The Godfather of Organized Crime Movies
The Godfather of organized crime movies is The Godfather; it is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, this mob drama, based on Mario Puzo's novel of the same name, was directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Don’t let the 178-minute runtime discourage you. You are not a movie fan until you’ve seen this. Here’s a short recap of the film. (Spoilers, be warned) It focuses on the powerful Italian-American crime family of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). When the don's youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino), reluctantly joins the Mafia, after coming home from World War II he becomes involved in the inevitable cycle of violence and betrayal. Although Michael tries to maintain a normal relationship with his wife, Kay (Diane Keaton), he is drawn deeper into the family business. When the age of Vito Corleone begins to fall into question he decides to transfer his position to one of his subalterns, a series of unfortunate events start happening to the family, and a war begins between all the well-known families leading to insolence, deportation, murder and revenge, and ends with the favorable successor being finally chosen, that being Al Pacino as Michael Corleone.
As great as this movie turned out, Coppola had a lot of trouble throughout the filmmaking process. First of all from the very beginning Paramount wanted to change the whole movie. As a cost-cutting measure, they asked Coppola to modernize the script so the action took place in 1972 and to shoot the movie in Kansas City as a stand-in for the more expensive New York City. Luck for us Coppola convinced them to keep the story in a post-World War II New York setting to maintain the integrity of the film. And Coppola had a very keen eye making everything look as 1940’s or 50’s as possible The cars' wooden bumpers are an example of incredible attention to detail, because auto manufacturers of the time were using alternate materials to conserve metal for the war effort. Despite is control of the movie there was intense friction between Francis Ford Coppola and Paramount, in which they frequently tried to have Coppola replaced, citing his inability to stay on schedule, unnecessary expenses, and production and casting errors Even though Coppola actually completed the film ahead of schedule and budget. And the early buzz on The Godfather (1972) was so positive that a sequel was planned before the film was even finished filming. Paramount most have been looking at someone else direct. To my surprise Coppola turned in an initial director's cut running 126 minutes. Paramount production chief Robert Evans rejected this version and demanded a longer cut with more scenes about the family. The final release version was nearly 50 minutes longer than Coppola's initial cut. That to me is shocking, most of time directors are the ones that want the longer movies and the studios want them shorter to be more appealing to a wider audience. For example in The Town Ben Affleck’s original cut was about 4 hours long, is second cut was just about the same as The Godfather at a little less than 3 hours, but still Warner Bros. wanted it shorter. He eventually got it down to 2 hours and 5 minutes and was happy with the final product. Paramount wasn’t Coppola’s only trouble while making this film Mafia crime boss Joe Colombo and his organization, The Italian-American Civil Rights League, started a campaign to stop the film from being made. Thefts and veiled threats were common forms of intimidation used by groups who didn't want the movie made, but the most vicious incident came when Paramount executive Robert Evans, his Hollywood actress wife Ali McGraw and their infant son Joshua received a mystery call at their New York hotel. “We don’t want to break your pretty face, hurt your newborn,” rasped the voice. “Get the f*ck outta town. Don’t shoot no movie about the family here. Got it?” Paramount received many letters during pre-production from Italian-Americans, including politicians, decrying the film as anti-Italian. They threatened to protest and disrupt filming. Producer Albert S. Ruddy met with Colombo, who demanded that the terms "Mafia" and "Cosa Nostra" not be used in the film. Ruddy gave them the right to review the script and make changes. He also agreed to hire League members (read: mobsters) as extras and advisers. The angry letters ceased after this agreement was made. Colombo may have won the battle but lost the war because in the original script only contained the word “Mafia” one time. Not to hard to rewrite. Funnily enough the Mafia wasn’t the only people protesting the movie, animals activist were appalled by the infamous horse head scene. The production designer made arrangements with a dog food manufacturer that used old horses to give them the head of a horse that had been scheduled to be put down. One day it arrived packed in dry ice and they had to scramble to film the scene. John Marley, who plays big timeHollywood producer Jack Waltz in the film, no doubt had less-than-fond memories long after his scenes were completed. When it came to filming the scene, Marley gave a very convincing frightened reaction, since a real one replaced the false head used in rehearsal. 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." Small things like this are what make a movie timeless. It’s also what makes a legendary director.
Everyone remembers the famous wedding scene. Well that’s another example of Coppola’s genius. He held improvisational rehearsal sessions that simply consisted of the main cast sitting down in character for a family meal. The actors couldn’t break character, which Coppola saw as a way for the cast to organically establish the family roles seen in the final film. And we can’t talk about The Godfather well that cat was actually a stray, during Coppola’s daily walk to set he would often see the cat, and on the day of shooting the scenes in Vito’s study, Coppola took the cat and told Brando to improvise with it. The cat loved Brando so much that it sat in his lap during takes for the whole day. The cat was also so content that it purring muffled some of Brando’s dialogue, and, as a result, most of his lines had to be looped.
It’s hard to make such an amazing movie like The Godfather, but even harder than that, is being as amazing as a director as Francis Ford Coppola.
