[4][5] Studio executives had trouble finding a director; the first few candidates turned down the position before Coppola signed on to direct the film but disagreement followed over casting several characters, in particular Vito (Brando) and Michael (Pacino).

As Christmas approaches, drug baron Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo asks Vito to invest in his narcotics business to provide police protection.

While Michael stands at the baptismal font as the child's godfather, Corleone hitmen murder the dons of the four other families as well as Greene for not selling his hotel.

Other actors playing smaller roles in the Sicilian sequence are Simonetta Stefanelli as Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone, Angelo Infanti as Fabrizio, Corrado Gaipa as Don Tommasino, Franco Citti as Calò and Saro Urzì as Vitelli.

[6][7] The film is based on Mario Puzo's The Godfather, which remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 67 weeks and sold over nine million copies in two years.

[9][13] Paramount's Robert Evans relates that, when they met in early 1968, he offered Puzo the deal after the author confided in him that he urgently needed $10,000 to pay off gambling debts.

[27][28][29] In addition, Peter Yates, Richard Brooks, Arthur Penn, Franklin J. Schaffner, Costa-Gavras, and Otto Preminger were all offered the position and declined.

[30][31][32] Evans' chief assistant Peter Bart suggested Francis Ford Coppola, as a director of Italian ancestry who would work for a low sum and budget after the poor performance of his latest film The Rain People.

[10] In addition to the failure of The Brotherhood, other recent films that were produced or co-produced by Paramount had greatly exceeded their budgets: Darling Lili,[20] Paint Your Wagon, and Waterloo.

[N 1][30][42][44] Paramount executives wanted the movie to be set in contemporary Kansas City and shot in the studio backlot in order to cut down on costs.

[94][79][95] Producer Robert Evans wanted Ryan O'Neal to receive the role, owing in part to his recent success in Love Story.

[99][100] Caan was well received by the Paramount executives and was given the part of Michael initially, while the role of Sonny Corleone was awarded to Carmine Caridi.

[68] Before the filming began, the cast received a two-week period for rehearsal, which included a dinner where each actor and actress had to assume character for its duration.

[121] Filming was scheduled to begin on March 29, 1971, with the scene between Michael Corleone and Kay Adams as they leave Best & Co. in New York City after shopping for Christmas gifts.

[161] The album contains over 31 minutes of music that was used in the film, most of which was composed by Rota, along with a song from Coppola and one by Johnny Farrow and Marty Symes.

[176] In 1981, Paramount released the Godfather Epic boxed set, which also told the story of the first two films in chronological order, again with additional scenes, but not redacted for broadcast sensibilities.

[193][194] Some news articles at the time proclaimed it was the first film to gross $100 million in North America,[171] but such accounts are erroneous; this record belongs to The Sound of Music, released in 1965.

[171][201] The film repeated its native success overseas, earning in total an unprecedented $142 million in worldwide theatrical rentals, to become the highest net earner.

"[208] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times praised the casting by Coppola and Ruddy: "As the Irish cop, for example, they simply slide in Sterling Hayden and let the character go about his business."

The decision to shoot everything in period decor (the middle and late 1940s) was crucial; if they'd tried to save money as they originally planned, by bringing everything up-to-date, the movie simply wouldn't have worked.

[212] Writing for The New York Times, Vincent Canby felt that Coppola had created one of the "most brutal and moving chronicles of American life" and went on to say that it "transcends its immediate milieu and genre".

[216] Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote negatively of the film in a contemporary review, claiming that Pacino "rattles around in a part too demanding for him", while also criticizing Brando's make-up and Rota's score.

[218] Although the Corleone family is presented as immensely rich and powerful, no scenes depict prostitution, gambling, loan sharking or other forms of racketeering.

[219] George De Stefano argues that the setting of a criminal counterculture allows for unapologetic gender stereotyping (such as when Vito tells a weepy Johnny Fontane to "act like a man") and is an important part of the film's appeal.

[222] Ebert added it to his canon of great movies, writing that "a strange thing happed as I watched the restored version: Familiar as I am with Robert Duvall, when he first appeared on the screen I found myself thinking, 'There's Tom Hagen.'

Unlike any film before it, its portrayal of the many poor Italians who immigrated to the United States in the early decades of the 20th century is perhaps attributable to Coppola and expresses his understanding of their experience.

Produced in a period of intense national cynicism and self-criticism, the film struck a chord about the dual identities felt by many descendants of immigrants.

French writer Honoré de Balzac, in his novel Le Père Goriot (1835), wrote that Vautrin told Eugène: "In that case I will make you an offer that no one would decline.

"[282] An almost identical line was used in the John Wayne Western, Riders of Destiny (1933), where Forrest Taylor states, "I've made Denton an offer he can't refuse.

According to Anthony Fiato, after seeing the film, Patriarca crime family members Paulie Intiso and Nicky Giso altered their speech patterns to imitate that of Vito Corleone.