Netflix has a new true crime documentary that follows the lives and careers of the real mobsters who influenced the Francis Ford Coppola movie The Godfather. Netflix is the home to some of the best true crime documentaries on any streaming service. The streamer has a lot of stories about deaths in small towns, horrific murders that tear apart communities, and several looks at more high-profile criminal topics, including stories detailing the crimes of names like O.J. Simpson, Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menendez Brothers, and Sean Combs. There is also a documentary that just hit Netflix that focuses on the exploits of America’s powerful mob families.
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American Godfathers: The Five Families has been an instant success since hitting Netflix. It jumped to the sixth spot in the Top 10 shows in the United States in its first week since being added to the streaming service.
What Is American Godfathers: The Five Families on Netflix About?
American Godfathers: The Five Families is a three-episode documentary miniseries that explores the story of the infamous Mafia families in New York City who ran organized crime across the United States for more than half a century. This is not a Netflix original, and it was initially released in the United States on August 11, 2024, on the History Channel. The series is narrated by Michael Imperioli, who enjoyed his breakout acting performance as Christopher Moltisanti on the mafia-based HBO series The Sopranos.
The documentary series is six hours long and breaks down the inception, rise, and fall of the NYC Mafia families. It is based on The New York Times best-selling book Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires, by Selwyn Raab. It shows how the Mafia started in Sicily and then moved to the United States, where the organization ran bootlegging, drug trafficking, and gambling in America.
The five families included the Maranzano, Profaci, Mangano, Luciano, and Gagliano families. Each had a demarcated territory and leadership level, as well as one overarching governing entity. They rose in 1931 and held power until it began to falter in 1963, when Joseph Valachi publicly disclosed their existence at the Valachi hearings. In the 1970s and 1980s, the RICO Act was used against the Mafia and organized crime families, and this miniseries breaks down all the stories leading to those moments.
For fans of The Godfather, it was based squarely on these families. Mario Puzo, who wrote the novel the movie was based on, researched the families and used what he found in his story. Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is believed to be based on Frank Costello, both for their ages and their area of business (gambling). Vito was shot and survived, and that is also based on a Genovese attack on Costello. Both Costello and Corleone retired after the assassination attempt. Anyone who loved that classic Oscar-winning mobster movie should love to see the true story now that it has arrived on Netflix.
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