"Godfather" Christmas

It’s almost Christmas, and I should write about something for the Holiday Season. Somehow though, I feel like bucking the system, and not doing that this year. Speaking of traditions gone awry, a cable t.v. station is running all three “Godfather” movies on Christmas day. A mafia feast for the holidays. I thought that was an interesting choice of films...and it inspired me this week. Personally, I liked “The Godfather,” and I’ve become a huge fan of “The Sopranos.” This got me to thinking about the mafia/gangster genre, and its popularity in mainstream America. So, this week, instead of covering “A Christmas Carol,” or “The Gift of the Magi,” I’m taking a look at the book, “The Godfather, “ by Mario Puzo.

Mario Puzo was born in 1920 in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan’s West side. He attended Columbia University, and released his most famous novel, “The Godfather” in 1969. It spent 67 weeks on the New York Times best sellers list, and went on to spawn two sequels and 3 movies, all of which Puzo wrote himself. He received two academy awards for best screenplay, and the films themselves received numerous other Oscars, including Best Picture wins for “The Godfather” and “The Godfather II.” Whether you enjoy mob movies or not, you have to admit, that was quite an achievement.

“The Godfather,” introduced us to an entirely new genre of fiction writing. This was not like the comic book heroes of the 1920's, where J. Edgar Hoover’s G-Men hunted down Al Capone and other bad guys. This book was for the adults, and it rung true for a lot of people. For those who had no real knowledge of the mob, this gave them a distant inside view of what a crime family must really be like. This book was an instant success because of its grit, and its honest depiction of life on the streets. It introduced characters in every level of the family, and the people they worked with, killed for, and plotted against. The Don was one who gave his friendship, which nobody dared to refuse, and in return he could call on his “friend” for a favor at any time. If this person didn’t hold up their end of the bargain, things got ugly.

The public has always liked, in some way or another, to see the dark side of things. Whether it is a story about good and evil, or a newspaper article about a terrible crime, there is an inherent curiosity in people to know about what is bad. This same concept helped make “The Godfather,”

One of my visitors is going to receive "The Godfather Trilogy DVD SET" as a Christmas gift.

Hello Everyone,
This posting is dedicated to my dedicated readers of this blog. Thanks to all of you that you visited my blog and enjoyed it. I would like to have a more interactive website. Please do not hesitate to write your comments.

For this Christmas i am going to give one of you my GodFather Trilogy DVD set. But I will need you to write me why I should send it to you and why you deserve it. I will select the most deserving one and send you the DVD set for free.

Now the ball is in your side.. Waiting for the comments.. Talk to you soon

Art..

the GodFather IV. ????

Actor ANDY GARCIA believes everybody wants to see a GODFATHER 4 movie - except PARAMOUNT PICTURES.

The star - who played VINNY CORLEONE in 1990's THE GODFATHER: PART III - reckons the movie studio are the only ones in the way of a fourth installment of the Mafioso drama.

He says, "The irony and fascination for me is that - with all the movies Paramount takes risks on each year - they have this franchise people are desperate to see and they won't green-light it.

"(When I was shooting Godfather III), there were already things MARIO PUZO and FRANCIS COPPOLA had worked out for a fourth film. It would be about SONNY CORLEONE in his 20s, because that was Mario's favourite character."

And Garcia has got some ideas on who he'd like to see cast in the movie, too.

He adds, "I suggested LEONARDO DiCAPRIO to Francis, who says he's very interested, but Paramount would have to hire (Coppola) simply as a director and writer."

OCEAN'S ELEVEN star Garcia explains there would be a parallel story focusing on his character, so the flick would take place concurrently in two eras.

He says, "On one side of the movie, you'd have a young demographic, which Hollywood is looking for, and then there's the other side with older actors.

"It seems the concept appeals to everyone except the executives at Paramount Pictures

What do you think about the GodFather game?

1936 the game starts with a cutscene that shows a hit on the father of the main character (who, for the sake of reference, is called Aldo Trapani here, according to the default set name) and blowing up of his bakery by the Barzinis, the Corleones' rivals in New York City. In the aftermath, Don Vito Corleone comforts the child, telling him that when he is old enough and the time is right he will take his revenge. The story then fast-forwards with the 1945 wedding scene in the opening of the film, wherein Aldo's mother asks Don Corleone to look after her son, who has been hanging with the wrong crowd. Luca Brasi is sent to recruit Aldo and teach him the ways of the Mafia. From this point forward, Aldo is taken under the Corleone Family's wing and works his way up in the organization.

Essentially, there are two stories in the game that intertwine, the first involving the major events of the film (with the character making central contributions) and a personal story arc. In the former, Aldo witnesses Luca Brasi's murder, plants the gun for Michael Corleone tokill Sollozzo and the police captain McCluskey, helps Rocco put the horse head in Woltz's bed, guards Don Vito Corleone at the hospital,witnesses the death of Sonny, kills significant Corleone rivals duringthe baptism, and appears at the meeting of the five families. In the latter storyline, Aldo befriends and later kills Corleone associate"Monk" Malone, because he turns out to be a traitor, romances his sister Frances "Frankie" Malone and takes revenge for her death, and kills Don Barzini in revenge for killing his father, as well as assisting in the murder of the heads of the other three Families.


After the story missions have been completed, the character becomes an underboss. After he takes out the rival families' compounds he becomes the Don of the family.

Alongside the story missions, the player continues to participate in the business of taking over control of New York from the rival families. This includes extorting businesses and buying out rackets, seizing control of warehouses, performing contract hits, and fighting mob wars when the vendetta level between the Corleones and a rival family gets high enough. Completion of a series of prerequisites to reach 100% enables Aldo to become Don of New York in 1955.

The GodFather Movie Corrections (please add if you have one)

Luca Brasi is killed after his left hand is pinned down with a knife. Watch carefully and notice Brasi is wearing a ring on his left hand. In the final death scene, you can see that the hand pinned with the knife appears to be the right hand, not the left and the ring is gone. [Bruno Tataglia holds Luca's left hand on the bar, while Sollozo pins Luca's right with the knife. There is no switch.]
Entry Carlo beats up Connie when she is pregnant, and she calls Sonny and he is killed on the causeway. When Michael comes back from Italy and looks up Kay, she asks how long he has been back and he says a year, maybe longer. Michael and Kay get married and then the scene shifts to a few years later (Kay and Michael have a son). The Godfather asks Michael how his son is and Michael says he is "smarter than me; he is three years old and can read the funny papers". But then, Michael decides to be Godfather to Connie and Carlos' baby. How long was Connie pregnant? This implies she was pregnant for four years. [Or, thinking a bit more sensibly, that Carlo and Connie had two children. Which they do, Victor and Michael Francis.]


Sonny and the crew get the call from their police inside informant from the station house as to where the meeting between Michael and Sollozzo (along with NYPD Captain McCluskey as Sollozzo's bodyguard) will take place (recall that it is made clear that a Police Captain must let it be known where he will be at all times if he is away fromthe station house). It is to be held at a restaurant in the Bronx. This is important so they have time to plant the gun in the bathroom for Michael. Tessio immediately says he knows this restaurant - a family place, good food, etc. *but* - in actuality, it would *not* be Tessio but rather *Clemenza* who would know this small neighborhood restaurant, since Clemenza's territory - where he is a captain - is the Bronx and Tessio's is Brooklyn. This is such an obvious mistake it boggles the mind no one on the set caught it, especially the writer, Mario Puzo. [Complete and utter nonsense. What, you think that these people would have total knowledge of their own territory, but know nothing whatsoever about anything outside it? There is absolutely no reason why Tessio couldn't be familiar with the place - restaurants with good food can draw in customers from many miles away; entirely reasonable that Tessio could have visited it at some point. So obviously not a mistake that it boggles the mind that you thought it could have been.]


When Sonny beats up Connie's Husband in the street, he throws him into a tiny area where the trash cans are and starts beating him. Watch closely when he hits Connie's Husband with his left hand and you will be able to see that he doesn't even touch him. [Already submitted.]


The scene where Sonny is shot at the toll booth is supposed to take place in the late 1940's. However, as Sonny is driving up to the toll booth, he is listening to a baseball game on the radio that took place on October 3, 1951. In that game, Bobby Thompson hit a home run off Ralph Branca as the Giants beat the Dodgers and won the pennant. [No, Sonny is shot in 1951. If you count backwards it is easy to see this: Vito Corleone dies in 1955 (according to what it says on his tombstone). In Vito's death scene, Anthony was about two-three years old, so he was born in 1952, meaning that Michael had returned home in 1951/early 1952, which happened almost directly after the shooting of Sonny.]


Since the film came out, the Catholic term "Godfather" (the principal witness to a child's baptism, usually a relative) has largely been replaced by "sponsor". [This is incorrect. In Catholicism, the term Godfather (and Godmother) are still used at baptism. Its at the Sacrament of Confirmation (usually when the child is 12) where a Sponsor is chosen- nothing to do with the Godparents.]
Entry During the fight with Sonny and Carlo on the street, the actor who played Genco, Vito Corleone's old friend and business partner in Part II, is seen in the crowd (maybe a younger relative?). [If this is a mistake, it should be listed under "Godfather II", as it would be there the continuity error would have been noticeable. But as the submitter says, this can be explained by the person watching the fight being a younger relative that resembles Genco, so there is really no error.]


When the heads of the other families get killed during Michael Jr.'s baptism one guy gets shot through a blocked glass door. The first shot that's aimed at his body shatters the glass but leaves the man unharmed, only the second shot causes a visible wound. [First: the child being baptized is Michael Francis Rizzi, Carlo and Connie's child; there is no Michael Jr. Second: The first bullet could have been deflected by the glass in another direction. The man behind the glass (Cuneo?) isn't reacting to being shot; he's already shouting because he realizes what's happening to him.]


When the heads of the five families meet to call a truce, right in the middle of where Don Barzini makes his famous comment, "After all, we're not Communists," his elbow slips off the table. I guess Coppola decided to keep it in. [How is that a movie mistake? It's not even a character mistake. That's a human slip up.]


When Tom Hagen is meeting with Jack Woltz at the restaurant, the server fills his wine glass with red wine. Yet when he lifts it to drink, there is nothing in the glass. [First, they're not in a restaurant, they're at Woltz's home. Second, Tom has two glasses next to his plate, a small glass for wine, and a larger glass for water. The glass that Tom picks up to drink is the larger one with water.]


When Michael visits Kay for the first time since he's been back, the first shot shows a cloudy day, then when they are walking with the car behind them all of a sudden it's a beautiful day. [When Michael sees Kay, she's seen walking with her students. When they take a walk, one of her students greets her while riding his bike. This means that it's later in the day, and school is over. So enough time has passed by for the day to clear up.]


Prior to killing the mob leader and cop in the restaurant Michael tries out a Colt .38 Spl pistol in the basement. There is a close-up of the pistol being fired; there is no recoil and one spark is seen coming from the barrel. This pistol had significant recoil and a substantial muzzle blast would have been visible in the close-up. [The pistol used was .22 caliber, not .38 caliber. A .22 has significantly less muzzle blast and recoil than a .38 caliber pistol.]


In the scene in the hospital when Michael is wheeling the Godfather's bed to another location for safety, as they go through the doorway you can see that Marlon Brando's hand get pinched. He jerks it up to his chest, despite the fact that he's meant to be unconscious... [Even unconscious, a body will react to pain.]


Michael is accused of killing the heads of the 5 families in 1951, but during that scene in the movie, he leaves the church in a 1954 Packard. [The shooting of the other Dons happen in 1955. Sonny is shot in 1951, Michael returns home, reunites with Kay and has Anthony in 1952, which makes Tony three years old in the scene where Don Vito dies. Also, Vito's tombstone is marked '1955'. So if Michael becomes Don in 1955, the 1954 car is entirely in its place.]


Clemenza has Paulie pull over so that he can go urinate in the bushes. The man in the back seat shoots Paulie in the head. Clemenza and the shooter then leave the car there, with Paulie's body inside. How do Clemenza and the shooter get home? Hitchhike? [Many different ways that were not shown in the film. Hitchhike. They could have hidden bikes along the route. They could have hidden a car. They could have planned to be picked up on that spot at a certain time. Not everything needs to be shown.]


When Brando is being taken home from the hospital there are mercury-vapor street lamps visible in the area. They were not in use in 1946 or so. [Not so. Mercury vapor lights were introduced in the 30's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_street_lighting_in_the_United_States.]
Entry Tattaglia tells Tom that the Godfather survived in spite of having been shot five times. But even if the first two bullets missed while he was running we can tell from the way the hitmen aimed at him that he is hit close range at least nine times while he is leaning against his car. [It's quite possible that the information he is getting about The Godfather's shooting is not totally accurate. The Godfather may have actually been hit nine times, but unless he is getting the info directly from the doctor, it's possible that "the word on the street" doesn't parallel with the medical reality of The Godfather's condition.]


As the gangster hands Michael a pistol to try in the basement he tells him that the grip and trigger has a special tape that latent prints can not be lifted from. There is no such tape. [At the time, fingerprints had to be very clear to be lifted from an object. Simple atheletic tape has a rough enough texture that would make it nearly impossible to get prints from.]


Entry In the beginning, Marlon Brando looks outside his window when they bring the wedding cake in. On the left side in the crowd there is Sonny, who is supposed to be in the room with the Godfather. You can identify him by the white flower in his lapel and by his bride sister who walks up to him from behind. [The man that the Connie walks up from behind is NOT Sonny. It's pretty obvious that it isn't him from the distance shown originally, but it becomes even more obvious if you were to zoom in. You can easily tell it's not him if you closely compare their hair and facial features.]


Michael had his meeting withe Solozzo around Christmas of 1945. On the way to the meeting, the car made a U-turn on the George Washington Bridge (GWB) to throw off anybody who might be following.At the time, the GWB had four traffic lanes, two in either direction. The median between the two set of lanes was about 20 feet of steel mesh, making such a maneuver impossible.The median was filled in to add two additional traffic lanes in 1946. At that time, the u-turn would have been possible. [I dispute that the meeting takes place at Xmas 1945. Recall that Michael first arrives "back from the war" at his sister's wedding which takes place in the summer. This is not 1945 since WWII did not end in Europe until May and in the Pacific until August that year. It took months to demobilise the troops so very few were home by summer 1945. I would venture that the wedding was in summer 1946 and the scene mentioned above was at Xmas 1946 - hence the maneuver was possible.]

Trivia about the GodFather

* Ernest Borgnine, Edward G. Robinson, Orson Welles, Danny Thomas, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn, and George C. Scott were considered by Paramount Pictures for the role of Vito Corleone. Burt Lancaster wanted the role but was never considered. When Paramount considered casting Italian producer Carlo Ponti, director Francis Ford Coppola objected as Vito had lived in America since childhood and thus wouldn't speak with Ponti's Italian accent. When asked his opinion by the Paramount brass, Coppola said he wanted to cast either Laurence Olivier or Marlon Brando as the Don. In a September/October 2003 "Cigar Aficionado" magazine cover story, Coppola said, "I wanted either an Italian-American or an actor who's so great that he can portray an Italian-American. So, they said, 'Who do you suggest?' I said, 'Lookit, I don't know, but who are the two greatest actors in the world? Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando. Well, Laurence Olivier is English. He looked just like Vito Genovese. His face is great.' I said, 'I could see Olivier playing the guy, and putting it on.' [And] Brando is my hero of heroes. I'd do anything to just meet him. But he's 47, he's a young, good-looking guy. So, we first inquired about Olivier and they said, 'Olivier is not taking any jobs. He's very sick. He's gonna die soon and he's not interested.' So, I said, 'Why don't we reach out for Brando?'" Frank Sinatra, despite his reported distaste for the novel and opposition to the film, had discussions with Coppola about playing the role himself and at one point actually offered his services. Coppola, however, was adamant in his conviction that Brando take the role instead. This would be the third time Brando performed in a part sought by Sinatra, after playing Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954) and Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls (1955/I). Brando's previous film, Queimada (1969), had been a terrible flop and he could not get work in American pictures, being considered by many producers as "washed up". Paramount executives initially would offer Marlon Brando only union scale for the role of Don Corleone. Finally, the studio relented and paid Brando $300,000, according to Coppola's account. In his autobiography The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002), former Paramount production chief Robert Evans claims that Brando was paid $50,000, plus points, and sold back his points to Paramount before the release of the picture for an additional $100,000 because he had female-related money troubles. Realizing the film was going to be a huge hit, Paramount was happy to oblige. This financial fleecing of Brando, according to Evans, is the reason he refused to do publicity for the picture or appear in the sequel two years later.

* At Connie's wedding, Sonny is seen in close quarters with Lucy Mancini (Jeannie Linero) Connie's maid of honour at the event (wearing a pink dress). According to the novel, Sonny takes Lucy as his mistress (she is "that young girl" Don Corleone mentions to Sonny; she is also seen before Sonny visits Connie). The novel and film trilogy differ on her fate, though: in the novel she eventually moves on, settling down with a Las Vegas doctor; she is briefly seen in The Godfather: Part III (1990), with her son Vincent playing a major role.

* A promotional board game titled "The Godfather Game" was released in 1971.

* According to an August 1971 article by Nicholas Pileggi in The New York Times, a supporting cast member became so committed to his role that he accompanied a group of Mafia enforcers on a trip to beat up strike breakers during a labor dispute. But the enforcers had the wrong address and were unable to find the strike breakers. The actor's name was not revealed.

* Mafia crime boss Joe Colombo and his organization The Italian-American Civil Rights League started a campaign to stop the film from being made. According to Robert Evans in his autobiography, Colombo called his home and threatened him and his family. Paramount received many letters during pre-production from Italian-Americans - including politicians - decrying the film as anti-Italian. They threatened to protest and disrupt filming. Producer Albert S. Ruddy met with Colombo who demanded that the terms "Mafia" and "Cosa Nostra" not be used in the film. Ruddy gave them the right to review the script and make changes. He also agreed to hire League members (read: mobsters) as extras and advisers. The angry letters ceased after this agreement was made. Paramount owner Charlie Bluhdorn read about the agreement in The New York Times and was so outraged that he fired Ruddy and shut down production. But Evans convinced Bluhdorn that the agreement was beneficial for the film and Ruddy was rehired.

* The early buzz on the film was so positive that a sequel was planned before the film was finished filming.

* Gianni Russo used his organized crime connections to secure the role of Carlo Rizzi, going so far as to get a camera crew to film his own audition and send it to the producers. However, Marlon Brando was initially against having Russo, who had never acted before, in the film; this made Russo furious and he went to threaten Brando. However, this reckless act proved to be a blessing in disguise: Brando thought Russo was acting and was convinced he would be good for the role.

* Voted #7 in TV Guide Magazine's list "50 Greatest Movies on TV and Video" (August 8-14, 1998 issue). The sequel The Godfather: Part II (1974) took top honors, ranking #1.

* Voted #2 on AFI's 100 Greatest Movies 10th Anniversary Edition.

* Voted #3 on AFI's 100 Greatest Movies.

* The movie's line "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." was voted as the #10 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.

* Paramount senior management, dissatisfied with the early rushes, considered replacing Francis Ford Coppola with Elia Kazan with the hope that Kazan would be able to work with the notoriously difficult Marlon Brando. Brando announced that he would quit the film if Coppola was fired and the studio backed down. Paramount brass apparently did not know of Brando's dismay with Kazan over his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s.

* Sergio Leone was approached to direct the film, but turned it down since he felt the story, which glorified the Mafia, was not interesting enough. He later regretted refusing the offer, but would go on to direct his own critically acclaimed gangster film, Once Upon a Time in America (1984).

* Screenwriter Robert Towne wrote the scene on the patio between Don Corleone and his son Michael.

* Marlon Brando wanted to make Don Corleone "look "like a bulldog," so he stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool for the audition. For actual filming, he wore a mouthpiece made by a dentist; this appliance is on display in the American Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York.

* During rehearsals, a false horse's head was used for the bedroom scene. For the actual shot, a real horse's head was used, acquired from a dog-food factory. According to John Marley, his scream of horror was real as he was not informed that a real head was going to be used.

* The cat held by Marlon Brando in the opening scene was a stray the actor found while on the lot at Paramount, and was not originally called for in the script. So content was the cat that its purring muffled some of Brando's dialogue, and, as a result, most of his lines had to be looped.

* During an early shot of the scene where Vito Corleone returns home and his people carry him up the stairs, Marlon Brando put weights under his body on the bed as a prank, to make it harder to lift him.

* Marlon Brando did not memorize most of his lines and read from cue cards during most of the film.

* As Vito Corleone picks oranges prior to the assassination attempt, there's a poster in the store window advertising a boxing match involving Jake LaMotta. Robert De Niro plays the young Vito in The Godfather: Part II (1974) and also went on to play LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980)

* Frank Sivero appears as an extra in the scene where Sonny beats up Carlo Rizzi. He would later appear in The Godfather: Part II (1974) as Genco Abbandando.

* While Sonny is driving alone in his car, he's listening to the 3 October 1951 radio broadcast of Russ Hodges calling the Dodgers-Giants playoff - a half-inning before Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World."

* Al Pacino wore a foam latex facial appliance that covered his entire left cheek and was made up with colors to match his skin tone and give the effect of bruising, to simulate the effect of having his jaw broken by Captain McCluskey. Brando's mouthpiece is on display in the American Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York.

* The name of the traditional Sicilian hat (worn, for instance, by Michael's bodyguards) is "coppola".

* Apart from as required by his Marine Corps uniform, Michael Corleone does not wear a hat until he becomes involved in the family business.

* Director Francis Ford Coppola worked with relatives in this film, (making it a family film in many contexts). In chronological order of appearance: - his sister Talia Shire portrayed Connie Corleone throughout the trilogy; - his mother Italia Coppola serves as an extra in the restaurant meeting; - his father Carmine Coppola is the piano player in the Mattress sequence; - his sons Gian-Carlo Coppola and Roman Coppola can be seen as extras in the scene where Sonny beats up Carlo, and at the funeral; - and his daughter Sofia Coppola is the baby Michael Rizzi in the baptism (she was three weeks old at the time of shooting).

* The 45th Academy Award winner as Best Picture, it was the first winner to be even partially set in Los Angeles, the first to depict the film industry, and the first in which an Oscar statuette is visible.

* There are approximately 61 scenes in the film that feature people eating/drinking, or just food.

* The meeting between the heads of the Mafioso was filmed in the boardroom of the New York Central Railroad. This explains the train mural seen behind Don Barzini (Richard Conte).

* Nino Rota was originally nominated for an Oscar for his score (and would probably have won) but the nomination was withdrawn when it was realized that he had substantially re-worked parts of his earlier score for Fortunella (1958).

* Don Vito Corleone's distinctive voice was based on real-life mobster Frank Costello. Marlon Brando had seen him on TV during the Kefauver hearings in 1951 and imitated his husky whisper in the film.

* In the scene where Sonny beats up Carlo, a truck in the background and a wooden box on the sidewalk are strategically placed to hide anachronistic objects in the background.

* The film makes use of a variety of Italian words: - Paulie says "sweet tonnato" which is an early Italian-American slang term roughly translated as 'if only' - Michael explains that Tom is a "consigliere," or a counselor; - Vito calls Johnny Fontane a "finocchio," an offensive term for a homosexual; - Sonny refers to Paulie as a "stronzo," a term equivalent to "asshole"; - Carlo and Connie both say "vaffanculo" during their fight, which means "fuck you"; - Don Zaluchi calls the sale of drugs to children as an "infamita," or an infamy; - and both the Dons Corleone use the word "pezzonovante," which means ".95 caliber," a more accurate meaning would be "big shot".

* Cameo: [Gray Frederickson] the cowboy in the studio when Tom encounters Woltz the first time.

* The movie Michael and Kay were watching before Michael finds out that his father was shot was Leo McCarey's The Bells of St. Mary's (1945). McCarey's name appears outside of Radio City Music Hall.

* The mansion of Jack Woltz was also used as the mansion of Alan Stanwyk in Fletch (1985).

* Body count: 18 (including the horse).

* The three-year-old child actor Anthony Gounaris responded best when his real name was used while shooting the film. That's why Michael's son's name is Anthony.

* During the sequences filmed in Sicily, Michael's broken-jaw make-up does not match the make-up used during the sequences filmed in New York. This is because Paramount Pictures would not pay the costs of sending makeup artist Dick Smith to Italy with the rest of the crew.

* This was voted the "Greatest Film of All Time" by Entertainment Weekly.

* In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #2 Greatest Movie of All Time.

* Ranked #1 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Gangster" in June 2008.

* The line "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse" was selected by the American Film Institute on it's list as one of the top 100 movie quotes, it was at #2 right behind "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" from Gone with the Wind (1939).

* According to Al Pacino, those were real tears in Marlon Brando's eyes when Michael pledges himself to his father in the hospital scene.

* George Lucas used photos from real crime scenes in the Mattress Sequence. One of the most prominent photos shows two cops kneeling beside what looks like a man sleeping on the ground with his head propped up against a fence. That man is Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti, Al Capone's right-hand man who had, in fact, committed suicide with a gunshot to the head.

* A young Sylvester Stallone auditioned for the role of Paulie Gatto and Carlo Rizzi, but didn't get the role. Stallone instead decided to try writing and did the screenplay for the modestly successful The Lord's of Flatbush (1974). He would later get his break in Rocky (1976), coincidentally alongside Talia Shire (Connie Corleone).

* Francis Ford Coppola turned in an initial director's cut running 126 minutes. Paramount production chief Robert Evans rejected this version and demanded a longer cut with more scenes about the family. The final release version was nearly 50 minutes longer than Coppola's initial cut.

* Frankie Avalon and Vic Damone, both established and experienced singers, auditioned for the role of Johnny Fontane. Francis Ford Coppola was most impressed with Damone and gave the role to him, but Al Martino was cast by the producers, and used his organized crime connections to ensure he kept the part. Ironically, Fontane sings "I Have But One Heart," which was Damone's first hit song.

* Francis Ford Coppola was hired by Robert Evans to direct the movie after Peter Bogdanovich, among others, turned it down.

* The actor playing Luca Brasi, Lenny Montana, was so nervous about working with Marlon Brando that, in the first take of their scene together, he flubbed some lines. Francis Ford Coppola liked the genuine nervousness and used it in the final cut. The scenes of Brasi practicing his speech were added later.

* According to Francis Ford Coppola, the term "Don Corleone" is actually incorrect Italian parlance. In Italian, addressing someone as "Don" would be like addressing them as "Uncle" in English, so the correct parlance would be "Don Michael" or "Don Vito". Coppola says that Mario Puzo, who couldn't speak Italian, simply made up the idea of using "Don" with a person's last name, and it has now become a pop culture staple.

* The character Moe Greene was modeled after Jewish mobster Bugsy Siegel.

* At the meeting in the restaurant, Sollozzo speaks to Michael in Sicilian so rapid subtitles could not be used. He begins with: "I am sorry. What happened to your father was business. I have much respect for your father. But your father, his thinking is old-fashioned. You must understand why I had to do that. Now let's work through where we go from here." When Michael returns from the bathroom, he continues in Sicilian with: "Everything all right? I respect myself, understand, and cannot allow another man to hold me back. What happened was unavoidable. I had the unspoken support of the other Family dons. If your father were in better health, without his eldest son running things, no disrespect intended, we wouldn't have this nonsense. We will stop fighting until your father is well and can resume bargaining. No vengeance will be taken. We will have peace. But your Family should interfere no longer."

* When Michael and Kay are having dinner together, the song on the radio is Irving Berlin's "All of My Life".

* The scenes in which Enzo comes to visit Vito Corleone in the hospital were shot in reverse with the outside scene shot first. Gabriele Torrei, the actor who plays Enzo, had never acted in front of a camera before and his nervous shaking after the car drives away was real.

* The hospital scenes were filmed in two different locations: the exterior scenes were filmed at a side entrance to the Bellevue Hospital; and the interior shots were filmed at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in Manhattan, New York City.

* Mario Puzo gave Vito's eldest son the nickname of "Sonny" after the nickname given to the son of 'Al Capone (I)'. The similarities end there. Sonny Capone did not enter his father's business.

* The film was set and shot in New York, at over 100 locations. Originally the entire film was to be shot in the Hollywood back lots in order to save production costs; however production designer Dean Tavoularis threatened to add two stories to each back lot building in order to replicate the look of New York City, the studio relented and allowed for shooting in New York.

* Because Corleone, Sicily, was too developed even in the early 1970s, the Sicilian town of Savoca, outside Taormina, was used for shooting the scenes where Michael is in exile in Italy.

* This was Joe Spinell's first film

* Production began on March 29, 1971, but Marlon Brando worked on the film for 35 days between April 12 and May 28 so he could honor his commitment to the film Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972).

* In the novel, Don Cuneo's first name is Ottileo, but in the film he was known as Carmine Cuneo as homage to Carmine Coppola.

* Frank Puglia was originally cast as Bonasera but had to back out due to illness.

* Paramount executive Peter Bart bought the film rights to Mario Puzo's "The Godfather" before it was even finished. It was still only a 20-page outline.

* Along with Mario Puzo's source novel, Francis Ford Coppola based many of the characters on members of his own family.

* Mario Puzo modeled the character of Don Vito Corleone on New York mob bosses Joe Profaci and Vito Genovese. Many of the events of his novel are based on actual incidents that occurred in the lives of Profaci, Genovese and their families. Puzo based Don Vito's personality on his own mother's.

* Paramount's original idea was to make this a low-budget gangster film set in the present rather than a period piece set in the 1940s and 1950s. Francis Ford Coppola rejected Mario Puzo's original script based on this idea.

* According to Francis Ford Coppola on the DVD commentary, the intercutting of the baptism scene with the gang killings during the movie's climax did not really work until editor Peter Zinner added the organ soundtrack.

* According to Al Pacino in The Godfather Family: A Look Inside (1990) (TV), he nearly got fired midway through filming. At the time Paramount execs only saw the early scenes of Michael at the wedding and were exclaiming, "When is he going to do something?" When they finally saw the scene where Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey in the restaurant, they changed their minds and Pacino got to keep his job.

* According to Mario Puzo, the character of Johnny Fontane was NOT based on Frank Sinatra. However, everyone assumed that it was, and Sinatra was furious; when he met Puzo at a restaurant he screamed vulgar terms and threats at Puzo. Sinatra was also vehemently opposed to the film. Due to this backlash, Fontane's role in the film was scaled down to a couple of scenes.

* Francis Ford Coppola insisted on the film being called "Mario Puzo's The Godfather" rather than just The Godfather (1972), because his original draft of the screenplay was so faithful to Puzo's novel he thought Puzo deserved the credit for it.

* At one point during filming, Paramount production chief Robert Evans felt the film had too little action and considered hiring an action director to finish the job. To satisfy Evans, Francis Ford Coppola and his son Gian-Carlo Coppola developed the scene in which Connie and Carlo have their long fight. As a result, Evans was pleased enough to let Coppola finish the film.

* Diane Keaton based much of her portrayal of Kay Adams on Francis Ford Coppola's wife, Eleanor Coppola.

* The scene where Sonny beats up Carlo (Connie's husband) took four days to shoot and featured more than 700 extras.

* Al Pacino's maternal grandparents emigrated to America from Corleone, Sicily, just as Vito Corleone had.

* According to Francis Ford Coppola in his "Cigar Aficionado" magazine interview, he had a meeting at his home in 1969 with producers Albert S. Ruddy and Gray Frederickson to discuss The Conversation (1974). He had sent the script to Marlon Brando who called him during the meeting to politely turn it down. Right before the meeting, Coppola took note of a newspaper advertisement for an upcoming novel titled "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo. Just a few months later, all five people would meet to discuss a film version of the novel.

* For the scene where Clemenza is cooking, Francis Ford Coppola originally wrote in the script, "Clemenza browns some sausage". Upon seeing this, Mario Puzo crossed out "browns" and replaced it with "fries", writing in the margin, "Gangsters don't brown."

* Franco Corsaro filmed a scene as the dying consigliere Genco Abbandando but it was deleted. In the scene, which takes place after the wedding, Vito Corleone and his sons go to the hospital to pay their respects to Genco who is dying of cancer. They attempt to console him and Genco begs Vito to stay with him as he is dying. The scene does appear in some TV airings of the film (in place of edited versions of the murder scenes) and is in "The Godfather: A Novel for Television" (1977).

* The ribbons on Michael Corleone's Marine Corps uniform are the Silver Star, the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, and the Purple Heart on the top row, and the Asiatic/Pacific Campaign Medal with a service star and an arrowhead, the European/African/Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with a service star, and the World War II Victory Medal on the bottom row. In The Godfather: Part II (1974), however, Michael tells a congressional committee that he was awarded the Navy Cross during the war.

* According to Francis Ford Coppola, the film took 62 days to shoot.

* Originally Francis Ford Coppola was against directing the film, as he felt it glorified the Mafia and violence and would reflect poorly on his Italian-Sicilian heritage. However, he eagerly took the job once he thought of making it an allegory of American capitalism.

* The character of Hollywood mogul Jack Woltz's was patterned after Warner Bros. chief Jack L. Warner. His personality was based on MGM head Louis B. Mayer, who was a great racing aficionado and owned a racing stable. Mayer abandoned the sport, reportedly after his son-in-law William Goetz, who was his partner in the stable, got involved with the Mafia and fixed a race Mayer's horse was the favorite to win.

* Olivia Hussey was considered by casting director Fred Roos for the role of Apollonia. Francis Ford Coppola originally wanted Stefania Sandrelli, but she turned it down.

* August 1971: According to an article by Nicholas Pileggi in The New York Times, Paramount planned to release a line of spaghetti sauce bearing The Godfather (1972) logo to promote the film. It also planned Godfather restaurant franchises that would sell pizza, hero sandwiches, Italian ices and Italian breads and pastries. A spin-off television series was also planned but none of these ideas came to fruition.

* 1990: This film was selected for the National Film Registry, Library of Congress.

* Francis Ford Coppola wanted to cast actor Timothy Carey but Carey turned the part down so he could film a television pilot.

* After Robert Evans insisted that James Caan be cast as Michael, Carmine Caridi was cast in the role of Sonny. According to Evans, he told Francis Ford Coppola that he could cast Al Pacino as Michael as long as he cast Caan as Sonny. Although Caan had been Coppola's first choice, he decided that Caridi was better for the role and did not want to recast Caan. Evans insisted on Caan because he wanted at least one "name" actor to play one of the brothers and because the 6'4" Caridi would tower over Pacino on screen. Caridi was later given a small part in The Godfather: Part II (1974). There is a rumor that Burt Reynolds was originally cast as Sonny Corleone but Marlon Brando wouldn't act with him, considering him more a TV star.

* During filming, James Caan and Gianni Russo did not get along and were frequently at loggerheads. During filming Sonny's beating on Carlo, Caan nearly hit Russo with the stick he threw at him, and actually broke two of Russo's ribs and chipped his elbow.

* During the scene in the study when the family decides Michael Corleone needs to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, Santino Corleone is seen idly toying with a cane. The cane belonged to Al Pacino, who had badly injured his leg while filming Michael's escape from the restaurant.

* Jewish actors James Caan and Abe Vigoda portray Italian characters (Santino Corleone, Salvatore Tessio), while Italian Alex Rocco, portrays a Jewish character (Moe Greene).

* Although the dark photography of Gordon Willis was eventually copied by many other films, when the developed film came back from the lab, Paramount executives thought the look was a mistake. They ordered a different look but Willis and director Francis Ford Coppola refused.

* James Caan credits the stage persona of "insult comic" Don Rickles for inspiring his characterization of Santino Corleone.

* Martin Sheen and Dean Stockwell auditioned for the role of Michael Corleone. Oscar-winner Rod Steiger campaigned hard for the role of Michael, even though he was too old for the part. Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and Dustin Hoffman were all offered the part of Michael Corleone, but all refused. (Beatty was also offered directing and producing duties.) Suggestions of Alain Delon and Burt Reynolds were rejected by Francis Ford Coppola. Paramount production chief Robert Evans wanted Robert Redford to be cast in the part, but Coppola demurred as he was too WASPy. Evans explained that Redford could fit the role as he could be perceived as "northern Italian". Evans eventually lost the struggle over the actor he derided as "The Midget". The Irish-American Ryan O'Neal then became the front-runner for the part, though it eventually devolved onto James Caan. Before being cast as Michael, Al Pacino was committed to starring in The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971). Coppola, in a 2003 "Cigar Aficionado" interview, said that Paramount pulled some strings and managed to get Pacino released. The Paramount brass, particularly Evans, were adamantly opposed to casting Pacino, who did poorly in screen tests, until they saw his excellent performance in The Panic in Needle Park (1971). Caan went back to his original role of Sonny when Pacino came on board. Robert De Niro tested for both Michael and Sonny and was almost cast as Carlo before being cast as Paulie. Then, De Niro was offered Pacino's former role in "Gang". With Coppola's blessing, De Niro backed out to take the part. This, in turn, enabled De Niro to star as a young Vito in the sequel, which won him an Oscar and made his career.

* James Caan originally heard the phrase "bada-bing!" from his acquaintance, the real-life mobster Carmine Persico, and improvised its use in the film.

* George Lucas put together the "Mattress Sequence" (the montage of crime scene photos and headlines about the war between the five families) as a favor to Francis Ford Coppola for helping him fund American Graffiti (1973). He asked not to be credited.

* According to Francis Ford Coppola in the DVD commentary, in the scene where Captain MacCluskey confronts Michael in front of the hospital, the officer who balks at arresting Michael ("He's clean, Captain. He's a war hero.") is NYPD Detective Sonny Grosso, one of the detectives made famous by his involvement in breaking the "French Connection" case.

* Al Pacino's first Oscar nomination marks his first of 4 consecutive nominations, a feat he shares with Jennifer Jones (1943-46), Thelma Ritter (1950-53), Marlon Brando (1951-54) and Elizabeth Taylor (1957-60).

* Ardell Sheridan, who plays Mrs. Clemenza, was Richard S. Castellano's wife in real life.

* In the scene where Carlo is beaten by Sonny, a poster bearing the name "Thomas Dewey" can be seen on a wall. Thomas E. Dewey was New York City prosecutor who pursued gangsters in the 1930's.

* The film's opening scene, a three-minute zoom-out of Amerigo Bonasera and Don Corleone, was achieved with a computer-controlled zoom lens which had earlier been used in Silent Running (1972).

* The only comment Robert Duvall will make about his performance is that he wished "they would have made a better hairpiece" for his character.

* In reality, all the actors who played Marlon Brando's sons (Robert Duvall, John Cazale, James Caan, and Al Pacino) were only between six and 16 years younger than he was.

* The director's mother Italia Coppola had a scene as a Genco Olive Oil Company switchboard operator, but it ended up on the cutting room floor.

* Voted #1 On Empire's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time (September 2008)

* When Marlon Brando won the Best Actor Oscar for this movie, he sent Sacheen Littlefeather to represent him at the awards ceremonies. The presenters of the award were Roger Moore and Liv Ullmann. When Moore offered the statuette to Littlefeather, she snubbed him and proceeded with her speech about the film industry's mistreatment of American Indians.

* Of the main cast, four pairs of actors share a birthday: Al Pacino and Talia Shire (April 25), Diane Keaton and Robert Duvall (January 5), James Caan and Sterling Hayden (March 26), and Abe Vigoda and Al Lettieri (February 24).

* According to Albert S. Ruddy's assistant, Bettye McCartt, Ruddy was warned by police that the Mafia was following his car. Ruddy would switch cars with McCartt in an effort to lose them. One night, McCartt found her car with the windows shot out and a note that read "Shut down the movie or else."

* During pre-production, Francis Ford Coppola shot his own unofficial screen tests with Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Diane Keaton at his home in San Francisco. Robert Evans was unimpressed by them and insisted that official screen tests be held. The studio spent $420,000 on the screen tests but in the end, the actors Coppola originally wanted were hired.

* Bruce Dern, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and James Caan auditioned for the role of Tom Hagen.

* Marlon Brando based some of his performance on Al Lettieri who plays Sollozzo. While preparing for On the Waterfront (1954), Brando became friendly with Lettieri, whose relative was a real-life Mafioso. Brando and Lettieri would later co-star in The Night of the Following Day (1968). Lettieri also helped Brando prepare for his Godfather role by bringing him to his relative's house for a family dinner.

* Aram Avakian was originally hired as the film's editor but was fired after disagreements with Coppola.

* According to Gary Fredrickson, Lenny Montana (Luca Brasi) had worked as a Mafia bodyguard, and had also bragged to Frederickson about working for the Mafia as an arsonist.

* Richard S. Castellano ad-libbed the line "Take the cannoli".

* John Martino ad-libbed the words "Madon'" (Madonna) and "sfortunato" (unfortunate) when Paulie talks about stealing the wedding purse.

* The smack that Vito gives Johnny Fontane was not in the script. Marlon Brando improvised the smack and Al Martino's confused reaction was real. According to 'James Caan (I)', "Martino didn't know whether to laugh or cry."

* 'James Caan (I)' improvised the part where he throws the FBI photographer to the ground. The extra's frightened reaction is genuine.

* Francis Ford Coppola was reluctant to let his sister Talia Shire audition for the role of Connie. He felt she was too pretty for the part and did not want to be accused of nepotism. Only at Mario Puzo's request did Shire get a chance to audition.

* Radio personality Howard Stern has said that he would gladly have any cast member of this film as his guest and they can show up at his studio unannounced. Though over the years cast members such as Robert Duvall and James Caan were pre-scheduled guests, his "just show up" policy was never taken up until Gianni Russo arrived one day. Stern immediately had him escorted into his studio, even though he was in the midst of other guests at the time and interviewed him.

* Orson Welles lobbied to get the part of Don Vito Corrleone in The Godfather (1972). Francis Ford Coppola, a fan of his, had to turn him down because he already had Marlon Brando in mind for the role and felt Welles wouldn't be right for it.

* According to Ardell Sheridan, Mafia captain (and future boss) Paul Castellano visited the set and spoke with Richard S. Castellano. It was not until after Paul was killed in 1985 did Richard reveal to her that Paul was his uncle.

* The only film to date to be nominated for four acting Oscars exclusively for male performances.

* According to interviews in the Coppola Restoration DVD set, the film was originally planned with an intermission due to its three-hour length. The intermission would have happened immediately after Michael murders Solozzo and McClusky, which explains the operatic instrumental that begins playing when Michael is shown fleeing the restaurant, as well as the ensuing "newspaper" montage, which would have been the first scene post-intermission.

* The Don's wife, Carmella Corleone, is seen singing at the wedding. Morgana King, who plays Carmella, is a gifted opera singer.

* Francis Ford Coppola initially offered the part of Don Vito Corleone to retired Maltese actor Joseph Calleia but the offer was turned down by Calleia due to health reasons.

* Although there are many claims of real Mafiosi as cast members Francis Ford Coppola stated in a May 2009 interview with Howard Stern that no organized crime members were cast or used as consultants. Coppola went on to explain there are expectations of reciprocity once one is provided a "favor" by an organized crime member or otherwise involved in a business action with the same. He specifically denied the connection of Gianni Russo to organized crime. The closest Coppola claims to have come to a real gangster during production, at least to his knowledge, was an interaction with Lenny Montana, who played Luca Brasi. Coppola said when he asked if Montana knew how to spin the cylinder of the revolver Montana replied "You kiddin'?".

* Final Amercican studio film of Richard Conte.

* The British Daily Telegraph newspaper recently described The Godfather (1972) as "a vision of the hollowness of American capitalism and its effect on the family - like Death of a Salesman with spaghetti and a criminal empire."

* The baptism was filmed in two churches: the interior shots were filmed at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in New York; and the exterior shots were filmed at the Mount Loretto Church in Pleasant Plains, Staten Island.

* The casting of Richard Conte was an idea by the mother of Martin Scorsese, who asked Francis Ford Coppola if he could be in the movie.

>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<

Trivia items below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.

* SPOILER: The presence of oranges in the Godfather trilogy indicates that a death-related event will soon occur (even though production designer Dean Tavoularis claimed the oranges were simply used to brighten up the darkly shot film). In chronological order of such events: - Hagen and Woltz negotiate Johnny Fontane's position at a table with a bowl of oranges on it, and later Woltz discovers his horse's severed head; - Don Corleone buys oranges right before he is shot; - Sonny drives past an advertisement for Florida Oranges before he is assassinated; - at the Mafioso summit, bowls of oranges are placed on the tables (specifically in front of those Dons who will be assassinated); - Michael eats an orange while discussing his plans with Hagen; - before Don Corleone dies, he plays with an orange; - Tessio, who is executed for attempting to betray Michael, plays with an orange at Connie's wedding; - and Carlo Rizzi, who wears an orange suit right before Sonny beats him up, causes Sonny's death and is himself garrotted in retribution. The only deaths in the film that don't appear to have oranges foreshadowing them are the assassinations of Paulie, Sollozzo and Apollonia.

* SPOILER: Don Corleone's death scene, while it featured in the novel, was originally not to appear in the film because studio executives felt that the audience would see the funeral and know what had happened. Francis Ford Coppola shot the scene with three cameras in a private residence in Long Island (the makeshift garden itself was created from scratch and torn down immediately after shooting), with Marlon Brando ad-libbing his lines.

* SPOILER: Fabrizio, Michael's Sicilian bodyguard who planted the bomb that killed Appolonia, was supposed to be found by Michael at a pizza parlor he opens in America and subsequently blown away with a shotgun at the end of the movie as per "The Godfather" novel. This scene was filmed but ultimately cut because the makeup artists plastered Angelo Infanti with so much fake blood that the scene looked ridiculous. Photos of Michael Corleone with a hat, shotgun blazing, appeared in many magazines, despite the scene's eventual excision. Fabrizio's death was filmed again, for The Godfather: Part II (1974), this time by car bomb (as the ultimate form of poetic justice), but that scene was also deleted from the theatrical version.

* SPOILER: Francis Ford Coppola shot Sonny's assassination scene in one take with different cameras positioned at each shot. This was because there were 149 squibs taped onto James Caan's body to simulate the effect of rapid machine-gun fire, and they couldn't shoot another take.

Saddam's Role Model: The Godfather

It was back in 1972 that Adel Darwish, author of several books on Saddam Hussein, and now with Middle East magazine, met Saddam Hussein for the first time.

"I did not know his name at the time," Darwish told IPS in an interview Tuesday. "I was just told that I would be meeting Mr. Deputy."

It was at a film festival in Baghdad when the film 'The Godfather' was shown. The celebrated film won three Oscars and came later to be known as 'Godfather I' in a trilogy.

"Saddam Hussein was very impressed with the film," Darwish recalls. "Some of us sat together over whisky, and I remember Saddam had very much more than anyone else. He was smoking his heavy cigar, and for 90 minutes he sat talking about the 'Godfather.'"

A sign of times to come, perhaps, though Darwish could not see this then.

Darwish met Saddam Hussein five times, or at least he thinks he did. The last meeting came in 1989, and is the one he has some doubts about. "I think it was Saddam, though it might have been a double," he says. The eight-year war with Iran had just ended the year before, and security around Saddam -- certainly the real Saddam -- was particularly heavy.

But it definitely was Saddam that Darwish met on another occasion in 1982. "Because he spoke of the film again, and remembered the time we talked about it," Darwish says. The film had clearly made an impression on Saddam Hussein long beyond that particular evening of cigars and whisky.

"A man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man," says Godfather Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando).

Saddam Hussein believed he ruled with the hand of a family man. "He thought he was providing the nation with justice undeliverable under international law," Darish says. In later years "Saddam Hussein came to see all of Iraq as his family," says Darwish. "And if anyone went against the family, he would be a traitor to the family." And dealt with as such.

Under the control of the man who came to see himself as patriarch of a nation, Iraq came to be "like Chicago in the thirties," Darwish says, although 'Godfather was set in New York in the forties. What was seen by others as the ways of the mafia were to him the way of the family.

Saddam Hussein was evidently convinced his repressive ways were for the good of Iraq, and even admired by Iraqis. "Saddam was talking about how the Godfather put the interests of his family -- as he saw them -- before anything else."

'The Godfather' film re-invented the gangster genre, by portraying the gangster figure as a family man bound by honor and tradition. The police, the courts do not hand out justice. The Godfather does. And that 'justice' can be swift and ruthless. Inevitably, Saddam Hussein did not see himself as a ruthless dictator; he was only the head of the family handing out swift justice.

"There was this alarming scene in the film where Michael (the Godfather's son) in his U.S. Marine uniform tells his girlfriend of the family's violent ways," Darwish says. "Saddam thought that the girl was outwardly scared but was actually sexually aroused, because women admire strong men."

Puffing at his cigar that evening, Saddam said nations are just like women.

But nations are not, and nor are men like Saddam as fatally attractive to women as they project to be, a new study into mafias and their godfathers indicates.

Girolamo Lo Verso, a psychotherapist from Sicily where the mafia arose, concludes after ten years of studying mob bosses that many of these godfathers actually have "food disorders, anxiety, depression and sexual problems." -- a theme of a recent mob comedy, 'Analyse This!' and a sequel with Robert DeNiro and Bill Crystal.

In his newly published book 'La Psyche Mafiosa', Lo Verso says that one godfather "went to see a psychiatrist because he couldn't cope with his son's homosexuality. He had hopes of passing on the family business to him. But the boy rebelled and came out of the closet."

Nor are godfathers as virile as they are projected to be, in cinema or for real. "Real Mafiosi are more interested in power and being in command than sex," he says. "They have hurried sex with their wives in order to have children, but it's not really a situation of passion," Lo Verso told The Independent.

Whatever his sex life, Saddam Hussein appears to have been turned on more by power. "It became so easy when he came to control the security apparatus," Darwish says. "It became easy to take charge of law and order by brute force." And however repressive, the disappearance of Saddam and his regime has, in Saddam's metaphor, left a nation orphaned.

In the film, the presiding patriarch is ultimately succeeded by his youngest son Michael (Al Pacino), who eventually becomes even more ruthless. Not unlike Saddam's sons. In Iraq as in the film, like father, like son.

The cinematic Godfather is a man who has his way because he knows of no other. He gets his godson-singer a contract in Hollywood with the famous words: "We'll make him an offer he can't refuse." And Michael explains to his girlfriend how his father persuaded a band leader to give the singer a contract. One of the don's thugs "held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains -- or his signature -- would be on the contract."

In the end George Bush made Saddam an offer that he thought Saddam could not refuse. But he did, because it was an offer he could not accept. Godfathers do not take orders.

What Puzo Godfathered 40 Years Ago

In 1969, an obscure middle-aged novelist and pulp magazine journalist named ­Mario Gianluigi Puzo hit the literary jackpot. He wrote "The Godfather," he later told Larry King, "to make money." By his own admission, it wasn't well written. "If I'd known so many people were going to read it," he famously said, "I'd have written it better."

How many people have read it? It can be said with some certainty that having sold between 20 million and 30 million copies, "The Godfather" is one of the best-selling books of all time. By most yardsticks, it is one of the top 10 best-selling works of American fiction. Four decades later, it's still selling, in a paperback edition from the New American Library.

The reasons for its enduring popularity aren't easy to pin down. Of course, Francis Ford Coppola's masterpieces, "The Godfather" and "The Godfather, Part II," brought a swarm of new readers, but the book had already sold millions of copies before the first film was ­released in 1972.

Those who read the novel today in search of a greater ­appreciation of the movies are bound to be disappointed; it quickly becomes apparent the book's success isn't based on literary merit. The late 1960s were the peak period of "novelizations"—easy-reading books aimed at fans of popular movies. Puzo, along with Michael Crichton, Peter Benchley and John Grisham, helped usher in an era when the novelization would precede, not follow, the film. Puzo had previously written critically praised but virtually unread novels about the Italian-American experience, most notably "The Fortunate Pilgrim"; with "The Godfather," he went from being a novelist to a novelizationist.

Wilfrid Sheed correctly ­described the prose of "The Godfather" as "speed writing clichés." One searches the novel in vain for the verbal poetry in the films, lines such as "Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes" and "Leave the gun, take the cannolis." And yet, as the New Yorker's Pauline Kael noted in her review of the film, "There was a Promethean spark in Puzo's trash." What exactly was that spark?

Gay Talese, whose "Honor Thy Father" is perhaps the classic nonfiction book about the Italian mob, thinks it can be summed up in four syllables: "La famiglia." A friend of Puzo until his death in 1999, Mr. Talese says: "Mario didn't know much about organized crime, but he certainly knew how to depict an Italian family. Take away the gambling and the murder, and it's pretty much a straightforward story about how Italian-American families were assimilated into American culture." George De Stefano's "An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America" examines, among other things, the impact of "The Godfather" and how it reflects Italian-Americans. He says that "we saw our families in that book, and, for the first time, a great many Americans saw us. It wasn't a pretty image, or a tranquil one, but it was never dull, and it was new to most people."

Italian-American gangsters were a part of our popular culture long before Puzo's novel. "But it was Puzo's genius to turn them into family men," says Maria Laurino, author of "Old World Daughter, New World Mother: An Education in Love and Freedom." "All those elaborate passages in 'The Godfather' which describe the family patriarch presiding over weddings and baptisms and then ordering murders gave a new dimension to the image of the Italian father," Ms. Laurino notes. "Movies had always shown the murders but never told us that these men had daughters and godchildren."

The popularity of Puzo's novel caught America by surprise because it seemed to go against the grain of everything that was dominating the news of the time: the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, Woodstock, ­Altamont, the moon landing, the Vietnam War. "In times of such social upheaval, who cared about the fortunes of a family of Italian-American immigrants?" asks Mr. Talese. As it turned out, just about everybody did. "I think there was a lot of unrest about the dissolution of the American family, and many Americans of other backgrounds were fascinated by the idea that they would kill to ­uphold their family values and traditions—appalled, but fascinated. Mario touched a nerve that most Americans didn't ­realize was even there."

Italian-Americans have always been ambivalent about "The Godfather." While the book and the films made it hip to have a name that ended in a vowel, there were many who wanted to consign Puzo to the lowest circle of Dante's Inferno for forever labeling organized crime as Italian. Historians of the early mob point out such names as Arnold Rothstein, Owney Madden, Meyer Lansky, Dion O'Bannon, Dutch Schultz (aka Arthur Flegenheimer) and Jack "Legs" Diamond, but in Puzo's novel, crime is treated as "La Cosa Nostra"—our thing.

If he isn't burning for that, Puzo is surely doing time in the Purgatorio for suggesting that Frank Sinatra owed his success to the Mafia. One horse's head in a movie producer's bed, and Puzo's Sinatra stand-in, Johnny Fontane, "went on to become the greatest singing sensation in the country." As if the greatest singer of popular standards in American music needed a ­godfather to put a gun to the collective heads of record ­buyers.

Perhaps, though, Puzo ­deserves a suspended sentence for his contribution to film rather than literature. The enormous success of the book poses an interesting question: Why didn't the descendants of Dante produce more first-rate writers in this country? The likely ­answer is that the grandparents of the great Italian-American film directors—Mr. Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma, Michael Cimino, Quentin Tarantino and others—came here unable to speak a new language and illiterate even in their native tongue. The younger generation found a new medium to turn the pulp of Mafia legend into art.

If Puzo wasn't a genius, he at least found a way to inspire genius. One might call him the Godfather of Italian-American film.

Biography of Al Pacino

One of the greatest actors in all of film history, Al Pacino established himself during one of film's greatest decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies. Born on April 25, 1940, in the Bronx, New York, Pacino's parents (Salvatore and Rose) divorced when he was young. His mother moved them into his grandparents' house. Pacino found himself often repeating the plots and voices of characters he had seen in the movies, one of his favorite activities. Bored and unmotivated in school, the young Al Pacino found a haven in school plays, and his interest soon blossomed into a full-time career. Starting on the stage, he went through a lengthy period of depression and poverty, sometimes having to borrow bus fare to make it to auditions. He made it into the prestigious Actors Studio in 1966, studying under legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg, creator of the Method Approach that would become the trademark of many '70s-era actors. After appearing in a string of plays in supporting roles, he finally hit it big with "The Indian Wants the Bronx", winning an Obie award for the 1966-67 season. That was followed by a Tony Award for "Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie?". His first feature films made little departure from the gritty realistic stage performances that earned him respect: he played a junkie in The Panic in Needle Park (1971) after his film debut in Me, Natalie (1969). What came next would change his life forever. The role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972) was one of the most sought-after of the time: Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, 'Ryan O'Neal', Robert De Niro and a host of others either wanted it or were mentioned for it, but director Francis Ford Coppola had his heart set on the unknown Italian Pacino for the role, although pretty much everyone else--from the studio to the producers to some of te cast members--didn't want him. Though Coppola won out through slick persuasion, Pacino was in constant fear of being fired during the hellish shoot. Much to his (and Coppola's) relief, the film was a monster hit that did wonders for everyone's career, including Pacino's, and earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Instead of taking on easier projects for the big money he could now command, however, Pacino threw his support behind what he considered tough but important films, such as the true-life crime drama Serpico (1973) and the tragic real-life bank robbery film Dog Day Afternoon (1975). He opened eyes around the film world for his brave choice of roles, and he was nominated three consecutive years for the "Best Actor" Academy Award. He faltered slightly with Bobby Deerfield (1977), but regained his stride with ...And Justice for All. (1979), for which he received another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. This would, unfortunately, signal the beginning of a decline in his career, which produced such critical and commercial flops as Cruising (1980) and Author! Author! (1982). He took on another vicious gangster role and cemented his legendary status in the ultra-violent cult hit Scarface (1983), but a monumental mistake was about to follow. Revolution (1985) endured an endless and seemingly cursed shoot in which equipment was destroyed, weather was terrible, and Pacino became terribly ill with pneumonia. Constant changes in the script also further derailed a project that seemed doomed from the start anyway. The Revolutionary War film is considered one of the worst films ever, not to mention one of the worst of his career, resulted in his first truly awful reviews and kept him off the sceen for the next four years. Returning to the stage, Pacino has done much to give back and contribute to the theatre, which he considers his first love. He directed a film, The Local Stigmatic (1990), but it remains unreleased. He lifted his self-imposed exile with the striking Sea of Love (1989) as a hard-drinking cop. It marked the second phase of Pacino's career, being the first to feature his now famous dark, owl eyes and hoarse, gravelly voice. Returning to the Corleones, he made The Godfather: Part III (1990) and earned raves for his first comedic role in the colorful Dick Tracy (1990). This earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and two years later he was nominated for Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). He went into romantic mode for Frankie and Johnny (1991). In 1992 he finally won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his amazing performance in Scent of a Woman (1992). A mixture of technical perfection (he plays a blind man) and charisma, the role was tailor-made for him, and remains a classic. The next few years would see Pacino becoming more comfortable with acting and movies as a business, turning out great roles in great films with more frequency and less of the demanding personal involvement of his wilder days. Carlito's Way (1993) proved another gangster classic, as did the epic crime drama Heat (1995) directed by Michael Mann and co-starring Robert De Niro, although they only had a few scenes together. He returned to the director's chair for the highly acclaimed and quirky Shakespeare adaptation Looking for Richard (1996). City Hall (1996), Donnie Brasco (1997) and The Devil's Advocate (1997) all came out in this period. Reteaming with Mann and then Oliver Stone, he gave two commanding performances in The Insider (1999) and Any Given Sunday (1999). In his personal life, Pacino is one of Hollywood's most enduring and notorious bachelors, having never been married. He has a daughter, Julie Marie, with acting teacher Jan Tarrant, and a new set of twins with longtime girlfriend Beverly D'Angelo. His romantic history includes a long-time romance with "Godfather" co-star Diane Keaton. With his intense and gritty performances, Pacino was an original in the acting profession. His Method approach would become the process of many actors throughout time, and his unbeatable number of classic roles has already made him a legend among film buffs and all aspiring actors and directors. His commitment to acting as a profession and his constant screen dominance has established him as one of the movies' true legends.

Analysis of the Opening to ‘Scarface’, DePalma, 1983

There are many different elements to the film ‘Scarface’ and I am going to explore the opening credits and the first scene from the film. The opening credits begin with blank black screen and white text. The text is small and just at the bottom of the screen like subtitles; this shows us that it is just background information to help us understand the movie that we are about to watch. We then cut to archive black and white footage of Fidel Castro giving a speech about how he does not want criminals trying to hold back the revolution in his country; we later find out that this is why the main character Tony Montana is shipped over to Florida. When the credits begin it is footage of boats packed with Cubans being shipped over to Florida. This helps us to understand what the main character has gone through before we catch up with him in the film. There are pauses in the footage where the names of the directors, screenwriters and main characters come onto the screen. Their names are written in bold red letters and are on a black background, these colours are very powerful together and we often see them together as the movie progresses.

The form of the opening scene is an interrogation. It is not a flash back; the movie runs in a linear sequence. We are constantly looking at Al Pacino’s face. We do not see the faces of the immigrations officers in the scene, so all of you attention is focused on Montana. The camera focuses particularly on the side of his face that his scar is on, this is to reinforce that it is ‘Scarface’ that we are looking at and so we know that he is the main character. His scar connotes that he is quite a tough man; it shows us that he is not afraid to get in fights. When the camera does eventually move it circles him, like the immigrations officers do, therefore it is like we are watching him from their view. The genre of the film is American gangster, although it is hard to work this out from the first scene, we start to get clues for example we find out that he was in a gang. Another clue that this is going to be an American gangster film is that Al Pacino is a stock character for these types of films, he played large parts in ‘The Godfather’ trilogy as well as other films. From the first scene, you cannot say that ‘Scarface has the typical conventions of an American gangster film. You would expect him to be walking around in flashy, expensive suits with lots of money and jewellery, but this does not come until later in the film. The audience’s generic expectations of an American gangster film are fulfilled by the fact that we know that Al Pacino is a stock character and we find out the Montana has been in prison and was previously in a gang. Montana is an anti-hero, he is not one of the good guys but we instantly like him. The camera angle helps us come to this conclusion about him as it constantly focusing on him. The majority of the scene is shot in a medium close up (MCU) shot, this means that the camera is just looking at the head and shoulders of the character, you can also see some of the background in the shot. The scene also uses a medium shot (MS) and a close up (CU). CU’s are usually used to draw the audiences’ attention to a characters reaction, but in this opening sequence it is used to show Montana in a state of emotion.

From the verbal language of ‘Tony Montana’ I can tell that he is an immigrant and not American as he has a foreign accent. He is not fazed by the immigration officer’s questions as his volume stays low and his tone is cool, calm and collected. ‘Tony’ does not say any more then he has to, he just answers the questions in as little words possible. This makes him seem quite mysterious, therefore we can tell that there is more to him then he is letting on. The immigrations officer’s tones are angry and annoyed. ‘Tony’s’ body language is very casual and relaxed. He leans back in his chair and almost slouches. However, when he starts getting asked questions about drugs, he starts to get uneasy and he scratches the back of his head. His expression stay neutral and unchanging throughout his interrogation so he does not give anything away to the immigrations officers, this furthers are suspicions into him. The immigrations officers stand up where as ‘Tony’ sits down, we know that they are the people with the authority. However, the camera never looks down at ‘Montana’ from a high angle shot, this shows us that he is not intimidated by them. The immigrations officers walk in circles around him and surround him, like wolves moving in on their prey, this connotes that they are trying to intimidate him, although we know it does not work.

The opening scene is set in a bland room without many props, as to not take any attention away from the main character in the middle of the room. ‘Tony’ is wearing a brightly coloured Hawaiian shirt, the connotations of this could be that he is relaxed and laid back as if he is going on holiday. The Hawaiian shirt also reinforces the fact that Montana is not American. The immigration officers are all wearing uniforms; this connotes authority.

The narrative style of the opening sequence is subjective treatment. Although the sequence is not shot through point of view shots, the way the camera is positioned makes it seem as though the audience are another immigration officer. When the immigration officers move around the camera moves around with them, but we never see a point of view shot from them or Montana. Montana does not look at the camera, which makes the narrative style feel like objective treatment.

I believe the target audience to be young males in the age range of 18-30. The film is rated an 18 so obviously the target audience cannot be anyone below this age. There are some very adult subjects in this film, such as murder and drugs. ‘Scarface’ is a very typical male film. The preferred reading of ‘Scarface’ is that everything comes at a price, especially greed and a thirst for wealth. A negotiated reading of ‘Scarface’ is that crime does pay, and drugs can earn you a lot of money if you are careful and not greedy. An oppositional reading of ‘Scarface’ is that crime didn’t pay for Montana, but it could for other people. An aberrant reading of ‘Scarface’ is that gangsters get away with everything, and they are above the law. Another aberrant reading would be that all Cuban’s are gangsters.

Capitalism is an ideological discourse within 'Scarface'. Montana leaves Cuba to get away from the communist regime. He moves to America to try and achieve the 'American dream'. One of the main themes within 'Scarface' is to get as rich as possible, which reinforces capitalism. If you did not analyse this film you would not of discoverd capitalism as an ideology within it, the references to it quite subtle, therefore we only take them in subconciously. The culture that we live is constantly forcing ideologies at us threw our norms and values, films such as 'Scarface' reinforce this. 'Scarface'is teaching us that capitalism is a norm within our society and that we should all follow it, if you were to show this film to a group of communists they would get a different reading of it.

Cubans are represented in 'Scarface' as outcasts and trouble makers. It seems like they are portrayed as being on from the 'wrong side of the tracks'. I think that they are portrayed as this because the immigration officers instantly assume Montana is trouble maker. There are no positive representations of cubans as a whole in the film, they are made fun of and they are put into camps.

"The epic gangster film."

The epic gangster film is family hardened and breathes fire into the belly of the contemporary gangster genre. It represents the best of what Hollywood can produce. A Mafia tale where it's difficult to tell if art imitates fiction or if the reverse is true. Marlon Brando makes his grand movie comeback by stuffing either cotton or orange peel in his mouth so he can mumble, shows his love for cats, and becomes the godfather of all filmdom's godfathers by dispensing favors with lifetime debts (a godfather or "don," is the head of a Mafia family). There are offers made that can't be refused, a severed horse's head ends up in the bed, numerous heartwarming ethnic family occasions are laced with chilling undertones of mixing pleasure with business, stylish crosscutting shots between religious ritual and gore-filled machine-gun executions serve as some kind of poor man's poetry, and a lesson in dining manners takes place in a trattoria (translating to a marked diner taken out gangland style with firepower and falling over the linguini).

This lengthy but action-packed 1972 soap opera crime drama is one of the most popular American films ever made. It's superbly acted, the script is sharp and witty, the 31-year-old director Francis Ford Coppola was never more on top of his game--creating a convincing and highly structured work that was both entertaining and worthy of much praise for bringing Mario Puzo's best-selling novel to the screen in such a splashy style. Coppola also co-wrote The Godfather with Puzo.

The film covers the Mafia wars between 1945-1955. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) is the godfather's youngest son, an Ivy League graduate and independent thinker, who rebelled against his father by enlisting in the Army to fight in World War II and has returned a war hero. Michael, rejecting the family business, shows up at the wedding of his sister Connie (Talia Shire) with his outsider non-Italian girlfriend, Kay (Diane Keaton), who doesn't know that he comes from a Mafia family until this occasion.

A short time later during the Christmas holiday season, the old-fashioned don refuses to go into the lucrative drug trade with an ambitious rising Mafia figure named Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) and is almost assassinated when rival gangs back Sollozzo. After saving his father from a second assassination attempt, Michael decides to get involved in the family business and after much persuasion gets his volatile eldest brother Sonny (James Caan), bumbling middle brother Fredo (John Cazale), even-tempered family advisor, the consigliari, Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) and top gun Sal Tessio (Abe Vigoda) to approve of him being the one to exact revenge on his father's enemies. Even though Hagen is Irish, Vito adopted him as a son and he's become the brains behind the Corleones.

After murdering a corrupt police captain (Sterling Hayden) and the drug-trafficker responsible for trying to kill his father, Michael hides out in Sicily while a Mafia turf war erupts at home. In Sicily, Michael marries a local girl but she is later slain by Corleone foes when they fail to get him. Sonny is also slain in an ambush, having been betrayed by Connie's husband. With so much bad news, Michael returns home and marries Kay. His father recovers and shrewdly makes peace with his rivals, realizing that another powerful don was pulling the strings behind the scenes. Michael learns the ropes of being a don and when his chance comes he leads the family to greater heights of prosperity than ever by doing business in an efficient modern way. But by this time, Michael has become an amoral full-grown bad guy and initiates a campaign of murderous revenge against those who once tried to wipe out his family. He succeeds in consolidating his family's power and that seemingly happy ending leaves room for some more sequels.

It collected ten Academy Award nominations and won Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando) and Best Screenplay. It would remain the highest-grossing film until "Jaws" three years later.

Marlon Brando-The Greatest Actor of All Time?

Everybody has a favorite actor, or actress. Sometimes it is to do with that specific actors technical skills as an actor, sometimes it is do with their natural charm on screen (i.e. Cary Grant, probably the most naturally charismatic man on screen), sometimes they feel they can relate to the characters which certain actors tend to portray( i.e. Woody Allen) or sometimes people just like an actor for no good no reason.

I guess my admiration of Brando is a mixture of all of the above. I first saw him in The Godfather, in which he played an aging Mafia don who wants to hand over power to one of his sons. Brando played the character beautifully and his performance revitalized his career; however it was the fact that he played Vito Corleone in such a humane way that most appealed to me. Rather than playing him in as a stereotypical evil gangster, he showed that bad people, or people who are perceived to be criminals are not simply “evil”, but are products of their societies, circumstances and upbringing. It was this ability of his to bring out the humane side of his characters that most appeals to me. His portrayal of the idealistic Nazi soldier, Christian Dietsel, in The Young Lions was lambasted by many critics as being an apologia for the terrible crimes which the Nazi’s committed. However such thinking is illogical and somewhat simpleminded-just because a person was a Nazi doesn’t mean that he was evil or that he supported the Holocaust, it merely means that he was a product of his circumstances and times, and that people may be led down the wrong path without consciously realising it. I guess Brando articulated it better when he said “This picture will try to show the Nazism is a matter of mind, not geography, and that there are Nazis— and people of good will— in every country. The world can’t spend its life looking over its shoulder and nursing hatreds. There would be no progress that way.” Everybody is, after all, a product of their culture and of their times, and men who became Nazi’s were no different; they lived in a culture in which violence was institutionalized, anti-Semitism was the norm and poverty was prevalent, they were the product of a culture which had gone through a depression and had been nursing a hatred of other countries since the end of the First World War. The world is never black and white, it is always grey, and I guess that is what Brando wished to demonstrate. Other Western powers have committed holocausts, caused wars and taken over countries all in the name of progress and self-interest, however these were the exact same reasons given by Hitler for his mass extermination of the Jews; just as many American soldiers would rightfully look back on the crimes of Nazi’s with horror they would repeat those crimes in Vietnam and many other countries simply because they were told that what they were doing was “right”.

Brando gave several other brilliant performances, his performance alongside Anthony Quinn in Viva Zapata wass astounding, as were his performances in The Wild One, One Eyed Jacks and Apocalypse Now. However, his three stand out peformances are the ones he gave in A Streetcar Named Desire, Last Tango in Paris and (of course) On the Waterfront. His performance as Stanley Kowalski revolutionised acting-Robert Mitchum and Montgomery Clift may have brought method acting to Hollywood before Brando, but it was Brando’s performance in Streetcar that catapulted method acting to the world stage, and influenced a whole generation of actors. The raw sexuality, the brutality and above all the realism with which he portrayed Stanley Kowalski had never been seen before, it all seemed so real that people often associated Brando with the coarse and vulgar Stanley, even though by his own admission he was nothing like him. Brando’s performance in Streetcarwas probably the most influential performance in the history of film, and for that at least he should be remembered.

His performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront is probably one of the greatest performance of all time. Brando seems to natural in his role as the redemptive mob hand, and his “Contender” scene with Rod Steiger in the back of the taxi cab has gone down as one of the greatest movie scenes of all time. What makes it even more great is that two of the best scenes from the movie, the taxi cab scene and the dropped glove scene for were both improvised (the taxi-cab scene at least partially improvised) and both scenes are a testament to his genius.

Last Tango in Paris, in which he plays a middle-aged man going through an identity crisis was his most “personal” performance, and in many ways his most brilliant. By the end of the film you begin to really feel for Paul as a human being, and as I have already mentioned it was this humane side of Brando which I most admire of him; he did not play cardboard cutouts, he played human beings, and that is I guess (for me at least) what movies are all about.

Say Hello to My Little Friend

In the late 2006 the highly glorified gangster movie Scarface was re-released for the second time in two years and I honestly don't know why that is. I don't understand what the fuss over this movie or the character comes from nor do I understand why it is influencing our already drug driven
inner cities. Do the inner city youth and young American even know the history of this character? Scarface was a racist murderer who brought, sold and distributed cocaine and this movie has a generation itching to follow in his footsteps. With the re-release of Scarface in 2004 there was frenzy about purchasing the digitally re-mastered film but I was a lot less enthusiastic than my peers. A friend asked if I was going to purchase the movie and my response was "who is Scarface?" His reply was, "How are you into the GodFtaher and you don't like the Scarface is?" He didn't get the joke. First how about a little history?

In 1932 Paul Muni starred in a film loosely based on the real-life mobster Al Capone, the film was titled Scarface, which is Al Capone's nickname. Fifty-one years later in 1983 director Brian dePalma casted a Italian actor who was on the come up to play a Cuban immigrant who murdered his was to the top of Miami's cocaine underworld, the name of the film was Scarface. In 1983 the release was modest and received less than steller reviews. Now, twenty-three years later Scarface has a video game, clothing and footwear line and even cell phone ring tones. Personally I have a hard time trying to figure out what the big deal is.

In the movie Scarface, Al Pacino strategically makes his way to the top of the underworld through his persistence, ruthless behavior and extraordinary networking abilities. With no education whatsoever, Montana acquires unimaginable wealth and power that most men only dream or rap about.
Montana did what he wanted, brought what he wanted and killed who ever crossed his path with one of his victim's being a childhood friend. Scarface had no remorse and openly defied authority and that kind of defiant behavior is appealing to destitute individuals. Not only has Scarface influenced African American youth, suburbia and celebrities have been affected as well. Watch an episode of MTV's Cribs and many of the male superstars will have a huge poster of Scarface holding a tommy gun some where in his home.

Unfortunately after watching the movie the same question lingered, what was the big deal? Why is the hip-hop and most importantly the urban community going crazy over Scarface? What is the fascination? Why is one of the biggest names in rap named after a Cuban/Italian mobster? The Scarface movie has inspired the a hip-hop artist, Rick Ross, who with the aid of the Scarface movie has a chart topping song "Push It." The song "Push It" contains a sample from the 1983 film. After listening to various rap lyrics and talking to the new generation who have single handedly made Scarface more popular than it's initial release in 1983, a couple of answers have arouse. After watching the movie a few more times I have come to make the connection between hip-hop, the urban community and Scarface. The urban community is fascinated with going from rags-to-riches gained by ruthless violence as depicted in the film. In the urban community also known as "hoods" the most important things are money, power and women. In the hood the fastest way to obtain each is through violence and drug dealing because the idea of a nine to five isn't appealing enough to the men who reside in "hoods" making violence and drug dealing the only option.

Again I ask, what is the big deal? So an immigrant killed his way into wealth and power. Is that enough to walk around in a leather jacket priced at $300 with Scarface covering the back of it? Is murder and drugs becoming so condoned that Nike has designed a Scarface edition of their best
selling Air Force 1 shoe? Some people have said that Scarface is more symbolic than anything. There mere fact that an immigrant came to the shores of America with nothing just the shirt on his back. He took over the cocaine business from the clutches of a white man, stole the white man's woman and ran his operation better. Despite the vulgarity and violence the film gives hope to hopeless individuals meaning if he could do it any one of us can weather you are from the hood, a poor country or the suburbs. It's not so much what he did but the way he did it and that idealology had been adapted and upheld by the new generation. But many other more influential people have inspired us, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or former President Kennedy so why have we chosen to put Scarface amongst people who have fought to inspire us in a positive way? Is the new generation that desperate for inspiration to adapt a fictional violent character? Purchasing clothing, footwear and reciting lyrics that pertain to Scarface suggest that yes the new generation is desperate for inspiration. Desperate to identify with a figure that represents their way of life, thinking and personality. The current generations have more access to drugs, firearms and are more ignored than all of the past generations combined sending them into an independent destructive mind state and I think Scarface represents that. An individual is born into poverty but dreams of having something better is common amongst the newer generation and to have someone gain everything through drugs and violence makes it that much more appealing. Since drugs are flooding our urban streets already it makes hoods a breedingh ground for copycat Scarfaces.

I personally find it disturbing that our generation feels that way. On Rick Ross' 2006 album release "Port Of Miami" he makes numerous references to Scarface especially on his chart topping song "Push It", the song "Push It" is referring to selling/distributing cocaine, even taking in
Scarfaces' message of coming from nothing and gaining everything. The song says, "Allergic to broke, determined to blow, on the boat hid the work in detergent and soap. We get it shipped from Haiti…" It's to the point that when someone does something especially violent they are referred to Scarface and it has become sort of a rite of passage in the hood. Street credibility goes up and you become untouchable. But seriously, is it that serious? I find it extremely ignorant that all these young black guys are mimicking and idolizing a person who in that time was racist toward African American's. Not just Scarface, but Capone, Noregga, Gotti and etc. They are taking on their names as rap artist, glorifying the movie and shadowing these individuals who in their day would kill you without blinking just because you were black. Now how much sense does that make? Scarface is put on the plateau as if he is a god and he was nothing more than a common criminal. A murderer, a cocaine dealer and an over jealous brother and yet black boys and men around the country idolize him, quote him and even wear apparel and footwear with his design and logos on it. Can a movie spark a generation like that? And the world's number 1 footwear company leeches off the miseducation and ignorance of our inner city youth. Rappers such as Rick Ross are making millions off rapping as if he is the 2006 Scarface and the problem is I bet he's never even been around cocaine before. The even bigger problem is while he's perpetrating about selling drugs there are actual people listening to these lyrics and watching this movie and are in the streets trying to do the same thing. Reality is these followers are getting murdered, becoming murders and are going to prison for lengthy times all because rappers, designers and movie studios are selling this idea that selling drugs and murder are cool. Scarface had the world in the palm of his hands for a few years then died violently at the very hands of the people he worked with. Wake up people! Does that sound cool or appealing to you? Please tell me, what is the big deal?