The Development

• The Godfather is based on a 1969 Novel of the same name by Mario Puzo.
  • Puzo claimed this was not from his personal experiences but from research he had done on organized crime. He was hoping this would appeal to the masses.
    • Although there were no personal experiences some events were inspired by his family and the neighborhood he grew up in New York.
    • As some characters including Don Corleone personality were inspired by his mother as well as New York City mob bosses Joe Profaci and Vito Genovese. Many of the events in his novel are based on actual incidents that occurred in the lives of Profaci, Genovese, and their families.
    • The book remained on the best sellers list for 67 weeks.
  • Puzo was offered 12.5K for the option for the work of the Book and an option for 80k if it were made into a film. He was told by his agent to decline the offer but due to being in gambling debts he took the offer from Paramount’s VP of Production Peter Bart.
• Several people were interested in adapting the film including.
  • Burt Lancaster and Danny Thomas
• Finding a director
  • Paramount
    • Hired Albert S Ruddy as the official film producer due to his ability to keep films under budget.
    • First offered the director’s role to Legendary Director Sergio Leone who turned it down.
      • He would go on to direct 1984’s “Once Upon a Time in America.”
    • Offered the Directors role to several others after Leone
      • Peter Yates
      • Richard Brooks
      • Arthur Penn
      • Franklin J. Schaffner (off Patton)
      • Costa-Gavaras
      • Otto Preminger
      • All Declined
    • Paramount Executive Robert Evans wanted to cast an Italian Director due to the failure of “The Brotherhood” another mafia-based movie starring non-Italian Kirk Douglas and directed by a non-Italian director Martin Ritt.
  • In comes Coppola
    • Fast Rising Director Francis Ford Coppola took the job of making the novel to a film due to it being way to keep his production studio American Zoetrope in business.
      • He production company owed more than 400K to Warner Brothers due to budget overruns of THX 1138
      • Coppola agreed to 125K and 6% of the gross rentals.
      • However Evans hired Elia Kazan to take over directing the film because he felt Coppola couldn’t handle such a huge production.
        • Coppola Fired Him along with film editor Aram Avakian as he feared they were conspiring against him.
      • Coppola even risked compromising the final form of the movie to keep postproduction at his company.
      • Coppola wanted the film to not just be about organized crime but a family chronicle.
      • Coppola later said the filming in some ways ruined him as it was not only hard to complete but it also kind of pigeonholed him in just making other people’s work and received push back from his own works like The Conversation.
      • Coppola Changed the Script which was based in the 1970s as the studio wanted the film to be made cheaply.
        • This caused a rise in the budget from 2.5 million to 6 million.
      • Casting
        • Coppola’s choices for his roles were looked at as wildly unorthodox by the studio.
        • Coppola refused to let his sister Talia Shire audition for Connie.
          • She would eventually be offered it by Evans and even then, Coppola refused, however Fred Roos the casting director pushed Coppola to accept her in the role as she fit what they were looking for in the character with the help of Puzo also pushing for her.
        • Coppola and Roo wanted to keep the cast as Italian as possible which at first ruled out James Caan as Sonny even though he was Coppola’s Favorite.
          • Carmine Caridi was first selected for the role by Roo due to the fact Roo thought he looked like Sonny did in the Novel.
        • Coppola wanted Tom Hagen role to go to Robert Duvall.
        • Marlon Brando was of the 3 actors considered for Don Corleone along with George C. Scott, and Laurence Olivier.
          • Brando was envisioned by the writer of the Novel, Puzo, for the role of The Don.
            • Puzo already had sent him a letter and talked to him about the role on the phone.
            • Brando was hesitant at first due to never playing an Italian character before. Also, his erratic behavior and previous box office flops made studios hesitate into wanting to cast him.
            • To the point that at an executive meeting when Coppola brought up Brando a paramount executive said, “Brando will never appear in the picture and to never bring him up again!”
              • The Studio pushed for Charles Bronson as The Don as well as Orson Welles (who lobbied for the role and even said he would lose weight), and even Anthony Quinn.
              • Coppola states he then proceeded to act like he had an epileptic fit as a gag, and they got the point.
              • They then gave him 3 criteria for Brando.
                • Brando would do the film for nothing.
                • That Coppola would personally post a bond to insure them against any shenanigans causing overage.
                • Brando would have to do a Screen Test.
                • Coppola agreed to all this without even really knowing Brando.
                • Brando was then shot with Kleenex and shoe polish in his hair as The Don for a screen test and the rest is history.
                • During Filming Brando read his lines form cue cards even having them taped to Robert Duval.
                • Brando earned 1.6 million from a net participation deal for his role in the film.
              • Al Martino, a real famed singer in night clubs, was cast as Johnny Fontane by Ruddy after hearing of the part from a friend. Coppola fired him from the role and gave it to Vic Demone. However, Martino then went to Russell Bufalino his godfather and Crime boss for help.
                • Bufalino proceeded to orchestrate publications claiming that Coppola was unaware of Ruddy giving the role to Martino. Eventually Damone dropped out and the role was given back to Martino, but not before he apparently was threatened by Frank Sinatra to not take it.
                • According to Mario Puzo, the character of Johnny Fontane was not based on Frank Sinatra. However, it was widely assumed that it was, and Sinatra was furious. When he met Puzo at a restaurant, he screamed vulgar terms and threats at Puzo. Sinatra was also vehemently opposed to the film. Due to this backlash, Fontane’s role in the film was scaled down to a couple of scenes.
              • Coppola cast Diane Keaton for the role of Kay Adams owing to her reputation for being eccentric.
              • John Cazale was given the part of Fredo Corleone after Coppola saw him perform in an Off-Broadway production.
              • Gianni Russo was given the role of Carlo Rizzi after he was asked to perform a screen test in which he acted out the fight between Rizzi and Connie.
                • Gianni Russo used his organized crime connections to secure the role of Carlo Rizzi, going so far as to get a camera crew to film his own audition and send it to the producers. However, Marlon Brando was initially against having Russo, who had never acted before, in the film. This made Russo furious, and he went to threaten Brando. However, this reckless act proved to be a blessing in disguise, because Brando thought Russo was acting, and was convinced he would be good for the role.
              • Coppola then wanted Al Pacino for the Role of Micheal as he felt after reading the book, he saw him in the part.
                • Again, Coppola met pushback as Pacino was considered a stage actor, with his only film “Panic in The Needle Park.”
                  • James Caan even auctioned for the role of Michael.
                  • The Studio wanted Caan or other actors such as:
                    • Dustin Hoffman
                    • Martin Sheen
                    • Dean Stockwell
                    • Jack Nicholson
                      • Who was offered the role but turned it down because he felt that an Italian Actor should take it.
                    • Burt Reynolds
                      • Who was offered the role, but Brando threatened to quit if he was hired.
                    • Pacino would undergo a series of screen tests with no luck.
                      • Studio Executives called Pacino the Runt due to his size.
                      • Pacino’s Girlfriend at the time Jill Clayburgh even berated Coppola for Stringing him along.
                      • Coppola continued to go to bat for Pacino and when Coppola left overseas to meet Brando the executives decided to cast him after seeing “Panic in The Needle Park,” along with Caan as Sonny even though they pushed for Caan to be Michael.
                      • However, Pacino thinking he was going to lose out on the role signed up for the MGM role in “Bang the Drum Slowly.”
                        • Evans had to call one his close friends Sidney Korshak, a Chicago Lawyer with connections to Unions and Big Business, to get him out of the contract.
                        • This turned out to be ironic as Robert De Niro was given the role as Paulie Gatto but since Pacino left the MGM role, he was cast for it. Johnny Martino was given his role.
                          • A young Sylvester Stallone auditioned for the roles of Paulie Gatto and Carlo Rizzi but was not cast for either.
                          • John Martino ad-libbed the words “Madone'” (Madonna) and “sfortunato” (unfortunate) when Paulie talks about stealing the wedding purse.
                        • Pacino, Keaton, and Caan made 35k for their roles while Robert Duvall made 36k.
                        • Elvis Presley, an avid fan of the book, auditioned for the role of Tom Hagen, though he really wanted to play Vito Corleone.
                      • The Shut Down Threat
                        • Coppola constantly requested for the film to be made in New York which caused several real-life Mobsters to shut the movie out of throughout the boroughs and even Long Island.
                        • The Italian-American Civil Rights League, led by mobster Joseph Colombo, maintained that the film emphasized stereotypes about Italian-Americans, and wanted all uses of the words “mafia” and “Cosa Nostra” to be removed from the script.
                        • Earlier, the windows of producer Albert S. Ruddy’s car had been shot out with a note left on the dashboard which essentially said, “shut down the movie—or else
                        • Dean Tavoularis, recalls, “We looked high and low; somebody would follow us; we’d strike a deal for a location and suddenly it would unravel.” Evans says that what finally opened up New York “like a World’s Fair,” complete with the help of “the garbagemen, the longshoremen, the teamsters” and security for the locations, was a call or two from Korshak. Evans says, “I was getting calls at the Sherry-Netherland like ‘To kill the snake you cut off its head,’ or ‘If you want your son to live longer than two weeks, get out of town.’ ” Evans now states flatly, “‘The Godfather’ would not have been made without Korshak. He saved Pacino, the locations, and, possibly, my son.”
                          • Producer Al Ruddy eventually made a deal with the league and Joe Colombo to cut the word Mafia (which was only used once in the script) and the League would back the production of the film. This meant mobsters would be present on the set of The Godfather. In 1971, when Montana was acting as a bodyguard for a senior Colombo family member,[14] he met Francis Ford Coppola and Al Ruddy. After being introduced to the 6’6″ 320-pound former wrestler and enforcer Lenny Montana, they quickly cast him for the role of Luca Brasi.
                        • Music
                          • Coppola pushed for more Italianate Score while the studio wanted more American Style music. Coppola pushed and got his way, even telling the studio to hire Martin Scorsese. Nino Rota wrote the Score although he recycled a theme from the previous score for the film Fortunella.

The Film Break Down

• The Plot
  • The film follows the Corleone Family as it transitions from its Patriarch Vito Corleone to its youngest son Michael taking over the family.
  • It follows the family through trials and tribulations of Drug Barons aligned with other families to take out the Corleone family as well as tragedies of the family losing loved ones.
• The Characters/Cast
  • Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone: crime boss and patriarch of the Corleone family
    • Marlon Brando wanted to make Don Corleone “look like a bulldog,” so he stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool for the audition. For the actual filming, he wore a mouthpiece made by a dentist. This appliance is on display in the American Museum of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles in a special Godfather exhibition.
    • Marlon Brando did not memorize most of his lines and read from cue cards during most of the film. As a matter of fact, Marlon, who was the father of Method acting, was famous for this; he felt that doing a cold open type reading for the cameras, and then using that very first un-practiced take, was the best way to get an authentic performance. He did the exact same thing for Superman. The set for Krypton was filled with the cards pasted here and there for Marlon as he read his lines for the first time.
    • Marlon Brando based some of his performance on Al Lettieri, who plays Sollozzo. While preparing for On the Waterfront (1954), Brando became friendly with Lettieri, whose relative was a real-life Mafioso. Brando and Lettieri would later co-star in “The Night of the Following Day (1969).” Lettieri also helped Brando prepare for his Godfather role by bringing him to his relative’s house for a family dinner.
  • Al Pacino as Michael Corleone: Vito’s youngest son
  • James Caan as Sonny Corleone: Vito’s eldest son
    • James Caan hung out with various disreputable characters, in order to better understand the underworld lifestyle.
    • James Caan originally heard the phrase “bada-bing!” from his acquaintance, the real-life mobster Carmine Persico, and improvised its use in the film.
    • James Caan credits the stage persona of “insult comic” Don Rickles for inspiring his characterization of Santino Corleone.
  • Richard Castellano as Peter Clemenza: a caporegime in the Corleone crime family, Sonny’s godfather
  • Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen: Corleone consigliere, lawyer, and unofficial adopted member of the Corleone family
  • Sterling Hayden as Captain McCluskey: a corrupt police captain on Sollozzo’s payroll
  • John Marley as Jack Woltz: Hollywood film producer who is intimidated by the Corleone’s.
  • Richard Conte as Emilio Barzini: a crime boss of a rival family
  • Al Lettieri as Virgil Sollozzo: an adversary who attempts to pressure Vito to get into the drug business, backed by the Tartaglia family
    • Al Lettierri who played the Turk was a very powerfully built man. Francis Ford Coppola said that shaking hands with him was like putting your hand in a vice.
  • Diane Keaton as Kay Adams-Corleone: Michael’s girlfriend and, later, second wife
    • Diane Keaton based much of her portrayal of Kay Adams on Francis Ford Coppola’s wife, Eleanor Coppola.
  • Abe Vigoda as Salvatore Tessio: a caporegime in the Corleone crime family
    • Abe Vigoda got the part of Tessio by answering an open casting call and beat out hundreds of other actors.
  • Talia Shire as Connie Corleone: Vito’s only daughter
  • Gianni Russo as Carlo Rizzi: Connie’s abusive husband
  • John Cazale as Fredo Corleone: Vito’s middle son
  • Rudy Bond as Cuneo: a crime boss of a rival family
  • Al Martino as Johnny Fontane: a singer and Vito’s godson
  • Morgana King as Mama Corleone: Vito’s wife
  • Lenny Montana as Luca Brasi: Vito’s enforcer
  • Johnny Martino as Paulie Gatto: a soldier in the Corleone crime family
  • Salvatore Corsitto as Amerigo Bonasera: the undertaker who asks for a favor at Connie’s wedding
  • Richard Bright as Neri: the soldier in the Corleone crime family who becomes Michael’s enforcer
  • Alex Rocco as Moe Greene: a Jewish mobster and Las Vegas casino proprietor
  • Tony Giorgio as Bruno Tattaglia
  • Vito Scotti as Nazorine
  • Tere Livrano as Theresa Hagen: Tom’s wife
  • Victor Rendina as Philip Tattaglia: head of the Tattaglia crime family and prostitution crime boss
  • Jeannie Linero as Lucy Mancini: Connie’s friend and Sonny’s mistress
  • Julie Gregg as Sandra Corleone: Sonny’s wife
  • Ardell Sheridan as Mrs. Clemenza
• Characters inspired by the Gallos?
  • Specifically, he borrowed a lot of from the life of New York City gangster “Crazy” Joe Gallo, including the dynamics of he and his brothers. In the movie, Sonny is the “hot head” (Like Crazy Joe), Michael is the thoughtful and intelligent one (Like Larry Gallo), and Fredo is the dimwit (Like Michael Gallo). Also, terms like “Sleeping with the fishes” and “Hitting the mattresses” came from the lives of the Gallos. An associate of the Gallos was killed while on a fishing trip with friends, and the Gallos were sent a fish wrapped in a box just as when Sonny gets Luca Brasi’s bulletproof vest with a fish. When the Gallos revolted against their boss, Joe Profaci, they went to war and rented apartments stocked with mattresses. In real-life, after Joe Gallo saw the movie, he actually considered suing Mario Puzo and Paramount Pictures for ripping off details of his life for their story. However, this never came to pass, as “Crazy” Joe Gallo was murdered on April 7, 1972, almost a full month after the movie’s New York City premiere.
• Iconic Scenes
  • The Head in the Bed
    • The character of Hollywood mogul Jack Woltz’s was patterned after Warner Brothers chief Jack L. Warner. His personality was based on MGM head Louis B. Mayer, who was a great racing aficionado, and owned a racing stable. Mayer abandoned the activity, reportedly after his son-in-law William Goetz, who was his partner in the stable, got involved with the Mafia and fixed a race. Mayer’s horse was the favorite to win.
    • The slow camera movement that opens the film, which starts with a close-up of Bonasera’s face and ends up behind Vito’s head, takes more than two minutes to complete. This was created with a recently invented computer-timed lens, which could be programmed to zoom for specific time increments. There are actually very few zoom shots in the picture, as Francis Ford Coppola and Gordon Willis eschewed them for dramatic effect.
    • Animal rights activists protested the horse’s head scene. Francis Ford Coppola told Variety, “There were many people killed in that movie, but everyone worries about the horse. It was the same on the set. When the head arrived, it upset many crew members who are animal lovers, who like little doggies. What they don’t know is that we got the head from a pet food manufacturer who slaughters two hundred horses a day just to feed those little doggies.”
    • During rehearsals, a false horse’s head was used for the bedroom scene. For the filmed shot, a real horse’s head was used, acquired from a dog food factory. According to John Marley, his scream of horror was real, as he was not informed that a real head was going to be used.
    • Francis Ford Coppola originally planned to open the film with the wedding, immediately introducing all the characters. Then a friend pointed out how interestingly he had written the opening scene of Patton (1970). Coppola then re-wrote the opening with the Bonasera scene.
  • The Wedding
    • James Caan improvised the part where he throws the FBI photographer’s camera to the ground. The actor’s frightened reaction is genuine. Caan also came up with the idea of throwing money at the man to make up for breaking his camera. As he put it, “Where I came from, you broke something, you replaced it or repaid the owner.”
    • To add a sense of reality to the wedding scene (and because he only had two days to shoot it), Francis Ford Coppola had the cast freely act out and improvise in the background of the wedding scene. He then shot specific vignettes amongst the action.
  • Luca Brasi Meets The Don
    • Lenny Montana (Luca Brasi) was so nervous about working with Marlon Brando that in the first take of their scene together, he flubbed some lines. Director Francis Ford Coppola liked the genuine nervousness and used it in the final cut. The scenes of Luca practicing his speech were added later.
  • The Don with his Cat
    • The cat held by Marlon Brando in the opening scene was a stray that Coppola found while on the lot at “Paramount Pictures,” and was not originally called for in the script. So content was the cat that its purring muffled some of Brando’s dialogue and, as a result, most of his lines had to be looped.
  • The Shooting of the Don and Paulie
    • Oranges, or even the color orange, foreshadow death.
    • Vito Corleone is buying oranges when he is shot.
    • Vito’s assassination attempt was originally meant to be a flashback. Michael and Kay would see the newspaper announcing the shooting, which would lead to the event.
    • Clemenza asks for more wine and is given a pitcher of wine with oranges floating in it by Paulie, the driver he later has killed.
    •  
  • The Hospital Scene
    • Nazorine the Baker asks for help arranging for Enzo to stay in America and marry his daughter. Enzo himself later arrives at the hospital, first with flowers, and then helps Michael to bluff McCluskey’s assassination attempt.
    • According to Al Pacino, the tears in Marlon Brando’s eyes were real, in the hospital scene when Michael pledges himself to his father.
    • Al Pacino really had his jaw wired shut for the first part of the shoot after Michael is punched in the face.
    • During an early shot of the scene where Vito Corleone returns home and his people carry him up the stairs, Marlon Brando put weights under his body on the bed as a prank, to make it harder to lift him.
  • The Shooting of Sollozzo
    • Al Pacino wore a foam latex facial appliance that covered his entire left cheek and was made up with colors to match his skin tone and give the effect of bruising, to simulate the effect of having his jaw broken by Captain McCluskey
    • At the meeting in the restaurant, Sollozzo speaks to Michael in Sicilian so rapidly that subtitles could not be used. He begins with, “I am sorry. What happened to your father was business. I have much respect for your father. But your father, his thinking is old-fashioned. You must understand why I had to do that. Now let’s work through where we go from here.” When Michael returns from the bathroom, he continues in Sicilian with, “Everything all right? I respect myself, understand, and cannot allow another man to hold me back. What happened was unavoidable. I had the unspoken support of the other family dons. If your father were in better health, without his eldest son running things, no disrespect intended, we wouldn’t have this nonsense. We will stop fighting until your father is well and can resume bargaining. No vengeance will be taken. We will have peace. But your family should interfere no longer.”
    • The scene between Tom and Sollozzo was shot in an abandoned diner. The snowstorm when they exit the diner was real.
    • During the scene in the study when the family decides Michael Corleone needs to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, Santino Corleone is seen idly toying with a cane. The cane belonged to Al Pacino, who had badly injured his leg while filming Michael’s escape from the restaurant.
    • McCluskey’s death was achieved by building a fake forehead onto Sterling Hayden’s head. A gap was cut in the center and filled with fake blood, then capped off with a plug of prosthetic flesh. When the scene was being filmed, the plug was quickly yanked out using monofilament fishing line which doesn’t show up on film. The effect was to make it look like a bloody hole suddenly appeared on Hayden’s head.
  • Michael goes to Italy
    • Michael’s speech to Apollonia’s father was originally written to be in Sicilian, as it was in the novel. Al Pacino, however, did not speak Sicilian fluently, and could not learn such a lengthy speech. Francis Ford Coppola re-wrote the scene at the last minute to have Michael speak English, and have Fabrizio translate for him.
    • Because Corleone, Sicily, was too developed, even in the early 1970s, the Sicilian town of Savoca, outside Taormina, was used for shooting the scenes where Michael is in exile in Italy.
    • In many of the Sicily scenes, Michael wipes his nose with a handkerchief. The novel explains that McCluskey’s punch did damage to his sinuses.
    • The Death of his Wife
  • Carlo and Connie
    • While filming the scene in which Carlo beats her, Talia Shire lost a shoe. Not wanting to have to restore the set and wait for the camera to be set up for a second time, she simply continued to play through the scene, even at the risk of cutting her foot on all the ceramics she had just destroyed.
    • The scene of Connie destroying crockery after finding out Carlo was cheating was added due to the studio wanting more exciting scenes.
  • Sonny Beats Up Carlo
    • The scene where Sonny beats up Carlo (Connie’s husband) took four days to shoot, and featured more than 700 extras. The use of the garbage can lid was improvised by James Caan.
    • When Sonny beats up Carlo, a truck in the background and a wooden box on the sidewalk are strategically placed to hide anachronistic objects in the background.
    • Carlo is wearing an orange jumpsuit when Sonny beats him up, foreshadowing both of their deaths.
    • One of the worst fights in movie history lol
  • The Shooting of Sonny
    • Francis Ford Coppola shot Sonny’s assassination scene in one take with different cameras positioned at each shot. This was because there were one hundred forty-nine squibs taped onto James Caan’s body to simulate the effect of rapid machine gun fire, and they couldn’t shoot another take.
    • Bonasera, who comes to avenge the attempted rape and beating of his daughter, is called upon to prepare Sonny’s body for his funeral.
    • Sonny’s death scene offers up a clue to the fact that Carlo set him up. When Sonny beat up Carlo, he finished by kicking him in the face. After Sonny has been shot dead, one of his killers kicks him across the face.
    • Sonny’s death scene was inspired by the ending of Bonnie and Clyde (1967).
  • Moe Green and Vegas
    • Johnny Fontane, in return for a film role that revives his career, is signed to appear at Michael’s casinos.
    • Moe Greene was modelled after Jewish mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, although Siegel was not known for wearing glasses. Both were assassinated with a shot through the eye, with the glasses worn by Greene being necessary in order to accomplish the special effect eye shot.
  • The Shooting of the Five Families
    • According to Richard S. Castellano, he defended Gordon Willis (the
      cinematographer) during a disagreement Willis was having with Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola got revenge on Castellano by making him do twenty takes of the shots of Clemenza walking up four flights of stairs.
    • During the sit-down with the other Dons, an orange is placed in front of each Don that Michael later has killed
  • The Death of the Don
    • Vito has an orange peel in his mouth when he suffers his fatal heart attack.
    • Don Corleone’s death scene, while it featured in the novel, was originally not to appear in the film because studio executives felt that the audience would see the funeral and know what had happened. Francis Ford Coppola shot the scene with three cameras in a private residence on Long Island (the makeshift garden itself was created from scratch and torn down immediately after shooting), with Marlon Brando ad-libbing his lines.
    • For the Don’s funeral, twenty limos and 150 extras were used, with flowers costing over $1,000 each.
  • The Death of Tesso
  • Behind the scenes mooning?
    • There was a great deal of mooning on-set, started by James Caan and Robert Duvall. In an effort to break some tension during a rehearsal for the first scene, the pair mooned Francis Ford Coppola, Marlon Brando, and Salvatore Corsitto. Caan told TIME Magazine, “My best moon was on Second Avenue. Bob Duvall and I were in one car and Brando was in another, so we drove up beside him and I pulled down my pants and stuck my ass out the window. Brando fell down in the car with laughter.” Richard Bright claimed that it got to the point where every time you turned opened a door, you expected to see someone’s behind. Even Al Pacino got in on the act, as he told Ladies’ Home Journal, “In a scene where I sit behind a desk, wardrobe made a big fuss about getting me a shirt with a smaller collar. So while everyone was looking at the shirt, I took off my pants. When I came out from behind the desk, I got a laugh, even though we had to do the scene over.” The ultimate moon came when Brando and Duvall mooned four hundred cast and crew members during the shooting of the wedding scene. They planned it carefully and Caan, who overheard the plan, started to shout, “No, no, not here!” Everyone working on the production and most of the extras roared with laughter (some of the older ladies didn’t appreciate the view). Eventually, Brando was crowned best prankster, designated by a heavyweight-style leather belt with the title, “Moon Champion”.

Critical Reception and Fan Theories

• The Godfather was nominated for 7 Oscars winning 3.
  • Brando for Best Actor
  • Best Director Coppola
  • Best Adapted Screen Play won by Puzo and Coppola
• The Godfather grossed 250 million dollars worldwide on a 6 million dollar budget.
• Critics have called the film a masterpiece of cinema and it ranks on may AFI top lists and as the #1 Mafia movie of all time. Some consider it the greatest film of all time.
• Real-life gangsters responded enthusiastically to the film, with many of them feeling it was a portrayal of how they were supposed to act. Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, the former underboss in the Gambino crime family, stated: “I left the movie stunned. I mean I floated out of the theater. Maybe it was fiction, but for me, then, that was our life. It was incredible. I remember talking to a multitude of guys, made guys, who felt exactly the same way.” According to Anthony Fiato after seeing the film, Patriarca crime family members Paulie Intiso and Nicky Giso altered their speech patterns closer to that of Vito Corleone’s. Intiso would frequently swear and use poor grammar, but after the movie came out, he started to articulate and philosophize more.
• Pacino thought the film would bomb after seeing coppola crying.
  • You remember the funeral scene for Marlon, when they put him down? It was over for the evening, the sun was going down. So, naturally, I’m happy ’cause I get to go home and have some drinks. I was on the way to my camper, saying, well, I was pretty good today. I had no lines, no obligations, that was fine. Every day without lines is a good day. So I’m going back to my camper. And there, sitting on a tombstone, is Francis Ford Coppola, weeping like a baby. Profusely crying. And I went up to him and I said, Francis, what’s wrong? What happened? He says, “They won’t give me another shot.” Meaning, they wouldn’t allow him to film another setup. And I thought: OK. I guess I’m in a good film here. Because he had this kind of passion and there it is. – New York Time interview
• The Film has been parodied in several films and TV shows. Mentioned in Songs and other stories.

Fan Theories

• Tom had Luca Killed
  • According to Reddit user u/ortegasb, it wasn’t Sollozzo who killed Luca, but Tom. They believe that the scenes were told in a non-chronological order, stating, “I think the sequence was: kidnap Tom, gun down the Godfather, Interrogate Tom, Tom gives up Luca, Luca goes to the club and gets choked.
• The Godfather is possessed by the devil
  • The Godfather films are inherently tragedies. As u/The_Telltale_Fart observes, the first Godfather is about the corrupting of Michael Corleone as he rises to replace his father, and Part II is about the debilitating personal effects being the Don has on an individual.
  • This theory posits that those who become Godfather are possessed by the Devil and that those who come to the Godfather for help are making dangerous pacts. The theory does contain some great points (like Kate calling their child ‘unholy’), and it essentially becomes the core theme of The Godfather wrapped in a fan theory about demonic possession.
• Sonny Survived
  • Sonny’s death is probably one of the most re-watched scenes from the entire trilogy. It serves as a brutal cap to his character arc, and it proves one of the movie’s most violent sequences. It’s pretty obvious that he does not survive, but not according to u/Sicilianfamily.
  • As they state, “Vito Corleone is looking at Sonny’s body double when identifying the body at the funeral parlor.” Of course, the primary response claims, “This is the worst theory I’ve seen on the sub,” so it’s clear that no one should take this very seriously.
• Sollozzo Insulted Vito
  • The meeting between Sollozzo and Vito does not go well, and it leads to the attempt on Vito’s life. As u/thecircularblue posits, the meeting was over once Sollozzo knowingly insulted Vito in front of his family.
  • They write, “When Sollozzo says, ‘I need, Don Corleone, those politicians that you carry in your pocket, like so many nickels and dimes,’ he’s basically calling him a ‘nickel and dimer’ – someone of low level operation or of menial tasks.” This insulted Vito (as evidenced by his cheek-rubbing) and ended both the meeting and any potential association between Sollozzo and the Corleones.
• Micheal was effective due to his military Training
  • It’s made abundantly clear throughout The Godfather that Michael has a military background, and according to Reddit user u/Whitepill-rescue, this background was invaluable in his rapid ascension to Don.
  • As they write in the headline, “Michael Corleone’s effectiveness and superiority over other crime families came from his US military training which no other mafioso of his time had.” They conclude, “That he was so successful is because he turned the Corleone family into practically a war machine. He was operating his family as a company of the US army in peacetime.”
• Elf and Goodburger are in the same universe
  • One of the movie’s most bizarre fan theories, u/speedboat26 claims that The Godfather shares a cinematic universe with Elf. They believe that Sonny faked his death to leave the mafia, changed his name to Walter Hobbs, met Susan Wells, and had Buddy.
  • Walter’s rough, take-no-nonsense persona comes from his time in the mafia and is a more peaceful remnant of Sonny’s violent temper. Furthermore, Walter’s son is named Michael, having obviously named him after his long-lost brother, Michael Corleone.
  • According to Reddit user u/confusedmoon2002, The Godfather shares a cinematic universe with the 1997 comedy Good Burger, which itself was inspired by an All That sketch starring Kel Mitchell and Kenan Thompson. The theory is quite lengthy and wades some deep territory.
  • Thankfully, the user provides a handy TLDR at the bottom, which simply reads, ” In 1955, Abe Vigoda’s character, gangster Salvatore Tessio, escapes execution in New York and flees to California. He takes a mild-mannered job at a burger restaurant under the pseudonym ‘Otis’, and 42 years later, the events of Good Burger occur.”
• The Godfather Cannon
  • Mario Puzo’s The Godfather and The Godfather Trilogy.
  • Additional information on the supplements disc of the DVD and Blu-ray.
  • The final screenplay drafts of the films.
  • The Sicilian.
  • The Family Corleone — based on an original screenplay of Mario Puzo.
  • The Godfather Returns.
    • Death of Tesso
  • Deleted Scenes
    • Sonny is in charge
      • After the don is shot
        • He then delivers the news to his mother before demanding that Tessio get “fifty good men” over to the house:
      • The Death of Fabrizio
        • In the book, Michael tracks down Fabrizio, the bodyguard that tried to kill him (but only succeeded in killing Apollonia). In Part I, there is a scene that shows Michael recovering and ordering his men to find his former bodyguard.
        • Coppola also filmed a scene in which Michael, toting a lupara just like Fabrizio, confronts him and blows him away, but it was so bloody that it was cut.
        • As if Michael killing Fabrizio with a lupara was not symbolic enough, blowing him up with a car bomb is wicked:
      • Some Book Differences
        • The Sonny Story
        • Characters described as not great looking.