The Godfather

The Godfather (1972)

Timing: 2:55 (175 min)

8.687/10
22744

8.708/10
442953

9.2/10
2200000

All about film

Video 53

Photo 274

Actors and characters

Release date

1972-03-14

Country

United States

Production

Paramount, American Zoetrope, Albert S. Ruddy Productions, Alfran Productions

Genre

Drama, Crime

Budget

$6 000 000

Revenue

$245 066 411

Website

http://www.thegodfather.com/

Director

Francis Ford Coppola

Actors

Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Richard S. Castellano, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Gianni Russo, Sterling Hayden, John Marley
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Albert S. Ruddy, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Evans

Operator

Gordon Willis

Composer

Nino Rota

Artist

Samuel Verts

Audition

Fred Roos, Louis DiGiaimo, Andrea Eastman

Editing

William Reynolds, Peter Zinner
All team (99)

• The film is based on Mario Puzo's novel "The Godfather" (1969).
• Mario Puzo was completely broke when he signed a contract with "Random House" to publish "The Godfather".
• 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.
• Puzo's book became a bestseller, selling 10 million copies.
• The author himself once admitted that he gained all his knowledge about the Mafia from other books.
• 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."
• 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.
• 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.
• According to some reports, Frank Sinatra also vied for the role of Vito Corleone.
• 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.
• 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.
• Marlon Brando refused the Academy Award he was given. At the awards ceremony, he sent Sacheen Littlefeather, a representative of the Apache Native American tribe, to the stage in his place, and she also declined the award. The actor wanted to protest against the discrimination of Native Americans in this way.
• 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).
• In January 2008, McFarlane released a 16-centimeter figure of Don Corleone.
• Vito Corleone was modeled after the famous gangster Joseph "Joe" Bonanno.
• In 2006, a computer game with the same name was released based on the film.
• 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.
• Johnny Fontane was modeled after Frank Sinatra.
• Filming took place over four months in the middle of 1971.
• According to Al Pacino, Marlon Brando's tears in the hospital scene were real.
• James Caan and Al Pacino are only 10 years younger than Morgana King, who played their mother, while John Cazale is 5 years younger.
• 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.
• The film ranks first on the American Film Institute's (AFI) list of the 10 greatest gangster films.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• A total of 18 corpses are shown in the film, including a horse.
• Oranges are a symbol of death in the film: someone dies shortly after they appear in the frame.
• In the book, Michael and Kay Corleone had two sons, while in the film they had a son and a daughter.
• 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 scene where Sonny beats Carlo took 4 days to film and required 700 extras.
• At the 85th minute, the murdered police captain McCluskey, lying on the restaurant floor, blinks.
• Mario Puzo was completely broke when he signed the contract with Random House to publish 'The Godfather'.
• 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.