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The Godfather

February 15, 2024

This article is about the 1972 film. For the original novel on which the film is based, see The Godfather (novel). For other uses, see Godfather.

The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film[2] directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte and Diane Keaton. It is the first installment in The Godfather trilogy, chronicling the Corleone family under patriarch Vito Corleone (Brando) from 1945 to 1955. It focuses on the transformation of his youngest son, Michael Corleone (Pacino), from reluctant family outsider to ruthless mafia boss.

The Godfather
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFrancis Ford Coppola
Screenplay by
Based onThe Godfather
by Mario Puzo
Produced byAlbert S. Ruddy
Starring
CinematographyGordon Willis
Edited by
Music byNino Rota
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
  • March 14, 1972 (1972-03-14) (Loew's State Theatre)
  • March 24, 1972 (1972-03-24) (United States)
Running time
175 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$6–7.2 million[N 1]
Box office$250–291 million[N 2]

Paramount Pictures obtained the rights to the novel for $80,000, before it gained popularity.[3][4] Studio executives had trouble finding a director; the first few candidates turned down the position before Coppola signed on to direct the film but disagreement followed over casting several characters, in particular, Vito (Marlon Brando) and Michael (Al Pacino). Filming took place primarily on location around New York City and in Sicily, and was completed ahead of schedule. The musical score was composed principally by Nino Rota, with additional pieces by Carmine Coppola.

The Godfather premiered at the Loew's State Theatre on March 14, 1972, and was widely released in the United States on March 24, 1972. It was the highest-grossing film of 1972, and was for a time the highest-grossing film ever made, earning between $250 and $291 million at the box office. The film was acclaimed by critics and audiences, who praised its performances—particularly those of Brando and Pacino—direction, screenplay, writing, story, cinematography, editing, score, and portrayal of the mafia. The Godfather launched the successful careers of Coppola, Pacino, and other relative newcomers in the cast and crew. At the 45th Academy Awards, the film won Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay (for Puzo and Coppola). In addition, the seven other Oscar nominations included Pacino, Caan, and Duvall all for Best Supporting Actor, and Coppola for Best Director.

The Godfather is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made, as well as a landmark of the gangster genre.[5] It was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1990, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and is ranked the second-greatest film in American cinema (behind Citizen Kane) by the American Film Institute. It was followed by sequels The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990). Pauline Kael wrote that "If ever there was a great example of how the best popular movies come out of a merger of commerce and art, The Godfather is it."[6]

Plot edit

In 1945, the New York City Corleone family don, Vito Corleone, listens to requests during his daughter Connie's wedding to Carlo. Vito's youngest son Michael, a Marine who has thus far stayed out of the family business, introduces his girlfriend, Kay Adams, to his family at the reception. Johnny Fontane, a popular singer and Vito's godson, seeks Vito's help in securing a movie role. Vito sends his consigliere, Tom Hagen, to persuade studio president Jack Woltz to offer Johnny the part. Woltz refuses Hagen's request at first, but soon complies after finding the severed head of his prized stud horse in his bed.

As Christmas approaches, drug baron Sollozzo asks Vito to invest in his narcotics business and for police protection. Vito declines, citing that involvement in narcotics would alienate his political connections. Suspicious of Sollozzo's partnership with the Tattaglia crime family, Vito sends his enforcer Luca Brasi to the Tattaglias on an espionage mission. Brasi is garroted to death during the initial meeting. Later, enforcers gun down Vito and coerce Hagen into a meeting. With Vito's first-born Sonny now in command, Sollozzo pressures Hagen to persuade Sonny to accept the narcotics deal. Vito survives the shooting and is visited in the hospital by Michael, who finds him unprotected after NYPD officers on Sollozzo's payroll cleared out Vito's guards. Michael thwarts the attempt on his father's life but is beaten by corrupt police captain Mark McCluskey. After the attempted hit at the hospital, Sonny retaliates with a hit on Bruno Tattaglia. Sollozzo and McCluskey request to meet with Michael and settle the dispute. Michael feigns interest and agrees to meet, but hatches a plan with Sonny and Corleone capo Clemenza to kill them and go into hiding. Michael meets Sollozzo and McCluskey at a Bronx restaurant; after retrieving a handgun planted in the bathroom by Clemenza, he shoots both men dead.

Despite a clampdown by the authorities for the killing of a police captain, the Five Families erupt in open warfare. Michael takes refuge in Sicily and Fredo, Vito's second son, is sheltered by Moe Greene in Las Vegas. Sonny publicly attacks and threatens Carlo for physically abusing Connie. When he abuses her again, Sonny speeds to their home but is ambushed and murdered by gangsters at a highway toll booth. In Sicily, Michael meets and marries a local woman, Apollonia, but she is killed shortly thereafter by a car bomb intended for him.

Devastated by Sonny's death and tired of war, Vito sets a meeting with the Five Families. He assures them that he will withdraw his opposition to their narcotics business and forgo avenging Sonny's murder. His safety guaranteed, Michael returns home to enter the family business and marry Kay. Kay gives birth to two children in the early 1950s. With his father nearing the end of his life and Fredo not suited to lead, Michael assumes the position of head of the Corleone family. Vito reveals to Michael that it was Don Barzini who ordered the hit on Sonny and warns him that Barzini would try to kill him at a meeting organized by a traitorous Corleone capo. With Vito's support, Michael relegates Hagen to managing operations in Las Vegas as he is not a "wartime consigliere". Michael travels to Las Vegas to buy out Greene's stake in the family's casinos and is dismayed to see that Fredo is more loyal to Greene than to his own family.

In 1955, Vito dies of a heart attack while playing with Michael's son Anthony. At Vito's funeral, Tessio asks Michael to meet with Barzini, signaling his betrayal. The meeting is set for the same day as the baptism of Connie's baby. While Michael stands at the altar as the child's godfather, Corleone hitmen murder the dons of the Five Families, plus Greene, and Tessio is executed for his treachery. Michael extracts Carlo's confession to playing a part in Sonny's murder. He assures Carlo that he is being exiled, not murdered, before Clemenza strangles Carlo. Connie confronts Michael about his involvement in Carlo's death while Kay is in the room. Kay asks Michael if she is telling the truth and is relieved when he denies carrying out the death. As she leaves, capos enter the office and pay reverence to Michael as "Don Corleone".

Cast edit

See also: List of The Godfather characters
 
Brando (right) and Pacino as Don Vito and Michael Corleone, respectively

Other actors playing smaller roles in the Sicilian sequence are Simonetta Stefanelli as Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone, Angelo Infanti as Fabrizio, Corrado Gaipa as Don Tommasino, Franco Citti as Calò and Saro Urzì as Vitelli.[7][8]

Production edit

Development edit

The film is based on Mario Puzo's The Godfather, which remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 67 weeks and sold over nine million copies in two years.[9][10][11] Published in 1969, it became the best selling published work in history for several years.[12] Burt Lancaster and Danny Thomas both expressed interest adapting the book.[13] Paramount Pictures originally found out about Puzo's novel in 1967 when a literary scout for the company contacted then Paramount Vice President of Production Peter Bart about Puzo's unfinished sixty-page manuscript titled Mafia.[10] Bart believed the work was "much beyond a Mafia story" and offered Puzo a $12,500 option for the work, with an option for $80,000 if the finished work were to be made into a film.[10][14] Despite Puzo's agent telling him to turn down the offer, Puzo was desperate for money and accepted the deal.[10][14] Paramount's Robert Evans relates that, when they met in early 1968, he offered Puzo the deal after the author confided in him that he urgently needed $10,000 to pay off gambling debts.[15]

In March 1967, Paramount announced that they backed Puzo's upcoming work in the hopes of making a film.[10] In 1969, Paramount confirmed their intentions to make a film out of the novel for the price of $80,000,[N 3][14][16][17][18] with aims to have the film released on Christmas Day in 1971.[19] On March 23, 1970, Albert S. Ruddy was officially announced as the film's producer, in part because studio executives were impressed with his interview and because he was known for bringing his films in under budget.[20][21][22]

Direction edit

 
Francis Ford Coppola (pictured in 2011) was selected as director. Paramount wanted the picture to be directed by an Italian American to make the film "ethnic to the core".

Evans wanted the picture to be directed by an Italian American to make the film "ethnic to the core".[23][24] Paramount's latest mafia movie, The Brotherhood, had done very poorly at the box office;[11][25] Evans believed that the reason for its failure was its almost complete lack of cast members or creative personnel of Italian descent (the director Martin Ritt and star Kirk Douglas were not Italian).[15] Sergio Leone was Paramount's first choice to direct the film.[26][27] Leone turned down the option, in order to work on his own gangster film Once Upon a Time in America.[26][27] Peter Bogdanovich was then approached but he also declined the offer because he was not interested in the mafia.[28][29][30] In addition, Peter Yates, Richard Brooks, Arthur Penn, Franklin J. Schaffner, Costa-Gavras, and Otto Preminger were all offered the position and declined.[31][32][33] Evans' chief assistant Peter Bart suggested Francis Ford Coppola, as a director of Italian ancestry who would work for a low sum and budget after the poor reception of his latest film The Rain People.[34][23] Coppola initially turned down the job because he found Puzo's novel sleazy and sensationalist, describing it as "pretty cheap stuff".[15][35] At the time Coppola's studio, American Zoetrope,[36] owed over $400,000 to Warner Bros. for budget overruns with the film THX 1138 and when coupled with his poor financial standing, along with advice from friends and family, Coppola reversed his initial decision and took the job.[32][37][38] Coppola was officially announced as director of the film on September 28, 1970.[39] Coppola agreed to receive $125,000 and six percent of the gross rentals.[40][41] Coppola later found a deeper theme for the material and decided that the film should not be about organized crime but a family chronicle, a metaphor for capitalism in America.[23]

Coppola and Paramount edit

Before The Godfather was in production, Paramount had been going through an unsuccessful period.[11] In addition to the failure of The Brotherhood, other recent films that were produced or co-produced by Paramount had greatly exceeded their budgets: Darling Lili,[21] Paint Your Wagon, and Waterloo.[11][25] The budget for the film was originally $2.5 million but as the book grew in popularity Coppola argued for and ultimately received a larger budget.[N 1][31][42][44] Paramount executives wanted the movie to be set in contemporary Kansas City and shot in the studio backlot in order to cut down on costs.[31][21][42] Coppola objected and wanted to set the movie in the same time period as the novel, the 1940s and 1950s;[21][31][38][39] Coppola's reasons included: Michael Corleone's Marine Corps stint, the emergence of corporate America, and America in the years after World War II.[39] The novel was becoming increasingly successful and so Coppola's wishes were eventually granted.[21][42] The studio heads subsequently let Coppola film on location in New York City and Sicily.[50]

Gulf+Western executive Charles Bluhdorn was frustrated with Coppola over the number of screen tests he had performed without finding a person to play the various roles.[45] Production quickly fell behind because of Coppola's indecisiveness and conflicts with Paramount, which led to costs being around $40,000 per day.[45] With costs rising, Paramount had then-Vice President Jack Ballard keep a close eye on production expenses.[51] While filming, Coppola stated that he felt he could be fired at any point as he knew Paramount executives were not happy with many of the decisions he had made.[31] Coppola was aware that Evans had asked Elia Kazan to take over directing the film because he feared that Coppola was too inexperienced to cope with the increased size of the production.[52] Coppola was also convinced that the film editor, Aram Avakian, and the assistant director, Steve Kestner, were conspiring to get him fired. Avakian complained to Evans that he could not edit the scenes correctly because Coppola was not shooting enough footage. Evans was satisfied with the footage being sent to the West Coast and authorized Coppola to fire them both. Coppola later explained: "Like the godfather, I fired people as a preemptory strike. The people who were angling the most to have me fired, I had fired."[53] Brando threatened to quit if Coppola was fired.[31][51]

Paramount wanted The Godfather to appeal to a wide audience and threatened Coppola with a "violence coach" to make the film more exciting. Coppola added a few more violent scenes to keep the studio happy. The scene in which Connie smashes crockery after finding out Carlo has been cheating was added for this reason.[38]

Writing edit

On April 14, 1970, it was revealed that Puzo was hired by Paramount for $100,000, along with a percentage of the film's profits, to work on the screenplay for the film.[22][54][55] Working from the book, Coppola wanted to have the themes of culture, character, power, and family at the forefront of the film, whereas Puzo wanted to retain aspects from his novel[56] and his initial draft of 150 pages was finished on August 10, 1970.[54][55] After Coppola was hired as director, both Puzo and Coppola worked on the screenplay, but separately.[57] Puzo worked on his draft in Los Angeles, while Coppola wrote his version in San Francisco.[57] Coppola created a book where he tore pages out of Puzo's book and pasted them into his book.[58][57] There, he made notes about each of the book's fifty scenes, which related to major themes prevalent in the scene, whether the scene should be included in the film, along with ideas and concepts that could be used when filming to make the film true to Italian culture.[57][51] The two remained in contact while they wrote their respective screenplays and made decisions on what to include and what to remove for the final version.[57] A second draft was completed on March 1, 1971, and was 173 pages long.[54][59] The final screenplay was finished on March 29, 1971,[55] and wound up being 163 pages long,[54][57] 40 pages over what Paramount had asked for.[60] When filming, Coppola referred to the notebook he had created over the final draft of the screenplay.[57][51] Screenwriter Robert Towne did uncredited work on the script, particularly on the Pacino-Brando garden scene.[61] Despite finishing the third draft, some scenes in the film were still not written yet and were written during production.[62]

The Italian-American Civil Rights League, led by mobster Joseph Colombo, maintained that the film emphasized stereotypes about Italian-Americans, and wanted all uses of the words "mafia" and "Cosa Nostra" to be removed from the script.[63][19][64][65][66] The league also requested that all the money earned from the premiere be donated to the league's fund to build a new hospital.[65][66] Coppola claimed that Puzo's screenplay only contained two instances of the word "mafia" being used, while "Cosa Nostra" was not used at all.[65][66] They were removed and replaced with other terms, without compromising the story.[65][66] The league eventually gave its support for the script.[65][66] Earlier, the windows of producer Albert S. Ruddy's car had been shot out with a note left on the dashboard which essentially said, "shut down the movie—or else."[23]

Casting edit

 
Al Pacino was chosen to portray Michael Corleone.
 
James Caan portrayed Sonny Corleone.

Puzo was first to show interest in having Marlon Brando portray Don Vito Corleone by sending a letter to Brando in which he stated Brando was the "only actor who can play the Godfather".[67] Despite Puzo's wishes, the executives at Paramount were against having Brando,[36] partly because of the poor performance of his recent films and also his short temper.[42][68] Brando was hesitant about getting back into acting, but his secretary Alice Marchak persuaded him to audition.[69] Coppola favored Brando or Laurence Olivier for the role,[70][71] but Olivier's agent refused the role claiming Olivier was sick;[72] however, Olivier went on to star in Sleuth later that year.[71] Evans pushed for Carlo Ponti or Ernest Borgnine to receive the part.[70][73] Bluhdorn proposed Charles Bronson for the role.[73] Others considered were George C. Scott, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn and Orson Welles.[70][74][75] Welles was Paramount's preferred choice for the role.[76]

After months of debate between Coppola and Paramount over Brando, the two finalists for the role were Borgnine and Brando;[77] Paramount president Stanley Jaffe required Brando to perform a screen test.[78][79] Coppola did not want to offend Brando and stated that he needed to test equipment in order to set up the screen test at Brando's California residence.[79][80] For make-up, Brando stuck cotton balls in his cheeks,[77] put shoe polish in his hair to darken it, and rolled his collar.[81] Coppola placed Brando's audition tape in the middle of the videos of the audition tapes as the Paramount executives watched them.[82] The executives were impressed with Brando's efforts and allowed Coppola to cast Brando for the role if Brando accepted a lower salary and put up a bond to ensure he would not cause any delays in production.[77][82][83] Brando earned $1.6 million from a net participation deal.[84]

From the start of production, Coppola wanted Robert Duvall to play the part of Tom Hagen.[19][85][86] After screen testing several other actors, Coppola eventually got his wish and Duvall was awarded the part.[85][86] Al Martino, a then famed singer in nightclubs, was notified of the character Johnny Fontane by a friend who read the novel and felt Martino represented the character of Johnny Fontane. Martino then contacted producer Albert S. Ruddy, who gave him the part. However, Martino was stripped of the part after Coppola became director and then awarded the role to singer Vic Damone. According to Martino, after being stripped of the role, he went to Russell Bufalino, his godfather and a crime boss, who then orchestrated the publication of various news articles that claimed Coppola was unaware of Ruddy giving Martino the part.[23] Damone eventually dropped the role because he did not want to provoke the mob, in addition to being paid too little.[23][87] Ultimately, the part of Johnny Fontane was given to Martino.[23][87] Although, Frank Sinatra threatened Martino to bar him from Las Vegas if he took the role.[88]

Coppola cast Diane Keaton for the role of Kay Adams owing to her reputation for being eccentric.[89] John Cazale was given the part of Fredo Corleone after Coppola saw him perform in an Off Broadway production.[89] Gianni Russo was given the role of Carlo Rizzi after he was asked to perform a screen test in which he acted out the fight between Rizzi and Connie.[90]

Nearing the start of filming on March 29, Michael Corleone had yet to be cast.[91] Paramount executives wanted a popular actor, either Warren Beatty or Robert Redford.[92][77][93] Producer Robert Evans wanted Ryan O'Neal to receive the role, owing in part to his recent success in Love Story.[93][94] Pacino was Coppola's favorite for the role[36] as he could picture him roaming the Sicilian countryside, and wanted an unknown actor who looked like an Italian-American.[38][93][94] However, Paramount executives found Pacino to be too short to play Michael.[19][23] Dustin Hoffman, Martin Sheen, Dean Stockwell, and James Caan also auditioned.[89][33] Keaton read with both Caan and Sheen.[95] Burt Reynolds was offered the role of Michael, but Marlon Brando threatened to quit if Reynolds was hired, so Reynolds turned down the role.[96] Jack Nicholson was also offered the role, but turned it down as he felt that an Italian-American actor should play the role.[97][98] Caan was well received by the Paramount executives and was given the part of Michael initially, while the role of Sonny Corleone was awarded to Carmine Caridi.[23] Coppola still pushed for Pacino to play Michael after the fact and Evans eventually conceded, allowing Pacino to have the role of Michael as long as Caan played Sonny.[99] Evans preferred Caan over Caridi because Caan was seven inches shorter than Caridi, which was much closer to Pacino's height.[23] Despite agreeing to play Michael Corleone, Pacino was contracted to star in MGM's The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, but the two studios agreed on a settlement and Pacino was signed by Paramount three weeks before shooting began.[100]

Robert De Niro originally was given the part of Paulie Gatto.[101][77] A spot in The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight opened up after Al Pacino quit the project in favor of The Godfather, which led De Niro to audition for the role and leave The Godfather after receiving the part.[101][102] De Niro also cast for the role of Sonny Corleone.[103][104][105] After De Niro quit, Johnny Martino was given the role of Gatto.[23][106][107][108][109][110][111][112]

Coppola gave several roles in the film to family members.[23] He gave his sister, Talia Shire, the role of Connie Corleone.[113][114] His daughter Sofia, then an infant, appeared as Michael Francis Rizzi, Connie's and Carlo's newborn son.[23][115] Carmine Coppola, his father, appeared in the film as an extra playing a piano during a scene.[116] Coppola's wife, mother, and two sons all appeared as extras in the picture.[23]

Several smaller roles, like Luca Brasi, were cast after the filming had started.[117]

Filming edit

Before the filming began, the cast received a two-week period for rehearsal, which included a dinner where each actor and actress had to assume character for its duration.[118] Filming was scheduled to begin on March 29, 1971, with the scene between Michael Corleone and Kay Adams as they leave Best & Co. in New York City after shopping for Christmas gifts.[119][120] The weather on March 23 predicted snow flurries, which caused Ruddy to move the filming date forward; snow did not materialize and a snow machine was used.[120] Principal filming in New York continued until July 2, 1971.[121][122] Coppola asked for a three-week break before heading overseas to film in Sicily.[121] Following the crew's departure for Sicily, Paramount announced that the release date would be moved to early 1972.[123]

 
The Don Barzini assassination scene was filmed on the steps of the New York Supreme Court building on Foley Square in Manhattan.[124]

Cinematographer Gordon Willis initially turned down the opportunity to film The Godfather because the production seemed "chaotic" to him.[125][99] After Willis later accepted the offer, he and Coppola agreed to not use any modern filming devices, helicopters, or zoom lenses.[126] Willis and Coppola chose to use a "tableau format" of filming to make it seem as if it was viewed like a painting.[126] He made use of shadows and low light levels throughout the film to showcase psychological developments.[126] Willis and Coppola agreed to interplay light and dark scenes throughout the film.[45] Willis underexposed the film in order to create a "yellow tone".[126] The scenes in Sicily were shot to display the countryside and "display a more romantic land," giving these scenes a "softer, more romantic" feel than the New York scenes.[127]

 
1941 Packard Super Eight featured in The Godfather

One of the film's most shocking moments involved an actual severed horse's head.[38][128] The filming location for this scene is contested, as some sources indicate it was filmed at the Beverly Estate, while others indicate it was filmed at Sands Point Preserve on Long Island.[129][130][131] Coppola received some criticism for the scene, although the head was obtained from a dog-food company from a horse that was to be killed regardless of the film.[132][133][134] On June 22, the scene where Sonny is killed was shot on a runway at Mitchel Field in Uniondale, where three tollbooths were built, along with guard rails, and billboards to set the scene.[135] Sonny's car was a 1941 Lincoln Continental with holes drilled in it to resemble bullet holes.[136][137] The scene took three days to film and cost over $100,000.[138][137]

Coppola's request to film on location was observed; approximately 90 percent was shot in New York City and its surrounding suburbs,[139][140] using over 120 distinct locations.[141] Several scenes were filmed at Filmways in East Harlem.[142] The remaining portions were filmed in California, or on-site in Sicily. The scenes set in Las Vegas were not shot on location because there were insufficient funds.[139][143] Savoca and Forza d'Agrò were the Sicilian towns featured in the film.[144] The opening wedding scene was shot in a Staten Island neighborhood using almost 750 locals as extras.[140][145] The house used as the Corleone household and the wedding location was at 110 Longfellow Avenue in the Todt Hill neighborhood of Staten Island.[146][145][63] The wall around the Corleone compound was made from styrofoam.[145] Scenes set in and around the Corleone olive oil business were filmed on Mott Street.[141][147]

After filming had ended on August 7,[148] post-production efforts were focused on trimming the film to a manageable length.[149] In addition, producers and director were still including and removing different scenes from the end product, along with trimming certain sequences.[150] In September, the first rough cut of the film was viewed.[149] Many of the scenes removed from the film were centered around Sonny, which did not advance the plot.[151] By November, Coppola and Ruddy finished the semi-final cut.[151] Debates over personnel involved with the final editing remained even 25 years after the release of the film.[152] The film was shown to Paramount staff and exhibitors in late December 1971 and January 1972.[153]

Music edit

Main article: The Godfather (soundtrack)

Coppola hired Italian composer Nino Rota to create the underscore for the film, including "Love Theme from The Godfather".[154][155] For the score, Rota was to relate to the situations and characters in the film.[154][155] Rota synthesized new music for the film and took some parts from his 1958 Fortunella film score, in order to create an Italian feel and evoke the tragedy within the film.[156] Paramount executive Evans found the score to be too "highbrow" and did not want to use it; however, it was used after Coppola managed to get Evans to agree.[154][155] Coppola believed that Rota's musical piece gave the film even more of an Italian feel.[155] Coppola's father, Carmine, created some additional music for the film,[157] particularly the music played by the band during the opening wedding scene.[155][156]

Incidental music includes "C'è la luna mezzo mare" and Cherubino's aria, "Non so più cosa son", from Le Nozze di Figaro.[156] There was a soundtrack released for the film in 1972 in vinyl form by Paramount Records, on CD in 1991 by Geffen Records, and digitally by Geffen on August 18, 2005.[158] The album contains over 31 minutes of music that was used in the film, most of which was composed by Rota, along with a song from Coppola and one by Johnny Farrow and Marty Symes.[159][160][161] AllMusic gave the album five out of five, with editor Zach Curd saying it is a "dark, looming, and elegant soundtrack".[159] An editor for Filmtracks believed that Rota was successful in relating the music to the film's core aspects.[161]

Release edit

Theatrical edit

The world premiere for The Godfather took place at Loews's State Theatre in New York City on Tuesday, March 14, 1972, almost three months after the planned release date of Christmas Day in 1971,[162][163][8] with profits from the premiere donated to The Boys Club of New York.[164] Before the film premiered, the film had already made $15 million from advance rentals from over 400 theaters.[42] The following day,[36] the film opened in five theaters in New York (Loew's State I and II, Orpheum, Cine and Tower East).[165][23][8] Next was the Imperial Theatre in Toronto[162] on March 17[166] and then Los Angeles at two theaters on March 22.[167] The Godfather was released on March 24, 1972, throughout the rest of the United States[165][8] reaching 316 theaters five days later.[168]

Home media edit

The television rights were sold for a record $10 million to NBC for one showing over two nights.[169] The theatrical version of The Godfather debuted on American network television on NBC with only minor edits.[170] The first half of the film aired on Saturday, November 16, 1974, and the second half two days later.[171] The television airings attracted a large audience with an average Nielsen rating of 38.2 and audience share of 59% making it the eighth most-watched film on television, with the broadcast of the second half getting the third-best rating for a film on TV behind Airport and Love Story with a rating of 39.4 and 57% share.[171] The broadcast helped generate anticipation for the upcoming sequel.[170] The next year, Coppola created The Godfather Saga expressly for American television in a release that combined The Godfather and The Godfather Part II with unused footage from those two films in a chronological telling that toned down the violent, sexual, and profane material for its NBC debut on November 18, 1977.[172] In 1981, Paramount released the Godfather Epic boxed set, which also told the story of the first two films in chronological order, again with additional scenes, but not redacted for broadcast sensibilities.[172] The Godfather Trilogy was released in 1992, in which the films are fundamentally in chronological order.[173]

The Godfather Family: A Look Inside was a 73-minute documentary released in 1991.[174] Directed by Jeff Warner, the film featured some behind the scenes content from all three films, interviews with the actors, and screen tests.[174] The Godfather DVD Collection was released on October 9, 2001, in a package that contained all three films—each with a commentary track by Coppola—and a bonus disc containing The Godfather Family: A Look Inside.[175] The DVD also held a Corleone family tree, a "Godfather" timeline, and footage of the Academy Award acceptance speeches.[175]

The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration edit

During the film's original theatrical release, the original negatives were worn down due to the reel being printed so much to meet demand.[176][177] In addition, the duplicate negative was lost in Paramount archives.[177] In 2006 Coppola contacted Steven Spielberg—whose studio DreamWorks had recently been bought out by Paramount—about restoring The Godfather.[176][177] Robert A. Harris was hired to oversee the restoration of The Godfather and its two sequels, with the film's cinematographer Willis participating in the restoration.[178][179] Work began in November 2006 by repairing the negatives so they could go through a digital scanner to produce high resolution 4K files. If a negative were damaged and discolored, work was done digitally to restore it to its original look.[176][177] After a year and a half of working on the restoration, the project was complete.[177] Paramount called the finished product The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration and released it to the public on September 23, 2008, on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc.[178][179] Dave Kehr of The New York Times believed the restoration brought back the "golden glow of their original theatrical screenings".[178] As a whole, the restoration of the film was well received by critics and Coppola.[176][177][178][179][180] The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration contains several new special features that play in high definition, (including additional scenes, behind the scenes footage, etc.).[180]

Paramount Pictures restored and remastered The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (a re-edited cut of the third film) for a limited theatrical run and home media release on Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the premiere of The Godfather. The disc editions were released on March 22, 2022.[181]

Reception edit

Box office edit

The Godfather was a blockbuster, breaking many box office records to become the highest grossing film of 1972.[182] The film's opening day gross from five theaters was $57,829 with ticket prices increased from $3 to $3.50.[162] Prices in New York increased further at the weekend to $4, and the number of showings increased from four times a day to seven times a day.[162] The film grossed $61,615 in Toronto for the weekend[162] and $240,780 in New York,[183] for an opening weekend gross of $302,395. The film grossed $454,000 for the week in New York[162] and $115,000 in Toronto[166] for a first week gross of $568,800, which made it number one at the U.S. box office for the week.[184] In its first five days of national release, it grossed $6.8 million, taking its gross up to $7,397,164.[185] A week later its gross had reached $17,291,705[186] with the one week gross of around $10 million being an industry record.[187] It grossed another $8.7 million by April 9 to take its gross to $26,000,815.[188] After 18 weeks at number one in the United States, the film had grossed $101 million, the fastest film to reach that milestone.[189][190] Some news articles at the time proclaimed it was the first film to gross $100 million in North America,[167] but such accounts are erroneous; this record belongs to The Sound of Music, released in 1965.[191] It remained at number one in the US for another five weeks to bring its total to 23 consecutive weeks at number one before being unseated by Butterflies Are Free for one week before becoming number one for another three weeks.[192][193]

The film eventually earned $81.5 million in theatrical rentals in the US and Canada during its initial release,[182][194] increasing its earnings to $85.7 million through a reissue in 1973,[195] and including a limited re-release in 1997,[196] it ultimately earned an equivalent exhibition gross of $135 million, with a production cost of $6.5 million.[165] It displaced Gone with the Wind to claim the record as the top rentals earner,[182] a position it would retain until the release of Jaws in 1975.[167][197] The film repeated its native success overseas, earning in total an unprecedented $142 million in worldwide theatrical rentals, to become the highest net earner.[198] Profits were so high for The Godfather that earnings for Gulf & Western Industries, Inc., which owned Paramount, jumped from 77 cents per share to $3.30 a share for the year, according to a Los Angeles Times article, dated December 13, 1972.[167] Re-released eight more times since 1997, it has grossed between $250 million and $291 million in worldwide box office receipts,[N 2] and adjusted for ticket price inflation in North America, ranks among the top 25 highest-grossing films.[199]

Critical response edit

The Godfather has received overwhelming critical acclaim and is seen as one of the greatest and most influential films of all time, particularly of the gangster genre.[200] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 151 reviews, with an average rating of 9.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "One of Hollywood's greatest critical and commercial successes, The Godfather gets everything right; not only did the movie transcend expectations, it established new benchmarks for American cinema."[201] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, has assigned the film a score of 100 out of 100 based on 16 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[202]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times praised Coppola's efforts to follow the storyline of the novel, the choice to set the film in the same time as the novel, and the film's ability to "absorb" the viewer over its three-hour run time.[203] Ebert named The Godfather "The best film of 1972".[204] The Chicago Tribune's Gene Siskel gave the film four out of four, commenting that it was "very good".[205]

The Village Voice's Andrew Sarris believed Brando portrayed Vito Corleone well and that his character dominated each scene it appeared in, but felt Puzo and Coppola had the character of Michael Corleone too focused on revenge.[206] In addition, Sarris stated that Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, and James Caan were good in their respective roles.[206] Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote "If ever there was a great example of how the best popular movies come out of a merger of commerce and art, "The Godfather" is it."[207]

Desson Howe of The Washington Post called the film a "jewel" and wrote that Coppola deserves most of the credit for the film.[208] Writing for The New York Times, Vincent Canby felt that Coppola had created one of the "most brutal and moving chronicles of American life" and went on to say that it "transcends its immediate milieu and genre".[209][210] Director Stanley Kubrick thought the film had the best cast ever and could be the best movie ever made.[211] Director Steven Spielberg listed it among his favorite films.[212] Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote negatively of the film in a contemporary review, claiming that Pacino "rattles around in a part too demanding for him," while also criticizing Brando's make-up and Rota's score.[213]

Previous mafia films had looked at the gangs from the perspective of an outraged outsider.[214] In contrast, The Godfather presents the gangster's perspective of the Mafia as a response to corrupt society.[214] Although the Corleone family is presented as immensely rich and powerful, no scenes depict prostitution, gambling, loan sharking or other forms of racketeering.[215] George De Stefano argues that the setting of a criminal counterculture allows for unapologetic gender stereotyping (such as when Vito tells a weepy Johnny Fontane to "act like a man") and is an important part of the film's appeal.[216]

Remarking on the fortieth anniversary of the film's release, film critic John Podhoretz praised The Godfather as "arguably the great American work of popular art" and "the summa of all great moviemaking before it".[217] Two years before, Roger Ebert had written in his journal that it "comes closest to being a film everyone agrees ... is unquestionably great".[218]

Accolades edit

The Godfather was nominated for seven awards at the 30th Golden Globe Awards: Best Picture – Drama, James Caan for Best Supporting Actor, Al Pacino and Marlon Brando for Best Actor – Drama, Best Score, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.[219] When the winners were announced on January 28, 1973, the film had won the categories for: Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor – Drama (Brando), Best Original Score, and Best Picture – Drama.[220][221]

Rota's score was also nominated for Grammy Award for Best Original Score for a Motion Picture or TV Special at the 15th Grammy Awards.[222][223] Rota was announced the winner of the category on March 3 at the Grammys' ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee.[222][223]

When the nominations for the 45th Academy Awards were revealed on February 12, 1973, The Godfather was nominated for eleven awards.[224][225] The nominations were for: Best Picture, Best Costume Design, Marlon Brando for Best Actor, Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola for Best Adapted Screenplay, Pacino, Caan, and Robert Duvall for Best Supporting Actor, Best Film Editing, Nino Rota for Best Original Score, Coppola for Best Director, and Best Sound.[224][225][226] Upon further review of Rota's love theme from The Godfather, the academy found that Rota had used a similar score in Eduardo De Filippo's 1958 comedy Fortunella.[227][228][229] This led to re-balloting, where members of the music branch chose from six films: The Godfather and the five films that had been on the shortlist for best original dramatic score but did not get nominated. John Addison's score for Sleuth won this new vote, and thus replaced Rota's score on the official list of nominees.[230] Going into the awards ceremony, The Godfather was seen as the favorite to take home the most awards.[220] From the nominations that The Godfather had remaining, it only won three of the Academy Awards: Best Actor for Brando, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture.[226][231]

Brando, who had also not attended the Golden Globes ceremony two months earlier,[229][232] boycotted the Academy Awards ceremony and refused to accept the Oscar,[36] becoming the second actor to refuse a Best Actor award after George C. Scott in 1970.[233][234] Brando sent American Indian Rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather in his place, to announce at the awards podium Brando's reasons for declining the award, which were based on his objection to the depiction of American Indians by Hollywood and television.[233][234][235] Pacino also boycotted the ceremony;[36] he was insulted at being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, when he had more screen time than his co-star and Best Actor-winner Brando, and thus should have received the nomination for Best Actor.[236]

The Godfather had five nominations for awards at the 26th British Academy Film Awards. The nominees were: Pacino for Most Promising Newcomer, Rota for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, Duvall for Best Supporting Actor, and Brando for Best Actor, the film's costume designer Anna Hill Johnstone for Best Costume Design. The only nomination to win was that of Rota.[237]

List of accolades edit

Awards and nominations received by The Godfather
Award Category Nominee Result
45th Academy Awards Best Picture Albert S. Ruddy Won
Best Director Francis Ford Coppola Nominated
Best Actor Marlon Brando (declined award) Won
Best Supporting Actor James Caan Nominated
Robert Duvall Nominated
Al Pacino Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola Won
Best Costume Design Anna Hill Johnstone Nominated
Best Film Editing William Reynolds and Peter Zinner Nominated
Best Sound Bud Grenzbach, Richard Portman and Christopher Newman Nominated
Best Original Dramatic Score Nino Rota Revoked
26th British Academy Film Awards Best Actor Marlon Brando (Also for The Nightcomers) Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Robert Duvall Nominated
Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles Al Pacino Nominated
Best Film Music Nino Rota Won
Best Costume Design Anna Hill Johnstone Nominated
25th Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Francis Ford Coppola Won
30th Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture – Drama Won
Best Director – Motion Picture Francis Ford Coppola Won
Best Motion Picture Actor – Drama Marlon Brando Won
Al Pacino Nominated
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture James Caan Nominated
Best Screenplay Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola Won
Best Original Score Nino Rota Won
15th Grammy Awards Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or TV Special Nino Rota Won
25th Writers Guild of America Awards Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola[238] Won

Recognition edit

American Film Institute edit

Others edit

Cultural influence and legacy edit

Although many films about gangsters preceded The Godfather, Coppola steeped his film in Italian immigrant culture, and his portrayal of mobsters as persons of considerable psychological depth and complexity was unprecedented.[270] Coppola took it further with The Godfather Part II, and the success of those two films, critically, artistically and financially, was a catalyst for the production of numerous other depictions of Italian Americans as mobsters, including films such as Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas and TV series such as David Chase's The Sopranos.

A comprehensive study of Italian-American culture in film from 1914 to 2014 was conducted by the Italic Institute of America showing the influence of The Godfather.[271][272] Over 81 percent of films, 430 films, featuring Italian Americans as mobsters (87 percent of which were fictional) had been produced since The Godfather, an average of 10 per year, while only 98 films were produced preceding The Godfather.

The Godfather epic, encompassing the original trilogy and the additional footage that Coppola incorporated later, has been thoroughly integrated into American life. Together with a succession of mob-theme imitators, it has resulted in a stereotyped concept of Italian-American culture biased toward the criminal networks. The first film had the largest effect. Unlike any film before it, its portrayal of the many poor Italians who immigrated to the United States in the early decades of the 20th century is perhaps attributable to Coppola and expresses his understanding of their experience. The films explore the integration of fictional Italian-American criminals into American society. Though set in the period of mass Italian immigration to America, the film explores the specific family of the Corleones, who live outside the law. Although some critics have considered the Corleone story to portray some universal elements of immigration, other critics have suggested that it resulted in viewers overly associating organized crime with Italian-American culture. Produced in a period of intense national cynicism and self-criticism, the film struck a chord about the dual identities felt by many descendants of immigrants.[273] The Godfather has been cited as an influence in an increase in Hollywood's negative portrayals of immigrant Italians, and was a recruiting tool for organized crime.[274]

The concept of a mafia "Godfather" was a creation of Mario Puzo, and the film resulted in this term being added to the common language. Don Vito Corleone's line, "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse", was voted the second-most memorable line in cinema history in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes by the American Film Institute, in 2014.[275] The concept was not unique to the film. French writer Honoré de Balzac, in his novel Le Père Goriot (1835), wrote that Vautrin told Eugène: "In that case I will make you an offer that no one would decline."[276] An almost identical line was used in the John Wayne Western, Riders of Destiny (1933), where Forrest Taylor states, "I've made Denton an offer he can't refuse."[277] In 2014, the film also was selected as the greatest film by 2,120 industry professionals in a Hollywood survey undertaken by The Hollywood Reporter.[268]

Gangsters reportedly responded enthusiastically to the film.[278] Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, the former underboss in the Gambino crime family,[279] said: "I left the movie stunned ... I mean I floated out of the theater. Maybe it was fiction, but for me, then, that was our life. It was incredible. I remember talking to a multitude of guys, made guys, who felt exactly the same way." According to Anthony Fiato, after seeing the film, Patriarca crime family members Paulie Intiso and Nicky Giso altered their speech patterns to imitate that of Vito Corleone. Intiso was known to swear frequently and use poor grammar; but after seeing the movie, he began to improve his speech and philosophize more.[280]

Representation in other media edit

The film has been referenced and parodied in various kinds of media.[281]

  • John Belushi appeared in a Saturday Night Live sketch as Vito Corleone in a therapy session; he said of the Tattaglia Family, "Also, they shot my son Santino 56 times".[282]
  • In the television show The Sopranos, Silvio Dante's topless bar is named Bada Bing!, a phrase popularized by James Caan's character Sonny Corleone in The Godfather.[23]
  • In the animated television series The Simpsons, there have been many references to the film. For instance, in the season 3 episode "Lisa's Pony", Lisa wakes up to find a horse in her bed and starts screaming, a reference to Jack finding his prize racehorse's head in his bed. In the season 4 episode "Mr. Plow", Bart Simpson is pelted with snowballs in mimicry of Sonny's killing.[283][284][285]
  • The film's baptism sequence was parodied in "Fulgencio", the 13th episode of season 4 of the comedy series Modern Family, with Phil Dunphy standing in for Michael. The sequence also references the horse head scene when Phil's son Luke places a severed zebra head in the bed of a boy who had been making fun of him and had a fear of zebras. Phil also references Godfather lines when he tells his wife Claire, "Don't ask me about my business," and mentions an offer he can't refuse.[286]
  • The 2006 video game The Godfather is based upon this film and tells the story of an original character, Aldo Trapani, whose rise through the ranks of the Corleone family intersects with the plot of the film on numerous occasions.[287][288] Duvall, Caan, and Brando supplied voiceovers and their likenesses,[289] but Pacino did not.[289] Francis Ford Coppola openly voiced his disapproval of the game.[290]
  • On April 28, 2022, a 10-episode drama series The Offer premiered on Paramount+, about the production told from the perspective of producer Ruddy.[291]
  • An episode of the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants entitled "The Goobfather" from the 13th season has many scenes that directly parody this film.
  • The 2023 film Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, features a scene in which the characters watch The Godfather, with Ken, portrayed by Kingsley Ben-Adir, praising the film as a collective effort of Francis Ford Coppola and Robert Evans. A clip from The Godfather is also shown, showing Marlon Brando in the opening scene of the film.[292]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b Sources disagree on both the amount of the original budget and the final budget. The starting budget has been recorded as $1 million,[21] $2 million,[19][42][43][14] and $2.5 million,[23][44] while Coppola later demanded—and received—a $5 million budget.[31] The final budget has been named at $6 million,[31][23][45][46] $6.5 million,[42][47] $7 million,[48] and $7.2 million.[49]
  2. ^ a b Sources disagree on the amount grossed by the film.
    • 1974: Newsweek. Vol. 84. 1974. p. 74. The original Godfather has grossed a mind-boggling $285 million...
    • 1991: Von Gunden, Kenneth (1991). Postmodern auteurs: Coppola, Lucas, De Palma, Spielberg, and Scorsese. McFarland & Company. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-89950-618-0. Since The Godfather had earned over $85 million in U.S.-Canada rentals (the worldwide box-office gross was $285 million), a sequel, according to the usual formula, could be expected to earn approximately two-thirds of the original's box-office take (ultimately Godfather II had rentals of $30 million).
    • Releases: "The Godfather (1972)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 17, 2022. Original release: $243,862,778; 1997 re-release: $1,267,490; 2009 re-release: $121,323; 2011 re-release: $818,333; 2014 re-release: $29,349; 2018 re-release: $21,701; 2020 re-release: $4,323; 2022 re-release: $3,999,963; Budget: $6,000,000
  3. ^ Sources disagree on the date where Paramount confirmed their intentions to make Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather into a feature-length film. Harlan Lebo's work states that the announcement came in January 1969,[14] while Jenny Jones' book puts the date of the announcement three months after the novel's publication, in June 1969.[16]

References edit

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  • Welsh, James M.; Phillips, Gene D.; Hill, Rodney F. (2010). The Francis Ford Coppola Encyclopedia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-7651-4. from the original on March 28, 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  • Von Gunden, Kenneth (1991). Postmodern Auteurs: Coppola, Lucas, De Palma, Spielberg and Scorsese. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-89950-618-0.

External links edit

 
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February 15, 2024
godfather, this, article, about, 1972, film, original, novel, which, film, based, novel, other, uses, godfather, 1972, american, epic, crime, film, directed, francis, ford, coppola, wrote, screenplay, with, mario, puzo, based, puzo, best, selling, 1969, novel,. This article is about the 1972 film For the original novel on which the film is based see The Godfather novel For other uses see Godfather The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film 2 directed by Francis Ford Coppola who co wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo based on Puzo s best selling 1969 novel of the same title The film stars Marlon Brando Al Pacino James Caan Richard Castellano Robert Duvall Sterling Hayden John Marley Richard Conte and Diane Keaton It is the first installment in The Godfather trilogy chronicling the Corleone family under patriarch Vito Corleone Brando from 1945 to 1955 It focuses on the transformation of his youngest son Michael Corleone Pacino from reluctant family outsider to ruthless mafia boss The GodfatherTheatrical release posterDirected byFrancis Ford CoppolaScreenplay byMario Puzo Francis Ford CoppolaBased onThe Godfatherby Mario PuzoProduced byAlbert S RuddyStarringMarlon Brando Al Pacino James Caan Richard Castellano Robert Duvall Sterling Hayden John Marley Richard Conte Diane KeatonCinematographyGordon WillisEdited byWilliam Reynolds Peter ZinnerMusic byNino RotaProductioncompaniesParamount Pictures Alfran ProductionsDistributed byParamount PicturesRelease datesMarch 14 1972 1972 03 14 Loew s State Theatre March 24 1972 1972 03 24 United States Running time175 minutes 1 CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget 6 7 2 million N 1 Box office 250 291 million N 2 Paramount Pictures obtained the rights to the novel for 80 000 before it gained popularity 3 4 Studio executives had trouble finding a director the first few candidates turned down the position before Coppola signed on to direct the film but disagreement followed over casting several characters in particular Vito Marlon Brando and Michael Al Pacino Filming took place primarily on location around New York City and in Sicily and was completed ahead of schedule The musical score was composed principally by Nino Rota with additional pieces by Carmine Coppola The Godfather premiered at the Loew s State Theatre on March 14 1972 and was widely released in the United States on March 24 1972 It was the highest grossing film of 1972 and was for a time the highest grossing film ever made earning between 250 and 291 million at the box office The film was acclaimed by critics and audiences who praised its performances particularly those of Brando and Pacino direction screenplay writing story cinematography editing score and portrayal of the mafia The Godfather launched the successful careers of Coppola Pacino and other relative newcomers in the cast and crew At the 45th Academy Awards the film won Best Picture Best Actor Brando and Best Adapted Screenplay for Puzo and Coppola In addition the seven other Oscar nominations included Pacino Caan and Duvall all for Best Supporting Actor and Coppola for Best Director The Godfather is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made as well as a landmark of the gangster genre 5 It was selected for preservation in the U S National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1990 being deemed culturally historically or aesthetically significant and is ranked the second greatest film in American cinema behind Citizen Kane by the American Film Institute It was followed by sequels The Godfather Part II 1974 and The Godfather Part III 1990 Pauline Kael wrote that If ever there was a great example of how the best popular movies come out of a merger of commerce and art The Godfather is it 6 Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3 1 Development 3 2 Direction 3 2 1 Coppola and Paramount 3 3 Writing 3 4 Casting 3 5 Filming 4 Music 5 Release 5 1 Theatrical 5 2 Home media 5 2 1 The Godfather The Coppola Restoration 6 Reception 6 1 Box office 6 2 Critical response 7 Accolades 7 1 List of accolades 8 Recognition 8 1 American Film Institute 8 2 Others 9 Cultural influence and legacy 10 Representation in other media 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References 14 Bibliography 15 External linksPlot editIn 1945 the New York City Corleone family don Vito Corleone listens to requests during his daughter Connie s wedding to Carlo Vito s youngest son Michael a Marine who has thus far stayed out of the family business introduces his girlfriend Kay Adams to his family at the reception Johnny Fontane a popular singer and Vito s godson seeks Vito s help in securing a movie role Vito sends his consigliere Tom Hagen to persuade studio president Jack Woltz to offer Johnny the part Woltz refuses Hagen s request at first but soon complies after finding the severed head of his prized stud horse in his bed As Christmas approaches drug baron Sollozzo asks Vito to invest in his narcotics business and for police protection Vito declines citing that involvement in narcotics would alienate his political connections Suspicious of Sollozzo s partnership with the Tattaglia crime family Vito sends his enforcer Luca Brasi to the Tattaglias on an espionage mission Brasi is garroted to death during the initial meeting Later enforcers gun down Vito and coerce Hagen into a meeting With Vito s first born Sonny now in command Sollozzo pressures Hagen to persuade Sonny to accept the narcotics deal Vito survives the shooting and is visited in the hospital by Michael who finds him unprotected after NYPD officers on Sollozzo s payroll cleared out Vito s guards Michael thwarts the attempt on his father s life but is beaten by corrupt police captain Mark McCluskey After the attempted hit at the hospital Sonny retaliates with a hit on Bruno Tattaglia Sollozzo and McCluskey request to meet with Michael and settle the dispute Michael feigns interest and agrees to meet but hatches a plan with Sonny and Corleone capo Clemenza to kill them and go into hiding Michael meets Sollozzo and McCluskey at a Bronx restaurant after retrieving a handgun planted in the bathroom by Clemenza he shoots both men dead Despite a clampdown by the authorities for the killing of a police captain the Five Families erupt in open warfare Michael takes refuge in Sicily and Fredo Vito s second son is sheltered by Moe Greene in Las Vegas Sonny publicly attacks and threatens Carlo for physically abusing Connie When he abuses her again Sonny speeds to their home but is ambushed and murdered by gangsters at a highway toll booth In Sicily Michael meets and marries a local woman Apollonia but she is killed shortly thereafter by a car bomb intended for him Devastated by Sonny s death and tired of war Vito sets a meeting with the Five Families He assures them that he will withdraw his opposition to their narcotics business and forgo avenging Sonny s murder His safety guaranteed Michael returns home to enter the family business and marry Kay Kay gives birth to two children in the early 1950s With his father nearing the end of his life and Fredo not suited to lead Michael assumes the position of head of the Corleone family Vito reveals to Michael that it was Don Barzini who ordered the hit on Sonny and warns him that Barzini would try to kill him at a meeting organized by a traitorous Corleone capo With Vito s support Michael relegates Hagen to managing operations in Las Vegas as he is not a wartime consigliere Michael travels to Las Vegas to buy out Greene s stake in the family s casinos and is dismayed to see that Fredo is more loyal to Greene than to his own family In 1955 Vito dies of a heart attack while playing with Michael s son Anthony At Vito s funeral Tessio asks Michael to meet with Barzini signaling his betrayal The meeting is set for the same day as the baptism of Connie s baby While Michael stands at the altar as the child s godfather Corleone hitmen murder the dons of the Five Families plus Greene and Tessio is executed for his treachery Michael extracts Carlo s confession to playing a part in Sonny s murder He assures Carlo that he is being exiled not murdered before Clemenza strangles Carlo Connie confronts Michael about his involvement in Carlo s death while Kay is in the room Kay asks Michael if she is telling the truth and is relieved when he denies carrying out the death As she leaves capos enter the office and pay reverence to Michael as Don Corleone Cast editSee also List of The Godfather characters nbsp Brando right and Pacino as Don Vito and Michael Corleone respectivelyMarlon Brando as Vito Corleone crime boss and patriarch of the Corleone family Al Pacino as Michael Corleone Vito s youngest son James Caan as Sonny Corleone Vito s eldest son Richard Castellano as Peter Clemenza a caporegime in the Corleone crime family Sonny s godfather Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen Corleone consigliere lawyer and unofficial adopted member of the Corleone family Sterling Hayden as Captain McCluskey a corrupt police captain on Sollozzo s payroll John Marley as Jack Woltz Hollywood film producer who is intimidated by the Corleones Richard Conte as Emilio Barzini a crime boss of a rival family Al Lettieri as Virgil Sollozzo an adversary who attempts to pressure Vito to get into the drug business backed by the Tattaglia family Diane Keaton as Kay Adams Corleone Michael s girlfriend and later second wife Abe Vigoda as Salvatore Tessio a caporegime in the Corleone crime family Talia Shire as Connie Corleone Vito s only daughter Gianni Russo as Carlo Rizzi Connie s abusive husband John Cazale as Fredo Corleone Vito s middle son Rudy Bond as Cuneo a crime boss of a rival family Al Martino as Johnny Fontane a singer and Vito s godson Morgana King as Mama Corleone Vito s wife Lenny Montana as Luca Brasi Vito s enforcer Johnny Martino as Paulie Gatto a soldier in the Corleone crime family Salvatore Corsitto as Amerigo Bonasera the undertaker who asks for a favor at Connie s wedding Richard Bright as Neri the soldier in the Corleone crime family who becomes Michael s enforcer Alex Rocco as Moe Greene a Jewish mobster and Las Vegas casino proprietor Tony Giorgio as Bruno Tattaglia Vito Scotti as Nazorine Tere Livrano as Theresa Hagen Tom s wife Victor Rendina as Philip Tattaglia head of the Tattaglia crime family and prostitution crime boss Jeannie Linero as Lucy Mancini Connie s friend and Sonny s mistress Julie Gregg as Sandra Corleone Sonny s wife Ardell Sheridan as Mrs Clemenza Other actors playing smaller roles in the Sicilian sequence are Simonetta Stefanelli as Apollonia Vitelli Corleone Angelo Infanti as Fabrizio Corrado Gaipa as Don Tommasino Franco Citti as Calo and Saro Urzi as Vitelli 7 8 Production editDevelopment edit The film is based on Mario Puzo s The Godfather which remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 67 weeks and sold over nine million copies in two years 9 10 11 Published in 1969 it became the best selling published work in history for several years 12 Burt Lancaster and Danny Thomas both expressed interest adapting the book 13 Paramount Pictures originally found out about Puzo s novel in 1967 when a literary scout for the company contacted then Paramount Vice President of Production Peter Bart about Puzo s unfinished sixty page manuscript titled Mafia 10 Bart believed the work was much beyond a Mafia story and offered Puzo a 12 500 option for the work with an option for 80 000 if the finished work were to be made into a film 10 14 Despite Puzo s agent telling him to turn down the offer Puzo was desperate for money and accepted the deal 10 14 Paramount s Robert Evans relates that when they met in early 1968 he offered Puzo the deal after the author confided in him that he urgently needed 10 000 to pay off gambling debts 15 In March 1967 Paramount announced that they backed Puzo s upcoming work in the hopes of making a film 10 In 1969 Paramount confirmed their intentions to make a film out of the novel for the price of 80 000 N 3 14 16 17 18 with aims to have the film released on Christmas Day in 1971 19 On March 23 1970 Albert S Ruddy was officially announced as the film s producer in part because studio executives were impressed with his interview and because he was known for bringing his films in under budget 20 21 22 Direction edit nbsp Francis Ford Coppola pictured in 2011 was selected as director Paramount wanted the picture to be directed by an Italian American to make the film ethnic to the core Evans wanted the picture to be directed by an Italian American to make the film ethnic to the core 23 24 Paramount s latest mafia movie The Brotherhood had done very poorly at the box office 11 25 Evans believed that the reason for its failure was its almost complete lack of cast members or creative personnel of Italian descent the director Martin Ritt and star Kirk Douglas were not Italian 15 Sergio Leone was Paramount s first choice to direct the film 26 27 Leone turned down the option in order to work on his own gangster film Once Upon a Time in America 26 27 Peter Bogdanovich was then approached but he also declined the offer because he was not interested in the mafia 28 29 30 In addition Peter Yates Richard Brooks Arthur Penn Franklin J Schaffner Costa Gavras and Otto Preminger were all offered the position and declined 31 32 33 Evans chief assistant Peter Bart suggested Francis Ford Coppola as a director of Italian ancestry who would work for a low sum and budget after the poor reception of his latest film The Rain People 34 23 Coppola initially turned down the job because he found Puzo s novel sleazy and sensationalist describing it as pretty cheap stuff 15 35 At the time Coppola s studio American Zoetrope 36 owed over 400 000 to Warner Bros for budget overruns with the film THX 1138 and when coupled with his poor financial standing along with advice from friends and family Coppola reversed his initial decision and took the job 32 37 38 Coppola was officially announced as director of the film on September 28 1970 39 Coppola agreed to receive 125 000 and six percent of the gross rentals 40 41 Coppola later found a deeper theme for the material and decided that the film should not be about organized crime but a family chronicle a metaphor for capitalism in America 23 Coppola and Paramount edit Before The Godfather was in production Paramount had been going through an unsuccessful period 11 In addition to the failure of The Brotherhood other recent films that were produced or co produced by Paramount had greatly exceeded their budgets Darling Lili 21 Paint Your Wagon and Waterloo 11 25 The budget for the film was originally 2 5 million but as the book grew in popularity Coppola argued for and ultimately received a larger budget N 1 31 42 44 Paramount executives wanted the movie to be set in contemporary Kansas City and shot in the studio backlot in order to cut down on costs 31 21 42 Coppola objected and wanted to set the movie in the same time period as the novel the 1940s and 1950s 21 31 38 39 Coppola s reasons included Michael Corleone s Marine Corps stint the emergence of corporate America and America in the years after World War II 39 The novel was becoming increasingly successful and so Coppola s wishes were eventually granted 21 42 The studio heads subsequently let Coppola film on location in New York City and Sicily 50 Gulf Western executive Charles Bluhdorn was frustrated with Coppola over the number of screen tests he had performed without finding a person to play the various roles 45 Production quickly fell behind because of Coppola s indecisiveness and conflicts with Paramount which led to costs being around 40 000 per day 45 With costs rising Paramount had then Vice President Jack Ballard keep a close eye on production expenses 51 While filming Coppola stated that he felt he could be fired at any point as he knew Paramount executives were not happy with many of the decisions he had made 31 Coppola was aware that Evans had asked Elia Kazan to take over directing the film because he feared that Coppola was too inexperienced to cope with the increased size of the production 52 Coppola was also convinced that the film editor Aram Avakian and the assistant director Steve Kestner were conspiring to get him fired Avakian complained to Evans that he could not edit the scenes correctly because Coppola was not shooting enough footage Evans was satisfied with the footage being sent to the West Coast and authorized Coppola to fire them both Coppola later explained Like the godfather I fired people as a preemptory strike The people who were angling the most to have me fired I had fired 53 Brando threatened to quit if Coppola was fired 31 51 Paramount wanted The Godfather to appeal to a wide audience and threatened Coppola with a violence coach to make the film more exciting Coppola added a few more violent scenes to keep the studio happy The scene in which Connie smashes crockery after finding out Carlo has been cheating was added for this reason 38 Writing edit On April 14 1970 it was revealed that Puzo was hired by Paramount for 100 000 along with a percentage of the film s profits to work on the screenplay for the film 22 54 55 Working from the book Coppola wanted to have the themes of culture character power and family at the forefront of the film whereas Puzo wanted to retain aspects from his novel 56 and his initial draft of 150 pages was finished on August 10 1970 54 55 After Coppola was hired as director both Puzo and Coppola worked on the screenplay but separately 57 Puzo worked on his draft in Los Angeles while Coppola wrote his version in San Francisco 57 Coppola created a book where he tore pages out of Puzo s book and pasted them into his book 58 57 There he made notes about each of the book s fifty scenes which related to major themes prevalent in the scene whether the scene should be included in the film along with ideas and concepts that could be used when filming to make the film true to Italian culture 57 51 The two remained in contact while they wrote their respective screenplays and made decisions on what to include and what to remove for the final version 57 A second draft was completed on March 1 1971 and was 173 pages long 54 59 The final screenplay was finished on March 29 1971 55 and wound up being 163 pages long 54 57 40 pages over what Paramount had asked for 60 When filming Coppola referred to the notebook he had created over the final draft of the screenplay 57 51 Screenwriter Robert Towne did uncredited work on the script particularly on the Pacino Brando garden scene 61 Despite finishing the third draft some scenes in the film were still not written yet and were written during production 62 The Italian American Civil Rights League led by mobster Joseph Colombo maintained that the film emphasized stereotypes about Italian Americans and wanted all uses of the words mafia and Cosa Nostra to be removed from the script 63 19 64 65 66 The league also requested that all the money earned from the premiere be donated to the league s fund to build a new hospital 65 66 Coppola claimed that Puzo s screenplay only contained two instances of the word mafia being used while Cosa Nostra was not used at all 65 66 They were removed and replaced with other terms without compromising the story 65 66 The league eventually gave its support for the script 65 66 Earlier the windows of producer Albert S Ruddy s car had been shot out with a note left on the dashboard which essentially said shut down the movie or else 23 Casting edit nbsp Al Pacino was chosen to portray Michael Corleone nbsp James Caan portrayed Sonny Corleone Puzo was first to show interest in having Marlon Brando portray Don Vito Corleone by sending a letter to Brando in which he stated Brando was the only actor who can play the Godfather 67 Despite Puzo s wishes the executives at Paramount were against having Brando 36 partly because of the poor performance of his recent films and also his short temper 42 68 Brando was hesitant about getting back into acting but his secretary Alice Marchak persuaded him to audition 69 Coppola favored Brando or Laurence Olivier for the role 70 71 but Olivier s agent refused the role claiming Olivier was sick 72 however Olivier went on to star in Sleuth later that year 71 Evans pushed for Carlo Ponti or Ernest Borgnine to receive the part 70 73 Bluhdorn proposed Charles Bronson for the role 73 Others considered were George C Scott Richard Conte Anthony Quinn and Orson Welles 70 74 75 Welles was Paramount s preferred choice for the role 76 After months of debate between Coppola and Paramount over Brando the two finalists for the role were Borgnine and Brando 77 Paramount president Stanley Jaffe required Brando to perform a screen test 78 79 Coppola did not want to offend Brando and stated that he needed to test equipment in order to set up the screen test at Brando s California residence 79 80 For make up Brando stuck cotton balls in his cheeks 77 put shoe polish in his hair to darken it and rolled his collar 81 Coppola placed Brando s audition tape in the middle of the videos of the audition tapes as the Paramount executives watched them 82 The executives were impressed with Brando s efforts and allowed Coppola to cast Brando for the role if Brando accepted a lower salary and put up a bond to ensure he would not cause any delays in production 77 82 83 Brando earned 1 6 million from a net participation deal 84 From the start of production Coppola wanted Robert Duvall to play the part of Tom Hagen 19 85 86 After screen testing several other actors Coppola eventually got his wish and Duvall was awarded the part 85 86 Al Martino a then famed singer in nightclubs was notified of the character Johnny Fontane by a friend who read the novel and felt Martino represented the character of Johnny Fontane Martino then contacted producer Albert S Ruddy who gave him the part However Martino was stripped of the part after Coppola became director and then awarded the role to singer Vic Damone According to Martino after being stripped of the role he went to Russell Bufalino his godfather and a crime boss who then orchestrated the publication of various news articles that claimed Coppola was unaware of Ruddy giving Martino the part 23 Damone eventually dropped the role because he did not want to provoke the mob in addition to being paid too little 23 87 Ultimately the part of Johnny Fontane was given to Martino 23 87 Although Frank Sinatra threatened Martino to bar him from Las Vegas if he took the role 88 Coppola cast Diane Keaton for the role of Kay Adams owing to her reputation for being eccentric 89 John Cazale was given the part of Fredo Corleone after Coppola saw him perform in an Off Broadway production 89 Gianni Russo was given the role of Carlo Rizzi after he was asked to perform a screen test in which he acted out the fight between Rizzi and Connie 90 Nearing the start of filming on March 29 Michael Corleone had yet to be cast 91 Paramount executives wanted a popular actor either Warren Beatty or Robert Redford 92 77 93 Producer Robert Evans wanted Ryan O Neal to receive the role owing in part to his recent success in Love Story 93 94 Pacino was Coppola s favorite for the role 36 as he could picture him roaming the Sicilian countryside and wanted an unknown actor who looked like an Italian American 38 93 94 However Paramount executives found Pacino to be too short to play Michael 19 23 Dustin Hoffman Martin Sheen Dean Stockwell and James Caan also auditioned 89 33 Keaton read with both Caan and Sheen 95 Burt Reynolds was offered the role of Michael but Marlon Brando threatened to quit if Reynolds was hired so Reynolds turned down the role 96 Jack Nicholson was also offered the role but turned it down as he felt that an Italian American actor should play the role 97 98 Caan was well received by the Paramount executives and was given the part of Michael initially while the role of Sonny Corleone was awarded to Carmine Caridi 23 Coppola still pushed for Pacino to play Michael after the fact and Evans eventually conceded allowing Pacino to have the role of Michael as long as Caan played Sonny 99 Evans preferred Caan over Caridi because Caan was seven inches shorter than Caridi which was much closer to Pacino s height 23 Despite agreeing to play Michael Corleone Pacino was contracted to star in MGM s The Gang That Couldn t Shoot Straight but the two studios agreed on a settlement and Pacino was signed by Paramount three weeks before shooting began 100 Robert De Niro originally was given the part of Paulie Gatto 101 77 A spot in The Gang That Couldn t Shoot Straight opened up after Al Pacino quit the project in favor of The Godfather which led De Niro to audition for the role and leave The Godfather after receiving the part 101 102 De Niro also cast for the role of Sonny Corleone 103 104 105 After De Niro quit Johnny Martino was given the role of Gatto 23 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 Coppola gave several roles in the film to family members 23 He gave his sister Talia Shire the role of Connie Corleone 113 114 His daughter Sofia then an infant appeared as Michael Francis Rizzi Connie s and Carlo s newborn son 23 115 Carmine Coppola his father appeared in the film as an extra playing a piano during a scene 116 Coppola s wife mother and two sons all appeared as extras in the picture 23 Several smaller roles like Luca Brasi were cast after the filming had started 117 Filming edit Before the filming began the cast received a two week period for rehearsal which included a dinner where each actor and actress had to assume character for its duration 118 Filming was scheduled to begin on March 29 1971 with the scene between Michael Corleone and Kay Adams as they leave Best amp Co in New York City after shopping for Christmas gifts 119 120 The weather on March 23 predicted snow flurries which caused Ruddy to move the filming date forward snow did not materialize and a snow machine was used 120 Principal filming in New York continued until July 2 1971 121 122 Coppola asked for a three week break before heading overseas to film in Sicily 121 Following the crew s departure for Sicily Paramount announced that the release date would be moved to early 1972 123 nbsp The Don Barzini assassination scene was filmed on the steps of the New York Supreme Court building on Foley Square in Manhattan 124 Cinematographer Gordon Willis initially turned down the opportunity to film The Godfather because the production seemed chaotic to him 125 99 After Willis later accepted the offer he and Coppola agreed to not use any modern filming devices helicopters or zoom lenses 126 Willis and Coppola chose to use a tableau format of filming to make it seem as if it was viewed like a painting 126 He made use of shadows and low light levels throughout the film to showcase psychological developments 126 Willis and Coppola agreed to interplay light and dark scenes throughout the film 45 Willis underexposed the film in order to create a yellow tone 126 The scenes in Sicily were shot to display the countryside and display a more romantic land giving these scenes a softer more romantic feel than the New York scenes 127 nbsp 1941 Packard Super Eight featured in The GodfatherOne of the film s most shocking moments involved an actual severed horse s head 38 128 The filming location for this scene is contested as some sources indicate it was filmed at the Beverly Estate while others indicate it was filmed at Sands Point Preserve on Long Island 129 130 131 Coppola received some criticism for the scene although the head was obtained from a dog food company from a horse that was to be killed regardless of the film 132 133 134 On June 22 the scene where Sonny is killed was shot on a runway at Mitchel Field in Uniondale where three tollbooths were built along with guard rails and billboards to set the scene 135 Sonny s car was a 1941 Lincoln Continental with holes drilled in it to resemble bullet holes 136 137 The scene took three days to film and cost over 100 000 138 137 Coppola s request to film on location was observed approximately 90 percent was shot in New York City and its surrounding suburbs 139 140 using over 120 distinct locations 141 Several scenes were filmed at Filmways in East Harlem 142 The remaining portions were filmed in California or on site in Sicily The scenes set in Las Vegas were not shot on location because there were insufficient funds 139 143 Savoca and Forza d Agro were the Sicilian towns featured in the film 144 The opening wedding scene was shot in a Staten Island neighborhood using almost 750 locals as extras 140 145 The house used as the Corleone household and the wedding location was at 110 Longfellow Avenue in the Todt Hill neighborhood of Staten Island 146 145 63 The wall around the Corleone compound was made from styrofoam 145 Scenes set in and around the Corleone olive oil business were filmed on Mott Street 141 147 After filming had ended on August 7 148 post production efforts were focused on trimming the film to a manageable length 149 In addition producers and director were still including and removing different scenes from the end product along with trimming certain sequences 150 In September the first rough cut of the film was viewed 149 Many of the scenes removed from the film were centered around Sonny which did not advance the plot 151 By November Coppola and Ruddy finished the semi final cut 151 Debates over personnel involved with the final editing remained even 25 years after the release of the film 152 The film was shown to Paramount staff and exhibitors in late December 1971 and January 1972 153 Music editMain article The Godfather soundtrack Coppola hired Italian composer Nino Rota to create the underscore for the film including Love Theme from The Godfather 154 155 For the score Rota was to relate to the situations and characters in the film 154 155 Rota synthesized new music for the film and took some parts from his 1958 Fortunella film score in order to create an Italian feel and evoke the tragedy within the film 156 Paramount executive Evans found the score to be too highbrow and did not want to use it however it was used after Coppola managed to get Evans to agree 154 155 Coppola believed that Rota s musical piece gave the film even more of an Italian feel 155 Coppola s father Carmine created some additional music for the film 157 particularly the music played by the band during the opening wedding scene 155 156 Incidental music includes C e la luna mezzo mare and Cherubino s aria Non so piu cosa son from Le Nozze di Figaro 156 There was a soundtrack released for the film in 1972 in vinyl form by Paramount Records on CD in 1991 by Geffen Records and digitally by Geffen on August 18 2005 158 The album contains over 31 minutes of music that was used in the film most of which was composed by Rota along with a song from Coppola and one by Johnny Farrow and Marty Symes 159 160 161 AllMusic gave the album five out of five with editor Zach Curd saying it is a dark looming and elegant soundtrack 159 An editor for Filmtracks believed that Rota was successful in relating the music to the film s core aspects 161 Release editTheatrical edit The world premiere for The Godfather took place at Loews s State Theatre in New York City on Tuesday March 14 1972 almost three months after the planned release date of Christmas Day in 1971 162 163 8 with profits from the premiere donated to The Boys Club of New York 164 Before the film premiered the film had already made 15 million from advance rentals from over 400 theaters 42 The following day 36 the film opened in five theaters in New York Loew s State I and II Orpheum Cine and Tower East 165 23 8 Next was the Imperial Theatre in Toronto 162 on March 17 166 and then Los Angeles at two theaters on March 22 167 The Godfather was released on March 24 1972 throughout the rest of the United States 165 8 reaching 316 theaters five days later 168 Home media edit The television rights were sold for a record 10 million to NBC for one showing over two nights 169 The theatrical version of The Godfather debuted on American network television on NBC with only minor edits 170 The first half of the film aired on Saturday November 16 1974 and the second half two days later 171 The television airings attracted a large audience with an average Nielsen rating of 38 2 and audience share of 59 making it the eighth most watched film on television with the broadcast of the second half getting the third best rating for a film on TV behind Airport and Love Story with a rating of 39 4 and 57 share 171 The broadcast helped generate anticipation for the upcoming sequel 170 The next year Coppola created The Godfather Saga expressly for American television in a release that combined The Godfather and The Godfather Part II with unused footage from those two films in a chronological telling that toned down the violent sexual and profane material for its NBC debut on November 18 1977 172 In 1981 Paramount released the Godfather Epic boxed set which also told the story of the first two films in chronological order again with additional scenes but not redacted for broadcast sensibilities 172 The Godfather Trilogy was released in 1992 in which the films are fundamentally in chronological order 173 The Godfather Family A Look Inside was a 73 minute documentary released in 1991 174 Directed by Jeff Warner the film featured some behind the scenes content from all three films interviews with the actors and screen tests 174 The Godfather DVD Collection was released on October 9 2001 in a package that contained all three films each with a commentary track by Coppola and a bonus disc containing The Godfather Family A Look Inside 175 The DVD also held a Corleone family tree a Godfather timeline and footage of the Academy Award acceptance speeches 175 The Godfather The Coppola Restoration edit During the film s original theatrical release the original negatives were worn down due to the reel being printed so much to meet demand 176 177 In addition the duplicate negative was lost in Paramount archives 177 In 2006 Coppola contacted Steven Spielberg whose studio DreamWorks had recently been bought out by Paramount about restoring The Godfather 176 177 Robert A Harris was hired to oversee the restoration of The Godfather and its two sequels with the film s cinematographer Willis participating in the restoration 178 179 Work began in November 2006 by repairing the negatives so they could go through a digital scanner to produce high resolution 4K files If a negative were damaged and discolored work was done digitally to restore it to its original look 176 177 After a year and a half of working on the restoration the project was complete 177 Paramount called the finished product The Godfather The Coppola Restoration and released it to the public on September 23 2008 on both DVD and Blu ray Disc 178 179 Dave Kehr of The New York Times believed the restoration brought back the golden glow of their original theatrical screenings 178 As a whole the restoration of the film was well received by critics and Coppola 176 177 178 179 180 The Godfather The Coppola Restoration contains several new special features that play in high definition including additional scenes behind the scenes footage etc 180 Paramount Pictures restored and remastered The Godfather The Godfather Part II and The Godfather Coda The Death of Michael Corleone a re edited cut of the third film for a limited theatrical run and home media release on Blu ray and 4K Blu ray to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the premiere of The Godfather The disc editions were released on March 22 2022 181 Reception editBox office edit The Godfather was a blockbuster breaking many box office records to become the highest grossing film of 1972 182 The film s opening day gross from five theaters was 57 829 with ticket prices increased from 3 to 3 50 162 Prices in New York increased further at the weekend to 4 and the number of showings increased from four times a day to seven times a day 162 The film grossed 61 615 in Toronto for the weekend 162 and 240 780 in New York 183 for an opening weekend gross of 302 395 The film grossed 454 000 for the week in New York 162 and 115 000 in Toronto 166 for a first week gross of 568 800 which made it number one at the U S box office for the week 184 In its first five days of national release it grossed 6 8 million taking its gross up to 7 397 164 185 A week later its gross had reached 17 291 705 186 with the one week gross of around 10 million being an industry record 187 It grossed another 8 7 million by April 9 to take its gross to 26 000 815 188 After 18 weeks at number one in the United States the film had grossed 101 million the fastest film to reach that milestone 189 190 Some news articles at the time proclaimed it was the first film to gross 100 million in North America 167 but such accounts are erroneous this record belongs to The Sound of Music released in 1965 191 It remained at number one in the US for another five weeks to bring its total to 23 consecutive weeks at number one before being unseated by Butterflies Are Free for one week before becoming number one for another three weeks 192 193 The film eventually earned 81 5 million in theatrical rentals in the US and Canada during its initial release 182 194 increasing its earnings to 85 7 million through a reissue in 1973 195 and including a limited re release in 1997 196 it ultimately earned an equivalent exhibition gross of 135 million with a production cost of 6 5 million 165 It displaced Gone with the Wind to claim the record as the top rentals earner 182 a position it would retain until the release of Jaws in 1975 167 197 The film repeated its native success overseas earning in total an unprecedented 142 million in worldwide theatrical rentals to become the highest net earner 198 Profits were so high for The Godfather that earnings for Gulf amp Western Industries Inc which owned Paramount jumped from 77 cents per share to 3 30 a share for the year according to a Los Angeles Times article dated December 13 1972 167 Re released eight more times since 1997 it has grossed between 250 million and 291 million in worldwide box office receipts N 2 and adjusted for ticket price inflation in North America ranks among the top 25 highest grossing films 199 Critical response edit The Godfather has received overwhelming critical acclaim and is seen as one of the greatest and most influential films of all time particularly of the gangster genre 200 On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 97 based on 151 reviews with an average rating of 9 4 10 The website s critics consensus reads One of Hollywood s greatest critical and commercial successes The Godfather gets everything right not only did the movie transcend expectations it established new benchmarks for American cinema 201 Metacritic which uses a weighted average has assigned the film a score of 100 out of 100 based on 16 critic reviews indicating universal acclaim 202 Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times praised Coppola s efforts to follow the storyline of the novel the choice to set the film in the same time as the novel and the film s ability to absorb the viewer over its three hour run time 203 Ebert named The Godfather The best film of 1972 204 The Chicago Tribune s Gene Siskel gave the film four out of four commenting that it was very good 205 The Village Voice s Andrew Sarris believed Brando portrayed Vito Corleone well and that his character dominated each scene it appeared in but felt Puzo and Coppola had the character of Michael Corleone too focused on revenge 206 In addition Sarris stated that Richard Castellano Robert Duvall and James Caan were good in their respective roles 206 Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote If ever there was a great example of how the best popular movies come out of a merger of commerce and art The Godfather is it 207 Desson Howe of The Washington Post called the film a jewel and wrote that Coppola deserves most of the credit for the film 208 Writing for The New York Times Vincent Canby felt that Coppola had created one of the most brutal and moving chronicles of American life and went on to say that it transcends its immediate milieu and genre 209 210 Director Stanley Kubrick thought the film had the best cast ever and could be the best movie ever made 211 Director Steven Spielberg listed it among his favorite films 212 Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote negatively of the film in a contemporary review claiming that Pacino rattles around in a part too demanding for him while also criticizing Brando s make up and Rota s score 213 Previous mafia films had looked at the gangs from the perspective of an outraged outsider 214 In contrast The Godfather presents the gangster s perspective of the Mafia as a response to corrupt society 214 Although the Corleone family is presented as immensely rich and powerful no scenes depict prostitution gambling loan sharking or other forms of racketeering 215 George De Stefano argues that the setting of a criminal counterculture allows for unapologetic gender stereotyping such as when Vito tells a weepy Johnny Fontane to act like a man and is an important part of the film s appeal 216 Remarking on the fortieth anniversary of the film s release film critic John Podhoretz praised The Godfather as arguably the great American work of popular art and the summa of all great moviemaking before it 217 Two years before Roger Ebert had written in his journal that it comes closest to being a film everyone agrees is unquestionably great 218 Accolades editThe Godfather was nominated for seven awards at the 30th Golden Globe Awards Best Picture Drama James Caan for Best Supporting Actor Al Pacino and Marlon Brando for Best Actor Drama Best Score Best Director and Best Screenplay 219 When the winners were announced on January 28 1973 the film had won the categories for Best Screenplay Best Director Best Actor Drama Brando Best Original Score and Best Picture Drama 220 221 Rota s score was also nominated for Grammy Award for Best Original Score for a Motion Picture or TV Special at the 15th Grammy Awards 222 223 Rota was announced the winner of the category on March 3 at the Grammys ceremony in Nashville Tennessee 222 223 When the nominations for the 45th Academy Awards were revealed on February 12 1973 The Godfather was nominated for eleven awards 224 225 The nominations were for Best Picture Best Costume Design Marlon Brando for Best Actor Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola for Best Adapted Screenplay Pacino Caan and Robert Duvall for Best Supporting Actor Best Film Editing Nino Rota for Best Original Score Coppola for Best Director and Best Sound 224 225 226 Upon further review of Rota s love theme from The Godfather the academy found that Rota had used a similar score in Eduardo De Filippo s 1958 comedy Fortunella 227 228 229 This led to re balloting where members of the music branch chose from six films The Godfather and the five films that had been on the shortlist for best original dramatic score but did not get nominated John Addison s score for Sleuth won this new vote and thus replaced Rota s score on the official list of nominees 230 Going into the awards ceremony The Godfather was seen as the favorite to take home the most awards 220 From the nominations that The Godfather had remaining it only won three of the Academy Awards Best Actor for Brando Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture 226 231 Brando who had also not attended the Golden Globes ceremony two months earlier 229 232 boycotted the Academy Awards ceremony and refused to accept the Oscar 36 becoming the second actor to refuse a Best Actor award after George C Scott in 1970 233 234 Brando sent American Indian Rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather in his place to announce at the awards podium Brando s reasons for declining the award which were based on his objection to the depiction of American Indians by Hollywood and television 233 234 235 Pacino also boycotted the ceremony 36 he was insulted at being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor when he had more screen time than his co star and Best Actor winner Brando and thus should have received the nomination for Best Actor 236 The Godfather had five nominations for awards at the 26th British Academy Film Awards The nominees were Pacino for Most Promising Newcomer Rota for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music Duvall for Best Supporting Actor and Brando for Best Actor the film s costume designer Anna Hill Johnstone for Best Costume Design The only nomination to win was that of Rota 237 List of accolades edit Awards and nominations received by The Godfather Award Category Nominee Result45th Academy Awards Best Picture Albert S Ruddy WonBest Director Francis Ford Coppola NominatedBest Actor Marlon Brando declined award WonBest Supporting Actor James Caan NominatedRobert Duvall NominatedAl Pacino NominatedBest Adapted Screenplay Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola WonBest Costume Design Anna Hill Johnstone NominatedBest Film Editing William Reynolds and Peter Zinner NominatedBest Sound Bud Grenzbach Richard Portman and Christopher Newman NominatedBest Original Dramatic Score Nino Rota Revoked26th British Academy Film Awards Best Actor Marlon Brando Also for The Nightcomers NominatedBest Supporting Actor Robert Duvall NominatedMost Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles Al Pacino NominatedBest Film Music Nino Rota WonBest Costume Design Anna Hill Johnstone Nominated25th Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Francis Ford Coppola Won30th Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture Drama WonBest Director Motion Picture Francis Ford Coppola WonBest Motion Picture Actor Drama Marlon Brando WonAl Pacino NominatedBest Supporting Actor Motion Picture James Caan NominatedBest Screenplay Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola WonBest Original Score Nino Rota Won15th Grammy Awards Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or TV Special Nino Rota Won25th Writers Guild of America Awards Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola 238 WonRecognition editAmerican Film Institute edit 1998 AFI s 100 Years 100 Movies No 3 239 2001 AFI s 100 Years 100 Thrills No 11 240 2005 AFI s 100 Years 100 Movie Quotes I m going to make him an offer he can t refuse No 2 241 2006 AFI s 100 Years of Film Scores No 5 242 2007 AFI s 100 Years 100 Movies 10th Anniversary Edition No 2 243 2008 AFI s 10 Top 10 No 1 Gangster Film 244 Others edit 1990 Selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being deemed culturally historically or aesthetically significant 245 1992 The Godfather ranked 6th in Sight amp Sound Greatest Films of All Time director s poll 246 1998 Time Out conducted a poll and The Godfather was voted the best film of all time 247 The Village Voice ranked The Godfather at number 12 in its Top 250 Best Films of the Century list in 1999 based on a poll of critics 248 1999 Entertainment Weekly named it the greatest film ever made 249 250 251 2002 Sight amp Sound polled film directors and they voted the film and its sequel as the second best film ever 252 the critics poll separately voted it fourth 253 2002 The Godfather was ranked the second best film of all time by Film4 after Star Wars Episode V The Empire Strikes Back 254 2002 The film along with The Godfather Part II was voted at No 39 on the list of the Top 100 Essential Films of All Time by the National Society of Film Critics 255 256 2005 Named one of the 100 greatest films of the last 80 years by Time magazine the selected films were not ranked 257 258 2006 The Writers Guild of America West agreed voting it the number two in its list of the 101 greatest screenplays after Casablanca 259 2008 Voted in at No 1 on Empire magazine s list of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time 260 2008 Voted at No 50 on the list of 100 Greatest Films by the prominent French magazine Cahiers du cinema 261 2009 The Godfather was ranked at No 1 on Japanese film magazine kinema Junpo s Top 10 Non Japanese Films of All Time list 262 2010 The Guardian ranked the film 15th in its list of 25 greatest arthouse films 263 2012 The Motion Picture Editors Guild listed The Godfather as the sixth best edited film of all time based on a survey of its membership 264 2012 The film ranked at number seven on Sight amp Sound directors top ten poll On the same list it was ranked at number twenty one by critics 265 266 267 2014 The Godfather was voted the greatest film in a Hollywood Reporter poll of 2120 industry members including every studio agency publicity firm and production house in Hollywood in 2014 268 2015 Second on the BBC s 100 Greatest American Films voted by film critics from around the world 269 Cultural influence and legacy editAlthough many films about gangsters preceded The Godfather Coppola steeped his film in Italian immigrant culture and his portrayal of mobsters as persons of considerable psychological depth and complexity was unprecedented 270 Coppola took it further with The Godfather Part II and the success of those two films critically artistically and financially was a catalyst for the production of numerous other depictions of Italian Americans as mobsters including films such as Martin Scorsese s Goodfellas and TV series such as David Chase s The Sopranos A comprehensive study of Italian American culture in film from 1914 to 2014 was conducted by the Italic Institute of America showing the influence of The Godfather 271 272 Over 81 percent of films 430 films featuring Italian Americans as mobsters 87 percent of which were fictional had been produced since The Godfather an average of 10 per year while only 98 films were produced preceding The Godfather The Godfather epic encompassing the original trilogy and the additional footage that Coppola incorporated later has been thoroughly integrated into American life Together with a succession of mob theme imitators it has resulted in a stereotyped concept of Italian American culture biased toward the criminal networks The first film had the largest effect Unlike any film before it its portrayal of the many poor Italians who immigrated to the United States in the early decades of the 20th century is perhaps attributable to Coppola and expresses his understanding of their experience The films explore the integration of fictional Italian American criminals into American society Though set in the period of mass Italian immigration to America the film explores the specific family of the Corleones who live outside the law Although some critics have considered the Corleone story to portray some universal elements of immigration other critics have suggested that it resulted in viewers overly associating organized crime with Italian American culture Produced in a period of intense national cynicism and self criticism the film struck a chord about the dual identities felt by many descendants of immigrants 273 The Godfather has been cited as an influence in an increase in Hollywood s negative portrayals of immigrant Italians and was a recruiting tool for organized crime 274 The concept of a mafia Godfather was a creation of Mario Puzo and the film resulted in this term being added to the common language Don Vito Corleone s line I m gonna make him an offer he can t refuse was voted the second most memorable line in cinema history in AFI s 100 Years 100 Movie Quotes by the American Film Institute in 2014 275 The concept was not unique to the film French writer Honore de Balzac in his novel Le Pere Goriot 1835 wrote that Vautrin told Eugene In that case I will make you an offer that no one would decline 276 An almost identical line was used in the John Wayne Western Riders of Destiny 1933 where Forrest Taylor states I ve made Denton an offer he can t refuse 277 In 2014 the film also was selected as the greatest film by 2 120 industry professionals in a Hollywood survey undertaken by The Hollywood Reporter 268 Gangsters reportedly responded enthusiastically to the film 278 Salvatore Sammy the Bull Gravano the former underboss in the Gambino crime family 279 said I left the movie stunned I mean I floated out of the theater Maybe it was fiction but for me then that was our life It was incredible I remember talking to a multitude of guys made guys who felt exactly the same way According to Anthony Fiato after seeing the film Patriarca crime family members Paulie Intiso and Nicky Giso altered their speech patterns to imitate that of Vito Corleone Intiso was known to swear frequently and use poor grammar but after seeing the movie he began to improve his speech and philosophize more 280 Representation in other media editThe film has been referenced and parodied in various kinds of media 281 John Belushi appeared in a Saturday Night Live sketch as Vito Corleone in a therapy session he said of the Tattaglia Family Also they shot my son Santino 56 times 282 In the television show The Sopranos Silvio Dante s topless bar is named Bada Bing a phrase popularized by James Caan s character Sonny Corleone in The Godfather 23 In the animated television series The Simpsons there have been many references to the film For instance in the season 3 episode Lisa s Pony Lisa wakes up to find a horse in her bed and starts screaming a reference to Jack finding his prize racehorse s head in his bed In the season 4 episode Mr Plow Bart Simpson is pelted with snowballs in mimicry of Sonny s killing 283 284 285 The film s baptism sequence was parodied in Fulgencio the 13th episode of season 4 of the comedy series Modern Family with Phil Dunphy standing in for Michael The sequence also references the horse head scene when Phil s son Luke places a severed zebra head in the bed of a boy who had been making fun of him and had a fear of zebras Phil also references Godfather lines when he tells his wife Claire Don t ask me about my business and mentions an offer he can t refuse 286 The 2006 video game The Godfather is based upon this film and tells the story of an original character Aldo Trapani whose rise through the ranks of the Corleone family intersects with the plot of the film on numerous occasions 287 288 Duvall Caan and Brando supplied voiceovers and their likenesses 289 but Pacino did not 289 Francis Ford Coppola openly voiced his disapproval of the game 290 On April 28 2022 a 10 episode drama series The Offer premiered on Paramount about the production told from the perspective of producer Ruddy 291 An episode of the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants entitled The Goobfather from the 13th season has many scenes that directly parody this film The 2023 film Barbie directed by Greta Gerwig features a scene in which the characters watch The Godfather with Ken portrayed by Kingsley Ben Adir praising the film as a collective effort of Francis Ford Coppola and Robert Evans A clip from The Godfather is also shown showing Marlon Brando in the opening scene of the film 292 See also editList of films set in Las VegasNotes edit a b Sources disagree on both the amount of the original budget and the final budget The starting budget has been recorded as 1 million 21 2 million 19 42 43 14 and 2 5 million 23 44 while Coppola later demanded and received a 5 million budget 31 The final budget has been named at 6 million 31 23 45 46 6 5 million 42 47 7 million 48 and 7 2 million 49 a b Sources disagree on the amount grossed by the film 1974 Newsweek Vol 84 1974 p 74 The original Godfather has grossed a mind boggling 285 million 1991 Von Gunden Kenneth 1991 Postmodern auteurs Coppola Lucas De Palma Spielberg and Scorsese McFarland amp Company p 36 ISBN 978 0 89950 618 0 Since The Godfather had earned over 85 million in U S Canada rentals the worldwide box office gross was 285 million a sequel according to the usual formula could be expected to earn approximately two thirds of the original s box office take ultimately Godfather II had rentals of 30 million Releases The Godfather 1972 Box Office Mojo Retrieved March 17 2022 Original release 243 862 778 1997 re release 1 267 490 2009 re release 121 323 2011 re release 818 333 2014 re release 29 349 2018 re release 21 701 2020 re release 4 323 2022 re release 3 999 963 Budget 6 000 000 Sources disagree on the date where Paramount confirmed their intentions to make Mario Puzo s novel The Godfather into a feature length film Harlan Lebo s work states that the announcement came in January 1969 14 while Jenny Jones book puts the date of the announcement three months after the novel s publication in June 1969 16 References edit THE GODFATHER 18 British Board of Film Classification Archived from the original on June 12 2016 Retrieved March 26 2022 The Godfather Plot Cast Oscars amp Facts Britannica www britannica com Archived from the original on December 31 2021 Retrieved December 31 2021 Allan John H April 17 1972 Godfather gives boost to G amp W profit picture Milwaukee Journal New York Times p 16 part 2 Archived from the original on November 21 2018 Retrieved July 19 2018 Allan John H April 16 1972 Profits of The Godfather The New York Times Archived from the original on September 10 2018 Retrieved September 10 2018 Gambino Megan January 31 2012 What is The Godfather Effect Smithsonian Archived from the original on September 10 2018 Retrieved September 10 2018 Kael Pauline March 10 1972 Alchemy The New Yorker Archived from the original on June 22 2021 Retrieved July 5 2021 The Godfather 1972 The New York Times 2014 Archived from the original on April 18 2014 Retrieved March 19 2020 a b c d The Godfather AFI American Film Institute Archived from the original on July 17 2014 Retrieved July 15 2014 Lebo 2005 p 5 6 a b c d e Jones 2007 p 10 a b c d The Godfather Turns 40 CBS News March 15 2012 Archived from the original on July 17 2014 Retrieved July 15 2014 Lebo 2005 p 7 After 50 years The Godfather still resonates March 18 2022 Archived from 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Hollywood Myths The Shocking Truths Behind Film s Most Incredible Secrets and Scandals Minneapolis Minnesota MBI Pub Co and Voyageur Press ISBN 978 1 250 03249 2 Archived from the original on October 17 2015 Retrieved July 15 2014 Welsh James M Phillips Gene D Hill Rodney F 2010 The Francis Ford Coppola Encyclopedia Lanham Maryland Scarecrow Press ISBN 978 0 8108 7651 4 Archived from the original on March 28 2017 Retrieved July 15 2014 Von Gunden Kenneth 1991 Postmodern Auteurs Coppola Lucas De Palma Spielberg and Scorsese McFarland amp Company ISBN 978 0 89950 618 0 External links edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to The Godfather nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Godfather Official website nbsp The Godfather at IMDb nbsp The Godfather at the American Film Institute Catalog nbsp The Godfather at Box Office Mojo nbsp The Godfather at Rotten Tomatoes nbsp The Godfather at Metacritic nbsp The Godfather essay by Michael Sragow on the National Film Registry website 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