How did I almost miss this show? It is fantastic. The Offer is about the making of The Godfather, which is still considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made. I had some knowledge about its troubled production history, but the movie still offers new insights. Especially about the involvement of the real Mafia in the production.
The limited series is based on the experiences of Albert S. Ruddy, the producer of the film. Ruddy (Miles Teller from Top Gun: Maverick) started his career as a television writer-producer and he wanted to make the transition to the more alluring (especially in those days!) big screen. He pleads for a job with Bob Evans, the brilliant head of Paramount Studios, who sees something in the passionate young man and decides to give him his shot at the title.
The mini-series then follows the typical film’s development process, which starts with the hiring of a screenplay writer (Ruddy hires the author of the book Mario Puzo and immediately breaks a golden rule in Hollywood) and a director (Coppola, who was supposed to be able to bring in the film low budget). At the same time, he gets Joe Colombo to deal with. Apart from being the boss of one of the five New York mob families, Colombo was leader of the Italian-American Civil Rights League and he thought The Godfather was a complete insult.
Then starts the casting process which is even more troubling. Coppola is in love with Al Pacino (“the shortest unknown actor in the world”), whom Bob Evens absolutely hates. And both Ruddy, Coppola and Puzo are dead set on Marlon Brando for the role of the Don, but he is known to be a major troublemaker by the studio’s.
Another storyline of The Offer revolves around Evans’ marriage with actress Ali McGraw. Due to the pressures of his work, he can’t go with her to Texas where she is to shoot The Getaway with womanizer Steve McQueen. When he loses her, the studio boss cannot bring himself to return to work, but The Godfather cannot succeed without him, as number cruncher Barry Lapidus (Colin Hanks) threatens to destroy all creativity in his absence.
It is a lot of fun watching Ruddy & Co deal with all these insurmountable challenges, and seeing the masterpiece that is to be The Godfather slowly emerging. The main cast members are all great. What was always gonna be impossible is to find suitable actors to play The Godfather’s cast members: Brando, Pacino, Caan, Duvall… Talking about insurmountable challenges, but they managed to at least not screw it up.
The Offer can best be compared with Mad Men: another show about the creative process mixed with business. But since this is the story about a fantastic period in American cinema, it is even more enjoyable for movie lovers such as myself. Also, seeing the dozen ways The Godfather could have gone off the rails, will make you appreciate this movie even more as the miracle that it is.
Today it was 50 years ago that The Godfather, one of the greatest films ever made, was released in the Netherlands. It was based on the excellent novel by Mario Puzo. As often happens with a screen adaptation, a lot of stuff was either left out or changed. Below are the fifteen most important differences between Puzo’s bestselling novel and the classic movie by Francis Ford Coppola.
1. Sonny’s Cockyness
The following passage from the novel explains more about why Sonny was always the cock of the walk: Sonny Corleone was tall for a first-generation American of Italian parentage, almost six feet, and his crop of bushy, curly hair made him look even taller. He was built as powerfully as a bull, and it was common knowledge that he was so generously endowed by nature that his martyred wife feared the marriage bed as unbelievers once feared the rack. It was whispered that when as a youth he had visited houses of ill fame, even the most hardened and fearless putain, after an awed inspection of his massive organ, demended double price.
2. Another Request For the Don
All the wedding guests that ask requests of Don Corleone at his daughter’s wedding are in both the novel and the movie except one. Understandably, it was cut out because it is the least interesting. A guy needs 500 dollars to open a pizzeria. What is interesting though is his name: Anthony Coppola. The novel was released in 1969 and author Mario Puzo did not yet know that it would be adapted into a movie by a guy named Coppola. Funny he chose that name.
3. Woltz is a Real Pervert
Placing the severed racehorse head in movie producer Jack Woltz’s bed was brutal. In the film the guy is portrayed as an asshole, but not as a big enough fucker to deserve this kind of punishment. In the novel however, Hagen finds out he ‘did a number’ on a twelve year old girl during his visit to Woltz’s ranch. Later, it is explained that the 60-year old movie mogul can indeed only get it up with very young girls. So apart from the notion that hurting animals is always wrong, Woltz definitely had something bad like this coming.
4. Bonasera Gets His Vengeance
After a long conversation with the undertaker Bonasera, we see the Don give out the order to punish the two men who have hurt his daughter, but we don’t witness the actual event in the film. In the novel we learn that Paulie Gatto was in charge of this operation (the guy who gets killed after which the famous line “leave the gun, take the cannoli” – which btw is not in the novel – is uttered). He uses two professional fighters who kick the two abusers to a pulp when they leave a bar. Like ordered by Don Corleone, they survive. But their faces are unrecognizable. Bonasera is very happy indeed, until his phone rings some time later.
5. Fontane Makes a Career Switch
The singer Johnny Fontane plays a larger role in the book than in the film. We learn that the Don’s service to Fontane has paid off. He played in Woltz’s picture which earned him an Academy Award. And that is not all. Tom Hagen visits him after the picture is wrapped up and tells him that Don Corleone will bankroll him in becoming a movie producer. Soon after the Don is shot, but Fontane still gets the money to produce one movie at the time. He ends up as successful as Woltz.
6. More On Luca Brasi
In the movie, it is obvious that Luca Brasi is a dangerous killer who works exclusively for the Corleone Family. But there is nothing about his background really. In the novel, he plays a larger role. Partly because there is more story about the Don’s rise to power, which wasn’t used in The Godfather: Part II (see also 7). About Luca we learn that he is absolutely terrifying and has done some horrible deeds. Some he did in service of the Don, like butchering two hitmen Al Capone had sent to New York as a favor to Don Maranzano who was at war with the Corleone Family. But some he did for himself, like incinerating his own baby in an oven and murder his girlfriend with whom he had the child. No wonder everybody in the movie seems to be afraid of this brute.
7. The First Mob War and Sonny’s Involvement
When the Corleone Family goes to the mattresses in The Godfather, we get the faint impression that this was not the first war they were in. It is not. In the novel, Don Vito fights a bloody war in the early 1930’s with another New York boss: Don Maranzano. It was in this war that Sonny Corleone made his reputation as a brutal general. As a boy, Sonny had witnessed his father kill Don Fanucci and he confronted his father with this (that’s right, this is not in The Godfather: Part II). After that, he became involved in the family business and it turned out that he had a talent for violence and cruelty. He may have missed the strategic subtleness the Don searched for in his successor, but he surely was effective. The war against Maranzano was resolved by killing the Don while he was eating in a restaurant (similar to the real-life assassination of Don Masseria of New York).
8. Kay and Mama Corleone
After Michael had left her after killing Sollozzo and McCluskey, Kay Adams visits the Corleone estate but gets very little information from Tom Hagen. The jerk almost didn’t invite her in! Mama Corleone is not happy with this treatment and she asks inside Kay for lunch. Despite Tom’s objections, she tells Kay gently that “Mikey not gonna write you. He hide two-three years. Maybe more. You go home to your family and find a nice young fellow and get married.” After Kay leaves, she is trying to get used to the fact that the young man she had loved was a cold-blooded murderer. And that she had been told by the most unimpeachable source: his mother.
9. Michael’s Scapegoat
In the movie, it is never explained how exactly Don Corleone managed to get Michael home from Sicily. The police are after him after all, which we know in the novel because they come to Kay’s house to question her. The don did it by finding a scapegoat for the Sollozzo-McCluskey murders. This guy was part of a small Sicilian mob family, who acted as intermediaries when the bosses needed to plan safe negotiations. The man had committed a brutal murder and had been sentenced to death. Don Vito made him falsely confess to killing McCluskey and Sollozzo and he had the waiter from the restaurant provide false witness testimony. Problem solved.
10. Lucy Gets an Operation
On Connie’s wedding in The Godfather I, Sonny cheats on his wife with Lucy Mancini. In part III, she apparently had a son from Sonny called Vincent. There is nothing about her getting pregnant in the book, but there is quite a lot of stuff about their love affair, and there is a chapter on her after Sonny’s death. It is in this chapter that we learn that she has quite a big box. Apparently which is why she matched so well with Sonny (see point 1). Not sure if this is Puzo’s finest writing, but I’m just giving you the facts here. After Sonny’s death, the Corleone Family gives Lucy a job in Vegas and a nice monthly income. She meets a doctor, who she has an affair with. He fixes her ‘down there’ and later also fixes Johnny Fontane’s voice box. Great guy.
11. More On Al Neri
Michael Corleone’s enforcer Al Neri was apparently a cop before he came into Michael’s service. A brutal cop who would put the fear of God into many delinquents. One day, he kills a vile pimp who had cut up a young girl and her mother. He gets a heavy sentence, and this is when the Corleones step in. They use their political influence to set him free, and immediately offer him a job. Now Michael got his own Luca Brasi, a powerful weapon in the battles he is about to get engaged in.
12. Fabrizio Gets What’s Coming To Him
Michael’s big revenge differs quite a bit in the movie. In the novel, it doesn’t take place during the baptism. Coppola combined the happenings to make it more dramatic and Michael more diabolical. Great move. Also, Moe Greene gets killed earlier in the story. More importantly, in the novel Michael only whacks two of the four dons of the opposing families: Barzini and Tattaglia. Also, Fabrizio, the bodyguard who killed Michael’s wife in Sicily, is shot to death in a bar. “Michael Corleone sends his regards”. A scene was filmed for The Godfather: Part II, in which Fabrizio is killed by a car bomb, but it was cut from the movie.
13. Tessio Off the Hook?
After Tessio is to be killed for his betrayal, he asks Tom Hagen if he can get him off the hook. “Can’t do it, Sally”, Hagen answers. In the book, Tom had actually checked with Michael if Tessio could be saved. “Any way to get Tessio off the hook?” Michael’s answer: “No way”. At least he tried, which makes Tom a bit less cold than in the movie, although in the world of the mob, it’s not really possible to give traitors passes. The don’s position would be threatened very soon.
14. Hagen Reconciling With Kay The Godfather famously ends with Michael’s door being closed on Kay; the moment she realizes of course that it was all true: Michael had killed Carlo and the heads of the five families. The perfect ending. In the novel, there is a scene after that realization in which Tom Hagen visits Kay and actually explains to her why Michael killed Carlo. And he makes it sound very reasonable. After that, Kay decides to give it another shot with Michael. How does she deal with Michael’s sins?
15. Kay Burning a Candle
The novel ends with Kay going to church to burn a candle for Michael Corleone’s soul. Like she had seen Mama Corleone do for her husband. So history repeats itself and Kay, despite being a real Americana, becomes a Sicilian wife for Michael. So, he made the right choice hooking up with her again after his exile on Sicily.
Director: Elaina Archer Written by: John McCarty (book), Elaina Archer, Tom Marksbury Features: Paul Sorvino (narrator), Leonard Maltin, Michael Madsen, Edward McDonald, ao.
Running Time: 70 mins.
This Hugh Hefner produced documentary shows the fascination of moviegoers with the mob. ‘Once in the racket, always in the racket’, Al Capone said who became the archetype of the gangster and role-model for some legendary movie characters like Caesar ‘Rico’ Bandello (Little Caesar) and Tony Camonte/Montana (Scarface) This also applies to Hollywood when it comes to making gangster films. Every time you think the realms of the genre have been fully explored, some new masterpiece comes along. After the time that Cagney, Robinson and Bogart dominated the screen, a new generation of filmmakers emerged in the seventies with Coppola, Scorsese and De Palma. Then at the brink of the new millennium, the Hollywood gangster legend continued on the small screen with The Sopranos.
Bullets Over Hollywood opens with the very first gangster film: The Musketeers Of Pig Alley, made in 1912. It then goes on to chronologically move through gangster film history right up until The Sopranos. The documentary combines film fragments, interviews and real gangster footage while Paul Sorvino (GoodFellas) provides the narrative. It is an interesting viewing for enthusiasts of the genre, but misses real insight in the works that it covers. Some interesting facts are revealed such as the story that Howard Hawks was forced by Hollywood to add ‘the shame of the nation’ to his gangsterfilm Scarface, because they didn’t want to glorify gangsters. Also interesting is some behind-the-scene footage of gangster classics, but these fragments are unfortunately a little brief. Altogether this is worth a look. If only to hear Leonard Maltin rave about The Godfather and to re-experience some of the finest sequences in the history of this fascinating American phenomenon.
20. Failed Hit Episode: Isabella (SE1, EP12) Characters: Tony and two hitmen
Although you know Tony will survive – what would The Sopranos be without T after all? – this attempt on his life is still a very tense affair. Luckily these ‘Boyz II Men’ sent by Junior and Mikey Palmice screw it up big-time. Tony not only survives, the huge adrenaline level raised by this experience takes him right out of his depression. Also look out for The Godfather reference. Tony is carrying a bottle of orange juice. Don Corleone was buying oranges when hitmen came to gun him down.
19. My Uncle Tony Episode: Long Term Parking (SE5, EP12) Characters: Christopher and Adriana
Christopher is getting increasingly frustrated with Tony. The lines he delivers here are pure poetry. “That’s the guy, Adriana. My uncle Tony. The guy I’m going to hell for.” If only he had put that in his movie script. Speaking of which…
18. Premiere Night Episode: Stage 5 (SE6, EP14) Characters: The whole family
The premiere of Cleaver is one hell of a great party. The movie is really funny for one thing. Daniel Baldwin delivers a terrific Tony performance (“what, you’re gonna argue with me now?”). Then there is the basement, the bathrobe, the cleaver which reminds of Chrissy’s first pork store kill… It’s all there… Off screen, hilarious things are happening as well; Paulie’s phone call, Carmine’s speech, the director’s lack of speech, Phil Leotardo’s comments (“hot and sticky, like my balls”). This really is a postmodern masterpiece.
17. All in the Family Episode: The Knight in White Satin Armor (SE2, EP12) Characters: Janice and Richie
The ink on the contract that Tony put out on Richie isn’t dry yet, or he gets popped by his own fiancé. Hitting a Soprano is never a smart play, Richie discovers. As it turns out, Janice is a cold blooded murderer like her brother. This is one of the greatest surprises that The Sopranos has to offer. The build-up is perfect; the gun they use for sex, Richie’s gay son to fight over, the problems between Richie and Tony… it all leads to this moment; the death of troublemaker Richie. All Janice has to do now is get rid of the body, but having a brother high-up in the mob has its perks…
16. 16 Czechoslovakians Episode: Pine Barrens (SE3, EP11) Characters: Paulie, Christopher and Tony
The episode ‘Pine Barrens’, in which Paulie and Christopher are lost in the woods with a Russian commando walking around who they failed to kill, is pure comic gold. In this scene Tony warns them over the phone; “The guy you’re looking for is an ex-commando! He killed sixteen Chechen rebels single-handed! He was with the Interior Ministry. Guy’s like a Russian green beret.” Paulie hangs up and tells the story to Chris; “You’re not gonna believe this. He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator.” Christopher: “His house looked like shit.” Brilliant dialogues! The Czechoslovakian remark also touches on Christopher’s first murder, the Czechoslovakian Emil Kolar.
15. Desperate Hours Episode: Long Term Parking (SE5, EP12) Characters: Christopher and Adriana
Feeling she has no options left, Adriana tells Christopher about the FBI. He first responds with furious rage; he almost kills her with his bare hands. Then, he is devastated and considers leaving for a while. The scene is one of the most intense in the series and features powerhouse acting by Michael Imperioli and Drea de Matteo.
14. Are You in the Mafia? Episode: College (SE1, EP5) Characters: Tony and Meadow
The now already famous question asked by Meadow is answered with some sincerity by Tony. Of course he lies at first, but then he tells her that some of his money comes from illegal gambling. They have that kind of relationship, Meadow stresses. One of the first and finest moments in which Tony’s Mafia and family life cross each other.
13. Running Gag Episode: I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano (SE1, EP13) Characters: Christopher, Paulie and Mikey Palmice
The first season’s bad guy Mikey Palmice gets whacked in this scene by killers Christopher and Paulie. For a second it appears that he is going to escape when he runs into the forest, but Christopher is a wickedly fast runner and catches up with him and puts one in his leg. Then Mikey begs for his life before Paulie and Chris pump him full of lead. A lesson from Coppola: It is important to add a detail to a murder scene to make it memorable. In this scene, Poison Ivy does the trick. Paulie runs into some bushes of the stuff and immediately can feel it itching on him. This gives him all the more reason to whack Mikey, while Christopher already has a personal reason for the kill: “You shot Brendan Filone in his bathtub naked, no chance to run!”
“No”, Mikey replies, “it was Junior.”
Christopher: “Yeah right it was Junior. Mr Magoo!”
Paulie: “I can feel it itching on me already”. BLEM! BLEM! BLEM! BLEM! Goodbye Mr. Palmice. Quite satisfying indeed.
12. Non Judgemental Confrontation Episode: The Strong Silent Type (SE4, EP10) Characters: Christopher, Dominic Palladino, Silvio, Paulie, Benny Fazio, Furio, Carmela, Tony, Adriana and Joanne Moltisanti
Christopher’s intervention is a comical highlight in the series. How are these guys gonna be non-judgemental? Paulie, Silvio and Tony’s sharings are all funny enough to piss your pants. When Christopher starts to talk back, things get even more hysterical. If your intervention ends with a fractured skull, you know you have a couple of great friends.
11. When Your Number is Up Episode: Funhouse (SE2, EP13) Characters: Pussy, Angie, Tony and Silvio
Tony had a revealing dream about Pussy, so he goes to see him. Pussy instantly knows, the minute he hears Tony. This is it. Tony found out. There are too much coincidences; Tony out of bed while having food poisoning; wanting to take a boat ride; having a diarrhea attack while upstairs; Silvio requesting coffee downstairs… Pussy has been in the Mafia, he knows the tricks they use when they want to whack somebody. Of course part of him is in denial; maybe they don’t know shit, but upstairs Tony is finding the final piece of evidence he needs. This is it for Pussy.
FRAGMENTEN UIT HET SCHEMERLAND 