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You can't just throw all films that happen to have gangsters in them together as the same, any more than you can say all films that take place in space are the same (there's a world of difference between Plan 9 From Outer Space, Star Wars and Day the Earth Stood Still). Yes, The Godfather films do have the mafia in them. But the story at the core is about how power corrupts, about how it pushes away the people closest to you and leads to isolation and misery. Coppola and Puzo went with the mafia because they were both being Italian Americans and knew the sense of family that brought with it. But you could apply the same themes to a film about politicians, super heroes or any number of groups who wind up in power. And in fact those same themes have been many times.
Nor do you need to be a "gangster" to relate to the characters in the film.
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