Originally Posted By: Lenin_and_McCarthy
Is The Godfather exclusively responsible for starting (I know there's lots of romanticized media depictions) all this?


GF romanticized gangster life, but was far from exclusive. Hollywood has been making gangster films since at least the 1930's (Cagney, Bogart, Raft etc).

I think Goodfella's was one of the first to shatter a lot of the myths and public perceptions surrounding the mob.