Godfather

Theatrical Release Date: 1972 03 15 (USA) / 2013 04 10 (USA - Rerelease)

UPC: 097361329147

Studio: Paramount

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence, Brief Nudity, Not For Children, Profanity]

Summary: Popularly viewed as one of the best American films ever made, the multi-generational crime saga The Godfather 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 Marines to fight in World War II, has returned a captain and 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 (Marlon Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay, The Godfather was followed by a pair of sequels. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Category: Crime

Awards: Anthony Asquith Award – British Academy of Film and Television Arts U.S. National Film Registry – Library of Congress 100 Greatest American Movies – American Film Institute Best Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – null Best Director – null Best Screenplay – null Best Screenplay – null Best Original Score – null Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Costume Design – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – National Board of Review Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – New York Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actor – National Board of Review Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Score – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Supporting Actor – New York Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Actor – National Society of Film Critics

Features: cc
The original, provacative director's commentary

Godfather

Format: DVD

Release Date: 09/23/2008

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 177 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- The Godfather
1. I Believe in America [:24]
2. The Wedding [:42]
3. Johnny Fontaine [6:25]
4. Tom Hagen Goes to Hollywood [1:06]
5. Meeting With Sollozzo [7:33]
6. Shooting of Don Corleone [1:52]
7. Luca Brasi Sleeps With the Fishes [5:37]
8. Michael at the Hospital [3:21]
9. It's Strictly Business [4:25]
10. How's the Italian Food in This Restaurant? [2:50]
11. The Don Returns Home [4:47]
12. The Thunderbolt [1:09]
13. Sonny Gives Carlo a Warning [6:21]
14. Michael Marries Apollonia [2:13]
15. I Don't Want His Mother to See Him This Way [5:25]
16. Apollonia's Murder [4:00]
17. We Are All Reasonable Men Here [3:46]
18. The Don Puts Michael in Charge [6:39]
19. I'm Moe Green [1:03]
20. I Never Wanted This for You [6:00]
21. Baptism and Murder [1:56]
22. Don't Ask Me About My Business, Kay [7:34]
23. End Credits [4:39]

Lucia Bozzola

"I believe in America" -- and America embraced The Godfather, turning it into a landmark artistic triumph and blockbuster hit. The movie was initially planned as a low-budget adaptation of Mario Puzo's Mafia family best-seller, and young director Francis Ford Coppola was hired because Paramount thought he would be easy to control. Instead, he fought the studio to cast little-known Al Pacino as Michael Corleone and foundering Marlon Brando as Don Vito, and he turned The Godfather into an operatic period epic about family, honor, and American economic success (the word "Mafia" is never used); in return, he was almost fired during production. The finished film's narrative drive and imagery were astonishing. Beginning with the opening sequence intercutting Vito's sepulchral study with the bright wedding outside, Coppola renders the Corleones threatening in their business and appealing in their closeness as they negotiate the legacy of Vito's prosperity. Gordon Willis' shadowy cinematography infused the film with shades of black, brown, and gold, contrasting bleak Family dealings with warm family loyalty. The famously extreme violence, particularly the horse head and Sonny's tollbooth demise (echoing 1967's Bonnie and Clyde), revealed the cost of protecting the family honor; the baptism montage elevated Michael's corruption to diabolical proportions as he consolidates his business power. Highly anticipated and critically revered, The Godfather became one of the biggest box-office hits of all time, adding several catchphrases to the cultural lexicon, revitalizing the gangster genre, turning Pacino into a star, and reviving Brando's career. Nominated for 10 Oscars, The Godfather won Best Picture, but Brando snubbed his Best Actor prize and Coppola lost Best Director to Cabaret's Bob Fosse. Willis' cinematography wasn't even nominated, and although Nino Rota's memorable music did initially receive a nomination, the Academy rescinded it when they discovered that Rota included material in the score from one of his earlier compositions. In 1998, the American Film Institute named The Godfather one of the three greatest American films ever made, testifying to its enduring artistic legacy. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Morgana King  Actor 
Franco Citti  Actor 
Jeannie Linero  Actor 
Gianni Russo  Actor 
Victor Rendina  Actor 
Richard S. Castellano  Actor 
Abe Vigoda  Actor 
Salvatore Corsitto  Actor 
Tony Giorgio  Actor 
Sofia Coppola  Actor 
Simonetta Stefanelli  Actor 
Corrado Gaipa  Actor 
John Marley  Actor 
Vito Scotti  Actor 
Carmine Coppola  Actor 
Alex Rocco  Actor 
Ardell Sheridan  Actor 
Rudy Bond  Actor 
Julie Gregg  Actor 
John Martino  Actor 
Joe Spinell  Actor 
Richard Bright  Actor 
Angelo Infanti  Actor 
Saro Urzi  Actor 
Tere Livrano  Actor 
Francis Ford Coppola  Director 
Francis Ford Coppola  Screenwriter 
Mario Puzo  Screenwriter 
Nino Rota  Composer (Music Score) 
Albert S. Ruddy  Producer 
Marlon Brando  Actor 
Al Pacino  Actor 
James Caan  Actor 
John Cazale  Actor 
Robert Duvall  Actor 
Diane Keaton  Actor 
Sterling Hayden  Actor 
Richard Conte  Actor 
Talia Shire  Actor 
Al Lettieri  Actor 
Al Martino  Actor 
Lenny Montana  Actor 

Country: USA