The Godfather

The Godfather is an Academy Award-winning 1972 crime film based on the novel of the same name by Mario Puzo and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, with screenplay by Puzo and Coppola. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton and James Caan. The story spans ten years from 1945 to 1955 and chronicles the Corleone crime family.

The Godfather has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In addition, it is ranked as the second greatest film in American cinematic history, behind Citizen Kane, on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list by the American Film Institute. It is also the top movie on Internet Movie Database's Top 250 list, as well as #1 on Metacritic's top 100 list and in the top 10 on Rotten Tomatoes' all-time best list.

Two sequels followed The Godfather, The Godfather Part II in 1974 and The Godfather Part III in 1990.


Plot

At the wedding reception of Don Vito Corleone's daughter Connie and Carlo Rizzi in the late summer of 1945, Vito, the head of the Corleone Mafia family – who is known to his friends and associates as Godfather – and Tom Hagen, the Corleone family lawyer and consigliere (counselor), are hearing requests for favors from friends and associates, because "no Sicilian can refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day". Meanwhile, the Don's youngest son Michael, who has returned from World War II service as a decorated war hero, tells his girlfriend Kay Adams anecdotes about his father's criminal life, reassuring her that he is not like his family.

Among the guests at the celebration is the famous singer Johnny Fontane, Corleone's godson, who has come from Hollywood to petition for help in landing a movie role that will revitalize his flagging career. Jack Woltz, the head of the studio, will not give Fontane the part, but Don Corleone explains to Johnny: "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." Hagen is dispatched to California to fix the problem, but Woltz angrily tells him that he will never cast Fontane in the role, for which he is perfect, because Fontane seduced and "ruined" a starlet that Woltz favored. The next morning, Woltz wakes up to find the bloody severed head of his prize stud horse in the bed with him. Woltz gives in.

Upon Hagen's return, the family meets with Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo, who is being backed by the rival Tattaglia family. He asks Don Corleone for financing and political and legal protection for the importation and distribution of heroin, but despite the huge amount of money to be made, Corleone refuses, explaining that his political influence would be jeopardized by a move into the narcotics trade. The Don's oldest son, hotheaded Sonny, who had earlier expressed to the Don his support of the family entering into the narcotics trade, breaks rank during the meeting and questions Sollozzo's assurances as to the Corleone Family's investment being guaranteed by the Tattaglia Family. His father, angry at Sonny's dissension in front of a non-family member, privately rebukes him later. Don Corleone then dispatches his top button man (hit man), Luca Brasi, to infiltrate Sollozzo's organization and report back with information.



WATCH NOW