Star Wars / The Godfather.

Lucas and Coppola's respective materpieces, I have noticed, mirror each other in a number of ways.

***GF SPOILERS from here on out!***

The first and most obvious way is that the stories of Michael and Anakin greatly mirror eachother. Both GF1 and RotS are about how a good man falls to the dark side. But there are more subtle similairities.

Michael's story not only resmbles Anakin's, but also Luke's, in a way. Luke is also tempted to join the dark side, with the big difference being that in the end he doesn't. However, his story mirrors Michael in that his temptation to the dark side comes from his father, an evilman who wants his son to become just like him. Hell, both Darth Vader and Don Corleone are noted for their trademark voices and strange "facial" features.

Also, Lucas has stated that a number of scenes from the SW saga are inspired by GF. To go back to the similaries between Anakni and Michael's stories, the classic baptism scene intercut with the killing of the five families is copied in RotS, with Anakin killing the Separatist leaders intercut with the Senate meeting and Obi-Wan and Yoda finding hte younglings. Both are the penultimate scenes for the characters' fall to the dark side.

Other scenes include the death of Jabba, which Lucas, I believe, has stated to be a reference to Luca Brasi's death at the beginning of The Godfather. Also, the deleted scene from ANH that was added back into the Special Edition, of Han debating with Jabba, was inspired by the scene in The Godfather Part II where Vito debates his payment with Fanucci(Just before killing him).

Anyone else ever noticed these things? Or possibly any more similarities and references?

Slimy!