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Watch 1 and 2, But under no circumstances watch 3, jut pretend it was never made

It wasn't supposed to be – Coppola made it because Paramount said either he could make it, or they could give it to someone else, but they were going ahead with a trilogy.

Coppola and Puzo wanted it to be its own film, titled "The Death of Michael Corleone," and believed (rightly) that a duology of Godfather films based on the original novel was the right decision.

When you get around to it, for the third part, watch The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Its a recut of the third part that improves on the pacing of the original cut.

Its a fantastic trilogy. If you become a super-fan, there's also a complete chronological cut that is ~10hrs. :)

That will be a fascinating experience: we've had decades of film and TV made either me-too or as a riposte to the films - and The Sopranos was the latter - so it will probably land very differently for you to people who saw it before Casino, Goodfellas, Sopranos, etc.