The Godfather
An offer you can't refuse.
The Godfather (1972)
Production
Budget
$6 000 000
Revenue
$243 862 778
Director
Scenario
Mario Puzo
Author
Composer
Producer
Albert S. Ruddy
Actors
Marlon Brando
Don Vito Corleone
Al Pacino
Michael Corleone
James Caan
Sonny Corleone
Robert Duvall
Tom Hagen
Richard S. Castellano
Clemenza
Diane Keaton
Kay Adams
Talia Shire
Connie Corleone Rizzi
Gianni Russo
Carlo Rizzi
Short description
The Godfather follows the Corleone family, one of New York's most powerful organized crime clans, across the decade between 1945 and 1955. Its head, Vito Corleone, runs his affairs by an older code and turns down an offer to enter the narcotics trade with rival families. That refusal leads to an attempt on his life, and while he recovers, the family's position comes under threat. His youngest son, Michael, a war hero who had kept his distance from the family business, is drawn into protecting his father and settling the conflict with the rival factions.
Francis Ford Coppola directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, working from Puzo's novel, with Albert S. Ruddy, Coppola and Robert Evans producing for Paramount. The film was Coppola's third as director, following The Terror, and it was succeeded by The Godfather Part II in 1974. Marlon Brando plays Vito Corleone, with Al Pacino as Michael, James Caan as Sonny, Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, Richard S. Castellano as Clemenza and Diane Keaton as Kay Adams. The production involved 81 credited cast members and 100 credited crew.
Made for about 6 million dollars, the film returned roughly 244 million worldwide, a large multiple of its cost. On IMDb it holds 9.2 out of 10 from about 2.2 million votes, and on TMDB 8.7 out of 10 from over 23,000 votes. A critics' rating of 9.8 out of 10 from 154 reviews places it slightly above even the very high audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Johnny Fontane was modeled after Frank Sinatra.
- At the 85th minute, the murdered police captain McCluskey, lying on the restaurant floor, blinks.
- The director's position for the film was initially offered to Sergio Leone, but he declined. Leone later regretted his decision and in 1983 decided to film an equally large-scale film, "Once Upon a Time in America."
- When approving the film project, Paramount Studios stipulated that Marlon Brando not be involved in the filming. By that time, he was known for his on-set antics, as well as problems with alcohol. Several actors auditioned for the role of the Godfather, but Brando delivered the best performance. The studio was forced to agree with this fact.
- Before filming began, Paramount Pictures wanted to take the project away from Coppola and give it to director Elia Kazan, but Brando said he would also leave if Coppola were fired.
- The word “coppola” (Italian: coppola) refers to a traditional Sicilian hat, which can be seen in some of the film’s “Italian” scenes. And Corleone (Italian: Corleone) is the name of a mountain village in Sicily that has served as a haven for mobsters for many years.
- The filmmakers adopted Don Corleone's raspy voice from the famous gangster Frank Costello. As a child, Frank accidentally damaged his vocal cords during an adenoidectomy.
- According to Al Pacino, Marlon Brando's tears in the hospital scene were real.
- Marlon Brando refused his Academy Award. He sent Sacheen Littlefeather, a representative of the Apache nation, to the ceremony in his place, and she also declined the award. The actor intended this as a protest against the discrimination faced by Native Americans.
- The prototype for Vito Corleone was the famous gangster Joseph 'Joe' Bonanno.
- Francis Ford Coppola became enthusiastic about making the film after reading the book. He says that if he had come to Paramount Studios with this idea four months later, he would not have been entrusted with filming it. The film company initially regarded the project as a small gangster drama and did not expect great success. Six months later, Mario Puzo's book gained popularity, and the film became an anticipated project. The film company did not dare to change directors mid-production.
- The producers did everything they could to make Francis Ford Coppola fire Pacino from the film. While reviewing the footage, they constantly asked the director the same question: "When will he finally START ACTING?" Only after seeing the scene where Michael Corleone kills the police commissioner did they understand Coppola's brilliant directorial foresight.
- The film ranks first on the American Film Institute's (AFI) list of the 10 greatest gangster films.
- In 2006, a computer game with the same name was released based on the film.
- The film is based on Mario Puzo's novel "The Godfather" (1969).
- According to Mario Puzo, the character of Johnny Fontane was not based on an incident from the life of Frank Sinatra, who, according to rumors, received a role in Fred Zinnemann's film "From Here to Eternity" (1953) due to pressure on the film's producer from the Mafia. However, this subsequently became a stereotype, repeatedly refuted by Frank Sinatra's biographers.
- During filming, Brando wore a special mouthguard to make his jaw look like that of a bulldog.
- Actor Lenny Montana, who played Luca Brasi, was so intimidated by Marlon Brando that he constantly flubbed his lines. Coppola liked this natural nervousness and included a scene with the messed-up lines in the film.
- Oranges are a symbol of death in the film: someone dies shortly after they appear in the frame.
- Filming took place over four months in the middle of 1971.
- Puzo's book became a bestseller, selling 10 million copies.
- James Caan and Al Pacino are only 10 years younger than Morgana King, who played their mother, while John Cazale is 5 years younger.
- In January 2008, McFarlane released a 16-centimeter figure of Don Corleone.
- Paramount Studios acquired the rights to film the novel even before it was published. The studio only had a 20-page outline of the novel at the time.
- According to some reports, Frank Sinatra also vied for the role of Vito Corleone.
- It is believed that one of the scenes demonstrating Don Corleone's cruelty is the one where he offers to have someone beaten while gently stroking a cat on his lap. However, there was no cat in the script. The cat wandered onto the set and jumped onto Marlon Brando's lap just before filming began.
- In the book, Michael and Kay Corleone had two sons, while in the film they had a son and a daughter.
- The author himself once admitted that he gained all his knowledge about the Mafia from other books.
- Composer Nino Rota was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, but the nomination was revoked when it was discovered that he hadn't written entirely new music for the film, but had reworked excerpts from an older work (from the film “Fortunella,” 1958).
- Mario Puzo was completely broke when he signed the contract with Random House to publish 'The Godfather'.
- A total of 18 corpses are shown in the film, including a horse.
- Warren Beatty, Alain Delon, Burt Reynolds, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Laurence Olivier, and others were considered for various roles in the film. But Coppola rejected all these candidates.
- The scene where Sonny beats Carlo took 4 days to film and required 700 extras.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
