Posted on 09/22/2009 4:15:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Just like the film, the making of 'The Godfather’ was an ugly story of fear and dysfunction.
What was the formula that made The Godfather one of the most successful films of all time? Surely it would take an unusually harmonious combination of talents working in concert, a rare balance of commercial entertainment and artistic challenge, a run of luck those involved couldn’t miss.
Related Articles The Godfather - memorable lines But all wasn’t plain sailing on Francis Ford Coppola’s film in 1972. It was nominated for 11 Oscars, winning three, and on its $6 million budget grossed $101million for Paramount within 18 weeks of release. As the film gets a welcome cinematic re-release in a beautiful restoration, it is timely to dive into the swirling mists of legend and recall how far it was from a sure thing. “It was the most miserable film I can think of to make,” declares its producer, Al Ruddy. “Nobody enjoyed one day of it.” Coppola agrees: “It was just non-stop anxiety and wondering when I was going to get fired.” The novel by Mario Puzo could easily not have been written: eight publishers passed on the outline for a would-be best-seller pitched by a middle-ranking, mid-forties writer with a bad gambling habit and big debts. Only bumping into a friend had led to his actually writing The Godfather. Its 67 weeks topping the New York Times best-seller list surprised everyone.
Paramount bought an option when Puzo had only written 100 pages, for a mere $12,500, rising to $50,000 if the novel was filmed. But maybe – if we’re to credit Paramount’s head of production Robert Evans – Paramount very nearly didn’t acquire it. There was a bidding war: they were “one day away from Burt Lancaster buying The Godfather, and Burt wanted
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
That is a great line.
One of my favorites:
"Certainly he can present a bill for such services; after all we are not Communists" - Barzini
>The best line in the book never made it to the movie. The Godfather: “A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.”
Never knew that until now.
Recently read that Puzo said late in life something like... “If I had known it would be such a big deal, I would have written it better.”
Should ping the boss, too.
The book is badly written pulp. The first two films are works of Art.
Like “Gone With the Wind,” “The Godfather” film is essentially a study in vanishing feudalism: the old, aristocratic masters who made their empires out of sweat and blood are fading into the background, to be replaced by the middle-class, mercantile interests represented in “Gone With the Wind” by the blockade runner Rhett Butler and in the first “Godfather” by the drug-dealing upstart Sollozzo.
Coppola seems to do incredibly well when faced with total hell during production. The Godfather, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now were all produced under trying circumstances, but these are the only three of his films that can be considered masterpieces.
i agree with you... ditto, ditto, ditto... i loved part II because of Robert De Niro... perfect as the young Vito Corleone...
i love this scene... it does seem real...
I recall reading some book about the production years ago, and it was nowhere near as bad as they claimed (if it was, it certainly would’ve showed in the ultimate product). Stressful, demanding, and sometimes frustrating, but “nobody enjoy one day of it” ? C’mon.
Ah, you mean the lady with the huge... garage ?
The Godfasther II was made under ideal circumstances and is probably his finest film.
Several USC Cinema School friends and I attended the premiere at noon on a weekday on Hollywood Blvd. (might have been the Egyptian theatre). When we came out at three, the line was full not only for the 3:00 but also for the 6:00!
May I be first..
“Leave the gun, take the cannolis”
Best movie line, EVER!!!
I will even go so far as to say that much of GF II functioned more effectively as part of the Godfather Saga that Coppola cut for television.
Coppola seems to do incredibly well when faced with total hell during production. The Godfather, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now were all produced under trying circumstances, but these are the only three of his films that can be considered masterpieces.
If you listen to his commentary on the Godfather you can get a clue as to why that is. When faced with unexpected circumstances Coppola is very gifted with finding ways around it. Writing things into scenes, filming additional scenes etc. For example in Godfather II they wanted to get Brando but couldn’t. So in the last scene Brando’s presence is implied (the birthday celebration but not Brando). Coppola thought this up. He also talks about always filming a scene when your characters are on the phone. Later on, you can overdub any plot elements you need to introduce later into that phone scene. And it goes on and on. He’s a great problem solver when it comes to facing the inevitable problems that do come up and finding artistic ways out of the dilemma that somehow work.
I think it’s a superior film to the original and possibly the most ambitious script ever filmed by a major studio. The counterpoint between the nostalgic flashbacks and the coldness of the 1950s story was extremely well executed. I wouldn’t change a thing about it.
bump
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