Robert Evans Week: The Godfather

Welcome to Day 3 of Robert Evans Week and baby we got a doozy for you today.  With immigrants, an aging patriarch of a syndicate makes preparations to leave his legacy in the hands of his son.  From the mind of brilliant writer Mario Puzo (The Dark Arena, The Fortunate Pilgrim, Fools Die, The Sicilian, The Fourth K and The Last Don) and brought to us by director/writer/producer Francis Ford Coppola ( Dementia 13, Patton, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders, The Cotton Club Dracula and The Rainmaker) comes the story of power changing hands in a ten year span based around a son that was deemed an outsider to the family to becoming harden with the times and moves up the ranks.  This is The Godfather.

I'm sorry!!! I'LL TIP!!!

Don Corleone: I hope you don't mind the way I keep going over this Barzini business.
Michael: No, not at all.
Don Corleone: It's an old spoiler. I spent my whole life trying not to be careless.  Women and children can afford to be careless, but not men.

Overseeing his daughter's wedding, Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando of A Streetcar Named Desire, The Wild One, On the Waterfront, Guys and Dolls, Mutiny on the Bounty, Last Tango in Paris and Superman) greets his wayward war hero son Michael (Al Pacino of Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Bobby Deerfield, Scarface, Glengarry Glen Ross, Scent of a Woman, Heat and The Insider)  with his girlfriend Kay (Diane Keaton of Play It Again, Sam, Sleeper, Reds, Baby Boom, Father of the Bride, The First Wives Club, Plan B and Something's Gotta Give) and the Don is bombarded be requests from people in the neighborhood, one of which is this would-be crooner, his godson Johnny Fontane (Crooner and actor Al Martino) for this most coveted role in a movie and not getting his foot in the door.  

Vito sends his consigilere Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall of To Kill a Mockingbird, The Chase, Bullitt, True Grit, THX 1138, The Eagle Has Landed, Apocalypse Now and The Great Santini) to negotiate with studio mogul Jack Woltz (John Marley of Faces, Love Story, Dead of Night, The Amateur, Falcon's Gold, Utilities and The Glitter Dome) for the part.  Woltz is adamant about the refusal until he wakes the next morning to find his prized stallion's head in his sheets.  Really hate to have seen Hagen's next counter proposal.

Early Christmas in 1945 drug czar Virgil " The Turk" Sollozzo (Al Letterieri of The Getaway, Mr. Majestyk, Flatfoot in Hong Kong, Winner Take All and The Hired Gun) backed up by rival mob the Tattaglias, asks the Don for a piece of the action in his drug and protection racket through all his political connections.  Vito does not approve of drug peddlers and sends his enforcer Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana of The Funny Face of the Godfather, Patty, Contract on Cherry Street, Fingers and Defiance) to spy on these no good scumbags.  Shockingly enough, things don't go smoothly for Luca as his vest is wrapped with newspaper and stuffed with fishes then sent to the Corelones.  

Rise, my son.  Crap, wrong flick.

Vito is shot at and lands him in the hospital making his eldest boy, Sonny (James Caan of Red Line 7000, El Dorado, Games, Slither, Rollerball, Thief, Flesh and Bone and City of Ghosts)  in charge of the family.  Retaliations are in motion as Sonny wants Tattaglias in the ground.
Michael plots to remove the Tattaglias' monkeys both Sollozzo and Police Captain McCluskey (Sterling Hayden of The Asphalt Junglem The Killing, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and Venom)  but when will the bloodshed end or will it escalate into out and out gang war with the Five Families?  Should there be an olive branch or a clenched fist offered?

A few comments to make about the movie at this time.
Syndicate boss Joe Colombo and his organization The Italian-American Civil Rights League started a major campaign to stop the film from being made.   Robert Evans got more than his fair share of death threat phone calls and letters decreeing this film is anti-Italian.   Fellow producer Albert S. Ruddy met with the alleged Don who demanded the terms Mafia and Cosa Nostra be removed from the film.  Ruddy agreed and allowed them to read over the script and make changes and even agreed to have League members (gunsels and leg breakers) as extras and advisers.  Paramount's owner Charlie Bluhdorn sees this agreement in the New York Times was so outraged he fired Ruddy and shut down the film.   Evans managed to convince Bluhdorn that this agreement looks like great PR and no more disruptions for the movie so Ruddy was hired back on.

From its amazing cinematography in 35 mm Spherical with crane work through the streets, dolly tracking with our stars and some beautiful hand held to Carlo Savina's score that sets the stage, you get the feel of what life was in this time with all the ups and downs.  Shining new light on what was once deemed a blight in most theatrical releases, the family angle is what sold this film most of all and changed the face of cinema on organized crime forever.

My feet are killing me in these shoes, Lord.