Why the Godfather (1972) is Overrated: A Controversial Breakdown

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Beyond the Big Screen Podcast with your host
Steve Guerra. Thank you for listening to Beyond the Big
Screen podcast, where we talk about great movies and stories
so great they should be movies. Find show notes, links
to subscribe and leave Apple podcast reviews by going to

(00:23):
our website Beyond the Big Screen dot com. And now
let's go Beyond the Big Screen.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I guess we're going to start reviewing The Godfather of
the movie properly right, even we talked all about how
it was made and casting choices and some of the
history behind. In terms of the actual Mob involvement, Yeah,
I don't think it's really up for much debate. Like,
The Godfather is probably one of the greatest films ever made.

(00:56):
It's definitely one of the most influential in terms of
pop culture and how the Mob viewed itself and how
we view the Mob. And I don't know, what do
you guys think. I don't really think there's much of
a debate about that.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
No, not at all.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
I mean that it is one of the most important
movies of all time. I would say, without a doubt
it's in my top ten, no question. It has been
since the first time I saw it. I watched it
again recently to talk about this episode. I mean, it's
just a great movie.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
So, like, if you guys were to rate the film,
what would you give it out a ten?

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Well, Steve makes a great point that it's one of
the all time greats, and I think on every list
I've ever seen, like Casablanca and the Dorson Wells movie
Citizen Kane are the only two that seemed to give
it a run for the number one spot, it's usually
one of those three, and this is by far the

(02:02):
most recent. So so how do you rate something like
that less than you know, at least a nine, right,
I mean, I think I would give it a nine
because I know we're not talking about the second movie,
but I think I actually like it better, and so
you gotta have someplace to go. So it's a nine
or nine point five for me.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yeah, I would say nine point five. I mean, I'm
a strict greater, so I can't give it a ten.
But and there's problems with it. Obviously, we can get
into the some I'm sure we'll start talking about some
of the problems, but there's there's some things that don't
entirely make sense. Don't line up with the book. I
think where the book got it a little better. A

(02:44):
couple of problems with the story, but overall, I would say,
I don't see how you could give it below a nine.
And I'm a contrarian, as people know. I'll try and
find something to go after, but it's really hard to
find things in this movie.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, I would say I'd give it a nine. And
i'd also argue too, where you know, there's arguments to
say that the art is subjective, and in many ways
it is how it affects you individually on like an
emotional level and an intellectual level. But there are pieces
of art where you can objectively say this is a

(03:23):
great work of art, even though say something else maybe
might have emotionally affected you more or moved you more.
But it's you know, kind of looking at a picture,
you know, a statue of like Michelangelo, right, you can
objectively go like, this is a great work of art.
And I believe like the Godfather. I'm not comparing it

(03:44):
to like Michelangelo, but I think we can get to
the point where the art is so good that objectively
you can't argue that it's bad art that does that
make sense to you guys like I can can't take
somebody serious. It says like The Godfather's a bad movie,
just simply not. It's a great movie. You know, you

(04:06):
might not like it as much as another movie, but
objectively speaking, this is probably one of the greatest films
ever made.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Yeah, I mean, art has objective qualities to it, and
as a society we have kind of decided what it
is about these pieces of art in whatever medium that
we believe are quality, you know, traits and so you know.
I mean, I could find somebody plausible that they gave

(04:36):
The Godfather a seven. I wouldn't think they were crazy.
I disagree with them, but I wouldn't think they're crazy.
But somebody who gives it a three, I don't believe
they're being objective. Now, I think there's a there's a
band with an objective evaluation that you can do for
most art, and then there's all the subjective parts to it.
And that's where the I liked it, I didn't like

(04:57):
it comes in. I mean, there are movies out there
that I did not like that are objectively well made,
good movies. I just didn't like them personally, So that
may be the case for The Godfather for some people,
but I'd be careful saying it because you know, it's
The Godfather, and they'll come talk to you about about

(05:17):
I like them.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, like, I'll like, I'll like. In my opinion, like
I prefer Once Upon a Time in America for various reasons,
even though sometimes it gets accused of the story being
a little confusing because of the back and forth and
some of the pieces not entirely fitting together. But in

(05:39):
terms of like the music and the the lighting, the
set piece, set pieces, and some of the acting, I
prefer Once Upon a Time in America. They're but they're
about the same to me, you know. I guess maybe
that would be a controversial opinion. You know, most people
would probably say, oh, yeah, the Godfather is a par
superior film. I mean I would say, I'd say, Once

(06:03):
Upon a Time in America is pretty dann pretty dang close, right,
And it fits within this conversation because we're both talk
We're talking about you know, mob movies, right, what's uh,
I don't know, what's the film that you guys would
say was better than The Godfather.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
I mean that's hard to say. I think in the
genre of Mafia movies. There's Mafia movies that I think
maybe told the story better, or maybe we're truer to
the events they were trying to say. Like I would
say in a lot of ways that Goodfellas was more
entertaining to me than The Godfather, But they were really
different movies. I enjoyed Goodfellas more. I think Goodfellas kept

(06:43):
my attention the whole span or the movie, and I
can watch it and not that I can't watch The
Godfather time and time again, but I can definitely watch
Goodfellas time and time again and just thoroughly enjoy it
from beginning to end. But that Godfather kind of dragged
in few spots. It was a little bit too maybe cinematic,

(07:03):
if I'm making sense. It's too maybe trying to be
too artsy, and it's not gritty enough.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
No, No, I totally get that, where in some aspects
I prefer Goodfellas because it shows, even though it still
kind of glamorizes the Mob to a degree, in a
different kind of way, it shows it portrays it much
more kind of realistically. But it's also taking place at

(07:32):
a different time in the history of the Mob, meaning
you Steve have talked about this or there's definitely like
a change as soon as I kind of late seventies
happened mid seventies, there's definitely a change in how the
mob operates. It becomes much more I'm violent and dirty.
Maybe that's just our perceptions. I mean, we talked about

(07:53):
early early history of the Mob and how crazy it
was in terms of like having shootouts in the streets
and people like Dutch, but I can't help that shake
like they you know, people like Roy de Mayo showing
up and a couple of other guys, you know, Vicka
Muso is another guy, not Vica Muso. I'm trying to

(08:14):
think of drying a blank on his name. Gas By
Casso show up, and there's definitely like a change. It
becomes much more kind of psychotic, and people are less.
People are just ratting on each other in general much
more frequently. And I think the God the good Fellas
captures that kind of time period of the Mob. Me personally,

(08:38):
I think the movie that really captures the Mob perfectly
is is Donnie Brasco. I really do like in terms
of how these guys are, It's like, yeah, there, some
of them are kind of psychopaths and but a lot
of these guys you probably sit down and have a
drink with them and whatever, you know, But they're doing like,

(09:02):
I don't know, like just dirty kind of work, you know,
like robbing, like parking meters and stuff of that nature,
like that famous scene and Donnie Brasco where he's smashing
the parking meter and Sonny Black screaming out him the
stop right. A lot of ways, it's kind of what
the Mob is, where like The Godfather does a really
good job of portraying a very stylized version of how

(09:29):
the Mob I think would like to view itself as
opposed to what it actually is.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
Oh, it's definitely way more romanticized than Donnie Brasco or
Goodfellas or any of the more recent movies. Casino and
you're right, it's much more the way that they would
like to see themselves. But it's from an earlier time too,
so nostalgia, you know, is a major factor as well.

(09:57):
I think it's like, you know, it's like do you
like do you like opera? Do you like rock and roll?
I mean, is this opera better than this rock song?
I mean? There, how can you say one way or
the other. You might like one more than the other
because of your preference, but it's pretty difficult to gauge,
you know, which is better because the mediums are so different,
you know, So I don't know if I know a

(10:19):
movie that's better than The Godfather. I just know there
are movies I maybe like more and some that are
just as well made. But it's you know, there's, like
I said, there's a subjective bandwidth in there too, after
you get past those objective things like set design and
acting and choreography and you know, cinematography.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
That yeah, just like kind of random, Like I'll use
an example, but like, my favorite film of all time
probably is When Beaks Fire Walk with Me. And at
the time that it came out, it was people hated
it and it's still very controversial to this day. And
my agrament to these people is like, you just don't
get it, Like I don't understand how people can look

(11:03):
at that film within the context of having watched the
TV show and everything like that, because if you try
to watch the film without watching the TV show, none
of it will make any sense. I don't understand how
people can watch and go not be like emotionally just
battered with a sledgehammer, because it's just so it's so
like emotionally horrific and moving. I've never had a movie

(11:25):
like that, movement quite like that, but people hated it
when it came out.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
Maybe look at apples to apples, Like if you try
and compare the Old Dune to the New Dune, the
old Dune is so bad.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
Compared to the New Dune.

Speaker 4 (11:42):
I feel like watching the Old Dune, he didn't really
get what Dune was all about. Where I think Denise
Villa Nueva really did get done and he got the
bigness of Dune and he got and he got that
you had to split it up into two movies. You
could not jam at all into one movie with the casting.

(12:03):
I mean, everything just apples to Apple's.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Well, no I did. It's funny not to get too
off topic, but like when David Lynch was given that
movie due and like the way they looked at it
was like, well, well this guy's like good at like
directing weird stuff and you know, doing it by its
nature is kind of a weird sci fi story because
it's not like a traditional sci fi story. It's there's

(12:27):
like mysticism and like religious symbolism and all that type
of stuff in it, so they figured, oh, David Lynch
would be great at it, and he absolutely hated directing it.
He's basically he said like, I'd never do a big
budget studio film ever again after his experience doing that.
Even though I would argue that the film turned out
still quite well in some parts, and he's stuck to it.

(12:52):
He's never done whenever since I don't know what they
were thinking they hired him, because I mean, like you
just have to sit down and talk to David and
be like, yeah, I don't know if this I don't know.
I don't know if this is really going to work
out well with him because he could watch interviews with David.
He's a weird guy and it's not somebody I wouldn't trust.
Forty million dollars or whatever they spent on that movie.

(13:14):
I don't know if it's that much, but it was
at the time of a huge budget movie.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
Dune is an interesting one to bring up, Steve, because
you know that book is so dense in terms of layers.
I mean, there's political intrigue, there's relationship intrigue, there's you know,
internal and external politics going on. There's geology and climatology

(13:41):
going on. You know, there's religion as in mysticism. As
Chris said, there's the idea of colonialism and the indigenous
peoples that gets explored. I mean, and I'm probably leaving
out a ton of stuff. And so trying to pack
such a dense novel into a film, even a long

(14:05):
film two and a half hour or three hour film,
is pretty tough. Now. I would not say that Godfather
as a novel was as dense as Doomed. There were
not as many layers. It wasn't as complex, but it
wasn't as simple, you know, you know, bubblegum sort of novel.
I mean, it wasn't something you read on the beach

(14:25):
and only you know, pay half attention to, Like you
could miss five paragraphs and still know what's going on.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
You know.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
It wasn't that that light of fair. And they definitely
when they adapted it, they still had to leave a
bunch of stuff out. Now, some of it I think
was worthy of leaving out, and we've talked about that before,
but they still captured a lot of the really important
pieces when they made this film and made some incredible

(14:54):
scenes that are just I think memorable as like iconic
film scenes. If you assembled the best ones from the
history of film, there'd be half a dozen from this
movie that you'd have to include.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
Steve here we are a member of the Parthenon podcast network,
featuring great shows like Scott Ringks, History Unplugged Podcast and
other great podcasts. Go to Parthenon podcasts dot com to
learn more. And here is a quick word from our sponsors. Chris,

(15:34):
you wanted to talk a little bit about the historical
accuracy of the movie. I guess for one thing, do
you think that historical accuracy was the aim of the book?
And being that the book was written essentially in the
time when a lot of these things were happening, do

(15:54):
you think that, Well, maybe we'll start to dissect the historiography,
might say of it. Well, I'll maybe just talk about
do you think that after reading the novel, do you
think that Poso was going for accuracy or you know,
where do you think accuracy fits in with this film?

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Well, I mean, as we like, we all know, like
there's nothing real about the Godfather, like literally nothing, It's
all it's all a fictional story, right, But Mario Puoso
looked for pains. We talked about this earlier and researching
how the mob ran in the history of the Mob,
and at the time that it came out, it just
it felt authentic to people reading it, and when the

(16:38):
film came out, it felt real. And I mean one
of the reasons was a lot of the stuff that
Mario Poso pulled out from his research was real. It
was authentic. Samuel bol Gravano was pretty convinced that there
was no way that he could write that written that
book without having a mob guy beating him some inside

(17:00):
information or not. You know, Mario Puzo denies that. He says,
I just you know, I read newspaper articles, I read journalists,
academic papers, and he devoured all that. I mean, it's
up for debate whether he actually had a mob guy
or not. He denies it, so I don't know. He's
never lied to me, so I have no reason not
to believe him. He seems like an honest guy for

(17:22):
everything that I've read, so like one of the things
that he does that he got pretty bang on was
how the five families worked in the commission, and it's
depicted in the movie. And I guess I'll pull up
like One of the scenes that really depicts it really
well is with Don Corleone. He calls for a meeting

(17:46):
with the rest of the families after his son Sonny
was brutally murdered, and probably one of my favorite scenes,
but we'll get into that later. And the purpose of
the meeting was to put an end to the war
that started earlier. And this is generally kind of how
the Commission ran. This is kind of how the Five

(18:08):
Families ran, where they'd have like a like a big issue, say,
and I'll use like an example from real life, say,
somebody like Dutch Sultz, which was one of the first
big decisions that the Commission had to make. They didn't
know what to do with this guy, Dutch. He was
flying off the handle. He's kind of doing his own thing.
Said he was going to kill Thomas Dewey, who was

(18:30):
the attorney at the time, and the Commission decided, well, well,
we're going to sit down and have a meeting of
what we're going to do with this guy. And you know,
they came to the conclusion that we're going to kill Dutch,
and you know, the rest is history. But even within
the context of our own story, we talked about Joe
Colombo and his Italian Civil Rights lead and how it

(18:52):
related to this movie. Now, the general theory is that
maybe the Commission sat down and had a meeting with
the the family members, heads of the family, and they decided,
you know what, the Joe Clumbo's not getting it, he's
not shutting down the Italian Civil Rights League, and it's
bringing way too much attention to the mafia and us.

(19:12):
So we're going to hire Jerome Johnson to kill Joe
Colombo and by extension, to make it look like, oh,
maybe Joe Gallo did it, because Jerome Johnson was an
African American and Joe Gallo was known for hanging out
with them, and Joe Colombo and Joe Galla already had

(19:33):
beef with each other. I generally leave that theory. In
the movie depicts this perfectly, where you know, you got
all the heads of the family and they decide on
what they're going to do about a certain situation. You
could be in this movie, it's it's like a war
going on between the families, which isn't very historically accurate,

(19:56):
but you know, and say three families could decide what's
going to happen with one family that's maybe going through
a civil war. I mean that happened numerous times with
the Banano family and the Colombo family, who are typically
the most dysfunctional of the five families. This is how
the commission ran, and it ran very effectively for most

(20:18):
of its history.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
And that really is I mean, I think that that
was something that they really did have to capture in
the movie, as that whole idea of the commission. It
makes for a really dramatic story.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
And this is the authenticity that people talked about, because
it feels like you're sitting at like an actual commission,
meaning that happened. I don't know, what do you think?
What do you think? Right?

Speaker 3 (20:43):
You know, I think that you guys are way more
schooled on this history than I am. I'm a history guy,
but the mob has never been an area that I studied,
So I would sound foolish if I tried to comment
on what you're saying in terms of agreeing or disagreeing.
But I will say that I think that they did
a great job in this film of appearing historically accurate

(21:05):
where those interactions between the families is concerned. I mean,
I'm not an expert on it, and it felt plausible
to me. It felt like this is yeah, I mean
it's romantic or romanticized, and it's a little more grand
than for real, but I felt like it was something
that was believable. And so I think that Puseoh, I

(21:28):
don't know if he was reaching to be historically accurate,
but he definitely was reaching to appear historically reasonable or
historically adjacent at least, and as someone who doesn't know
the history, he definitely landed there. Now, if you know
the history and he made mistakes that kind of clang

(21:48):
for you, that's totally reasonable.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Well, another thing that he does really well too is
he shows that like each one of the families kind
of have like a specialty. Now, all the family New
York historically, they were all involved in all the same stuff, right,
you know, racketeering, gambling, extortion, They all did this, right,
But like certain families would have like specialties that they

(22:12):
would get involved in. Like the Gambino family was always
like heavily involved in construction concrete club. Really they didn't
run it. The all the members of the like all
the families were involved in the concrete scam. The Gambino
family was like heavily involved in that. The you know

(22:33):
in the Lukazy family was always heavily involved in the unions,
particular the teamsters, and the Banano family always had close
ties to drug trafficking, Like right from the get go.
They were one of the few families that said, like
there was no quote unquote band. They all dealt drugs, right,

(22:53):
just some families would I don't know they would kind
of even though how to decribe, right, but like Paul
cast alone and be like telling everybody, you know, in
the Gambino family, like don't deal with drugs or the
death sentence, but like certain people were allowed to do it.
Or the Banainal family, there was none of that. They
just openly talked about dealing drugs all the time. We

(23:15):
talked about this on our previous episode. They there was
no band whatsoever. Beaninal family, and they shows that in
this movie. I believe one of the families they talk
about specializes in prostitution and another family specialized in something
else I can't remember right off the.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
Top of tag, Yeah, wasn't it? Yeah? Prostitution? You know,
I wonder if the reason they did that is because
you know, if I have my area and you have
your area, and you have your we're not going to
step on each other's toes as much. You know, we
can all make money. We're just going to make it
from a different revenue stream and then we don't have

(23:51):
as much to fight about. This seems like a smart
thing to do when you're doing something that's not governed
by the law, and there for your recourses basically negotiate
or shoot them up. But it seems like they almost
had like a designated family, like almost like a caste system.
Like how in in in some cultures there's like the untouchables,

(24:15):
you know, who do the things that you know, they
work with sewage or cut meat or whatever. It is
that the that the culture deems is, you know, beneath
the average person. And maybe that's what them off he's
doing with the drug dealership. Somebody's got a Zell drugs.
So it's just going to be this crappy little family
over here. And then we don't Then we can say

(24:35):
we don't do it. You know, we can take the
high road and and you know, we don't have to
fight them for a piece of the prostitution or gambling
or wreck you know, other bits of pie that we're
all got our thumbs in.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Well, it's definitely a Bananyl family, right, They're definitely the
dirtiest family of them all. And I don't think Steve
would argue with me too much on that.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
I was thinking about what you said about Samu the
bold Bravanos, saying that he must have had insider knowledge,
and that just seems to me big Sammy Bravado again,
that oh, you have to have some insider knowledge. I
don't think that there was anything at that point when
Phoso wrote this novel that really any of this was

(25:17):
major secrets that he divulged in the movie. I think
that research, reading what Volacci said, and maybe talking to
a couple of people who are keyed in in the media,
like you said, or in the police Department the NPD,
I think he could have gotten all these broad brushstrokes

(25:39):
of the mafia without without having an insider. Maybe he
did interview an insider, but I don't know how much
an insider would have given him more than what the
basics of the story give us.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
See, I would kind of believe Sammy to a degree
if Joe Volacci hadn't happened yet, But once Joe Volacci
started talking, it was all out in the open really, right.
That was why Joe Volacci is so famous is because
unlike say, well abe Rellis talked a lot too. We
talked about another Murder inc Mini series, ab Rellis didn't

(26:16):
really divulge into how the organization ran where That's what
made Joe volacciuh different in the sense of well, a,
he wasn't murdered, but so he got to talk the
entire time. But he actually went into like the organizational
structure of how the mob worked with the with the

(26:38):
head of the family and then the Coppos, and how
there was like layers of protection, and then like the
history of how this came about, how the commission worked
and all the nine yards. Right, ab Rellis never did that.
If Mario Puzo had written his book and you know,
this was all in it and Joe Volacci had came

(27:00):
about have been like, yeah, he definitely talked to somebody.
But once Joe Volocci started talking, I mean this all
this stuff was out in the open.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
Was thinking of something and that you mentioned about the
layers of protection, and I think this is in Frank's wheelhouse.
It's almost the inversion of what we didn't expect in America,
where the higher you are up, the more responsible you are,
or if there's a mistake or if there's problems that,

(27:31):
at least in theory, the higher you up, if you're
in the military, or if you're in the police, or
if you're in a government or in a company, are
our cultural hope is that if something, even if somebody
lower down makes a mistake, that that person at the
top is going to take responsibility for it and fix it.
Where the mafia is built on this very different ideal

(27:54):
that if somebody at the lower ranks makes a mistake,
the whole organize is set up as insulation so that
the people higher up don't get in trouble and don't
have to own the people at the bottom's mistakes.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. But the reason for
that's pretty clear too, right, I Mean, what's the biggest threat,
you know, to the overall existence of the crime family?
It's not another crime family. They're a problem, there's something
you have to deal with. They cause issues, but very
it's very unlikely that one crime family is going to completely,

(28:31):
you know, destroy another crime family, but law enforcement could
take down the entire crime family, you know, and so
they're almost like terrorist cells in that they find ways
to compartmentalize and to insulate, like you said, and the
other thing I guess I would say is you set

(28:52):
up what the ideal would be. We both know that
a little bit of I might be in charge, but
it wasn't my fault. Happens and a lot of different organizations,
and it's unfortunate. That true, But yeah, it's it is
the inverse of what we would expect or what we
would idealize is as Westerners. That's a good point.

Speaker 4 (29:12):
Yeah, like you said, it is our ideal. But and
I think ideals are important, even though we don't often
live up to ideals. I'm sure we could all list
off many examples of the ideal not happening. But and
I think that that came. I mean, Marenzano seven or
Maronzano even said that he based it on the Roman military,

(29:34):
and that was built into their whole schema was that
lower level people screwed up, and so that higher level
people wouldn't have to feel the brunt of the lower
level screw ups. And so even in there, even in
their fundamental systems, you know, they're legalized, legal systems, they

(29:58):
were building in those layers of part and that kind
of got transported here and it was like you said,
it was, it was cellular and as a way to
keep everybody. If one cog broke down, it didn't throw
off the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, you know, you don't have to kill him because
they don't know enough to hurt anybody too far above them.
And so you know, and they went their great lengths,
I think to create plausible deniability, you know, leaving a
meeting before the details were discussed, even though they give
in explicit instructions to their underlings, you know, that sort

(30:37):
of thing.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Well, I mean that's what made Bally Juliani's use of
the Rico laws so brilliant. And now we can have
a debate whether Rico laws or good laws or God laws. Right,
they were effective in terms of taking down the mob,
right because he rightfully saw you know, many other people
did too. It's like, well, how can we prove a
conspiracy so we can actually get to the these guys
at the top, because by the time we get up

(31:03):
the ladder, these guys aren't getting their hands dirty and anything.
So we could take out like as many low level
guys as we want. We're not really doing any damage
to the organizational structure that they set up, you know,
I mean that's slightly a tangent, but I mean, we'll
trust me. We're going to be talking a lot about
really Giuliani and the recall lost up the road.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
One thing that I thought was interesting about the movie,
and I wonder if in what you thought of that
is going more deep into the history, Chris, is the
Tatalias that they kill Sonny and then the family.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (31:43):
I think first Sonny kills one of the Tatalia sons,
and then eventually the Tatalia family kills Sonny, and Vito's
willing to just make bygones be bygones for that in
the mafia, did they really do that? Or when somebody
important was killed than the family, they went all the
way to the wall to get revenge.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Well, I mean, we could use an example where I mean,
Veto Genovese tried to kill Frank Costello right almost did it.
You know, if he had just shot him slightly, you know,
a couple of inches, he would have blown his head
right off, but the bullet raised him and Frank Costello
is just like, you know what I'm out. You know,

(32:26):
I've made my money. I don't want like a big
war breaking out in the Genoviz family, you can take
it over, and was peaceful transfer of power, even though
he tried to kill him. I mean that was unique
to the Genevi's family. That probably wouldn't have happened in
the Banana or the Colombo family, as we have discussed earlier.

(32:47):
So there's examples of it where somebody's looking at the
bigger picture and go like, well, if we let this
whole break out into a major war, it's going to
cause all different types of problems or and that's the
character they try to portray it. You know, Corleone was
He's the type of guy that sees the big picture

(33:08):
of everything, right because he knew if this war continued,
you know, maybe Michael is going to get killed and
a bunch of other of his family members are going
to get killed. And they kind of leads into another
thing that they got pretty accurately. It's it's mentioned in
the movie, but they never really talk about it in detail.

(33:29):
Like the whole family system and the whole commission system.
The way it's set up came about because of a
major war that Corleone was involved in and he's well,
he saw firsthand how bad these major family wars between
the families can get to and how many people will

(33:50):
end up dying, you know, and these aren't like you know,
abstract people. A lot of the times, this is my cousin,
or this is the guy that I grew up with
my entire life, or my son in his case. So yeah,
I mean there's examples of it where you know, somebody
with enough foresight realizing, yeah, he might have killed my son,

(34:13):
or he might have tried to kill me. But you know,
big picture perspective, a lot more people are going to
die if we keep on going down this road.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
I also think you could argue that Don Corleone is
playing the long game here, like he he is being pragmatic.
You know, Sonny is dead. He can't bring him back,
so you know, revenge is a dish best to serve
cold and getting Michael back from Sicily is you know,

(34:48):
a pair of paramount importance to him. And that's in fact,
one of the if I remember right, and that was
a key piece of the negotiations at that meeting, was
that the to Taglias or the Marzinis or both. What
guarantee Michael's safety is he came home and and and
so I think he's being very pragmatic. And you're right, Chris,

(35:09):
he's a guy who can see the big picture. I
guess I would suggest that maybe he saw that an
even bigger picture, like he's looking into the future, like
we're going to get our revenge, but it's going to
be cold, it's going to be down the road a bit. First.
I need to lick my wounds here, and I need
to get my son back and get things squared away.
That's boy, that takes some That takes some ice in

(35:33):
the veins, because I mean his kid was killed, you know,
and and so and his loss was the more recent
loss of the two fathers. So you know, it's a
pretty neat nuance if it's true.

Speaker 4 (35:47):
Steve here with a quick word from our sponsors.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
Well, and another thing that the movie does really well
is we talked. We talked about it tangentially early, but
in terms of how the family actually worked, like the
organizational structure where you know, you had like the Godfather
who was at the top, and then you had like
his constantinilaries, which were his advisors, and that would be

(36:14):
like Sonny and Tom Hagan and well Michael wasn't in
the family at the time that they're discussing it, but
it would have been, say, somebody like Michael, and then
you have like your Coppos who like ran cruise, and
then your soldiers. I mean he could Mario Puoso obviously
got most of that from the Volacci hearings and his

(36:37):
personal reading, but it's accurate. This is pretty much how
the mo brand. You know, the soldiers do the groundwork.
The Coppos make sure that the soldiers are actually doing
the groundwork. The constelary. The Coppos talk to the consularies
about the issues that they're having. The Constelaries go talk
to the Dawn about the issues that the Coppos are having.

(36:58):
I mean runs much like say a modern you know
business runs, or at least a well functioning one.

Speaker 4 (37:05):
All right, well, you ready to talk about our favorite scenes.
I know, I'm I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
I'm ready.

Speaker 3 (37:11):
All right, I'll do the first one, and I put
my three in chronological order. So I think one of
my first favorite scenes is the scene at the wedding
where Michael is sitting with Kay and he tells her
the story of the band leader and and you know,

(37:32):
I'm making an offer that can't be refused, and then
he utters the line I'm not my father, k I
think that's a very quietly powerful scene, and and it's
it's we we we talked about this before. H You know,
the way Pacino's delivery, that coldness that he has as

(37:54):
Michael Corleone the Godfather, was already present in Michael Corleone,
the this soldier and civilian, you know, soon to become civilian,
sitting there at the wedding. It's just it's packaged a
little differently and directed in a different direction, but it's
still there. So that's one of my favorite scenes. It's
one of my quietly favorite scenes.

Speaker 4 (38:16):
I think the whole thing about Michael and his experience
in the war, and they set up the dichotomy between
being a mafia hit man and getting up close and
killing someone. But you have to imagine if Michael was
in any of the actions that Marines saw on the
Pacific eso horrors that are absolutely unimaginable. And I liked

(38:41):
in the movie and in the book that they didn't
really explain that to us. I think they invited us
to think about that. If you knew something about World
War two history and the Marines in the Pacific, it
would have been too much of a tangent to have
Michael mulling over that. If Mario Puzo got his on that,
it would have been five chapters interspersed throughout the novel

(39:04):
of Michael thinking about the war. But I think they
did invite us to think about.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
That just by having him where his uniform, you know.
I think that it was a subtle way of spurring
us down down that fought path.

Speaker 4 (39:19):
Well, on my I guess it's more than one scene,
but I just the whole wedding scene. It set up
the whole movie. It invited us in, and it gave
us the exposition we got to meet all of the
important characters. I think the one scene that really stuck
with me from the wedding scene was when Don Corleone

(39:40):
is taking in the his clients. I guess you might
say that his visitors, where he's hearing all of their
wants on his wedding day and he's playing with the cat,
And I thought that that was really and I never
really thought about that the probably the dozen two dozen
times I've seen the movie, but it really it humanized him.

(40:03):
But then he's talking about killing people at the same time.
I thought that they set up a really interesting.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
Visual with that.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Sorry. Fun fact about that cat was that was just
a cat that was just roaming around on set and
he picked it up and he was there like and
they they're like, where's that cat from? And he's like, oh,
we don't know, and then he's Princess Roccoppo is like,
that's perfect, and then they filmed him playing with the cat.

(40:33):
It wasn't even supposed to be in the movie.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
The other part of that that is just a small
little piece, but it's so fun is when they coax
the Mama Corleone into singing the dirty song with the
what's the guy's name? He's Petra Angelo or or is
that his name? Petra Angelo. He's a big he has
a bigger role in the second movie. But they they

(40:57):
seeing something dirty in Italian. I didn't I can't tell
you what it is because I don't speak Italian, but
you can tell by the way everybody laughs that it
was at least to play on words that it was,
you know, double entendre or something. Uh, just just really
captured the uh like the humanity of the wedding. They're
all just regular people in that moment. You know. That

(41:17):
could be the Smiths or the the Fens or the
Dunkel Dimers. You know, it just happened to be an
Italian wedding.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
Well it's the authentic authenticity of it two of it too, right,
where that's how Italian weddings are. I mean maybe not
that big, but I like my dad was a plumber,
so I kind of grew up around like Italians, you know,
in and out of the house and stuff like that,
and that's how they are, do you know, Mario. Yeah,

(41:50):
my dad was like a short guy too, right, So
that was like always kind of like joke. It was like,
oh he was actually super Mario when we're kids. But
uh so, like yeah, I had like Italians in and
out of the house and stuff like that all the time,
you know, vague memories. We're like really young, going to
like a wedding, like an Italian wedding, and it I
mean obviously much smaller, but it's like that, you know,

(42:11):
like everybody's like talking and everyone's like dancing and you know,
like the money slips and everything like that, or like
I remember that, just tons of food, you know, never ending.
It just felt authentic because it was right for the
most part, like the majority of the people there were
Italians and just doing what Italians would do at a
big wedding like that, you know. And kind of a

(42:34):
side note on that whole wedding scene is they kind
of based it. A lot of the shots were based
on it was Joe Prafacci's niece and I believe it
was Joebano's son. We're getting married, I can't I could
begin that, I know, like Joe Prafacci and Joe Banano,
like it was a there are two of their family

(42:57):
members were getting married and it was a big wedding
like that. And they showed in the movie with like
the guys taking pictures, like the media guys. But that's
what the cops did was just take tons of pictures
of this wedding because it was just right out in
the open and nobody had nobody was really talking about
organized crime the mob is being a serious issue at
the time, so they had tons of pictures from this wedding,

(43:19):
and UH Francis Perkopolo used a lot of these pictures
from that wedding to UH you know, give him an
idea of how how would a big mob wedding come about?
Uh sorry, look look like And yeah, I mean just
lends more to the authenticity of the whole wedding scene,

(43:40):
which is, you know, it's not just me saying that
a lot of people have said it just it just
feels real. It doesn't feel like you're watching a film.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
I love how Sonny comes out and gets mad at
those guys and breaks one of their cameras and throws
it on the ground, and then rips off a few
bills and throws them on the ground too, and stocks.
I mean, what great characterization you want to talk about,
show don't tell. I mean, that's that tells you who
Sonny is right, shows you who Sonny is right.

Speaker 4 (44:10):
All right, Chris, what was your one of your favorite scenes?

Speaker 2 (44:15):
I gotta say, where Sonny is beating up that guy
in the streets for you know, mess kindness, Yeah, for
hidding his sister, And it's just it just felt real.
I mean, in some ways it it was real because
apparently the guy that he was beating up in the
scene where he's roughing up the girl, he was being

(44:37):
too real and she got really upset. And apparently James
Kahn heard about this and he's like they basically asked
him and say, ooh, can you just kick it up
a notch a little bit. So then a lot of
what you're seeing on that screen is James Kahn, you know,
taking some liberties with him, but you just kind of
perfectly exemplifies the mob really at its core, and f

(45:00):
it's like, oh, you're I'm just gonna like you hit
one of us. I'm just going to ratchet it up
to twenty, you know, or eleven or I'm trying to
remember that spinal tap reference. And it just felt real,
you know, because I've seen stuff like that on the streets.
You Frank you, being a cop, I'm sure you've seen
it too. You know, like a street fight breaks out
and it's like a mismatch and you kind of feel

(45:23):
bad for the guy getting the crap kicked out of them,
and then you find out later it's, oh, yeah, he
probably probably deserved it, maybe he learned something from it
or not. I just love it. I think it was great,
and his acting in that scene is great.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
Doesn't he grab the garbage can lid and hit him
with the garbage can lid? At some point.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Yeah, it's it's a it's amazing, And I'm not gonna
I'm not a huge fan of James Kahn like acting
per se, like I like some of the movies he's
been in, but for this role he was amazing. Upon
like rewatching the film a couple of times for this podcast,
he was. He was incredible, And almost my favorite scenes

(46:02):
are with him. Actually, well, my second favorite scene is
another quiet scene. It's the one in which Michael.

Speaker 3 (46:13):
And and Don are uh sitting outside against that rock
wall on the bench. I feel like it was near
the near the garden, but I could be wrong. And
they're talking strategy, and you you see how you see
so many little subtle things in that in that in
that little short scene, for instance, you know, the Dawn

(46:36):
tells him you know, whoever comes to you with the deal,
that's the trader, you know, and and and you know,
so you see that the Dawn is still on top
of things. He's still playing the long game that I
was talking about earlier. He's just you know, completing that arc.

Speaker 4 (46:53):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
But then you hear Michael, you know, almost almost irritated
about it, say yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it. Pop,
you know, I mean, like he's obviously way dialed in
now on this new role as mafioso, and then you
see the kind of beginnings of Don Corleone's slipping too,
because he he you know, the reason that Michael was

(47:17):
a little irritated maybe was that he had just told
him that like ten minutes ago or something, and the
Don's like, oh yeah, yeah, we talked about that. So
his mind slipping a little bit. So you get that
hint that he's growing, you know, older, and maybe you know,
is reaching a point where he's not going to be
able to, you know, he won't be able to be
the guy even if he wanted to be, now that
he's passed it on to Michael. So it's just a

(47:39):
really subtle scene that kind of shows so many things
at once and just a few lines of dialogue, and
of course it's superbly acted by the two actors in
the scene. So that's another one of my favorite scenes. Now.
Of course, I don't think any of us are picking
like the favorite scenes that everybody would pick, because those
are the obvious ones, you know, people are going to pick.

(48:01):
So I feel like we're being a little bit more
selective here of what scenes were picking.

Speaker 4 (48:07):
But I guess that means to be seen Steve my
scene as speaking of that, of the picking the top
scenes I really enjoyed. So there was the scene where
Michael shoots the police officer, the captain and Barzini. It
was the scene it was either or Salatso yeah, it

(48:28):
was either one scene or two scenes before that where
they're talking about it. It's Tom Hagen is there, Sonny
is there, and they're talking about Michael Dooitt. They're all
sitting around eating just it felt that it could have
been a serious scene of them, but it's it's almost
mirthful talking about that, about how Sonny had made his bones,

(48:50):
and the way Sonny ate like he ate like a
real mafia guy, shoveling in pasta and eating the bread
and everything and drinking wine at the tat a talking
exactly tuck this mouthful of food. And then you see
that Michael is a bit more reserved and Tom Hagen
is is more reserved, and you see all these different

(49:13):
personalities playing. And I thought that that was just a
really fun scene and it really did move the plot
forward and in a fun way.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Yeah, so much concversation there.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
Yeah, I was gonna say, like, yeah, it really does
a It just shows it just feels authentic, right, It
feels like how family would be acting with each other.
I mean, granted, the situation is a little different than
what most families are dealing with, but they're still brothers,
you know, they're still they still grew up together, and

(49:45):
it feels like a real family because the acting has
done so well in the directing obviously, and a bunch
of other factors when we talked earlier about like some
of the historical accuracy in the film and how they
actual mob brand and yeah, like it's just it feels real.

(50:06):
I mean, this is why it's one of the greatest
films ever made. You know, it doesn't feel like you're
watching acting. It feels like you're watching an actual family.

Speaker 3 (50:15):
And to your point, both both yours and Steve's, you know,
it's a long movie. And while it does drag in
a couple of places, I think you'd be hard pressed
to say that where drags should have been cut. It's
almost like that's the natural rhythm of the story. It's
going to drag a little bit here, but it's necessary.

(50:37):
I don't feel like there's any shots in there that
are unnecessary or wasted. And part of the reason for
that is because of scenes like the one you just
picked out, Steve, where absolute there's so many things happening
at once, and characterization is just one of them. But
the characterization that has accomplished there is just it's it's stellar.
It's stellar. You you could watch just that scene and

(51:01):
and do you know who Michael is, who Sonny is,
who Tom Megan is uh and and they're true to
that both before and after that scene throughout the movie.
So it's it's really well done. Good choice.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Yeah, I guess for my next scene would be We're
Sonny shot up. I guess maybe that would be a
more typical favorite scene. But I just like it how
visceral it is, like The Godfather's not a violent film,
it it, but when the violence is on screen, it's

(51:35):
like a ten like it is the best way I
can describe it. Or there's long stretches where there's there's
nothing violent happening, you know, it's not like people are
swearing all the time. Like we talked about the Goodfellows
earlier were contrasted with Goodfellas, and that's just right from
the get go. It's just someone's getting beat up, somebody's swearing,
people are screaming and yelling. There's something violent always like

(51:57):
it seems like it's happening all the time. And you
guys talked about it. Dragon, there's like long periods where
nothing happens, and then but when it does happen, it's
it's very visceral. Uh. I just like I like it
because especially for the time, this must have been really
shocking to people because he must have got he must

(52:20):
get shot up, like at least he must get like
a hundred bullets in them, right, you know. And he
falls out of his car and he's on the ground
and the guy comes up and he shoots him point
blanket a couple of times, and then he adds it
kicks him in the face. You know, was that that
was really necessary? They kicked the guy just shot a
hundred times in the face. It just it was really

(52:42):
shocking to me, and I guess on a primal level,
it was kind of exciting. It's like, holy crap, you know,
you know, they just shot a guy up a hundred times.
I mean, James con must have been pretty nervous shooting
that scene because at that time they're still using squibs,
which are pretty safe, but you know they're not connected properly,

(53:04):
they can really hurt you. And they're firing blanks too, right,
So I mean, we know, I'm trying to think of
the guy Brandon Lee. The crow right was a blank
that was shot too close and that's what killed them.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
No, Actually, I think what happened there was they had
dummy rounds in to make it look like it was
loaded for a scene, and then they were switching it
out to shoot it, and the tech guy left the
dummy round end in there and then put in the blank,

(53:41):
So it essentially was like a really weak actual bullet
in a way. It wasn't you know, up as tight
and crimped and like a real bullet would be. But
there's still you know, a projectile in there, and there's
an explosion behind it with some pressure obviously because of
a confined space, and it had enough to unfortunately kill him.

(54:04):
So it was a mismanaged use of blanks, which when
you've got four guys shooting the machine guns, the odds
of that scene pretty high. So I think you're right.
I think James con probably had a drink or two
and made sure his will was in order before he
shot that scene. You know, it looks realistic too. I
mean I think I think it's for nineteen seventy what

(54:26):
seventy three, seventy four or whatever it was. Well, I
don't think it looks as good as anything today, don't
you think.

Speaker 4 (54:33):
As a kind of aside to that, there was that
one recently with Alec Baldwin. To me, it's incomprehensible that
in twenty we're filming or recording this in twenty twenty three,
that in twenty twenty three actual live ammunition would be
allowed within a mile of where they're pointing. And I

(54:55):
think technically the guns aren't supposed to be pointed at
the people legally, and they're supposed to be blast shields.
They're supposed to be and in that case, every single
fail safe failed. And to me, I don't know why
they're not even required by law. I mean it probably
you could they able to argue with the filmmakers that

(55:17):
it doesn't make as good of a shot if they're
not doing it with uh, with blanks or with other
you know where there it's an analog shooting of the gun,
but that should be cgi Now I'm sorry you might
have to give up a little bit of authenticity, but
it just seems to me like for just as a
safety factor that it has to be gone where they're

(55:39):
shooting these uh they're dummy dummy rounds and putting and
doing that sort of thing.

Speaker 3 (55:46):
Eh.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
I in defense of the directors though, I mean nothing
beat squibs. I mean, most of the stuff not with CGI,
but the squibs just look so much better and they're
going off. I don't they still haven't been able to.
I know, I don't believe most of John Wick it's
all CGI, like the blood and sprays and everything like that.

(56:08):
But like you watch earlier podcasts we had done and
for beyond the big Screen we talked about robo cop
and like the like the squibs and robo cop just
it just looks good, you know. I mean, I think
you're right those two. I think most of it is
CGI now. I think I think they still use blanks,

(56:30):
but mostly like the suibs going off and stuff like that,
I believe is CGI. I could be wrong about that,
but I don't know, do you know, Frank.

Speaker 3 (56:38):
I don't. I don't know. It makes sense to me
that they would use CGI where they can, but CGI
isn't cheap, So I mean, practical effects sometimes are more
affordable and and you know sometimes sometimes look better like
the scene that you picked here with Sonny speaking of
which did you find too that some of the power

(57:01):
of that scene is like if you didn't know it
was coming, it's a big surprise, you know. I mean,
you think he's going to go lay another beating down
on Carlow and you're looking forward to it, and he
pulls up to that toll booth, and then as soon
as the toll booth operator ducks, you're like nope, yeah, no,

(57:22):
and then it's pretty you know, I mean, even when
you know it's coming, it's pretty intense.

Speaker 4 (57:31):
Steve here again with a quick word from our sponsors.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
Well that's it too, right. And then it fits with
his character too, where Sonny should have kind of known
that he shouldn't be by himself, right, But that's who
Sonny was, right, He was like a bowl in a
shina shop, like I'm the toughest guy in the room.
I'm going to take him on. And you know, in
most cases, one on one, he probably is the toughest
guy in the room, right, But you know you're in

(57:57):
the middle of a mob war. You know, you need backup.
You know, you're not just like a nobody, You're not
a soldier, You're you know, one of the top guys
in the family. Of course they're going to target you,
you know, especially after you know, with your temperament, you've
probably pissed off a lot of people in terms of
you know, beating them up and you know, saying stuff
to them and vice versa.

Speaker 3 (58:18):
Yeah, they were definitely playing on his temperament there by
setting that trap. And and really that leads into my
third favorite scene. I was really tempted to choose the
scene where Michael gets Carlo to confess that it was him.
The way he goes about that is so classic, And

(58:40):
and then I was tempted to say, no, my favorite
scene it's going to be when he tells Connie or
maybe he tells Kay one or the other, that nothing's
gonna happen to Carlo. I wouldn't do that to my
you know, to my sister's husband, Da da da da.
And then of course you know, he gets garreted, he
kicks out the windshield and all that. Those are both

(59:02):
great scenes, but I think the through thread there is
Michael and his ability to lie so well and to
not feel any guilt for it. And I think that
culminates in the final, very final scene where he lies
to Kate and then he goes into the room and
they kiss his finger, and then you get that picture

(59:23):
of Kate realizing and then the door closes on her,
you know, and the fade to black kind of thing.
That's such a powerful ending to a movie. I mean,
it's a little cerebral. It's not a bang bang ending,
but it has a lot of punch. And so I'm
gonna say that's My other favorite scene is the very
final minute or so. And you know, I know we're

(59:46):
not talking about the second movie here, but spoiler if
we ever do. One of my three favorite scenes is
also the final shot in that movie too, with the
leaves blowing and sweep up to Michael sitting in the
chair all alone, looking forlorn and miserable and so forth.
I just in both of those movies, he really found

(01:00:08):
a way to nail the final shot. I like that that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
It's such a great scene that you point out because
it's so different from the book too. It's like Coppola
understood how the book should have ended. That's and maybe
it's a way that you really couldn't even end the book.
It's it is one of the most powerful endings of
a movie because it it's it's like throwing all the

(01:00:33):
cards on the table. Now we know everything and he
knows everything. There's no nothing's left un turned after that
ending where everybody's kissing his hand.

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
Didn't the book end with her going to the church
to pray for her husband's soul. Yeah, so it's kind
of the same kind of thing, but it just wasn't
as it wasn't as much of a smack in the face.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
Right, the thing that's always bothered me, But that kind
of scene though, that scene is I understand why Hay
is upset because Michael lied about you know what he did?
I don't like, I don't get it, like you know
what I mean, like he riding them out? What do
you want me to tell you?

Speaker 3 (01:01:09):
You know? Because I know.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
What I mean? But like somebody's dead because of him? Like,
what would you like me to do? I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
Does that make sense?

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
I'll tell you, Chris from from it does, but from
going on multiple multiple domestic violence calls in my career.
I can tell you that where family and marriages are concerned,
it is rarely logical. It rarely makes sense where these
and and even the motions themselves don't make sense. So

(01:01:42):
I didn't have any problem with Connie's reaction because I've
seen it. I've seen it before. You know, when when
somebody beat you know that, it's just It's happened many
times with people smacking their wives, and the wives, you know,
you go to arrest the husband and the wife jumps
on your back to stop it. You know, It's it's
not uncommon. So I totally get where you're coming from,

(01:02:03):
and I totally understand why it could happen at the
same time, you know, it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Just always kind of bothered me a bit where it's
just like I don't get it man, Like, hey, I
get it because he like wasn't completely honest with her,
and the way she interpreted that, it's like, well, what
else you know, if you're being dishonest about something this important,
you know, look at what else are you going to
be dishonest about? You know, do I even know you type?
Like I get it from her perspective, his brother's dead

(01:02:30):
because your husband was a piece of sorry, and I
don't want to use foul language, but you know what
I mean, Like I just I would have been like
I would have been flabbergasted if I was Michael, and
I couldn't have stayed holm and cool like he did.
I would have been like, are you for real? Like
wake up?

Speaker 3 (01:02:45):
Well?

Speaker 4 (01:02:45):
I think I think that uh, Connie just she didn't.
She fundamentally didn't know or understand who Michael was. I
think that that was a big part of the whole movie,
is that nobody understood. They didn't want to believe. Maybe
they didn't want to believe or they didn't believe that
Michael had the qualities of who he would become. It

(01:03:07):
was such a gradual change in him, his metamorphosis from
being a war hero, not somebody who had absolutely no
interest in the operations of the family like Zero Zelchinada.
And he just starts slowly filling that role of the father,

(01:03:29):
and he fills the role in a different way than Vito.
He really was more cutthroat in a way than Veto
would have, Like Vito would have probably have never killed Carlow.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
You make a great point there, Steven, and I think
you can include Michael in that group of people who
didn't know or want to believe, you know, that Michael
had what that's interesting to be who he became.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
I mean I think he was denying it himself, and
Connie as well, of course, in case totally. You know,
she's Paul at it I was saying earlier, though. You know,
Connie comes around as the series goes forward. I mean,
she kind of becomes a I wouldn't say a surrogate
wife exactly to Michael, but she does end up fulfilling

(01:04:13):
some of the roles that a wife would fulfill in
his life later on. And I'm not talking like Circy
Jamie Lanister stuff, but just you know, certain roles that
he needs fulfilled with kids and organizationally and stuff. And
so I think she finally forgives him or not. I

(01:04:35):
don't even she forgives him. She finally gets over it
enough to do her part in the family. I'm like, Kay,
of course, But now I'm getting into the Godfather part too,
and we are not there.

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
Yeah, I struggle. There's again, there's just so many great
scenes and I mean, I guess I'll be the one
to do it. It's the head cut off in the bed.
I mean, I think for me, I'm trying to put
myself in the first time of watching the movie. I
don't think people saw that coming. If you were sitting

(01:05:07):
in the in the theater in nineteen seventy three or
nineteen seventy four, that and then he touches the blood,
you assume then maybe something else got cut off, maybe
they've murdered him, and then maybe they've murdered someone imput himent,
and then it's the horse head. Oh man, that was
That's the drama, the music, everything, everything just builds it

(01:05:32):
up to that level. And I think the novel, if
you've read the novel and then you go into the
movie and you that even he loved that horse more
than he loved any person that in his life, and
they knew exactly what to do to get to him,
and that was just that was amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:05:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
Interesting fact about that scene is they initially they made
like a fake horsehead for the scene. In France's was like,
this just doesn't work. It's not going to work. So
they actually got like a real horse's head and been
slaughtered and they use that. That's why it looks real,
because it is.

Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
I don't want to know.

Speaker 2 (01:06:11):
That, yeah, because it is real. That's and the one
thing that this is like kind of like the blood
looks really real at that time. If you watch kind
of movies from that time period there, the blood kind
of has like almost like a crayon quality, like melted

(01:06:35):
crayon type look. And in that scene, it just it
looks like real blood, like it's dark. It's like it was. Yeah,
but even like the scene I picked out earlier where
Sonny gets shot up right, the blood looks real. I mean,
I'm trying to think of the Dead came up, I
believe around this time, and it's famous for having like

(01:06:59):
guys get shot that literally looks like melted crowns are
pouring out of them. Like it just looks terrible. I
mean at the time. I mean, they didn't really have
much money to work with to make those movies in general,
but it just it always kind of really took me
out of the scene where it's it just looks so fake.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
You mean, you mean in a movie about zombiees taking
over the world you had a problem with your suspicions
didn't look realistic?

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Is this the crayon quality to it? I mean, honestly,
watch a bunch of films that come out around this time.
The blood looks terrible, but in this film it looks,
it looks real, it looks great. Yeah, the horses head
thing was real. I also found that scene too. Is
it does the Johnny Fontaine story, which I thought in

(01:07:49):
the book that it was just way too much of that.
I didn't I didn't really care too much for it. So,
you know, the lead up to the wedding, we get
introduced to Johnny, we understand his problem. You know, they
go talk to the producer and he's able to like
kind of get all this all you need out of
that story within I don't know how much screen time

(01:08:10):
do you think it actually has? Twenty minutes?

Speaker 4 (01:08:13):
Chris and I have gone back and forth on this.
I kind of liked the Johnny Fontainne story and the
novel if they had played it out, it just ended
after they've devoted maybe a third of the novel about
Johnny Fontayne, and then we get really no closure on
Johnny Fontaine. The movie did tie Johnny Fontayne up in

(01:08:34):
a nicer bough than the ben the novel did.

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
What's your opinion on it, Frank? Because I thought the
movie did it perfectly, where it's just we got the
gist of it and got the story told. I thought
the novel it was just it was way too I
just didn't care for the character all that much personally,
And then they spent a huge chunk of the novel
talking about them.

Speaker 3 (01:08:55):
Yeah, I think you're both right. I think the movie
did it fine. Remember thinking there's a bit much in
the novel, but I was interested, and I don't remember
how it ended up, which tells me it did not
end very satisfyingly.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
So I guess I'll go to probably my like, my
favorite scene is h the actual shootout in the U
in the restaurant, I thought was brilliant the way they
the way they did it.

Speaker 4 (01:09:20):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
And there's like a couple of a couple of little
things about that scene too, where so when he goes
to the bathroom where he's supposed to grab the gun,
you kind of see him freak out a little bit because, oh,
where's the gun? Right, because he's he's already freaking out
in general, right because he's going to be shooting like
a big mob guy. And you know, the chief of police,

(01:09:41):
or it's not the chief police, what is the captain right,
he's going to be shooting a police officer in general,
which is a pretty big leap for him. You know,
you want this is it? This is his first making
bones right. Most of the time these most of these
guys are killing, you know, some other mobster that's going
to be like rat, you know, writing somebody out or

(01:10:02):
did something terrible. I mean, these two characters, they were
doing something terrible. But most most times, your first head
is not a cop. And he goes into the bathroom
and he's reaching up to get the gun that's been
placed there for him, and he's you can tell that
he's freaking out a little bit because he's nervous, but
he's also trying to find the gun. And Frances apparently

(01:10:26):
they had agreed upon where the gun was going to
be put underneath the toilet. Francis apparently said, you know,
move it a little bit to the left or the right.
I can't remember, so it's not right there. So al
Pacino has a little moment there where he like freaks
out for real. It's like, oh am, I going to
screw up the scene. I can't find the gun. Just
a little like little thing that Frances did to make

(01:10:48):
the film feel authentic, and and then he goes out
and just cold, just cold blood, just shoots both of them.
Gone over it earlier in the film where he was
supposed to drop the gun right away, and you could tell, like,
you know, he's so petrified, he's so scared about what
he had just done. He carries the gun for a
little bit and then he remembers, oh, wait, I have

(01:11:10):
to drop the gun. And it's at that moment that
there's no turning back for Michael at all. You know,
he'd been leaning to it where he's you know, he said, like,
I'm with you, Dad, but there's no turning back at
that point, right, like you just killed a police officer
in a restaurant, you know, with witnesses, you know, that's

(01:11:34):
Michael taking the final step, you know, like, I'm I'm
going to become the head of the family, and this
is a decision I've made. And sometimes in life it's
like that. You make a decision and there is no
turning back, right for good or bad.

Speaker 3 (01:11:48):
Yeah, that's the point of no return. I think his
decision was made there. I think you alluded to it
at the hospital when he pretends to be muscle, so
that the hitters drive off on and then he goes
and forces him to move his dad into a different room.
That I think that's where he made his decision, but
he could have still changed his mind until he shot

(01:12:10):
that captain. But again, another scene that has so many
subtleties in it. You mentioned the gun grabbing thing. That's
I didn't know that. That's excellent directing if you ask me,
that's awesome. But even the part where like Salazzo tells
Michael or tells the captain McCloskey that you know, Michael
and I are going to speak Italian. Polease don't be offended.

(01:12:33):
And he's like, ah, he starts eating his steak, right,
and they speak Italian. Well, I mean there's a purpose
for that, right, I mean he can honestly say, and
he can pass a light detector test if he were
put on the box to say, I don't know what
they talked about. I was there to make sure two
people didn't hurt each other. I was asked to provide security.
I didn't know anything was wrong with that. I don't

(01:12:54):
have any idea what they talked about. And he's telling
the truth. He doesn't know what they talked about at
least not specifically because they spoke Italian and so you
know you were talking about insulation and stuff earlier. Steve.
There's another example of it. It insulates McCloskey that the
captain of the police captain, but it insulates slots on
Michael too, because now he doesn't have something on them

(01:13:14):
more than what he already had sitting down. He doesn't
gain any new leverage because he has no new information
other than the fact that they met. So it's just
there's so many subtleties in this movie that were so
well done. So I'm glad you picked that scene, Chris.

Speaker 4 (01:13:28):
One thing that I liked about the movie again that
I think did better in the book. The book painted
that captain as really like above and beyond corrupt, and
so you didn't feel quite as bad with him getting killed.
But the movie, yeah, he shouldn't have punched Michael. But
I'm sure that's stuff that happened all the time in

(01:13:50):
the forties, where a cop might take a cheap shot
at somebody. You get the sunset, he's just a run
of the mill cop, and then you do feel a
little bit bad for him, I think that, and you
feel like, whoa Michael really has made a He's jumped
the chasm here. It's not just that he's killing some

(01:14:12):
a really bad cop who you know, we don't care,
because he kind of had a coming. This is in
the movie. It's a it's abundantly clear icing this mafia
tough guy and then a cop that's he's gone over
to the dark side, and there's no going back after that.
There's no redemption at all there.

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
I don't have much sympathy for the cop though. I mean,
Michael points out, you know, he's getting involved in drug runners,
you know, dirty cop who cares, right, I don't know.
I didn't feel much sympathy for him. And that's my
opinion just because he was getting involved in drug runners.
It wasn't like gambling or something of that nature. I mean,

(01:15:00):
gambling is pretty bad too, but like drug running. I
know this maybe is just like a personal thing with me.
I'm like, I just have like almost serious sympathy for
or I don't know, how do you feel for Rank?

Speaker 3 (01:15:10):
I agree with Stevie was less dislike. He was not
as dislikable in the film as he was in the book.
And I agree with you, Chris, he had it coming
and I don't feel bad for him one bit, but
I think the guy, the version of him in the
book had it coming even more so. He wasn't a

(01:15:31):
cop he was. He was a criminal. He was a
criminal who managed to infiltrate then New York Police Department.
I mean that's really what he.

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
What he was. The guy who played him, I'm not
sure the actor's name, he did a fantastic job. Yeah,
I agree, just playing like the Irish cop, right, I
thought he was. I thought he was great. And even
like when you mentioned him hitting Michael, the makeup that
they did on Michael to make his face look puffy

(01:16:02):
al Patinos or whatever, and like kind of say, I
thought that was really well done because you could tell
like he smacked a real, real good.

Speaker 3 (01:16:11):
Yeah. I think in the book he had like a
nasal drip issue for quite some time, or his eye
dripped or something like that, and he had to constantly.
You see in the movie he's carrying around a handkerchief,
but like it was omnipresent in the in the book,
I mean it was constantly in your face that he
had this issue going on, like he was always weeping

(01:16:32):
or snows was running or whatever. It was so Yeah,
you know, I think you did a great job there
pointing out Chris how he he did it by the numbers,
except he was He showed his rookie nature just a
little bit by not dropping that gun right away. That's
a really nice touch, you know, because it showed that
this was his first time and yeah, he's cool, cool

(01:16:52):
under pressure, but the pressure's still there.

Speaker 4 (01:16:57):
Steve here again with a quick word from ours. I
wonder if there was for any for either of you,
if there was something you didn't really like about the movie,
or it's something that you could point out that maybe
irked you a little bit or thought could be better.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
For me personally. This goes for the book and the movie,
the whole stuff in Sicily I didn't really care for.
France has fought really hard to get that all that
stuff filmed actually in Sicily. He was very insistent on it.
I just I get it to a degree, like it
serves the purpose of the story. I just think it

(01:17:37):
went on way too long, and I think there's some
historical accuracy to that, Like Vito Geneviz led to Sicily
to beat murder charges and hung out with Benito Mussolini
for a bit. They were like best pals until they weren't. Yeah,
I didn't really care for the stuff in Sicily in

(01:17:58):
the book and even the movie. I mean, I didn't
really care for it either. I don't know, how do
you guys feel.

Speaker 3 (01:18:03):
I think that the fleeing to Sicily has a lot
more of an impact on you as you're viewing the
story if you were viewing it in the context of
both movies together, because you know, that's where Vito Corleone,

(01:18:23):
actually Vito Andlini right, came from right, and so him
his son going back there in order to be safe,
this place that he fled because he wasn't safe. There's
a kind of a there's kind of a a sort
of a poetic quality to that, sort of a what's
old is new again thing going on there. So I

(01:18:48):
think there's value in it in that regard. I think
what I don't like about it is that they blow
up Apollonia, and there was, you know, probably a good
couple of years and a life where I wanted to
marry her. So she's dead in pieces, I couldn't do that.
But I mean, what did poor Appollonio do? You know?

(01:19:08):
She's just a village girl who fell in love with
this Italian who from America, who was struck by the
thunderbolt when he saw her. And you know, I mean,
did she deserve to get blown up in the car.
But it's good for his character because you know, he's cold, cold, cold, cold,
but he wasn't cold with her. That was like the

(01:19:29):
one place in his life. Like if she had lived,
I think he would have been a very different person
in the second movie, and even in the remainder of
the first movie. She would have softened his edges. She
would have given him joy, and that joy would have
kept him from being as cold and calculating and ruthless
as he is. And the remainder of the movie, and
in the second movie, I mean, he kills his spoiler alert,

(01:19:49):
he kills his own brother. You know, I mean that's
pretty cold. Yeah, I don't think he could have done
that if he was happy with that Polonia and had
children with her and had a family with her. And
so her dying I think was essential to his character development,
you know, but you know, sucked for her for my
early matrimonial purposes, I agree with both of you.

Speaker 4 (01:20:13):
I think that it was the scenes in Sicily and
then the storyline with that Bolonia was important, but it
sure did feel like it dragged on. And I think
that they could have gotten that maybe a little bit
and a little bit quicker of a timeframe, and it
really dragged on in the book. It's like, come on,
let's get a move on already.

Speaker 2 (01:20:35):
Oh sorry, it's it just seems like Mario Puzzo was
like trying to because this is where all these Mob
guys came from, was from Sicily, and like Sicily's were
the homeland of the mafioso and that type of thing.
So of course it's got to go right back to Sicily.
And I mean the reality is, if you, I don't know,
you look at Lucky Luciano, who is considered like one

(01:20:56):
of the the original guys of the Mob, right, he
didn't really have like a ton of connection to Sicily,
like when he got deported back to Sicily, which was
like kind of part of the deal that he made.
We discussed that on earlier podcasts. If Americans came by,
he would just sit and talk to them because he
felt like he missed hearing American accents. He felt more

(01:21:22):
American than he did in Sicilian. That's kind of how
That's what it felt like to me, kind of a
guy like thinking the goal. Of course they have all
these tie it backs to Sicily and what have you.
But I mean the reality is, yeah, I'm sure some
of these guys did, but a lot of them didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:21:38):
I think one of the other things that bothered me
about the book and the movie. And maybe I'm being
the picky here, but Tessio, right, the Goda's character, he
was smart, you know, and and they say, you know, yeah,
Tessio is smart, and this was the smart move. And
Testio was always smart. That's why he made this move

(01:21:59):
to betray Mike. Well, I just don't That's one of
the few things that happens in the book and in
the movie that I think, Oh, he did that because
the director and the writer needed that character to do that,
not necessarily because that character would have done that. I mean,
the Corleone family were not so much on the ropes.
I don't think that Clemenza or Tessio would be thinking about,

(01:22:22):
you know, turning Trader. I mean, they had such respect
for the old man. And was he still alive at
the time or no, he had already died at that point.
Hadn't he he died that. That's another possible favorite scene too,
the tomatoes scene with the grandson. But I don't know,
do you think? I mean, I get what I get

(01:22:43):
the logic that Puzzo and Copola used with the character,
and it's not crazy. I don't think they're just manufacturing it.
But I never bought it. I always felt like it
was a little bit contrived.

Speaker 4 (01:22:54):
Yeah, it did seem it seemed contrived to force the ending,
that they needed something to definitively end it and then
move forward, and it happened. It unfolded really quickly or
too quickly.

Speaker 3 (01:23:14):
Yeah. Yeah, I almost wish they would have been maybe
I don't remember if they did in the book, perhaps
it's been a while since I've read it. I wish
they would have given Tessio a little bit more motivation
other than oh, this is the smart play because probably
the Brzinis are going to take over and the Corleons
are going to be dead, and I want to land

(01:23:34):
on my feet blah blah blah. That just seems too
cold for somebody that's been with the family for so long,
and so it'd be nice if you know, usually you
can you can find reasons like maybe maybe Clemenza got
promoted over the top of him, and he had a
bur under saddle because he thought he was smarter than
Clemenza deserved to be the leader. And you know, kind

(01:23:55):
of like Tom Hagen was told, you're not going to
be consigli aire because you're not all or you're not
a wartime consigular area, so you're out, you know. I mean,
he got a bur under a saddle about that, and
had he gone and turned state's evidence or something, at
least there's a reason there for it other than it's
quote unquote the smartt Yeah, but that's obviously I'm picking

(01:24:17):
at very small knits right now.

Speaker 4 (01:24:19):
Chris, What do you think for yours? Is there anything
you would nitpick on?

Speaker 3 (01:24:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:24:23):
Other than the sicily stuff, that's the only stuff that
kind of I just felt like I didn't really care
too much for one thing that kind of bothers me
in general is just that's not so much of the
movie itself. Is a lot of people get this impression
that the that the mob or art the Mob or
not involved in drug trafficking, which is just because of

(01:24:46):
this movie, and it's simply just it's just not true.
Like they were all involved in drug trafficking pretty much
right from the get.

Speaker 3 (01:24:55):
Go, probably too lucrative not to be.

Speaker 2 (01:24:58):
Well, that's exactly it, right. Oh, they even talked about
it in the movie right where you know, the Corleone
family is going to be taking a huge head they're
walking away from money based on principles that they don't
want to get involved in drug trafficking. But the reality
is all the mob guy, all the Mob families in

(01:25:20):
New York and right across the States and up here
in Canada and across the world are all involved in
drug trafficking. There's no ifs, sends or butts are about it.
You know. So if you see like your neighborhood's being
flooded with drugs, especially say if you would live in
Sicily or what have you, good chance of the mob

(01:25:42):
that isn't directly involved in that. Probably maybe a little
less so now just because they're just not as powerful
in the States as they used to be. They're still
quite powerful, but not as much as they used to be.
And that's something that's just always rks me because I
still hear it to this day. It's like, well, well,
they're not all involved and I'm like, no, no, no,
They're all involved in drug trafficking. There's no there's no

(01:26:07):
argument about that, and it just always bothered me. I
get it for you know, for storytelling purposes, for the Godfather,
it makes sense because immediately makes you sympathetic to the family.
It's just not reality.

Speaker 4 (01:26:24):
I think that My only one of my quibels about
the movie is that Rado really turned into a He
was a I mean a weanie. Really, when you boil
it down, I don't feel like he he had any
real stake. He was coming sort of just another foil
to a ball guy character that he isn't tough enough

(01:26:49):
to defend the down and I don't I think they
were trying to go with him in a slightly different
direction in the book, and they spent so much time
developing Johnny Fontaine that we never got to really know
much about Freido, and I think Freido could have been
a much bigger part of the of the film and
the Buck.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
I'll say this, the guy played Fred Oh, he he
looks like I don't know, you don't know the actor's
name right off the top of my head, but he
has a face that you just kind of want to punch.
He just looks unlikable, do you know what I mean?
Like he does. He just looks like a guy you
would not.

Speaker 3 (01:27:26):
He always plays those characters too. He's he's in The
Deer Hunter, if you remember, and he he plays a
very similar Barticalarly plays Freddo in The Deer Hunter as well.

Speaker 4 (01:27:36):
John.

Speaker 3 (01:27:37):
He would have been very John. He would have been uh,
he would have been a more interesting character to see
fleshed out, I think for sure. I mean, he he
was somebody that I think didn't get enough credit for
being able to gladhand people. But unfortunately he didn't have

(01:27:59):
enough strength of person when you had Mo Green slapping
him around for getting waitresses pregnant or whatever it was.
And you know, I mean, if you're the son of
a Dawn, you probably shouldn't be getting smacked around by anybody,
so that you know, it's it's it's unfortunate that his
fatal flaw was, you know, that weakness of character. But

(01:28:19):
he had strengths too, and he's criminally underused and not
trusted and that comes up again in the second movie
quite a bit.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
Just his look, I don't know, he just looks like
a guy that I would just not trust with anything,
you know, and that's probably why they casted him, right,
great casting, you know, because I'm assuming they probably were
I don't know for sure if they were thinking about
a second one, but when they were filming this one,
I guess it was going to be based largely on

(01:28:51):
the success of this one. I know Francis was not
initially he was not interested in doing the second movie.
And I believe it was I was a producer or
something told them and say, hey, you have like the
formula for Coca Cola, and you're telling me that you
don't want to make it or something, and it's like
that's what convinced Jones like, well, i'd be stupid not

(01:29:12):
to direct the second.

Speaker 3 (01:29:13):
Well there was still a story to be told from
the book too, right, So why wouldn't you? And yeah,
I'm surprised to hear that. I'm surprised he was resistant.
But this was you know, I mean, was it seventy
two and seventy four that they came out? Does that
sound right? I mean sequels were not a big thing

(01:29:33):
back then. They were just getting rolling where people the
idea of a sequel like now, it's a it's a
done deal. If the movie is moderately successful and there's
any room in the story for a second movie, they
make it because it's you know, it's a proven commodity,
blah blah blah. But back in the early seventies, I mean,

(01:29:54):
the idea of a sequel wasn't I mean, Star Wars
didn't come out for another five years, you know, so
you know, I mean, it just wasn't as it was
getting there. And certainly I think the second Godfather movie,
people are like, well, hey, if the Godfather can do it,
we can do it. And then they made like two
every which way but loose in any which way you can.

(01:30:15):
With Clint Eastwood, you know something, we's got sequels that
maybe weren't quite as high quality. But although those were
fun to watch, I remember, so I guess what I'm
saying is that it surprises me A that he wasn't
interested and b that it you know, it wasn't a
done deal because it wasn't the kind of thing that

(01:30:37):
happened all the time and back then, and so you know,
it was a little bit of breaking the mold by
making a second movie, as opposed to you know, moving
on to to break new ground.

Speaker 4 (01:30:48):
Well, I think we really were ready to close out
The Godfather, at least Godfather Power one. There's still two
and three to go, but that will be a different
story for a different the day. I know, I've enjoyed
it talking about The Godfather.

Speaker 2 (01:31:04):
Yeah, I've had a blast. I had a great time
researching the making of The Godfather and how about how
it came about the direct involvement that the Mob had
and the making of the Godfather, and just researching just
how important The Godfather is in terms of cinema history

(01:31:26):
but also a mob history. Many of the perceptions that
we have of the Mafia come from the movie Godfather.
Any sayings we talked about it earlier in the in
the show you know, bought a Bang, and there's a
couple of others you know, come directly from this movie.

(01:31:46):
And yeah, and just the the influence that it's had
on pop culture and popular imagination on the Mafia and
mob history in general.

Speaker 3 (01:31:59):
Well, you did a fantastic job on the research piece there, Chris.
You really got your mustache into it and dug out
a lot of great info. I'm impressed you know way
more about the history of this than than than I do,
for sure, But I still enjoyed discussing it because you know,
for me, with my background as a writer, it's it's about,

(01:32:20):
you know, how the story is told. And while the
telling of the story, you know, it's different in the
medium of film, as a as a connoisseur, as just
a movie watcher, I can still appreciate how, oh wow,
they're telling the story really well in a way that
can only be done in a movie, whereas you know,

(01:32:41):
in a novel or play or you know, some other
type of production, you would be telling it maybe differently.
And it's such a compelling story of family drama, crime drama,
and it's very Greek. It's a Greek tragedy really, I mean,
if you think about it, and you don't have to
think for hard to get there, it's very much a

(01:33:02):
Greek tragedy. And Michael is you know, he his thesis,
he is Oedipus, he is pick your Greek hero. And
so I've really enjoyed, you know, getting into that kind
of stuff and then listening to the research that Chris
dug up and your insight, Steve has been fun just
from a listening standpoint.

Speaker 4 (01:33:25):
And we would definitely like to hear what everybody out
there has to say. I'm sure there's a lot of
people out there with a lot of opinions on the Godfather.
And if you enjoyed what you've heard today, we tell
a friend, tell a couple of friends, Tell all of
your friends, so that your friends can become friends of ours.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Why the Godfather (1972) is Overrated: A Controversial Breakdown