The Godfather tops new list of all-time greatest movies

IT was an offer film fans couldn’t refuse – the opportunity to vote for the greatest movie of all time.

They chose Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster epic The Godfather, charting the Corleone family’s rise to power in New York.

Next on the list compiled through a poll of 20,000 readers of Empire magazine is George Lucas’s The Empire Strikes Back, followed by Christopher Nolan’s Batman film The Dark Knight, featuring Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance as The Joker.

The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction and Goodfellas also feature in the top ten while the Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone-starring La La Land is at 62 on the 100-strong list, less than six months after it was released. Godfather II comes in 12th and other older hits such as Casablanca, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and Some Like It Hot are also among the alltime favourites.

Empire’s editor-in-chief Terri White said: ‘It’s fantastic to see The Godfather continue to elicit such affection from movie lovers.’

The full Top 10: The Godfather; The Empire Strikes Back; The Dark Knight; The Shawshank Redemption; Pulp Ficition; Goodfellas; Raiders of the Lost Ark; Jaws; Star Wars; and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.