BEST PICTURE SHOWCASE: "The Godfather" (1972)

So we're halfway through 2014. I'm not quite halfway through my list of 86 movies to blog about though. Fell a bit behind in late May and June. Not to worry, I'll catch up. This is blog #40, and the movie this blog is about is in the eyes of some perhaps the best of the best: The Godfather. Based on Mario Puzo's 1969 book, this movie is, for what it's worth, #2 on IMDB's user ratings scale for all time. It spawned two sequels which also garnered Best Picture nominations (the only other films to achieve that were the Lord of the Rings trilogy a decade-plus ago). It made Al Pacino a star. It contains some of pop culture's favorite movie quotes. It remains the measuring stick today for all movies about the mob. It was 1972's biggest box office success, and for a time was the biggest box office draw ever. Yet at the 45th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, a sexually-charged musical set in a German nightclub nearly made this movie just another contender. We'll go more into that later. Right now, we've got a 3-hour film to turn into a synopsis of reasonable length, so let's get to it.

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It's the day of his only daughter's wedding, but Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) nonetheless hears requests in his role as the Godfather, the head of a New York crime family. One man, a funeral director named Bonasera (Salvatore Corsitto), asks for justice against the hoodlums who disfigured his daughter yet escaped jail in the courts. Another man, Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana), is rehearsing what he wants to say before going in there, and when he does it turns out he just wishes to thank Vito for inviting him to the reception. It's a huge outdoor celebration at the Corleone household for the wedding of Connie (Talia Shire) to Carlo (Gianni Russo), and the FBI is writing down license plates outside. Vito's three sons are also present. Sonny (James Caan) is the oldest and he tries to chase off the FBI folks outside at one point. Fredo (John Cazale) is the middle child, and he's more or less the weakest of the children. The youngest is Michael (Al Pacino), freshly home from the Marines and wearing his uniform. He's brought a date, Kay Adams (Diane Keaton). Vito's godson, entertainer Johnny Fontane (Al Martino), arrives to a full celebrity welcome and sings to the bride as many women scream and cheer. Michael tells Kay how Vito helped Johnny's career, including how Vito sent someone to put a gun to a manager's head and force him to let Johnny out of a disadvantageous contract. Kay seems a bit unsure how to take that story.

After finishing his song, Johnny goes to see Vito as well. He laments his inability to secure a movie role he desires to give his stalled movie career a boost. The movie studio head, Jack Woltz (John Marley), won't consider him for the role. Vito dispatches his consigliere, Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), to Hollywood to try and convince Jack to change his mind. At the studio, Tom seems to deliver a veiled threat to Jack, and Jack responds with a profane tirade. After Tom leaves, Jack tells his assistant to check into who just visited, and through that he learns that Tom works for Vito. Jack invites Tom to his home the next day. At first he's cordial, but in telling Tom that while he respects Johnny, he doesn't respect the fact that years ago he ruined a young starlet's career with his "goombah" antics and entourage. Jack gets angrier and angrier and eventually throws Tom out. The next morning, Jack wakes up in his bed covered in blood, and he discovers the head of his prized horse in his bed with him.

It's now shortly before Christmas in 1945, and drug lord Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo (Al Lettieri), who is backed by rival crime family the Tattaglias, asks Vito for investment in the emerging drug trade and protection through his political connections. Vito disapproves of the drug trade and refuses to take part. Sollozzo leaves, and flowers are delivered to Vito from Johnny as thanks for him getting that movie role after all. Vito decides to send Luca to infiltrate Sollozzo's/Tattaglia's group to get some info. Luca goes to see Sollozzo and Bruno Tattaglia (Tony Giorgio). Sollozzo offers him a spot in his gang and Luca agrees, but Luca is then killed by them instead as they knew this was some type of double-cross in the making. Sollozzo then finds Tom on the streets and advises him it would be wise to get in the backseat of his car. Sollozzo's spree finishes with Vito being shot multiple times while outside at a street vendor's cart. Fredo was waiting in a car and stumbled as he tried to get out his gun and shoot the assassins.

Kay and Michael are away from town and they see a newspaper article about Vito's shooting. The article doesn't say whether or not Vito survived. Michael calls Sonny, who has taken over the family reins, and says he will get to the family home ASAP. Clemenza (Richard S. Castellano) delivers a message to Sonny in place of their normal errand boy, Paulie (John Martino), who is apparently out sick. Sonny then gets a call from Sollozzo, who says they have Tom in their custody and Sonny would be wise to listen to what Tom says when he returns there. Sollozzo will release Tom in a few hours to deliver his proposition. After releasing Tom, Sollozzo is dismayed to learn that Vito is still alive despite five gunshot wounds.

The message that Tom delivers is that Sollozzo wants Tom to mediate between he and Sonny. Sonny and Tom both seemed keen on the idea of getting into the drug business, but Vito didn't. The family discuss the plan, but wonder why no one's heard from Luca as well. Paulie shows up and says there's a messenger at the gate. Tessio (Abe Vigoda) offers to get the package. The package is Luca's vest wrapped around some fish, indicating that Luca is "sleeping with the fishes". Everyone now realizes Sollozzo has had him killed too.

Clemenza heads out for the day after his wife reminds him to bring home some cannoli. Clemenza and someone else get driven by Paulie on an errand. At one point, Clemenza tells Paulie to pull over so he can pee. As he does so in the weeds, Paulie is shot by the other man in the backseat. Clemenza tells the second man to leave the gun and take the cannoli. They then walk away. Sonny accused Paulie of tipping off Sollozzo as to Vito's itinerary the day he was shot, which was when Paulie was "out sick."

Michael goes to NYC to see Kay. Sonny wants a bodyguard to go with him. Michael more or less breaks things off with Kay as he doesn't want her to be mixed up and potentially be at risk with their family right now. He then goes to the hospital where Vito is recuperating, but he doesn't see the guards that are supposed to be there. A nurse says the police made them leave a short time ago. Michael calls Sonny to update him, and then tells the nurse they need to move Vito to another room right now, so they do so. As Michael peeks from behind the room door, he hears footsteps and sees Enzo (Gabriele Torrei), the man who baked Connie's wedding cake, visiting. Michael tries to tell him he should leave, but they instead decide that Enzo will wait for Michael outside. Michael tells Vito, who's barely conscious but aware of Michael's presence, that he'll take care of him. Vito smiles weakly.

Michael goes outside with Enzo and sets him up like he's a guard. A car comes, creeps slowly, and leaves upon seeing Michael and Enzo in an apparent guard-like stance. Michael thanks Enzo, and then the police show up led by Captain McCluskey (Sterling Hayden), who arrests Michael despite his officers' protests. Michael accuses McCluskey of being in Sollozzo's pocket and gets punched in the face. Tom then arrives with several men and throws legal strong-arming at McCluskey, allowing for these men to be Vito's guards. Michael is also freed from custody.

Lots of new hired thugs are now at the Corleone home, and we learn that Bruno Tattaglia has been taken out by one of them. It's a full-fledged mob war going on now amongst the families. Tom tells Sonny that he's learned McCluskey is Sollozzo's bodyguard. Sonny is on a complete warpath and wants Sollozzo dead, but Tom thinks they should try and work things out with less violence since it's spiraling out of control everywhere. He also says it would be a bad idea to kill a police captain. Michael volunteers to meet with Sollozzo and McCluskey to hear Sollozzo's new proposition, but Michael says he'll actually kill them both instead. The others laugh at the plan but Michael insists he can do it. Clemenza gives Michael his first lesson with a particular gun. That gun will be planted in the restroom of Louis Restaurant in the Bronx. He'll get it, shoot them and then leave town until things cool down.

The plan rolls into motion. Sollozzo and McCluskey pick Michael up (and frisk him...he's clean) and they head to the restaurant. McCluskey apologizes for slugging Michael, who says he just doesn't want any more attempts on his dad's life. Sollozzo glares a lot, seemingly very distrustful. He jumps when Michael says he has to use the bathroom, but McCluskey tells him not to worry, he's not packing heat. Michael returns from the bathroom and blows them both away, then leaves.

Newspapers report the killing, but also reports surface that McCluskey was involved with the drug trade. Vito finally returns home and the entire family (except Michael) is there to greet him. Sonny gives Vito the update on everything, including that Michael had to leave town because he killed Sollozzo and McCluskey. Sonny later tells Tom he still wants to nail the head of the Tattaglia family, but Tom tells him he needs to cool off.

Michael hides out in Sicily with two bodyguards. He meets a girl in passing and it is love at first sight for both. The three men go to a restaurant later and ask the owner about this girl. It turns out the girl is the owner's daughter, and he gets upset. Michael diplomatically states his case and offers to meet her in front of the entire family so everyone can feel safe. The owner agrees that he can meet her on Sunday morning. The Sunday meeting goes well and we learn her name is Apollonia (Simonetta Stefanelli).

Back in the States, Sonny visits Connie and sees she has a black eye. She tries to say it wasn't Carlo beating her up, but Sonny knows better. He goes out and beats Carlo up in public and warns him to not touch Connie again. Kay visits the Corleone household with a letter for Michael, but Tom tells her they don't know where Michael is (even though they do). Simultaneously in the timeline, Michael and Apollonia marry in Sicily.

Connie gets a call from a woman who says she can't meet Carlo until later. Connie goes to Carlo to tell him dinner's ready but Carlo blows her off. Connie freaks out on him but gets beat up in the process. She then calls Sonny, who races off to get Carlo. Tom sends another car after him, but Sonny winds up gunned down at a tollbooth. Tom later has the unfortunate duty of telling Vito that Sonny's been killed. Vito proclaims the gang war needs to stop and he wants all the crime family heads to meet. He also has Tom call Bonasera, the man from the opening scene, to return the "justice" favor and make Sonny look presentable for his funeral.

Michael learns of Sonny's death and prepares to head back to the States with his wife. Apollonia is learning to drive and offers to drive to the airport. However, instead of the normal driver bringing the car, she does so herself and the driver runs off. Michael is horrified to see the car explode.

The meeting with all five family heads takes place. Believing that the Tattaglias were under orders of the now-dominant Don Emilio Barzini (Richard Conte), Vito promises to withdraw his opposition to their drug business and not seek revenge for Sonny's murder. In the car later, Vito tells Tom that Barzini was leading the charge all along, not Tattaglia. Michael returns home and reunites with Kay. He wants to marry her despite still not telling her everything about the family business. Clemenza and Tessio aren't too happy to be working under Barzini and they protest to Vito, but Vito defers to Michael, who's now running the family business. Michael says that they are moving the business to Nevada, where Fredo already is, and after they all move, Tessio and Clemenza can break off if they wish. Michael also removes Tom as consigliere as Carlo will be his right-hand man.

Three years later, the Corleones arrive in Vegas. Fredo arranges for a party and lots of girls in Michael's room, but Michael just wants to talk business so he sends everyone else away. He tells Fredo to call Moe Greene (Alex Rocco), his casino boss. Moe arrives and Michael cuts right to the chase: He wants to buy Moe's casino. Moe says no way. Michael asks Moe about his slapping around Fredo all the time. Fredo stammers that it's no big deal. Moe leaves spitting insults the whole time.

Kay tells Michael that Carlo and Connie, who now have a child, want them to be the godparents. He says he'll consider it. Vito then talks with Michael, saying he never wanted Michael to have to be a part of all this nastiness. He also warns that eventually Barzini will try to double-cross him. When one of the Corleones's men comes with an offer of a meeting from Barzini, be sure to know that man is a traitor. Later, Vito collapses and dies of a heart attack while playing in the garden with his grandson. After the funeral, Tessio tells Michael that Barzini wants to arrange a meeting in Brooklyn. Tom and Michael know it's a setup but they both decide that they will meet with all the family heads, and Michael also will be the godfather Carlo and Connie's child.

Interspersed with scenes of the godchild's baptism, we see the Corleone hired thugs murder every one of the other crime family heads, including Barzini. Moe Greene is also killed. After the baptism finishes, Michael gets word that everything has been completed as planned. Michael tells Kay he now has to take care of something out in Las Vegas, and meanwhile Tom and Tessio get ready to go to the meeting in Brooklyn. Tessio isn't aware that all those other crime heads are already dead, but he figures it out once he's surrounded in the driveway. He says to Tom it was just business before being led away in a car to his obvious demise.

Michael's business turns out to be with Carlo. He knows that Carlo fingered Sonny to Barzini and caused him to be killed. He says he isn't going to kill Carlo, however. He's just being booted from the family business. A car is outside to take him to the airport out of Vegas. Carlo enters the car, and Clemenza shoots him dead.

The whole family is now back at the Corleone house, which has just been sold. Connie arrives to the house irate, yelling that Michael was going to kill Carlo from the start when they went there years ago. Kay overhears this and confronts Michael, asking him if this is what their business really is. Michael says this is the one time he'll allow her to ask that question and he'll give her the answer. She asks again. He says no, it's not what their business really is. She's relieved and heads to the kitchen to mix a drink...as she sees several men arrive, kiss Michael's ring and close the door to whatever business is about to be conducted.

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Director Francis Ford Coppola battled with studio Paramount for the entire filming. They almost fired him several times, almost none of it directly his fault.....Paramount also didn't like Brando due to past shenanigans. They wanted Ernest Borgnine or Danny Thomas to play Vito. After pleading with the executives, Coppola was allowed to cast Brando only if he accepted a lower salary than for his previous films, performed a screen-test, and put up a bond insuring that he would not cause any delays in production. Brando agreed to the stipulations, and his screen test won everyone over, including the executives.....Others considered for the Michael role included Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and Martin Sheen.....The infant daughter being baptized is Sofia Coppola, who probably holds the record for youngest person ever in a movie who later won an Oscar him/herself. Other Coppola family members were involved both on-screen and off, including Talia Shire, Francis's sister, playing Connie Corleone.....Animal rights groups angrily protested the horse head scene. Coppola said the head was delivered to him by a dog food company. I'd rather not know anything more.....The on-screen body count for the entire movie is surprisingly low when compared to some of today's films. It's 18, and that includes the horse.....Real-life gangsters responded enthusiastically to the film, with many of them feeling it was a portrayal of how they were supposed to act.....When the film premiered on TV in 1974, it aired over two nights from 9-11PM both nights. And on both nights just after 11PM, New York City's Municipal Water Authorities had some overflow problems from all the toilets flushing around the same time.

The Godfather was the film to finally dethrone 1939's Gone With the Wind as the all-time biggest box office draw. Of course, that record has since been broken again and again, but that's neither here nor there. This was a universally-loved film, and that includes from the AMPAS, who feted the film with a massive 12 nominations within 10 categories. However, by the time the actual Oscars ceremony took place, one of those nominations was revoked. Nino Rota's score was disqualified just days before the ceremony when it was discovered that he had used the main theme song (which is titled "Speak Softly Love") in the 1958 comedy Fortunella. Although in the earlier film the theme was played in a much more brisk style, the melody was the same. Therefore, the Best Original Dramatic Score nomination was revoked.

So here, check them out for yourself. The first song is the tune you're likely familiar with.



Alright? Now, check this one out. The part in question kicks in at about the 0:56 mark.



Yeah...that's the same melody all right. So the Academy was right to revoke the nomination. Oh, but wait! For more fun, despite all that, The Godfather Part II won a 1974 Oscar for Best Original Score even though it featured the same love theme up above in the first video that made this entire 1972 score ineligible.

Does your head hurt too or is it just me?

At any rate...12 nominations, including that revoked one. You'd figure The Godfather would all but sweep the rest of the categories, right? Mmmmmmm...not so fast. There were 9 categories left with nominations. One of them had three nominations, that for Best Supporting Actor. Caan, Duvall and Pacino all were nominated. As per the usual when one film has multiple nominees, none of them won. Joel Grey won it for Cabaret. So this could just be that the actors all found their votes split, right? Let's go to Best Film Editing, where the winner was...oh, Cabaret got that one too. OK, how about Sound Mixing? Wait...what? Cabaret again?? Ummmmmmm...OK, I see we just need to jump ahead to the major categories, so let's congratulate the Best Director winner for 1972!



What the Christ?!

Yes, Cabaret sent Hollywood, on its biggest night, into an absolute state of chaos when it won a total of EIGHT Oscars out of ten nominations. It holds the record for most Oscars won by a film that did not win Best Picture. No one saw that coming, and by the time things got around to Best Picture, I think it's safe to say that many believed The Godfather would lose out on the top prize to Fosse's film, but it didn't happen. The Godfather came up short in the categories of Supporting Actor, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Director and Costume Design, and that latter category was the only one where it lost to something other than Cabaret. However, it did score three statuettes. Best Adapted Screenplay (the other of Cabaret's losses), Best Lead Actor (Brando, and yes, this is where the Sacheen Littlefeather thing happened, which we won't rehash here) and Best Picture. That top prize was won over Cabaret, Deliverance, The Emigrants and Sounder.

The Godfather is indeed a masterpiece. It's long, but not dull. It's graphic, but not disgusting. It's great. Just great. And as I mentioned earlier, it's the film that all other mob movies since are compared to. Some may think there could be, just maybe, a better mob movie that HAS been made since then. I may be one of those people, and I may be talking about something that has Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta in it. But that's all subjective. What I can't see is that anyone out there wouldn't enjoy this film on at least some level. If you haven't seen it yet, I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse. Well, actually, you can, but you shouldn't. Do yourself a favor. See the movie. If you've seen the movie, see it again. You'll be glad you did.