Coppola Film Festival at Denver Mayan Theatre

"Leave the gun and take the canoli" to the Landmark Mayan Theatre in Denver for a screening of "The Godfather" at the Coppola Film Festival. The Mayan Theater continues its stellar run of classic film festivals in July with Francis Ford Coppola's masterpieces.

The festival kicks off with Coppola's epoch of gangster films with "The Godfather" on July 6. Everybody has a Brando impersonation as Vito Corleone, the Don of the Corleone Family. Yet, seeing Brando in the flesh, on the big screen will cleanse nearly 40 years of half-assed one-liners infecting this film's place in the cinematic lexicon. Not to mention Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire and Abe Vigoda in prime form.

Before Coppola continued the Corleone Family odyssey, he managed to squeeze in another masterpiece, "The Conversation." Aside from killer performances from Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, and a still-edgy Harrison Ford, the film boasts a post-production symphony from Walter Murch in editing and sound design. "The Conversation" set the bar for spy-thrillers and is screening at the Mayan, July 13.

With July, 20, it's back to the family business with "The Godfather II." The Mayan knows all too well that while this is the hump in Coppola's trilogy, film fans should jump off at this point before experiencing the train wreck of the "The Godfather III."

Instead of subjecting us to the chaos of a family saga gone astray, the Mayan takes into the jungles of chaos in Coppola's "Apocalypse Now." This film sits on the high council of highly influential films that were, for the most part, Independent productions: "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Night of the Living Dead," "Stranger Than Paradise," "Pulp Fiction," and even "Birth of a Nation."

It's the kind of genius mess you get when brilliant filmmakers don't have studio executives nearby to keep productions in check, by lingering pens over check books. It stars yet again, Brando and Duvall, but also a cadre of Hollywood badboys before age, money and Oscar nods went to their heads.

You can also feed the Coppola family fortune by drinking some of his California wines at the Mayan bar, while basking in his cinematic heyday. Check the Landmark Theatres Denver site for showtimes. Originally featured on www.milehighcinema.com.