Bonasera, Bonasera

UNDER CONSTRUCTION-PLEASE VISIT AGAIN SOON. MAKE A FRIEND REQUEST AND LEAVE ME YOUR COMMENTS.
pssst...You will have my undying friendship if you do me this favor....
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This is a myspace about the movie "The Godfather", directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Through this weary unpredictable winter I've been watching some of my old DVDs. Really moldy ones. I've watched Godfather Parts 1 and II and III. Take some time to re-watch these movies to realize how great they are. Not the gangster theme so much but of how getting the film made resonates into daily life. Coppola the artist, transformed.
A Nightmare! _______________________
Coppola compared the making of the first Godfather film to a nightmare in it's production. Everyday was a battle with the Paramount Studio. They even hired a 'shadow' director to follow him around to monitor time and production. Even with this studio hired assistant Coppola went ahead with ideas he had for the film which were not always studio approved such as adding the Godfather death scene which was critical to the movie. They preferred that he just jump to the funeral and let the audience assume that the Godfather character had died.

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John Cazale
Starting with his debut as The Godfather's Fredo, John Cazale was in five movies,all Best Picture nominees: The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter.
"I empathized a little bit with Fredo." said the director, who had grown up in the shadow of a more accomplished sibling, writer-professor August Coppola.
Coppola on the late Cazale's role as Fredo:
In an Italian family there are always those brothers that are considered not as counted as the others- who are made fun of maybe I was in that category some of the time, I know I had uncles that were in that category.
Italians from those small towns have a mentality where they are very cruel to their own that don’t cut the mustard at the same level the way the star brothers or the star uncles do.
I could emphasize with Fredo, he bungled guarding his father, the gun just totally slipped out of his hand in a very inept way and I always thought of him--how did he feel about it, he loved his father no less than his other brothers. He must feel so responsible for what happened.
I was able to have that perspective off the central action, which were men doing men's business.
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Moe Green:You know who I am? I'm Moe Green! I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders!”

Fredo: Tom, you’re the Consigliore and you can go to the Don and you can explain...”
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Tom Hagen: Now just a minute--The Don is semi-retired and Mike is in charge of the family business now,-if you have anything to say, say it to Mike.
(Moe Green leaves the room and Fredo turns to Mike...)
Fredo: Mike, you dont come Las Vegas and talk to man like Moe Green like that!
Micheal:"Fredo, you're my older brother and I love you, but don't ever take sides with anyone against the family again. Ever."
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Coppola on Fredo continued...
This is course the first in a long string of building elements of Fredo's loyalty--when Fredo tried to go straight to Tom Hagen and argue for Moe Green over Mike's head as if he hasn't accepted Michael as the head of the family, and still thinks of his father as the head of the family business.
Of course which is from the original book that the seeds of this relationship and difficulties are starting to grow and come more complicated and way out of the range of the first book to the ultimate story of Fredo as the traitor.
Cazale as Fredo in Godfather II:
"I'm your older brother, Mike, and I was stepped over....I'm smart, and I want respect."
Coppola on Mario Puzo:
Coppola on the Sollazo shooting scene: (from the specialfeatures from GF I dvd)
Though the Sollozzo shooting scene was shotin the first week of the production ofGodfather I, I was still in jepardy ofgetting fired even in the third week. Ithought the Sollozzo shooting scene was oneof the best scenes in the movie.
The character Virgil 'The Turk' Sollozzo was portrayed by Sicillian actor Al Lettieri.
Coppola:I was always happy with the fact that Lettiri spoke Sicilian. Such a strong villain for Michael to play against. The villain very often brings the hero out well. Letterri's scene so complimented what Al Pacino was doing.
I look at this scene in the sense that it saved me from getting fired from the picture and certainly it won a lot of admiration for Al Pacino whom was very much questioned by the executives. But Al showed his stuff and that there was something to what we were doing after all.
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I've always had questions. In Godfather I, why did Sollozzo chose to have the meeting with Micheal? Didn't they (Barzzini and crew) know he was a War hero and capable of wacking Sollazo and the police cheif?
I never really understood why Michael gave Tom the cold shoulder in GFII--someone explain that to me. Leave me a comment with your thoughts on that.
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Coppola moving on...
Though Coppola has moved on, he has stated what a headache movie making can be. He should do with the Godfather series what George Lucas did with Star Wars-more prequels! The longevity of the popularity of the Godfather shows it still has life. Coppola financed his own movie (the title escapes me but it had the word "Hearts" in it-should've recognized the trouble right there) with most of his own money and got into financial trouble and lost his beloved Zeotrope studios. I'm not sure about this; other readings say that Coppola's productions of the movie versions of S.E. Hinton's popular youth novels, Rumble Fish and the Outsiders, actually saved Zoetrope.
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The development of the characters of the godfather still intrigue me—Sonny, Michael, Tom and Fredo. We know that Tom was found in the streets by Sonny, and taken in by Don Vito. Godfather II ends with us seeing the rise of Don Vito played by Robert Deniro-but it stops there; Godfather I shows us the Corleone family 30 plus years after that, but it would be interesting to see the development of the family. You know, like, um, did Sonny have a bad temper in kindergarten? In the book "The Godfather Returns", written by Mark Winegardner it tells us that the Corelone family has holdings in many legitimate businesses. It could be interesting to see the development of that.
"Come on fellas, couldn't you see it?"
Coppola was only 32 years old when he directed the Godfather. It is an example of creative genius up against the corporation which was Paramount Studios. Listen to the director's commentary on the Godfather DVD to gain more insight into these battles. Throughout the whole production he was threatened with being fired even though he shot the Micheal-Sollozzo killing scene in the first week. To quote Coppola to the executives, "Come on fellas, couldn't you see it?" He was referring to how great Al Pacino was.
When the studio hired him to direct the movie they wanted it on the cheap with a director they thought they could just kick around. They already had the script prepared for him and it was set in the 1970's. The 1970's! The studio wanted him to use Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, or Ryan O'neal for the role of Micheal Corleone.
Coppola: When I came on the book the Godfather wasn't as popular as it was going to be. As the book gained in popularity it was becoming more apparent to the executives how inappropriate I was for the director."
The orginal budget planned for this 1970's Godfather movie two million dollars. It took six and a half million to complete the movie the way Coppola saw it. He convinced them that the movie should be a period piece, as the book, and show America coming out of the 40's, which meant period clothes, cars, and original locations, like New York, and Siccilly, not St. Louis as they had planned.