Godfather, The (1972)
Front Cover Actor
Marlon Brando Don Vito Corleone
Al Pacino Michael Corleone
James Caan Sonny Corleone
John Cazale Fredo Corleone
Robert Duvall Tom Hagen
Diane Keaton Kay Adams
Sterling Hayden McCluskey
Richard Conte Barzini
Talia Shire Connie Corleone
Al Lettieri Sollozzo
Movie Details
Genre Action; Adventure
Director Francis Ford Coppola
Language English
Running Time 175 mins
Country USA
Color Color
Plot
Popularly viewed as one of the best American films ever made, the multi-generational crime saga The Godfather (1972) is a touchstone of cinema: one of the most widely imitated, quoted and lampooned movies of all time. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino star as Vito Corleone and his youngest son Michael, respectively. It is the late 1940s in New York and Corleone is, in the parlance of organized crime, a "godfather" or "don," the head of a Mafia family. Michael, a free thinker who defied his father by enlisting in the Army to fight in World War II, has returned a war hero. Having long ago rejected the family business, Michael shows up at the wedding of his sister Connie (Talia Shire) with his non-Italian girlfriend, Kay (Diane Keaton), who learns for the first time about the family "business." A few months later at Christmas time, the don barely survives being shot by gunmen in the employ of a drug-trafficking rival whose request for aid from the Corleones' political connections was rejected. After saving his father from a second assassination attempt, Michael persuades his hotheaded eldest brother Sonny (James Caan) and family advisors Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) and Sal Tessio (Abe Vigoda) that he should be the one to exact revenge on the men responsible. After murdering a corrupt police captain and the drug-trafficker, Michael hides out in Sicily while a gang war erupts at home. Falling in love with a local girl, Michael marries her, but she is later slain by Corleone enemies in an attempt on Michael's life. Sonny is also butchered, having been betrayed by Connie's husband. As Michael returns home and convinces Kay to marry him, his father recovers and makes peace with his rivals, realizing that another powerful don was pulling the strings behind the narcotics endeavor that began the gang warfare. Once Michael has been groomed as the new don, he leads the family to a new era of prosperity, then launches a campaign of murderous revenge against those who once tried to wipe out the Corleones, consolidating his family's power and completing his own moral downfall. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winning for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, The Godfather was followed by a pair of sequels. — Karl Williams
Personal Details
Seen It No
Index 390
Collection Status In Collection
Links All Movie Guide
Product Details
Format DVD
Region Region 1
Nr of Disks/Tapes 1