Movies and Metaphors

I watched The Godfather today and, as I'm wont to do after watching a movie, I read its Wikipedia page afterwords. This is because film production interests me and Wikipedia often includes interesting notes on the making of films, especially films as renowned as The Godfather. In reading the entry I saw an something I thought peculiar. Apparently F.F. Coppola was not the initial choice for director, nor was he even particularly interested in making the film himself. Then he changed his mind. He did so when it struck him that he could make the film as a metaphor for capitalism. He liked this idea so much that he completely reversed himself and took up the project with vigor.

Now, at the risk of revealing the depths of my own ignorance, I don't see it. I don't see how The Godfather could be a metaphor for capitalism. Granted I'm not an economist, but I consider myself well read on the subject, much more so than the average person in fact as I routinely read both books and articles on economics for my own enrichment. And as I said I just watched the movie today so it is not as if the plot is not fresh in my mind. Despite this I just don't see the connection between a film about a powerful family of La Cosa Nostra and an economic system based on voluntary exchange, free markets, and private ownership of the means of production.

Perhaps somebody who is more attuned to such things could lay this out for me.