With the mafia against
The organized crime boss Joe Colombo and his organization, the Italian-American Civil Rights League, began a campaign to stop the film from being shot. Until Frank Sinatra he turned to his friends in the mafia to threaten those involved in the project.
Despite being a movie about the mafia in which that word (“mafia” and “mob” in English) is not pronounced even once. When the film was released, an exclusive screening was made for the mafia.
The choice of the cast
Puzo wrote a personal letter to Marlon Brandotelling him that he was the only person who could play the Don, Vito Corleone, but Paramount thought the actor would bring them down at the box office and they didn’t want him.
Brando was finally chosen after discarding a good number of well-known actors of that time, such as Laurence Olivier, George C. Scott, Ernest Borgnine and Anthony Quinn. Even burt lancaster wanted to buy the rights to the novel and offered a million dollars to Paramount’s head of production, Robert Evans.
Many names were also considered for the role of Michael, the beloved son of the Godfather, who played a very young Al Pacino. Before him, he thought of Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, and Robert Redford.
Al Pacino he earned only $35,000 for starring in the film, the same as james caan and Diane Keaton$1,000 less than Robert Duvall. According to EW magazine, Brando pocketed $250,000 and a percentage of the profits. And that his character appears only one of the three hours that the film lasts.
Robert De Niro audition
Robert DeNiro He auditioned for the role of Sonny Corleone, the eldest son of Vito Corleone, although things did not go as planned. Coppola ended up choosing the actor james caan for the role, for which he earned an Oscar nomination. However, after a short time and thinking about “The Godfather II”the director eventually decided on De Niro.
While his audition wasn’t good enough to put him in Sonny’s shoes, Coppola did consider him for another character: young Vito Corleone. It was precisely that performance that gave him his first Oscar in 1975 for Best Supporting Actor. curiously Marlon Brando He also won an Oscar for his performance as Vito Corleone in the first part.
The movie length problem
Specifically, the duration is 2 hours and 55 minutes, although Coppola had been asked not to exceed 2 hours and 15 minutes. When he presented the initial montage, the production company considered that it was just a trailer and allowed him to extend it for almost an hour.
Curiosities of the shoot
As rehearsals began, Coppola decided to have the main cast gather for a family meal playing their characters, to establish the hierarchy of family roles in the story.
Brando took out the voice of Vito Corleone imitating that of the real mobster Frank Costello. And she wanted her character to look like a bulldog, so she stuffed her cheeks with cotton for the audition and then wore a prosthesis on set.
Another emblematic scene is that of the death of Sonny Corleone, the most violent shot up to that moment. james caan it carried 127 blood-filled detonating devices to simulate the impact of bullets and the car had more than 200 pre-drilled detonating holes. A sequence that cost more than 100,000 dollars.
Many members of Coppola’s family participated in the film. thalia shire (her sister), played Connie Corleone; Italy Coppola (his mother) acted as an extra; Carmine (his father of him), played the piano player in the mattress sequence and composed the music for that scene. Her children, Sofia, Gian-Carlo and Roman, were the christening children of Connie’s son.
The final result
It was the highest grossing film of 1972 and for a time it was the highest grossing in history until it was released “The Exorcist”the next year.
In 1990 “The Godfather” was inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, as it was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
Its success spawned two sequels: “The Godfather II” in 1974 and “The Godfather III” in 1990. “The Godfather” and “The Godfather II” they are the only original/sequel combination to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Along with The Lord of the Rings, The Godfather trilogy shares the distinction that all of its installments were nominated for best picture.
Source: Ambito
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