The Godfather Opens

Setting the scene

Early 1970s Hollywood was shifting toward auteur-driven, gritty dramas as old studio systems weakened. Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather was a bestseller, but Paramount's Robert Evans struggled to find a director until Francis Ford Coppola, seen as a lightweight, accepted to avoid bankruptcy. Marlon Brando's casting as Don Vito Corleone was fought by executives who considered him box-office poison.

What happened

The Godfather opened on March 15, 1972, starring Brando, Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, and James Caan as Sonny. Coppola's three-hour epic traced a crime family's rise from 1945 New York to Las Vegas, with Nino Rota's waltz and Gordon Willis's shadowy cinematography. The horse-head scene and baptism massacre redefined screen violence as operatic.

Why it still matters

It grossed over $250 million, won Best Picture, and embedded lines like an offer he can't refuse into everyday speech. The film legitimized sequels as art when Part II followed. Memorable detail: Brando stuffed cotton in his cheeks for Vito's bulldog jowls, a trick he improvised in a screen test that won him the role.

Background

Coppola's film won Best Picture and entered everyday speech.