The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola in 1972, is about the Italian mob scene. This film is based off of the book Mario Puzo wrote and takes place from 1945-1955. Puzo went into Robert Evans, the head producer of Paramount Pictures, office and gave him the transcript for the book. Evans never thought he would see Puzo again, and that the book would become nothing. A waste of his time. A couple months later, Mario called to change the book name to The Godfather. The Godfather spent 67 weeks on New York Times best- seller list and definitely exploded with popularity, and eventually turned into a film (Vanity Fair). In order to turn the novel into a film, Paramount Pictures needed a director but struggled with finding one. Once Francis Ford Coppola came into the picture, he argued with the studio as to who would be playing certain characters. The main character they fought over was Marlon Brando. Coppola wanted Brando to play as Vito Corleone, the Godfather, and Paramount Pictures said no due to Marlon’s performances within previous movies. Francis was interviewed about Brando, and you can see his response here.
The Godfather won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Golden Globe Award for Best Mountain Picture Drama, Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay- Motion Picture, in addition to man other awards regarding directors, actors, and music. This mainstream Blockbuster was extremely successful, resulting in a trilogy. It focuses on the Italian- American mob society and the politics that go along with it.
The Godfather was beautifully done by Francis Coppola. Richard Brody, a journalist for The New Yorker wrote, “Coppola single-handedly, mightily, and enduringly shored up the ruins of familiar but outmoded conventions: performances of a poised dramatic accuracy, images of a burnished, low-light luxuriousness, shots composed with a fluid precision, a script that foregrounds the action to express the story’s strategic, psychological, and political implications.” The rest of this article speaks of the roles each character plays, in addition to the effect of each and every role on screen (The New Yorker).
Another individual, Tom Santopietro, wrote an article on how The Godfather impacted his life. Tom watched the film, with his mother and father, when he was 18 years old, “ saw the movie for the first time with my parents. I have this very distinct memory of my father and I being wrapped up in it, and my mother leaning over and asking me, ‘How much longer is this?’” Tom also gives historical background on The Godfather pertaining to the release in 1970, “On the sociological level, we had been facing the twin discouragements of the Vietnam War and Watergate, so it spoke to this sense of disillusionment that really started to permeate American life at that time. I think also the nostalgia factor with the Godfather cannot be underestimated, because in the early ’70s (the first two films were in ’72 and ’74), it was such a changing world. It was the rise of feminism. It was the era of black power. And what The Godfather presented was this look at the vanishing white male patriarchal society. I think that struck a chord with a lot of people who felt so uncertain in this rapidly changing world. Don Corleone, a man of such certainty that he created his own laws and took them into his own hands, appealed to a lot of people.” You can check out the rest of the article here.
Resources
Brody, Richard. “The Negative Influence of Coppola’s ‘The Godfather.’” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 19 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-negative-influence-of-coppolas-the-godfather.
“Francis Ford Coppola How The Godfather Was Made.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 Apr. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VOxIJBKQwQ.
Gambino, Megan. “What Is The Godfather Effect?” Smithsonian.com, 31 Jan. 2012, www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-is-the-godfather-effect-83473971/.
Seal, Mark. “The Godfather Wars.” The Hive, Vanity Fair, 31 Jan. 2015, www.vanityfair.com/news/2009/03/godfather200903.