The Godfather is a 1972 American crimedrama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy from a screenplay by Mario Puzo and Coppola. Starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of the fictional Corleone New York crime family, the story spans the years 1945–55, concentrating on the transformation of Michael Corleone from reluctant family outsider to ruthless Mafiaboss while chronicling the family under the patriarch Vito.