The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather (1972)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Synopsis

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino) steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

Male Deaths

• Rudy Bond [Carmine Cuneo]
• Marlon Brando [Don Vito Corleone]
• James Caan [Santino "Sonny" Corleone]
• Richard Conte [Emilio Barzini]
• Don Costello [Victor Stracci]
• Tony Giorgio [Bruno Tattaglia]
• Sterling Hayden [Captain Mark McCluskey]
• Angelo Infanti [Fabrizio]
• Al Lettieri [Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo]
• John Martino [Paulie Gatto]
• Lenny Montana [Luca Brasi]
• Victor Rendina [Philip Tattaglia]
• Alex Rocco [Moe Greene]
• Gianni Russo [Carlo Rizzi]
• Abe Vigoda [Salvatore Tessio]

Female Deaths

• Simonetta Stefanelli [Apollonia Vitelli]

Gallery

Lenny Montana

John Martino

Al Lettieri

Sterling Hayden

James Caan

Simonetta Stefanelli

Marlon Brando

Don Costello

Alex Rocco

Rudy Bond

Victor Rendina

Richard Conte

Abe Vigoda

Gianni Russo

Trivia

1. Whenever oranges appear in the film, they foreshadow death or a near death involving the Corleone family.
2. According to Francis Ford Coppola, the film took sixty-two days to shoot.
3. Marlon Brando wanted to make Don Corleone "look like a bulldog", so he stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool for the audition. For the 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.
4. According to Al Pacino, the tears in Marlon Brando's eyes were real, in the hospital scene when Michael pledges himself to his father.
5. Lenny Montana (Luca Brasi) was so nervous about working with Marlon Brando that in the first take of their scene together, he flubbed some lines. Director Francis Ford Coppola liked the genuine nervousness and used it in the final cut. The scenes of Luca practicing his speech were added later.
6. James Caan improvised the part where he throws the F.B.I. photographer to the ground. The actor's frightened reaction is genuine. Caan also came up with the idea of throwing money at the man to make up for breaking his camera. As he put it, "Where I came from, you broke something, you replaced it or repaid the owner."
7. Richard S. Castellano ad-libbed the line "Leave the gun, take the cannoli."
8. Don Vito Corleone's distinctive voice was based on real-life mobster Frank Costello. Marlon Brando had seen him on television during the Estes Kefauver hearings in 1951, and imitated his husky whisper in the film.
9. Al Pacino boycotted the Academy Awards ceremony, angry that he was nominated for the Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscar, noting that his character had more screentime than his co-star, Best Actor winner Marlon Brando.
10. Stanley Kubrick thought the film had the best cast ever and could be the best movie ever made.