The Godfather Pics

On the day of his only daughter's wedding, Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) hears requests in his role as the Godfather, the Don of his New York crime family. Vito's youngest son Michael (Al Pacino), on military leave, introduces his girlfriend, Kay Adams (Diane Keaton), to his family at the sprawling reception for his sister Connie (Talia Shire). Vito's godson Johnny Fontane (Al Martino), a popular singer, pleads for help securing a coveted movie role, so Vito dispatches his consigliere Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) to the abrasive studio head, Jack Woltz (John Marley), to secure the casting. Woltz is unmoved until the morning he wakes up in bed with the severed head of his prized stud horse.

Shortly before Christmas 1945, drug baron Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo (Al Lettieri), backed by the Tattaglia family, asks Vito for investment and protection through his political connections, but Vito declines and voices his disapproval of drug dealers. Instead, he sends his enforcer, Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana) to spy on them, but the Corleone family receives a fish in Brasi's vest confirming he "sleeps with the fishes". Sollozzo's assassination attempt on Vito lands Vito in the hospital, so eldest son, Sonny (James Caan), takes command. Sollozzo kidnaps Hagen to pressure Sonny to accept his deal. Michael thwarts a second assassination attempt on his father at the hospital, but is accosted by corrupt police Captain McCluskey (Sterling Hayden), who breaks his jaw.

Sonny retaliates by having Bruno, Tattaglia's son, killed. Michael comes up with a plan to hit Sollozzo and McCluskey that his brother approves over Hagen's objections. On the pretext of settling the dispute, Michael lures the pair to a restaurant, retrieves a planted handgun and murders them. Despite a clamp down from the authorities, the Five Families erupt in open warfare and the brothers fear for their safety. Michael takes refuge in Sicily, and Fredo (John Cazale) is sheltered by associate Moe Greene (Alex Rocco) in Las Vegas. Sonny attacks Carlo on the street for abusing his sister. When it happens again, Sonny speeds for her home but assassins ambush him at a highway toll booth and riddle him with machine gun fire.

Learning that Michael has become involved in the family business, Vito is saddened. He had hoped that it would never happen. However, Michael has fallen in love with Apollonia Vitelli (

The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy from a screenplay by Mario Puzo and Coppola. Based on Puzo's 1969 novel of the same name, the film stars Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of a powerful New York crime family. The story, spanning the years 1945 to 1955, centers on the ascension of Michael Corleone (Pacino) from reluctant family outsider to ruthless Mafia boss while also chronicling the experiences of the Corleone family under the patriarch Vito Corleone (Brando).