Based on the best-selling novel by Mario Puzo (who cowrote the screenplay with director Francis Ford Coppola), THE GODFATHER is an epic tale of Mafia life in America during the 1940s and ’50s. Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is the family patriarch balancing a love of his family with an ambitious criminal instinct.

At the wedding of the don’s daughter, Connie (Talia Shire), youngest son Michael (Al Pacino), a decorated war veteran, is reunited with his family. After an assassination attempt leaves the Godfather too ill to run the family business, sons Michael and Sonny (James Caan), with the help of consigliere Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), lead the Corleones into a vendetta-filled war with the other mob families. Violent revenge ensues as the family tries to change from its old criminal ways into legitimacy. Diane Keaton, in a stark departure from her usual comedic roles, plays Kay, the long-suffering wife of Michael Corleone. Brilliant casting, music, and storytelling help make THE GODFATHER a classic.