The Godfather
An offer you can't refuse.
The reluctant son of a mafia dynasty becomes the coldest ruler the family has ever had.
The founding text of American crime cinema: a family business filmed as a tragedy, where every promotion is a funeral.
- Director
- Francis Ford Coppola
- Signature
- Drama · Violence · Darkness
- Worldwide
- $245M
Who's in it
Cast
The billed ensemble, with character names. Open any performer for their Nutevio filmography.
The Nutevio profile
Movie DNA
How The Godfather actually feels to watch, measured on the twelve traits our editors track across every Nutevio title.
Perfect if you enjoyed
Story overview
What It's About
Spoiler-free. Read the analysis below for the full argument.
The reluctant son of a mafia dynasty becomes the coldest ruler the family has ever had.
Nutevio Editorial Analysis
Why The Godfather works
Coppola's film is an immigrant success story told as a horror movie. The Corleones are American capitalism with the euphemisms removed, and the tragedy is not that Michael fails but that he succeeds completely.
Gordon Willis's photography — the 'Prince of Darkness' shooting interiors lit from above, faces dropping into shadow — was considered nearly unreleasable by the studio. It is now the visual grammar for every serious American crime film that followed.
The structure is a series of thresholds: a door closing on Kay, a restaurant bathroom, a baptism intercut with five executions. Michael never announces his transformation. He simply stops being asked.
Nino Rota's waltz, Brando's stuffed cheeks, Pacino's stillness, the oranges — the film has been quoted so relentlessly that its actual patience is easy to forget. It is nearly three hours long and almost entirely conversation.
By The Nutevio Editors
Where to watch
Streaming
Availability verified against regional listings.
Checking regional listings…
Why We Recommend It
Why It's Ranked
The Godfather appears in 4 Nutevio collections. Here is the argument behind each placement.
- Top 250 Movies of All Time Ranked #1
Ranked #1 because nothing else in the canon fuses family drama and criminal tragedy this completely.
The coldest coronation in American film.
- Top 100 Crime Movies Ranked #1
Ranked #1 because the genre's high-water mark for scale, restraint and tragedy.
A family business with a body count.
- Crime Movies Ranked #1
Ranked #1 because rated 9.7 by the Nutevio editors — one of the strongest crime titles in the catalogue.
The reluctant son of a mafia dynasty becomes the coldest ruler the family has ever had.
- Drama Movies Ranked #1
Ranked #1 because rated 9.7 by the Nutevio editors — one of the strongest drama titles in the catalogue.
The reluctant son of a mafia dynasty becomes the coldest ruler the family has ever had.
The record
Awards
3 wins · 8 nominations
Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, from eleven nominations.
Academy Awards
3 wins · 8 nominations
- WinnerBest Picture
- WinnerBest Actor
- WinnerBest Adapted Screenplay
The numbers
Box Office & Release
The Godfather returned 40.8× its budget worldwide.
- Budget
- $6M
- Opening weekend
- —
- Domestic gross
- —
- International gross
- —
- Worldwide gross
- $245M
- Release date
- Mar 24, 1972
- Runtime
- 2h 55m
- MPAA rating
- R
- Language
- English, Italian
- Country
- United States of America
Figures from the verified production record. Fields we cannot source are left blank rather than estimated.
Watch
Official Trailer
How it was made
Behind The Scenes
Production facts, technique and the decisions that shaped what ended up on screen.
The studio wanted anyone else
Paramount resisted both Brando and Pacino; Coppola shot Pacino's restaurant scene early to make the casting undeniable.
Brando's audition
Brando stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool in a self-taped screen test to find the Don's jaw.
Real oranges
Coppola used oranges as a recurring visual omen before violence, a motif he continued across the trilogy.
In their words
Iconic Quotes
“I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.”
“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”
“It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.”
