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| Proud of its cast and creators, in stark black and white, with the only graphical adornment the puppeteer's hand over the title, the iconic poster for Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather |
Michael Corleone is the heir to Don Corleone's powerful mafia family in New York, and following an assassination attempt on the old man's life, Michael reluctantly returns home to definitively enter into the criminal family business.
"I believe in America" is said at the beginning of The Godfather, which, as the statement suggests, grows to something much greater than a mere gangster tale. It is an epic national drama. It was written by Mario Puzo (Earthquake (1974)), based on his own-same-titled 1969 best-selling novel, and Michigander master filmmaker, co-writer/director Francis Ford Coppola (The Bellboy and the Playgirls (1962)), whose 8th feature it was.
The wedding party at the outset of the film is a completely magical piece of cinema and worth the prize of admission or three hours running time in itself. The faces, atmospheres, music (Nino Rota's (Amarcord (1973)) authentic, soulful score), the characters and all the way out to the extras, this sequence is formidable.
Marlon Brando (Guys and Dolls (1955)) is awe-inspiring as the Don, and the film continues to the very end with tremendous scenes that once seen can somehow never be forgotten. The Godfather is an epic milestone.
Related posts:
Francis Ford Coppola: Twixt (2011) - Coppola's dreamlike Gothic is a late-night gem
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - Coppola goes for the jugular with unsubtle, overlong adaptation
Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date
Apocalypse Now (1979) redux version - The horror of war
Dementia 13/The Haunted and the Hunted (1963) - Coppola's gothic AIP castle horror
Watch an original trailer for the film here
Cost: 6-7.2 mil. $ (different accounts)
Box office: 246-287 mil. $ (different accounts)
= Blockbuster (returned at least 34.16 times its cost)
[The Godfather premiered 14 March (New York) and runs 177 minutes. Puzo's novel was the best-selling book for several years after selling 9 mil. copies in two years. Paramount optioned the novel before its publication for 80k $, which Puzo took to pay off gambling debts. Coppola was hired after 12 other prestige directors had rejected the offer to helm the film, and Coppola did it despite reluctance to Puzo's novel to pay off his own debts. He was reportedly paid 125k $ and 6% of the gross rentals; a likely eventually enormous amount due to the film's success, though his initial take is uncertain. Puzo was paid 100k $ to work on the screenplay along with an undisclosed percentage of the film's profits. Coppola and Puzo's final script was 163 pages long, about 40 pages longer than what Paramount had asked for. Brando was cast over Paramount's preferred star, Ernest Borgnine; Brando's pay deal resulted in a tall 1.6 mil. final salary. Coppola also got his way with several other key actors in the film, namely Al Pacino (The Irishman, VOD (2019)), whom he fought to have portray Michael. The budget was reportedly raised from 1 mil. $ to 2.5 mil. $ to more than double that, as Coppola was allowed extensive location shooting and schedule time, boosted by the novel's enormous popularity. The Italian-American Civil Rights League succeeded in getting the word 'mafia' removed from the screenplay. Shooting took place in Sicily, Italy, the Dominican Republic, Las Vegas, Nevada, California, including Los Angeles, New Jersey and New York from March - August. Coppola fired his editor and assistant director, who he felt were angling to get him fired from the film. Brando in turn threatened to leave the film, if Coppola was fired. The film had built up tremendous anticipation before its release and had already made 15 mil. $ in rentals before its release. It opened #1 to shatter records for a first week gross of 10 mil. $, earning a total 81.7 mil. $ in rentals in North America during its first release. It was the highest-grossing film of 1972 and beat Gone with the Wind's (1939) record as highest rental earner of all time, until Jaws (1975). The domestic gross grew to 134.9 mil. $ (47-54.8 % of the total gross depending on the correct number) after several re-releases. Its domestic success was such that it currently sits as the 25th highest-grossing film ever, adjusted for inflation. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning 3; for Best Picture, Actor (Brando, - who refused to receive it and sent a native American representative to take it for him as a protest of the portrayal of native Americans in Hollywood culture) and Adapted Screenplay. It lost Supporting Actor (triple nomination for Pacino, - who also refused to attend the Oscars, because he had more screen time than Brando in the movie, - Robert Duvall and James Caan) to Joel Grey for Cabaret, Costume Design to Travels with My Aunt, Director to Bob Fosse for Cabaret, Editing also to Cabaret and Sound also to Cabaret. Rota was initially nominated for his score, but it was then found to be similar to a score he had made about 15 years earlier and the Academy withdrew the nomination. It also won 5/7 Golden Globe nominations, 1/5 BAFTA noms, 2 David di Donatello awards, 1/2 Grammy noms, 2 National Board of Review awards an many other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, in line with this one. NBC paid 10 mil. $ for the TV rights to first show the film on TV in 1974 over the course of two evenings, which was a ratings smash, increasing the anticipation for Coppola's 1974 sequel in the Godfather trilogy. The film spurred countless imitations and a wealth of portrayals of Italian-American gangsters in film and TV. IMDb's users have voted The Godfather in at #2 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Godfather: Part II (1974). Coppola first returned with The Conversation (1974). Brando returned in Last Tango in Paris (1972). The Godfather is certified fresh at 98 % with a 9.27/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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