The scene took three days, and the technicians and explosives cost $100,000, which was a sizable chunk of the film’s $6.5 million budget
[AdSense-A]
These were just some of the complaints from Paramount Pictures executives during the troubled production of The Godfather as it lumbered toward its theatrical release in March 1972. But director Francis Ford Coppola’s Oscar-winning adaptation of the Mario Puzo gangster novel—about a powerful Italian American family that ascends to the top of New York City’s Mafia—is now considered a true cinematic masterpiece and a pop culture touchstone.
“The movie is extraordinary on every single level, from the performances to the musical cues to the language,” says actress Talia Shire, who played Don Vito Corleone’s daughter, Connie. “Time doesn’t tick for it.” In honor of the movie’s 50th anniversary, Parade salutes the remarkable history and legacy of the most monumental mobster film ever made.
Related: Talia Shire Reflects on Working With Marlon Brando in The Godfather: ‘He Really Wanted You To Be Great’
A Shaky Start
Coppola, who had co-written the big war biopic Patton, landed the coveted position of director after Elia Kazan (On the Waterfront) and Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde) turned it down. But his job was on shaky ground even after the cameras started to roll. “There were [directors] standing to the side ready to take over,” Shire says. “Can you imagine?!” Al Pacino, a breakout in the large cast, who portrayed Vito’s youngest son, Michael, recalls, “It was a great script. But we didn’t know what filmmaking was, really.”
[AdSense-A]
No Marlon Brando?
Imagine Burt Lancaster, Sir Laurence Olivier or Anthony Quinn as crime boss Don Vito Corleone. Those were the actors that Paramount preferred. “We tested everybody,” Coppola says. The director pushed for the volatile Marlon Brando and knew he had found what he wanted after the actor’s transformative screen test.
Related: 60 of the Most Famous Quotes from The Godfather
A Blond Michael?
For the role of Michael Corleone, the studio floated Robert Redford and Ryan O’Neal. Martin Sheen also auditioned for the part. So how did little-known Al Pacino land it? Coppola and Pacino were already friendly because they had worked together on an unproduced film. “One of my advantages was I got to know him a little during our time together,” Pacino says.
Improv Wedding
Near the beginning of the movie, Shire’s Connie—Vito’s only daughter—gets married at a lavish wedding on the family compound (actual location: the Todt Hill neighborhood of New York City’s Staten Island). Because Coppola only had two days to shoot, he asked the cast to improvise in the background and shot specific vignettes within the swirl of the festivities.
That Cat!
At least Vito’s cat didn’t have to audition. He was a walk-on…or a carry-on. On the day of the shoot in Vito’s study, Coppola scooped up a stray cat and told Brando to improvise with it. “I saw the cat running around the studio and put it in his hands,” the director says. The cat sat calmly in Brando’s lap all day.
Those Pranksters!
James Caan (Sonny Corleone) and Robert Duvall (Tom Hagen, the Corleones’ consigliere, or lawyer) were initially intimidated by the legendary Brando, who had received acclaim all the way back in 1951 for his breakout role in A Streetcar Named Desire—and an Oscar for On the Waterfront (1954). But they broke the ice by dropping their pants and mooning him. “He made me!” Caan says of Duvall. Brando upstaged them all by dropping his own trousers while the crew was setting up the wedding photo scene.
Gimme a Break
There was supposed to be an intermission just after Michael assassinates a rival mobster and a police captain at a restaurant. But the idea was scuttled to avoid ruining the momentum. The film’s final, uninterrupted running time: 175 minutes.
The Oranges
There’s a reason why oranges are prevalent throughout the film, including the ones that roll across the street as Vito gets shot and in the vineyard scene toward the end, where he plays with his grandson with an orange peel in his mouth. The production designer liked the contrast of the bright colors against the visual doom and gloom of the story.
The Price of Death
For the hotheaded Sonny, an ordinary death would not do. Cue a hailstorm of bullets at an ambush at a tollbooth on the Long Beach Causeway. The scene took three days, and the technicians and explosives cost $100,000, which was a sizable chunk of the film’s $6.5 million budget.
[AdSense-A]
The Horse, of Course
That bloody horse head discovered in the bed of the ruthless movie producer Jack Woltz (John Marley) wasn’t a prop: Coppola’s scouts obtained a real horse’s head from a dog food plant in New Jersey.
A Family Affair
Shire (Connie) happens to be Coppola’s sister—and their father, Carmine, popped up as a piano player during a montage and composed several pieces of music for the soundtrack. The director’s two sons, Roman and Gian-Carlo, also have background roles. And Michael and Kay’s baby boy in the baptism scene? That’s actually Coppola’s daughter, Sofia, who grew up to appear in the sequels (in other roles)
proc. BY MOVIES
Post Comment