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The Godfather poster

Movies that feel likeThe Godfather (1972)

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

If you loved The Godfather, the closest films we have are Léon: The Professional (1994), The Outfit (1973) and The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). All three share The Godfather's gritty and relentless feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Charley Varrick (1973).

🍅 97% Rotten Tomatoes★ 9.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Francis Ford Coppolacontemplativegrittymelancholyrelentlessromantic
6 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Criterion Channel

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If The Godfather hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: The Godfather Part II (1974) · The Godfather Part III (1990)

Léon: The Professional poster
Léon: The Professional
1994 · dir. Luc Besson
🍅 76%★ 8.5crime · drama · action

Violence as profession, tenderness as liability

The difference: An intimate two-hander, not a dynasty

Léon, the top hit man in New York, has earned a rep as an effective "cleaner". But when his next-door neighbors are wiped out by a loose-cannon DEA agent, he becomes the unwilling custodian of 12-year-old Mathilda. Before long, Mathilda's thoughts turn to revenge, and she considers following in Léon's footsteps.

The Outfit poster
The Outfit
1973 · dir. John Flynn
🍅 86%★ 7crime · drama

The mob treated as a business that settles its accounts

The difference: A tight little B-picture — no scale, no grandeur

A two-bit criminal takes on the Mafia to avenge his brother's death. Earl Macklin is a small time criminal who is released from prison after an unsuccessful bank robbery only to discover that a pair of gunmen killed his brother.

The Outlaw Josey Wales poster
The Outlaw Josey Wales
1976 · dir. Clint Eastwood
🍅 91%★ 7.8western

A man remade by loss, gathering a reluctant new family

The difference: A western drifter's tale — frontier code, not family empire

After avenging his family's brutal murder, Wales is pursued by a pack of soldiers. He prefers to travel alone, but ragtag outcasts are drawn to him - and Wales can't bring himself to leave them unprotected.

Cool Hand Luke poster
Cool Hand Luke
1967 · dir. Stuart Rosenberg
🍅 100%★ 8drama · crime

Institutional power ground against one man's unbreakable will

The difference: A prison parable — no dynasty, no succession, just defiance

When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.

Bleeder poster
Bleeder
1999 · dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
★ 6.8drama · crime

Contemplative and gritty in the same breath

The difference: Easier on the romance than The Godfather

Two stories for the price of one: a video store clerk tries to get acquainted with a waitress; a man beats his pregnant wife, unaware that her brother is a violent racist.

Scarface poster
Scarface
1983 · dir. Brian De Palma
🍅 77%★ 8.3action · crime · dramaNetflix

An immigrant clawing to the top of American crime

The difference: Operatic excess versus Corleone restraint

After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fueled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.

Elevator to the Gallows poster
Elevator to the Gallows
1958 · dir. Louis Malle
🍅 93%★ 7.9crime · drama · thrillerMax

The same mix in both: melancholy, then romance

The difference: Takes it somewhere less relentless than The Godfather does

A self-assured businessman murders his employer, husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

Once Upon a Time in the West poster
Once Upon a Time in the West
1968 · dir. Sergio Leone
🍅 96%★ 8.5drama · western

Leone's operatic patience — power changing hands in blood

The difference: A western; the family is replaced by the frontier

As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new life.

Charley Varrick poster
Charley Varrick
1973 · dir. Don Siegel
🍅 82%★ 7.5crime · thriller · drama

One thread runs through both: mafia

The difference: Leans harder into thriller than The Godfather does

Charley Varrick robs a bank in a small town with his friends, but instead of obtaining a small amount of money, they discover they stole a very large amount of money belonging to the mob. Charley must now come up with a plan to not only evade the police but the mob as well.

Lady Snowblood poster
Lady Snowblood
1973 · dir. Toshiya Fujita
🍅 100%★ 7.6action · crime · dramaMax

Both lean on relentlessness more than on drama

The difference: Sits closer to action than The Godfather does

A strikingly beautiful young woman is trained from birth to be a deadly instrument of revenge against the swindlers who destroyed her family.

Once Upon a Time in America poster
Once Upon a Time in America
1984 · dir. Sergio Leone
🍅 86%★ 8.3drama · crime

A lifetime in organized crime told as tragic memory

The difference: Sprawling and elegiac — regret outweighs power

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

Mean Streets poster
Mean Streets
1973 · dir. Martin Scorsese
🍅 92%★ 7.1drama · crime

Guilt and loyalty pulling in opposite directions

The difference: Loose and street-level — raw sketch, not a monument

A small-time hood must choose from among love, friendship and the chance to rise within the mob.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Godfather’s defining feeling.