Madrid. The word mafia (mob, in English) is not pronounced in “The Godfather”, a film that supported organized crime campaigns and even Frank Sinatra to prevent a shoot whose most expensive scene was the scene of the death of Sonny Corleone and whose casting Warren Beatty or Dustin Hoffman were discarded.
50 years ago when the film hit theaters, starring Al Pacino, was an immediate success and there were long queues to enter the rooms, So much so that in Los Angeles UCLA students were charged $5 to hold their place in line.
One of the many anecdotes of a mythical film, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino.
– The film was produced by Paramount after one of its producers, Peter Bart, bought the film rights to the novel “The Godfather” by Mario Puzo, when it was only a 20-page sketch.
– Organized crime boss Joe Colombo and his organization, the Italian-American Civil Rights League, launched a campaign to stop the film from being made. And even Frank Sinatra turned to his friends in the mob to threaten those involved in the project.
– Puzo wrote a personal letter to Marlon Brando, telling him that he was the only person who could play the Don, Vito Corleone, but in the Paramount they thought that the actor was poison for the box office and they did not want him.
– In the end he was chosen after discarding a good number of well-known actors of that time, such as Laurence Olivier, George C. Scott, Ernest Borgnine or Anthony Quinn. And 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 was played by a very young Al Pacino. Before him, Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford or Robert De Niro were thought of.
– Pacino got the role but had problems because he had been hired for “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight”, which was going to be shot at the same time as “The Godfather”. He was replaced by Robert De Niro, who, in turn, had to give up playing Paulie Gatto in Coppola’s film.
– Al Pacino He earned just $35,000 for starring in the film, the same as James Caan and Diane Keaton.And $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.
– 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.
– When rehearsals began, Coppola decided that the main cast would 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 he wanted his character to look like a bulldog, so he stuffed his cheeks with cotton for the audition and then wore a prosthesis on set.
– The film was shot in 120 locations in and around New York City. And the exterior of producer Jack Woltz’s home was William Randolph Hearst’s in Beverly Hills. Not so the interior or the bed in which the horse’s head appeared.
– Cinematographer Gordon Willis said that the coloring of the film was “like a newspaper photograph with faulty colors” and ensured that this distinctive look was preserved in the negative using a particular technique of photochemical exposure. Something that caused a tremendous deterioration in the negative, which has now been fully restored.
– The first scene of the film was the wedding of Connie, the Godfather’s daughter. It took four days and 350 extras were hired.
– Another emblematic scene is that of the death of Sonny Corleone, the most violent shot up to that moment. James Caan was carrying 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.
– Al Pacino’s maternal grandparents emigrated to America from Corleone (Sicily), as did Vito Corleone.
– Many members of Coppola’s family participated in the film. Talia Shire (her sister), played Connie Corleone; Italia Coppola (her mother) was an extra; Carmine (her father) 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.
– 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.
– It was the highest grossing film of 1972 and for a while it was the highest grossing in history until “The Exorcist” was released the following year.
– Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro are the only two actors to have won an Oscar for playing the exact same character, Vito Corleone, in “The Godfather” and “The Godfather. Part II.”
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– In 1990 “The Godfather” was included in the National Film Registry of the USA of the Library of Congress, being considered “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.
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