The Godfather

"An offer you can't refuse."

1972 2h 55m EN

🤯

8.7

MASTERPIECE

🔥

97%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

100

METACRITIC

⭐

9.2

IMDB

★8.7TMDB · 23,706🍅97%Rotten Tomatoes●100Metacritic★9.2IMDB · 2,222,804

DramaCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

“An offer you can't refuse.”

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Cast

Marlon Brando
Don Vito Corleone
Al Pacino
Michael Corleone
James Caan
Sonny Corleone
Robert Duvall
Tom Hagen
Richard S. Castellano
Clemenza
Diane Keaton
Kay Adams
Talia Shire
Connie Corleone Rizzi
Gianni Russo
Carlo Rizzi

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Writers: Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Towne
Languages: English, Italian, Latin
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 175 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $245M — a 40.8× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

54 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Italian, Latin.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Godfather Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, shot by Gordon Willis. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Nino Rota. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Editor William Reynolds shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Francis Ford Coppola directs. Gordon Willis behind the camera. Nino Rota scores. William Reynolds cuts. A long sit — settle in. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Italian, Latin.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 175 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
2Grossed $245M — a 40.8× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
354 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Italian, Latin.
5Part of the "The Godfather Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
6Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, shot by Gordon Willis. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Nino Rota. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor William Reynolds shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Marlon Brando and Al Pacino and James Caan carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "An offer you can't refuse.".
11IMDB entry: tt0068646 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12The top-rated still from this film on TMDB has 8 community votes — a signal the frame composition stuck with viewers.
1323,706 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
14Classified under 21 themes, including "based on novel or book", "loss of loved one", "love at first sight", "italy".
15Released under 24 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Gordon Willis
Original score: Nino Rota
Editing: William Reynolds
Production design: Dean Tavoularis
Costume design: Anna Hill Johnstone
Makeup / hair: Phil Rhodes
Sound: Richard Portman
Stunt coordinator: Paul Baxley
Runtime: 175 min · 2h 55m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.78:1 (16:9)
Status: Released
Budget: $6,000,000
Box office: $245,066,411
Return: 4084% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Godfather (1972)
Rotten Tomatoes: 97% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 100/100
IMDB rating: 9.2/10 · 2,222,804 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Won 3 Oscars. 31 wins & 31 nominations total

Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay
Academy Award for Best Actor
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama
Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay
National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
Academy Award for Best Picture

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

The Godfather Collection

Francis Ford Coppola’s trilogy films about the everyday life of a New York mafia family. With its star-studded cast these films would go down in history as some of the greatest Hollywood has ever produced.

Also by

Francis Ford Coppola

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

futuretv2014-04-10
★ 10/10
The Godfather Review by Al Carlson The Godfather is a film considered by most to be one of the greatest ever made. From The American Film Institute to as voted by users on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) it is consider to be one of the best. As a film that ranks as high as other masterpieces including Citizen Kane, Pulp Fiction and 12 Angry Men, The Godfather is an exceptional piece of cinema excellence that is flawless and is simply the pinnacle crime drama. The Godfather revolves around the Corleone’s, an Italian family with deep roots in the New York City mafia. The head of the Corleone’s is Don Vito Corleone, a man who takes care of his family and demands respect in return. His son Michael however, who just returned home from World War II, doesn’t want to become involved with the family business. The Sollozzo’s, a family of drug dealers, confront Don and request protection in exchange for profits from the Sollozzo’s drug sales. But Don declines the offer, for he is against selling narcotics. The rejected offer starts what turns into an all out mafia war between the two families with Michael diving deep into the mafia lifestyle. The characters are portrayed by a legendary all-star cast including Marlon Brando as Don, Al Pacino as his son Michael and James Caan as Don’s oldest son Sonny. The casting for this film has been considered by many to be the best casted film in history for their astonishing performances. All three main actors were nominated for an academy award, but only Marlon Brando won an Oscar for best actor in a leading role. It’s fascinating to watch how these characters change over the course of the movie, with one in particular changing drastically. Directer Francis Ford Coppola, being raised in an Italian-American family in New York, understood Italian culture exceptionally and made the film very authentically. Everything from the wedding dances to the cuisine to the terms used by the characters in Sicilian come from Coppola’s first-hand knowledge of Italian-American culture. Italian composer Nino Rota did an outstanding job making the soundtrack for the film, despite not getting the Oscar for best music (but he did win an Oscar for his work in the sequel, The Godfather: Part II). Virtually everyone recognizes that iconic trumpet solo once it starts playing. He also wrote the score for another great Italian film 8 1/2. This film should be immediately followed up by it’s sequel, The Godfather: Part II, which also won best picture. The series still holds the title of most best picture awards for a film series to this day. They’re both flawless crime dramas and have earned their titles as some of the best pieces of cinema ever. I will guarantee you won’t be able to see this film only once, as it gets better after continual viewings. There is really nothing more to add other than if you haven’t seen this movie yet, it’s about time you did. The Godfather is a movie you can’t refuse.
crastana2022-07-18
★ 10/10
The best movie ever... A masterpiece by the young and talented Francis Ford Coppola, about a Mob family and their drama, the story telling is perfect, the acting good, sometimes a little over the top in the case of Thalia Shire (the sister of the director) The 70's were the best years for Hollywood.
drystyx2023-04-02
★ 1/10
While I'm writing this, The Godfather is still beloved by people who love it simply because they are told they have to love it. It's written by a mobster with the sole intention of depicting the lead mobsters as demi gods. Every line and every scene in the movie and the book is meant to intimidate people into thinking the "Mafia" and really any mob, is a supernatural force. This is a movie glorifying control freaks, and most critics are control freaks, and most critics are either in the mob or think they can join the mob. The movie itself is dull and totally uninspiring, not to mention totally uninspired. For fifty years, the sheep have been cowing to the control freaks who tell them to love this movie that degrades them. There just isn't anything favorable about this movie. It owes its success to people who have interests in the movie or think they can get brownie points with such people. It's totally Hollywood in its depressing nature, and even in the seventies it was a formula film.