The Godfather (film)

The Godfather (original title in English: The Godfather) is a 1972 American film directed By Francis Ford Coppola. The film was produced by Albert S. Ruddy, of the Paramount Pictures company. It is based on the novel of the same name (which in turn is based on the Mortillaro royal family of Sicily, Italy), by Mario Puzo, who adapted the script along with Coppola and Robert Towne, the latter uncredited. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of a powerful fictional New York crime family, the story, set from 1945 to 1955, chronicles the Corleone family led by Vito Corleone (Brando), focusing on the character of Michael Corleone (Pacino), and his transformation from a reluctant young man oblivious to family affairs to a ruthless Italian-American mob boss.

Paramount Pictures bought the rights to the novel for $80,000, before it gained popularity. Studio executives had trouble finding a director; its first candidates turned down the position before Coppola signed on to direct the film. They and Coppola disagreed on who would play various characters, notably Vito and Michael. Filming took place mainly in New York and in Sicily, and was completed ahead of schedule. The musical score was mainly composed by Nino Rota, with additional parts by Carmine Coppola.

The film was one of the most popular films of 1972, and was for a time the highest-grossing film ever made, grossing around $245–286 million at the box office. The film received acclaim from critics and audiences, with credit to the performances of its cast, particularly Brando and Pacino, the direction, screenplay, cinematography, editing, score, and portrayal of the mob. The film reinvigorated Brando's career, which was in decline during the 1960s before he starred in hits such as Last Tango in Paris, Superman and Apocalypse Now, and launched the successful careers of Coppola, Pacino and the rest of the actors. At the 45th Academy Awards, it won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay (for Puzo and Coppola). Among his seven other Oscar nominations were those of Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall (for best supporting actor), and Coppola for best director.

Since its release, the film is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential films ever made, especially in the gangster film genre. It was selected for preservation in the US by the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress in 1990, for being considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" and classified as the second best film in American cinema (behind Citizen Kane ) by the American Film Institute.

It is the first of a trilogy of films, followed by its sequels The Godfather II (1974) and The Godfather III (1990).

Plot

The story begins in the summer of 1945, when Connie (Talia Shire) and Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo) are married. Connie is the daughter of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), head of the Corleone family, and head of one of the five families that command Cosa Nostra in New York City. With the argument that all Sicilian must comply with the requests made to him on his daughter's wedding day, Don Vito is visited, in the foreground of the action, by Amerigo Bonasera, owner of a funeral home. He requests Corleone's help to avenge an attack on her daughter who was injured and disfigured by her boyfriend and a friend of his, having refused to have sexual relations, after failing to get the two individuals sentenced for the crimes. legal pathways. Bonasera offers Don Vito money to kill them, but he refuses, since his daughter is not dead, so he takes his request as disrespectful. He alleges that he and his family are not contract killers and reminds him that when they were friends, and that when he began to get involved in illegal affairs, Amerigo Bonasera avoided contact, despite the fact that Don Vito's wife was her daughter's godmother. Finally, Amerigo Bonasera expresses his respect for him and kisses Don Vito's hand and calls him Godfather. The Don is satisfied and tells Amerigo Bonasera that he is in his debt and that one day, "and that day may never come" he could request a favor in exchange for that, which Amerigo Bonasera could not refuse because of his friendship and as payment for it. Don Vito sends Peter Clemenza (Richard S. Castellano) to beat up the young people because it would be unfair to kill them.

At the party soon arrive Johnny Fontane (Al Martino), a famous singer godson of the family, the youngest son of the Corleones, Michael (Al Pacino) a Marine decorated for his fighting in World War II and his girlfriend Kay Adams (Diane Keaton). Fontane later meets with his godfather and asks her to get him the lead role in a Hollywood movie; that the producer, Jack Woltz, refuses to give him, to boost his career. Corleone sends Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), the family lawyer and consigliere (who was also of Irish origin and Vito's adopted son), to California to speak with producer Jack Woltz (John Marley). Hagen talks to Woltz at the studios, but the producer abruptly fires him. In the afternoon, after finding out who he represented, the producer invites Tom to his house, and after a walk around the property, he shows him a race horse which he presumes cost him $600,000; during dinner he ends up confessing to him that although the role is ideal for Fontane, he would not give it to him on purpose in order to throw him out of the film industry, since he ruined the career of a promising actress and his lover, in whose preparation for the Woltz had invested a great deal of time and money. After this, the producer fires Hagen again, who decides to go back to New York City immediately. The next day Woltz wakes up in his bed, feeling something strange between his sheets. Uncovering them, he gazes in horror at the severed head of the horse he had shown off to Hagen. With this performance, Johnny Fontane gets the most important role in the film.

After Hagen returns, the Corleones meet with Virgil "El Turco" Sollozzo, an Italian-American heroin dealer who has the protection of the Tattaglia family, rivals of the Corleones. "The Turk" He asks Don Corleone for legal protection plus a million dollars to finance the business and open up the drug trade in the city. In exchange, he would provide her with 30% of the profits. However, despite the favorable opinion of Tom Hagen and his eldest son Santino & # 34; Sonny & # 34; Corleone (James Caan), Don Vito refuses, because he believes that his contacts in politics could not turn a blind eye to drugs in the same way that they did to gambling or prostitution.

So, to probe how the Tattaglias reacted to their refusal, Don Vito sends Luca Brasi, his faithful and unyielding hit man, to a meeting with Bruno Tattaglia, son of Don Philip Tattaglia, so he can pretend to " offers" and thus obtain information, but Luca is assassinated with the collaboration of Sollozzo, while another, behind him, strangles him with a thin rope.

One day, Don Vito leaves his office with his son Fredo and goes to buy fruit. Two hitmen from the Tattaglia family fire five shots at Don Vito before the astonished look of Fredo who, nervous, cannot react in time. After the attack, the Godfather is taken to the hospital, seriously injured.

Sonny, who takes over the family due to the Don's absence, orders the killing of Paulie Gatto, the Don Vito's bodyguard, who sold himself out to the Tattaglias, since he didn't come to his post the day of the attack with the excuse of being sick. This work is effectively carried out by Peter Clemenza and Rocco Lampone in the middle of the road, outside the city.

Michael, Sonny's brother, goes to visit his father who is seriously injured in the hospital. He soon realizes that Don Vito is unprotected when he was supposed to be watched, since Police Captain McCluskey has thrown the bodyguards out of the hospital. McCluskey is a corrupt cop paid by "El Turco" sollozzo. Michael calls Sonny to inform him of the situation, manages to change his father's room and protect him from the hitmen with the help of the terrified Enzo, son-in-law of pastry chef Nazorine, who poses as a hitman outside the hospital. Faced with the failure of the plan to assassinate Don Vito, McCluskey, the police captain, returns, to whom Michael claims why he leaves his father unguarded, for this reason McCluskey gives Michael a tremendous punch, fracturing his jaw. Just then, Tom Hagen arrives with private detectives and resolves the situation.

When Michael returns to the mansion, he learns that, on Sonny's orders, Bruno Tattaglia has been murdered. Michael, along with Sonny, Tom Hagen, Tessio, and Clemenza, plans the murder of "El Turco" Sollozzo and McCluskey. They get it by agreeing to a meeting with them. Sonny finds out from a contact in the police that he has dinner with & # 34; El Turco & # 34; and McCluskey will be at the Louis Restaurant in the Bronx, where Michael goes and kills both with a revolver that Clemenza prepares and hides behind the restaurant's toilet cistern; The killing is carried out after entering the restaurant unarmed and deceiving them by telling them that he was going to the toilet only to urinate. Following this double murder, Michael flees to the Italian island of Sicily and a gang war begins in New York. When Don Vito returns home, still convalescing, he finds out about what happened with Sollozzo and about Michael's departure.

In New York, Sonny beats up Carlo Rizzi, his sister Connie's husband, for abusing her. Sonny feels guilty for her sister's misfortune for introducing her to Carlo. After the beating, Sonny warns him that if he hits Connie again, he will kill him. Carlo plots revenge and beats Connie again, who sobs on the phone to Sonny: he, in a rage, comes to his rescue, but leaves his residence so quickly that he doesn't give his bodyguards time to find out. accompany him. By the time they finally catch up, it's too late: Sonny has been gunned down at a tollbooth in an ambush.

Amerigo Bonasera is called by Vito with the indication that the time has come to repay the Don's favor. The mortician shows up willing to do whatever is asked of him without arguing, but it turns out that he was only required to make up the corpse of his firstborn and asks him to do his best, since the Don wanted to prevent his mother from seeing him disfigured. because of the numerous bullet wounds he had received.

Meanwhile, while in Sicily, Michael meets Apollonia, a beautiful Italian woman with whom he falls in love and marries. Shortly after Apollonia is treacherously murdered by one of her bodyguards (Fabrizio), who had planted a bomb in Michael's car, thinking that he was going to drive it and not her. Fabrizio had been bought by Don Emilio Barzini, the Don of the most powerful New York mafia family, along with Corleone, in exchange for facilitating his entry into America. Barzini is also responsible for Sonny's death and tries to eliminate the Corleones from New York and take full control of the city, since he has the support of the Tattaglias and the other two families in New York.

After the Gift's improvement, after being badly injured, he calls a meeting with the Five Families, where he states that, despite the fact that he knows that his son's murderer is among those present, he renounces avenging the death of Sonny, demands the safe return of Michael and gives up his political and police protection to cover drug trafficking, which it is agreed to carry out restricted and "with honor"; the embrace between Philip Tattaglia and Vito Corleone, sponsored by Barzini, represents peace. Returning home, however, Don Vito knows deep down that Barzini is responsible for Sonny's murder.

Michael returns to the United States and, supported by his father, takes the reins of the family. Don Vito becomes his advisor and warns him that after his death, Barzini will try to kill him (Michael) in a meeting: the traitor will be the one from his entourage who lets him know of his desire to hold the interview and guarantees his security. Michael swears to his father to avenge Sonny's death but, due to the circumstances, Don Vito surreptitiously suggests that he wait.

Michael travels to Las Vegas to buy a casino from Moe (where Fredo resides, removed from the gang war), but the attempt fails. Moe insults him, telling him that he is finished, that the Corleones are nothing and that he will not sell him the casino, threatening to go to Barzini to cover his back against the Corleones.

Vito retires to a country house to live with Michael's children and eventually dies of a heart attack in his own home while playing with one of his grandchildren.

After the death of Don Vito, the Corleones are left apparently weak and betrayals continue. Tessio proposes to Michael a meeting with Barzini during the funeral, for which he reveals himself as the traitor that his father had warned him about.

Before the meeting, during the christening of Michael's nephew, Michael orders the murder of the four Dons from the rival families: Peter Clemenza kills Victor Stracci and his bodyguards at the exit of an elevator; Ottilio Cuneo is trapped in a revolving door by Willi Cicci and is killed by him with several bullets to the chest; Philip Tattaglia is assassinated by Rocco Lampone and a Corleone mobster who fire MP40 submachine guns while he was in bed with a prostitute; finally, Al Neri, disguised as a policeman, shoots Emilio Barzini on the steps of a courthouse and Moe Greene is shot in his right eye while receiving a massage (running the so-called "Moe Greene Special").

When it is discovered that Tessio had also betrayed the family, he is surrounded by Michael's men as he prepares to go to the supposed meeting with Barzini. Resigned, Tessio tells Hagen that he "always loved Michael and that it was just business." He also asks the consigliere to intercede with Michael to forgive him "for his old friendship", but Tom refuses and watches sadly as Tessio is taken away in a car to be executed.

Michael decides to settle the score with Carlo Rizzi for his complicity in Sonny's murder; The terrified Carlo, desperate for Michael to spare his life, admits his guilt, confessing that he had been bought by Barzini to help him kill Sonny. Michael tells him that his only punishment will be to stay out of the family business and orders him to go live in Las Vegas with Connie. But when Carlo gets into the car that is supposed to take him to the airport and sits in the front passenger seat, Peter Clemenza strangles him from the back seat and, in his efforts to resist, kicks the car's windshield open.

Hearing of her husband Carlo's murder, Connie goes to Michael crying furiously, accusing him in Kay's presence of being Carlo's murderer, of having waited for the Don to die to kill him for Sonny's death, as well as He also accuses him of the murder of the group of mafia bosses. Kay asks her husband if he really was the perpetrator of the murders. Michael, in a bad way, refuses to answer him, but after Kay's insistence, Michael becomes violent and lies, denying having had any relationship with them. However, Kay realizes what Connie is saying is true when she sees Michael being greeted by several friends, who respectfully greet him as the new Godfather. The movie ends with Al Neri softly closing the door on Kay.

This is how Michael Corleone became the most powerful man in Cosa Nostra in the United States.

Remastered reissue

Ford Coppola said that it would be re-released in 2012 in a remastered format and Paramount later confirmed that the re-release would take place on an unknown date, this would be to commemorate the 40th anniversary of its release. Likewise, it would coincide with the hundredth anniversary of Paramount, to be celebrated a month after the revival of The Godfather. The process of converting the film to 3D was ruled out. It was also ruled out that the film would be re-released in IMAX format.^{[citation required]}

At the beginning of 2012, a months advance of the re-release date was revealed.

Cast

Production

Development

The film is based on the book of the same name, the work of the writer of Italian descent Mario Puzo that remained a Best-Seller on the New York Times list for 67 weeks and sold 9 million copies in two years.. Although the novel was successful at the time of its release, Puzo did not like it; he said he wrote it solely for profit.Published in 1969, it became the best-selling published work for several years.

Paramount Pictures learned of the existence of Puzo's novel in 1967 when a literary agent contacted Paramount Vice President of Production Peter Bart about Puzo's sixty-page incomplete manuscript. Bart believed the work was going " far beyond a mafia story" and offered Puzo $12,500 for the rights, with an $80,000 option if the completed script would be made into a feature film. Despite being told by Puzo's agent to decline the offer, Puzo desperately needed the money, had many debts and accepted the agreement. Puzo met Robert Evans, executive producer of Paramount Pictures at the time, in the spring of 1968, and offered him the first drafts of a future work that was originally going to be called Mafia ; Evans bought the rights to the novel from Puzo for $12,500 after the author confided in him that he urgently needed $10,000 to pay off gambling debts. /i>, in April 1969, Paramount Pictures decided to take it to the big screen and turn it into a classic gangster movie; the production house saw in this film only a mere commercial exploitation of Puzo's best seller.

The goal was to release the film on Christmas Day in 1971. On March 23, 1970, Albert S. Ruddy was officially announced as the film's producer, in part because studio executives were impressed with his interview and because he was known for taking his films under budget.

Controversy and turmoil followed the announcement of the project; the Italian American Civil Rights League, US Congressional Senators and New York State legislators filed protests, including bomb threats and outright intimidation by the American branch of Cosa Nostra not to filming took place. But meetings were held and the negotiations reassured many of the protesters, who were even convinced to participate in the making of the film; for example, the word mafia was never pronounced in the script.

The first day of production was officially on March 23, 1971 with an initial budget of close to one million dollars. Three weeks into the film process, there were still fundamental issues to be resolved: the budget, the cast, the locations and the period in which the action would take place. The director asked the company for eighty days to film the film, which the studio agreed to and they granted him 83, although only 77 were used. In full conceptual development, problems between the executives and the rookie director came to the fore, Coppola wanted to be true to the novel, making it period and filming it in New York, which ultimately drove up the entire cost of production design considerably and led Paramount to spend six times more than expected (approximately $6.2 million). When the film began to be shot, the problems did not diminish, the filming was linked to the Mafia and it was accused that they asked for "collaborations as consulting technicians". The controversy increased when the role of Luca Brassi was given to Lenny Montana, a former wrestler who was linked to the Columbo family for a time. Meanwhile, inside the sets , the Cinematographer Gordon Willis was in constant discussion with Francis Ford and criticized his lack of subject matter expertise.

Scenes shot at the Corleone home, which was located in Long Beach, L.I. they were filmed in Staten Island. Long Islanders refused to be involved in the film, stating that it glorified the mob. The scene in which Sonny is killed was filmed on a deserted Long Island airfield, for which a tollbooth was constructed for the The 40s and a large poster was placed behind it, not only to set the scene, but to hide the complex of buildings that was close to the filming location.

Address

Francis Ford Coppola, was the "idonea" option to direct it, had Italian ancestry (primordial for Evans), was an unknown director, so they were cheaply hired, and for having the experience of taking films from under budget.

Charles Bluhdorn, the Austrian-American businessman who owns Gulf & Western (who bought Paramount in 1966) and benefactor of the project, and Stanley Jaffe, Paramount's president, began interviewing various directors for the project; Sergio Leone was Paramount's first choice to direct the film, but he turned down the offer to direct the gangster film Once Upon a Time in America. he was offered the direction but he turned it down as he was not interested in mob films. Several other directors were considered for the project, top on the list were British Peter Yates and Americans Elia Kazan, Otto Preminger, Richard Brooks and Arthur Penn, and the Franco-Greek Costa-Gavras, but each declined the invitation, so Paramount was on the verge of abandoning the project. Evans preferred that the work be directed by a director of ancestry Italian in order for the project to be "ethnic to the core".

Despite the great success of the novel, the studio heads did not want to carry out the project due to the failure of films of a similar nature such as The Brotherhood, directed by Martin Ritt in 1968 and starring Kirk Douglas. Evans believed the reason for its failure was its almost complete lack of cast members or creative staff of Italian descent (director Martin Ritt and star Kirk Douglas were Jewish). However executives Peter Bart and Robert Evans believed that the failure of these was due to their being made by "Italian Hollywoods", and for the film to be successful, what Evans referred to as "you could smell the spaghetti ", was to be made by Italian-Americans, although in clear contradiction to this idea they chose Ruddy to produce it. Initially it was planned as a low-cost, unpretentious class B production. With the refusal of the interviewed directors, they hired Francis Ford Coppola, a 31-year-old Italian-American who had only directed a handful of films, albeit at the suggestion of Bart, Evans' assistant at the time. Coppola would be working for a low sum and budget after the poor reception of his latest film The Rain People but had just received an Academy Award for co-writing the screenplay for the World War II epic. World War titled Patton. Paramount did not want Coppola because his previous films had failed at the box office, despite having experience working with tiny budgets and because he was not a famous director, it was relatively cheap hire you for the position. According to Evans, Coppola initially also did not wish to direct the film because she feared it would glorify the mafia and violence, and would misrepresent her Italian heritage, thus viewing Puzo's novel as seedy and sensational, describing it as "pretty cheap stuff".;. But the young Coppola agreed to get involved in the project in order to raise enough money to launch other projects, those of his independent production company, Zoetrope.

This production company, whose full name was American Zoetrope, owed Warner Bros. more than $400,000 for going over budget on the film THX 1138; when this debt was coupled with the poor state of his private pocket and the advice of friends and family, Coppola was forced to reverse his initial decision and took over as director. He was officially announced as director of the film on September 28, 1970. Paramount had offered twelve other directors the job of directing the project before Coppola accepted. Coppola agreed to receive $125,000 and six percent of gross rents.

Coppola and Paramount

Prior to the film entering production, Paramount had gone through an unsuccessful period. In addition to the failure of the film The Brotherhood, the studio usurped its budget for its recent films: Darling Lili, Paint Your Wagon, and Waterloo. The budget for the film was originally $2.5 million, but as the With the book growing in popularity, Coppola asked for and eventually got a larger budget. Executives at Paramount wanted the film to be set in the old Kansas City and filmed on the studio set to cut costs. But Coppola objected, wanting to set the film in the same time period as his eponymous novel: the 1940s and 1950s; Coppola's reasons for doing so included that his time spent in the Corps had to be justified. of Marines Michael Corleone, the rise of corporate America in the years after World War II World War II and the consolidated existence of the Commission founded by Lucky Luciano. The novel was becoming more and more successful, so Coppola's wishes finally came true. Later, the heads of the studios allowed Coppola to film exteriors in New York and Sicily.

Charles Bluhdorn, Gulf & Western, was frustrated with Coppola for how many screen tests he had done without finding a person to fill the different roles. Production was quickly delayed due to Coppola's indecision and conflicts with Paramount, leading to Coppola's indecision. costs were around $40,000 per day. With these increased costs, Paramount had Vice President Jack Ballard keep a close eye on the production budget. While filming, Coppola stated that he felt pressure that he could be fired at any time., as he knew that Paramount executives were not happy with many of the decisions he had made. For example, he knew that Evans had asked Elia Kazan to take the reins on the project, fearing that Coppola was too inexperienced to deal with it. to the increase in the size of the production, which was already gigantic. Coppola was also convinced that the film's editor, Aram Avakian, and the assistant On behalf of the director, Steve Kestner, they were conspiring to get him fired. Avakian complained to Evans that he couldn't edit the scenes properly because Coppola wasn't shooting enough takes. However, Evans was pleased with the material sent to the West Coast and authorized Coppola to fire both of them. Coppola later explained, "Like in The Godfather, I fired people as a pre-emptive strike: the people I wanted to get fired the most had been fired." Additionally, Marlon Brando supported him by threatening to retire if Coppola was fired.

Paramount wanted The Godfather to appeal to a broad audience, and threatened Coppola with hiring a "violence coach" to make the film contain more action and make it more exciting and less European. Coppola relented by adding some violent scenes to keep the studio happy and for that reason, for example, the scene where Connie breaks the dishes after discovering that Carlo has been unfaithful was added.

Script

When the film's producer, Albert S. Ruddy, told Mario Puzo that Coppola would direct the project, Puzo immediately began work on the script, at Ruddy's own suggestion, and on April 14, 1970, it was revealed publicly stated that Puzo was hired by Paramount in exchange for $100,000 and a percentage of the profits to work on the script. The book however already had a solid script structure, but Coppola also wanted to capture ethnic aspects of the customs, culture, character, power, and family of Italian émigrés in the film, while Puzo wanted to reflect other aspects of his novel; an initial 150-page draft was finished on August 10, 1970. After Coppola was hired as director, both Puzo and Coppola worked on the script, but separately. Puzo worked on his draft in Los Angeles, while Coppola, who was also a screenwriter, wrote his own version; he spent every morning writing at a table in the Café Trieste in San Francisco. Coppola created a book with pages torn from Puzo's book and pasted them into his own. There he took notes on each of the fifty scenes in the book, which related to the main themes prevailing in each scene and whether the scene should be included in the film, along with ideas and concepts that could be used when filming to make the film true to Italian culture. The two remained in contact as they wrote their respective scripts and made decisions about what to include and what to remove for the final version. A second draft was completed on March 1, 1971, and ran to 173 pages. The final script was finished on March 29, 1971., and was 163 pages long, 40 pages longer than Paramount had requested. When filming, Coppola referred to the notebook he had created on the final draft of the script. The start of rehearsals was delayed one hour at and 45 minutes due to the fact that the latest revisions to the script had not been incorporated and, after the initial stages, Puzo was thrown out of the film entirely. He didn't even let Paramount watch the final cut of it. Coppola, in the absence of a writer, hired Robert Towne, who did uncredited work on the script writing a couple of key scenes that he himself had failed to complete, among which was the scene between Vito and Michael after the return of the second from Sicily and the one in which Michael plots the death of police captain McCluskey. Despite finishing the third draft, some scenes of the film were still not redacted and were written during production, as in Casablanca .

The Italian-American Civil Rights League wanted all uses of the words "mafia" and "Cosa Nostra" were cut from the script, as well as feeling that the film emphasized negative stereotypes about Italian-Americans. The league also requested that all money earned from the premiere be donated to the League's fund to build a new hospital. Coppola claimed that Puzo's script only contained two instances of the word "mafia", while "Cosa Nostra" it was not used at all. In order not to cause further problems, such as those that preceded the start of production, the writer and director deliberately removed all references to the word "mafia." from the script. Those two uses were removed and replaced with other terms that Coppola felt didn't change the story at all. And the League finally gave the script its go-ahead. Ultimately this process resulted in a script of about 163 pages for a film approximately three hours long.

Unlike what happens in the novel, the director and the novelist did not allow them to jump in time, as often happens in the book, and take up part of what was already told with a character, by telling it from the point view of other characters and in other circumstances. This could not offer the viewer the background of the characters and therefore some motivations that drive the characters to act as they do were not exposed. In addition, Coppola reduced the subplots and visibly shortened the development of some secondary characters, such as the family hitman, Luca Brassi, or the melody singer in crisis, Johnny Fontane - who has been interpreted as a transcript of Frank Sinatra-, that have more prominence in the book, making the viewer only focus their attention on the family. As he read the pages of the book, the director discovered the overtones of tragedy in the story and chose to emphasize this feature as much as possible; in fact, Francis Ford Coppola himself mentioned that The Godfather had reminded him of the tragedy King Lear, by William Shakespeare: It depicts the twilight of an old king and the subsequent breakdown of his kingdom due to disputes between his three heirs. In the Elizabethan tragedy, of the three sisters, it is the youngest, Cordelia, who seems least prepared, who in the end proves truly worthy of her. Young Michael-the smallest and most inexperienced of the Corleone family-inherits the command of the family because of the mistakes of his older brothers: the violent and impulsive Sonny, who ends up murdered, and the soft and womanizing Fredo.

Casting

Al Pacino was chosen to interpret Michael Corleone.

James Caan played Sonny Corleone.

Puzo was the first to show interest in having Marlon Brando play Don Vito Corleone; sent him a letter in which he confessed that he was the "only actor who could play the Godfather." Despite Puzo's wishes, Paramount executives did not want to hire him due to the poor performance and profitability of his films. recent films and also because of his short temper and unpredictable nature. Coppola considered casting Brando or, if Brando refused, Laurence Olivier, but the latter's agent turned down the role on the grounds that he was ill, even though Olivier he went on to star in the film Sleuth later that year. The studio mainly lobbied Ernest Borgnine to take on the character, and other actors considered included George C. Scott, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn and Orson Welles.

New problems arose when Coppola settled on Brando for the lead role. He and Puzo agreed, but everyone else at Paramount rejected the idea. Brando was not liked by the production company because of the actor's eccentric behavior in his previous films, which had led him to appear on the covers of the tabloid press. However, Coppola did not give in to the producer's refusals and threatened to leave the company. film if it did not star Brando, so Paramount proposed to the director three conditions that, they knew, Brando would never accept. First, he would not earn a set salary, but instead would receive a share of the film's final profits. Second, any budget overrun caused by his attitudes would be deducted from him. Third, he had to audition on camera, something the actor had always refused.

After months of debate between Coppola and Paramount over Brando, the two finalists for the role were Borgnine and Brando. Paramount president Stanley Jaffe required Brando's screen test, whom Coppola did not want to offend, and he stated that he needed to test the equipment to set up the screen test at Brando's home in California. For makeup, Brando dabbed cotton balls on his cheeks, put shoe polish on his hair to darken it, and rolled up his neck. Coppola placed Brando's audition tape in the middle of the audition tape videos as Paramount executives watched. The executives were impressed with Brando's efforts and allowed Coppola to cast Brando in the role if Brando he accepted a lower salary and added a clause to ensure he would not cause production delays. Brando earned $1.6 million from a net share deal.

From the start of production, Coppola wanted Robert Duvall to play the consigliere and adoptive son of Don Tom Hagen. After trying several other actors on screen, Coppola finally he got his wish and Duvall was given the role of Tom Hagen. Al Martino, a then-famous clubbing singer, was cast as hoarse singer-actor Johnny Fontane by a friend who read the novel of the same name and felt Martino represented him well. Martino then contacted producer Albert S. Ruddy, who cast him in the role. However, Martino was turned down when Coppola became director and cast Italian singer Vic Damone in the role. But Damone also dropped out of the role. because he did not want to play, and even less for such low pay, an anti-Italian American character. According to Martino, when he was stripped of the role, he went to his godfather and capo Russell Bufalino, who orchestrated the publication of several articles which discussed how Coppola was unaware that Ruddy had cast Martino in the role, which, coupled with pressure from the mob who wanted Martino in the role, led Damone to step down to replace him. Johnny Fontane ended up being for Martino.

Robert De Niro was originally given the role of Paulie Gatto, though he auditioned to play Sonny Corleone. But as a role in the film The Gang Thatn't Shoot Straight had become vacant when Al Pacino left the project to be included in The Godfather, De Niro auditioned to replace him; he got it, so he dropped out of The Godfather for that other role. After De Niro's retirement, Johnny Martino got the role of Gatto. Coppola cast Diane Keaton in the role of Kay Adams for his reputation as eccentric. John Cazale was cast as Fredo Corleone after Coppola saw him perform in a Broadway production. Gianni Russo was given the role of Carlo Rizzi after being asked to do a screen test in which he acted out the fight between Rizzi and Connie.

With shooting nearing the start of March 29, Michael Corleone had yet to be cast. Paramount executives wanted a popular actor, either Warren Beatty or Robert Redford; the latter also had a physical resemblance to Michael Corleone, according to the novel. The producer wanted Ryan O'Neal in part because of his recent success in the film Love Story. Al Pacino was Coppola's favorite for the role, as he could envision him wandering the Sicilian countryside and wanted an unknown actor with Italian-American features. However, Paramount executives found Pacino too short to play. to Michael. Dustin Hoffman, Martin Sheen, and James Caan also auditioned for the role. Caan was well received by Paramount executives and was given the role of Michael initially, with the role of Sonny Corleone going to Carmine Caridi Coppola still pushed for Pacino to play Michael after the fact, and Evans eventually relented, allowing Pacino to play Michael and Caan to play Sonny. Evans preferred Caan over Caridi because Caan was seven-punch. Somewhat shorter than Caridi, who was much closer to Pacino's height. Despite playing Michael Corleone, Pacino was signed to star in the film The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight by MGM, but the two studios reached an agreement and Pacino signed with Paramount three weeks before shooting began.

Coppola cast various roles in the film to members of his family. He gave his sister, Talia Shire, the role of Connie Corleone. His daughter Sofia played Michael Francis Rizzi, Connie and Carlo's newborn baby Composer Carmine Coppola, his father, appeared in the film as an extra playing the piano during one scene. Coppola's wife, mother, and two children appeared as extras in a photograph. Various smaller roles, including like Luca Brasi, were cast after shooting had already begun.

This film presents a naturalistic, precise and profound portrait of an era and an environment, but above all it is a surreptitious critique of American society, family relations, political practice and its moral schemes, subtly treated as a background to the script through matters related to the world of the mafia, immigration, the couple relationship, family domination systems, criminal violence and their political association, etc.

Part of the visual and stylistic appeal of the work consists in the interpretation of the figure of Michael Corleone. In the opening sequence of the film Michael is presented to us as a young man away from the family business, even Coppola uses special filters that reduce his wrinkles and combined with lighting and makeup shows us a much younger Michael, recently out of adolescence. The brutal change that takes place inside him when he assumes the Corleone blood heritage is also reflected in his face, which in the last scene is already that of a mature, complex man, who looks directly into his eyes and lies with all his might. your heart.

However, the director has been criticized for offering too attractive an image of the world of the mafia. And the truth is that the gangsters were delighted with the business, honorable and legendary image that was offered of a "office" actually murderous and vulgar. Many of his phrases became legendary: "I'll make you an offer you can't refuse." "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." "Mr. Corleone is a man who insists on hearing bad news immediately." Mr. Corleone never asks for a second favor once the first has been refused, understand?"."Not personal Tom, just business." "In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns". 'I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can be neglected. But men don't. "Never hate your enemies, it affects judgment."

Reception and criticism

The Godfather was released on March 15, 1972: it earned $30 million in its opening weekend, eventually grossing $134,966,411 in the United States alone and more than $110,100 000 internationally. In total, he added USD 245,066,411 in collections, a very considerable figure considering that his budget was 6 million dollars.

It is one of the most acclaimed and appreciated productions of American and world cinematography, considered by most critics and a large sector of the public as one of the best films of all time and the best film by Francis Ford Coppola. In 1973, he won three Oscars for best actor for Marlon Brando, best film and best adapted screenplay for Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola; He had previously won five Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Director, Best Actor in a Drama, Best Original Song, and Best Screenplay. This was the first part of a trilogy eventually completed by The Godfather Part II in 1974 and concluded with The Godfather Part III in 1990 which, according to estimates by Forbes, accumulated a total of 120,166,000 entries in the United States alone. It should be noted that it is one of the few films to have the highest score (100) on Metacritic, a percentage of 99% acceptance on Rotten Tomatoes and an average score of 9.0 in FilmAffinity, being the film with the highest score on this website. In 2008, Empire magazine ranked it number one on its list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.

Launch

Theatrical

Al Pacino and James Caan around 1972.

The world premiere of The Godfather took place at the Loews State Theater in New York City on Tuesday, March 14, 1972, nearly three months after its scheduled Christmas Day 1971 release date, with opening proceeds donated to The Boys Club of New York. Prior to the film's release, the film had already earned $15 million in advance rentals from more than 400 theaters. The following day, the film opened in five theaters in New York. New York (Loew's State I and II, Orpheum, Cinema and Tower East). Next up was the Imperial Theater in Toronto on March 17 and then Los Angeles in two theaters on March 22. The Godfather was released on March 24, 1972 in the rest of the United States, reaching 316 theaters five days later.

Television

The television rights were sold for a record $10 million to NBC for a two-night performance. The theatrical version of The Godfather debuted on American network television on NBC with only small editions. The first half of the film aired on Saturday, November 16, 1974, and the second half two days later. The telecasts drew a large audience with an average Nielsen rating of 38.2 and an audience share of 59%, making it the eighth most-watched film on television, with the second-half telecast earning the third-highest rating for a movie on TV behind Aeropuerto and Love Story, with a rating of 39.4 and 57% participation. The stream helped build anticipation for the upcoming sequel. The following year, Coppola created the Godfather saga expressly for American television in a pitch that combined The Godfather and The Godfather Part II with unused footage from those two films in a chronological account that toned down the violent, sexual, and profane material for its NBC debut on November 18, 1977. 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. sensitive. The Godfather Trilogy was released in 1992, in which the films are primarily in chronological order.

The Godfather Family: An Inside Look was a 73-minute documentary released in 1991. Directed by Jeff Warner, the film featured behind-the-scenes content from all three films, interviews with the actors and screen tests. The Godfather DVD Collection was released on October 9, 2001, in a package containing all three films, each with a commentary track by Coppola, and a bonus disc containing The Godfather Family: An Inside Look. The DVD also contained a Corleone family tree, a "Godfather" and a recording of the Academy Award acceptance speeches.

The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration

During the film's original theatrical release, the original negatives wore out due to overprinting of the film to keep up with demand. Additionally, the duplicate negative was lost in the Paramount archives. In 2006 Coppola contacted Steven Spielberg, whose DreamWorks studio had recently been bought by Paramount, to restore The Godfather. Robert A. Harris was hired to oversee the restoration of The Godfather and its two sequels, with the film's cinematographer Willis participating in the restoration. Work began in November 2006 repairing the negatives so they could go through a digital scanner to produce high-resolution 4K files. If a negative became damaged and discolored, it was worked on digitally to restore it to its original appearance. After a year and a half of restoration work, the project was completed. Paramount called the finished product The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration and released it to the public on September 23, 2008, on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Dave Kehr of The New York Times believed that the restoration brought back the "golden sheen of its original theatrical screenings." The film's restoration was generally well received by critics and Coppola. The Godfather: Coppola's Restoration contains several new special features played in high definition, along with additional scenes.

Age Rating

Country Rating Eastern Germany 16 Argentina +16 Australia MA15+ (2008) R18+ Canada 13+ (Quebec) AA (Ontario) 14A (Manitoba/Alberta) Brazil 14 Chile 14 Spain (1972) +14 (1983) (1997) (2011) United States R Philippines R-18 Finland K-18 Hong Kong IIB

Country Rating Italy T India A Iceland 16 Norway 18 New Zealand R16 Paraguay M-18 Portugal M/18 17 (Original classification) Peru 18 United Kingdom 18 15 (2007) Singapore M18 Sweden 15 Canada 18A Mexico C Japan R15+

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was composed by Nino Rota.

Deleted Scenes

Awards

Oscars

Golden Globes

BAFTA Awards

David of Donatello Awards

National Board of Review

National Society of Film Critics

Eddie Awards

Directors Guild of America Awards

WGA Awards

New York Film Critics Circle Awards

Kansas Film Critics Circle Awards