"The Godfather" is a 1972 American crime film directed by "Francis Ford Coppola". Based on Puzo's 1969 novel of the same name, the film stars "Marlon Brando" & "Al Pacino" as the leaders of a powerful New York crime family. The story, spanning the years 1945 to 1955, centers on the transformation of Michael Corleone (Pacino) from reluctant family outsider to ruthless Mafia boss while also chronicling the Corleone family under the patriarch Vito Corleone (Brando). The Godfather is widely regarded as one of the greatest films in world cinema and as one of the most influential, especially in the gangster genre. Now ranked as the second greatest film in American cinema (behind "Citizen Kane") by the American Film Institute, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1990.