storytelling was "enormous". Paul Byrnes of "The Sydney Morning Herald" felt that "American Gangster" was "one of the most intelligent gangster films in years" and expressed that the film