Claim: Vito Corleone is in a work.

The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy , based on Mario Puzo 's best-selling novel of the same name . It stars Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of a fictional New York crime family . The story , spanning 1945 to 1955 , chronicles the family under the patriarch Vito Corleone , focusing on the transformation of Michael Corleone -LRB- Pacino -RRB- from reluctant family outsider to ruthless mafia boss .   Paramount Pictures obtained the rights to the novel for the price of $ 80,000 , before it gained popularity . Studio executives had trouble finding a director ; their first few candidates turned down the position . They and Coppola disagreed over who would play several characters , in particular , Vito and Michael . Filming was done on location and completed earlier than scheduled . The musical score was composed primarily by Nino Rota with additional pieces by Carmine Coppola .   The film was the highest-grossing film of 1972 and was for a time the highest-grossing film ever made . It won the Oscars for Best Picture , Best Actor -LRB- Brando -RRB- and Best Adapted Screenplay -LRB- for Puzo and Coppola -RRB- . Its seven other Oscar nominations included Pacino , James Caan , and Robert Duvall for Best Supporting Actor and Coppola for Best Director . It was followed by sequels The Godfather Part II -LRB- 1974 -RRB- and The Godfather Part III -LRB- 1990 -RRB- .   The Godfather is widely regarded as one of the greatest films in world cinema and one of the most influential , especially in the gangster genre . It was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1990 , being deemed `` culturally , historically , or aesthetically significant '' and is ranked the second-greatest film in American cinema -LRB- behind Citizen Kane -RRB- by the American Film Institute .