“The Godfather”: the cast just as eventful as the film itself

Director Stanley Kubrick called The Godfather “possibly the best movie ever made”. The Godfather is 50 years old and composes, with The Godfather 2 and The Godfather 3, shot in 1974 and 1990, a mythical trilogy. The first part of Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece – Oscar, in 1973, for best film and best actor – has been released for a few days in international and Lebanese cinemas in a restored version, to mark this event date. Selected for the Library of Congress, it was originally shot on 35mm color with the Technicolor process in monophonic sound. The anniversary version has been restored and digitized in 4K with Dolby Stereo sound. This timeless cinematic masterpiece recounting the fate of the Corleone mafia family, having known an eventful casting, might however have been a notorious flop. Can you imagine if Al Pacino, Coppola and Marlon Brando were not on the poster?

The Corleone family in the opening scene of ‘The Godfather’. Photo ©Paramount Pictures

Francis Ford Coppola was not the first choice

January 1971: Paramount buys the rights to The Godfather, the phenomenon novel by Mario Puzo, which had appeared two years earlier. Renowned directors will be solicited, but all decline the offer for what it supposes as problems. It is a promising young filmmaker named Francis Ford Coppola who accepts the project. He is far from guessing that a tough battle with Paramount is regarding to begin. From the outset, all his casting ideas will be rejected by the studio, in particular that of entrusting the main role to an old Hollywood legend deemed finished: Marlon Brando.

The opening scene of the film “The Godfather”. Photo ©Paramount Pictures

A much-discussed cast

From the start, the young director made his choice. He is determined. He knows who he wants to work with. He’s already made a list and is sticking to it. For him, the young Michael will have the features of Al Pacino, James Caan will be Sonny and Robert Duvall will play Tom Hagen. And that’s just the beginning. The casting will have the good part of the debates with the leaders of the studio who will put spokes in the wheels to him. We forget the budget, the shooting location and other problems. The young director wants to bring together his dream cast.

Paramount doesn’t want to hear regarding young Al Pacino as Michael Corleone or Marlon Brando as patriarch Vito Corleone. Its leaders have thus demanded several times the dismissal of Pacino and, if necessary, of Coppola who did not want to comply with their wishes. To convince them of the correctness of his choice, the director decides to first shoot the scene where Michael Corleone shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey in a New York restaurant. The intensity of Al Pacino’s game will impress the bosses of the American studio and Francis Ford Coppola will therefore have free rein.

« The Godfather ». Photo ©Paramount Pictures

How did anti-Hollywood Marlon Brando accept the role?

To embody the character of Vito Corleone, Francis Ford Coppola only ever had one actor in mind. But there was one problem, maybe two. Because if Paramount did not want Marlon Brando, the latter also refused this role. In his book Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli, The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather (Gallery Books), which has just been published in the United States, Mark Seal tells the little secrets of the trilogy.

At 47, Marlon Brando has become obese and is considered by the profession as an angry and capricious has-been who accumulates escapades and controversies of all kinds. For his part, the actor does not think less of Hollywood. According to him, the directors he has worked with are “talentless assholes who think they are the new Eisensteins or Orson Welles, version of ‘misunderstood geniuses’”. Seeing that the situation is getting worse and that the two sides are camped on their positions, Mario Puzo will improvise a letter to Brando, the actor he imagined – just like Coppola – already in the title role during the writing of his novel. He will then use flattery as an element of persuasion. The help of the actor’s assistant, Alice Marchak, who reads him his correspondence and even books, will do the rest. “Dear Mr. Brando, I have written a book called The Godfather, which has met with some success, and I think that you are the only actor who can interpret the character of the godfather with all the quiet strength and irony (this book is an ironic critique of American society) required for this role. With Merchak’s influence on Brando on the one hand prompting him to respond to Puzo, and Coppola’s insistence on the other, the actor finally accepts the proposal. Paramount bosses decide to give Brando a chance. However, they pose three conditions: a personal guarantee of one million dollars to prevent his slippages, a minimum salary without discussion and, finally, a bizarre request for a star of this caliber: a filmed screen test, as if it was a beginner. It’s up to Coppola to convince Brando to comply with this third condition. Later, the director will admit that he was terrified by making this request to the actor, but that he had no choice. He therefore offers Brando to do a little research and improvisation session around the role. But the actor has read The Godfather, or rather he has listened to it, and immediately accepts. “He thought the role was delightful,” Coppola recalls. That’s the word he used, “delicious”. Trained at the Actors Studio, Brando began research to develop his character. Arrived on the set, he draws a line of mustache on his upper lip and slides Kleenex in a ball on each side of his jaw, “to look like a bulldog”, he says in a voice that has become gravelly. He gets up to start his improvisation, puts out his cigar quietly by dipping it in his glass, picks up and mumbles a few words. His immense talent and all his experience are waking up. “A moment of pure perfection, a hundred million dollar scene,” writes Mark Seal. Coppola also tells in Playboy in 1975: “It was a dream, the plan that I didn’t even dare to hope for, the whole team was amazed. After all that fuss with Paramount executives saying Brando was done, I had just seen him become the godfather, and it was all on film. »

“The Godfather”, a family film?

An absolute reference for generations of film buffs, The Godfather has reinvented the figure of the gangster, representing, in an epic and romantic mode, the evolution of a criminal system associated with that of American capitalism. But above all, it marked the memories by imposing itself – according to Coppola himself – as “the biggest family film in history”. The Godfather is made in the manner of Greek tragedies with all that includes father and son relationships, brothers and sisters and family dramas. It should be noted that protests and unrest took place on the part of Cosa Nostra so that his name was not mentioned throughout the film.

Cult scenes and phrases

There are countless cult scenes from the first Godfather: the opening monologue, Connie’s wedding, the horse’s head cut off, Luca Brasi strangled, the Don shot in the middle of the street, the Don in the hospital, Sonny shot, but also the cannoli from Clemenza, an innocuous little scene that says a lot. There are so many. Ditto for the dialogues: “It’s not personal, it’s only business”; “Mr. Corleone is a man who likes to hear bad news quickly”; “My father told the guy that it would be his brains or his signature that would initial the contract”; “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse”; “Drop the gun, take the cannoli” which, for many, have become classics.

Director Stanley Kubrick called The Godfather “possibly the best movie ever made”. The Godfather is 50 years old and composes, with The Godfather 2 and The Godfather 3, shot in 1974 and 1990, a mythical trilogy. The first installment of Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece – Oscar winner in 1973 for best film and best actor – has been on the air for some…