ByOliver Nowell

Contents

Basic Information

Other Information

The Plot

Production

Filming

Music

Francis Ford Coppola

Albert S. Ruddy

The Godfather Part II

The Godfather Part III

The Godfather Games

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Basic InformationDirector – Francis Ford Coppola

Producer – Albert S. Ruddy

Screenplay – Mario Puzo & Francis Ford Coppola

Based On – The Godfather by Mario Puzo

Main Stars – Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan & Richard S. Castellano

Music – Nino Rota & Carmine Coppola

Cinematographer – Gordon Willis

Editors – William H. Reynolds & Peter Zinner

Studio – Alfran Productions

Distributed by – Paramount Pictures

Release Date – March 15 1972

Run Time – 175 minutes

Budget - $6.5 million (approx. £4100000)

Box Office - $268,500,000 (approx. £170,000,000

Contents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather

Other Information The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film directed

by Francis Ford Coppala and produced by Albert S. Ruddy

The Godfather is widely regarded as one of the greatest films in world cinema and as one of the most influential

especially in the gangster genre

The film was for a time the highest grossing movie of all time, and remains the box office leader for 1972. It won

three Oscars that year, one for best picture, for best actor (Marlon Brando) and best adapted screenplay for

Puzo and Coppola.

Contents

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The Plot

Vito Corleone is the aging don (head) of the Corleone Mafia Family. His youngest son Michael has returned from WWII just in time to see the wedding of Connie Corleone (Michael's sister) to Carlo Rizzi. All of

Michael's family is involved with the Mafia, but Michael just wants to live a normal life. Drug dealer Virgil Sollozzo is looking for Mafia Families to

offer him protection in exchange for a profit of the drug money. He approaches Don Corleone about it, but, much against the advice of the

Don's lawyer Tom Hagen, the Don is morally against the use of drugs, and turns down the offer. This does not please Sollozzo, who has the Don shot

down by some of his hit men. The Don barely survives, which leads his son Michael to begin a violent mob war against Sollozzo and tears the

Corleone family apart.

Written By TheElfstonehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/plotsummary

Contents

ProductionCoppola was not Paramount Pictures' first choice to direct ‘The Godfather’. Italian director Sergio Leone was offered the job first but he declined in order to direct his own gangster film, ‘Once Upon A Time In America’, which focused on Jewish-American gangsters. Peter Bogdanovic was then approached but he also declined the offer and made ‘What’s Up Doc?’ instead. According to Robert Evans (head of Paramount at the time), Coppola initially did not want to direct the film because he feared it would glorify the Mafia and violence, which would reflect poorly on his Sicilian and Italian heritage. On the other hand, Evans specifically wanted an Italian-American to direct the film because his research had shown that previous films about the Mafia that were directed by non-Italians had not been that successful at the box office and he wanted to, in his own words, "smell the spaghetti".

There was intense friction between Coppola and Paramount, and several times Coppola was almost replaced (as early as the first week). Coppola was nearly fired when Pacino was badly injured, delaying production. Paramount maintains that its scepticism was due to a rocky start to production, though Coppola believes that the first week went extremely well. The studio thought that Coppola failed to stay on schedule, frequently making production and casting errors!

Paramount was in financial trouble at the time of production and was desperate for a "big hit" to boost business, hence the pressure Coppola faced during filming. They wanted The Godfather to appeal to a wide audience and threatened Coppola with a "violence coach" to make the film more exciting. Coppola added a few more violent scenes to keep the studio happy.

The film was originally budgeted for $2 million, and was scripted as a modern adaptation. However, when Coppola got his hands on the script, he was adamant that it be set in the same time period as the book, from 1945 to 1955.

Contents

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Filming

Sonny's death scene was inspired by the 1967 film ‘Bonnie and Clyde’.

Most of the filming took place from March 29, 1971 to August 6, 1971, although a scene with Pacino and Keaton was shot in the autumn. There were a total of 77 days of shooting, even though the production had budgeted for 83 days of shooting.

The opening shot is a long, slow pullback, starting with a close-up of Bonasera, who is petitioning Don Corleone, and ending with the Godfather, seen from behind. This move which lasts for about three minutes was shot with a computer-controlled zoom lens designed by Tony Karp.

The scene of Michael driving with McCluskey and Sollozzo avoided the cost of back-projection. Instead, technicians moved lights behind the car to create the illusion.

The cat in the opening scene used to hang around the studio, and was simply dropped in Brando's lap at the last minute by the director.

One of the movie's most shocking moments involved the real severed head of a horse. Animal rights groups protested the inclusion of the scene (Coppola including this scene in the film). Coppola later stated that the horse's head was delivered to him from a dog food company and that the horse had not been killed specifically for the movie. According to John Marley (who played Jack Woltz), his scream of horror was real as he was not informed that a real head was going to be used.

The most complicated shooting was the death of Sonny Corleone at the toll plaza. Inspired by the final scene in Bonnie and Clyde, James Caan's suit was rigged with 127 squibs of fake blood that exploded in a simulation of machine-gun hits (top left picture).

The scene in which Don Barzini is assassinated was filmed on the steps of the New York State Supreme Court building on Foley Square in Manhattan, New York City.

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MusicThe film's famous score was composed by Nino Rota. Francis Coppola's father Carmine Coppola contributed to the music performed in the film's wedding scene. Later, his son would call

on him to compose additional music for the score of ‘The Godfather Part II’ (1974) and most of the score for ‘The Godfather Part III’ (1990).

Track List

"Mall Wedding Sequence"(1972)

"I Have But One Heart"(1945)

"Luna mezz' 'o mare"(aka"Che La Luna")

"Manhattan Serenade"(1928)

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"(1944)

"Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"(1934)

"The Bells of St. Mary's"(1971)

"All Of My Life"(1944)

"Mona Lisa"(1950)

"Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor"(1706? - 1713?)

"Non so più"(1786)

"Brindisi (Libiamo ne' lieti calici)"(1853)

"This Loneliness"(1972)

"For He's a Jolly Good Fellow"

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather

Francis Ford CoppolaBorn – April 7 1939, Detroit, Michigan, United States

Nationality – American

Occupation – Film Director, Producer & Screenwriter

Spouse – Eleanor Jessie Neil

Children – Sofia, Roman & Gian-Carlo Coppola

Parents – Carmine Coppola & Coppola Italia

Other Family – Nicholas Cage (Nephew)

Career: Patton (1970) The Godfather (1972) The Conversation (1974) The Godfather Part II (1974) Apocalypse Now (1979) One from the Heart (1982) Hammett (1982) The Outsiders (1983) Rumble Fish (1983) The Cotton Club (1984) Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) Gardens of Stone (1987) Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) New York Stories (1989) The Godfather Part III (1990) And many more…

Contents

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Albert S. Ruddy

Albert S. Ruddy is a Canadian-born producer. Ruddy was born March 28, 1930 in Montreal and raised in New York City with his mother. Ruddy attended Brooklyn Technical High School before earning a scholarship to allow him to study chemical engineering at City College of New York. He graduated from the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California and then he worked in the construction industry on the East Coast.

Awards Won: 1973 Academy Award for Best Picture The Godfather

Clint Eastwood presented Ruddy with the Best Picture Oscar for The Godfather. Over 30 years later, Eastwood and Ruddy would share Best Picture Oscars as producers of Million Dollar Baby.

Nomination: 1983 Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture Megaforce Nomination: 1985 Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture Cannonball Run II Nomination: 1985 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay Cannonball Run II

(with Hal Needham, Harvey Miller) Won: 2005 Academy Award for Best Picture Million Dollar Baby

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The Godfather Part IIThe film was released in 1974 to great critical acclaim, some even deeming it superior to the original. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards. Its six Oscars included Best Director for Coppola, Best Supporting Actor for De Niro and Best Adapted Screenplay for Coppola and Puzo. Pacino won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Like its predecessor, the sequel remains a highly influential film in the gangster genre. It was ranked as the thirty-second greatest film in American cinematic history by the American Film Institute in 1997 and it kept its rank 10 years later. It was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1993.

A sequel, The Godfather Part III, was released 16 years later in 1990

Contents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather_Part_II

The Godfather Part III is a 1990 American crime film written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, and directed by Coppola. It completes the story of Michael Corleone, a Mafia kingpin who tries to legitimize his criminal empire. The movie also weaves into its plot a fictionalized account of real-life events—the 1978 death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal of 1981–1982—and links them with each other and with the affairs of Michael Corleone. The film stars Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and Andy Garcia, and features Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton, Bridget Fonda, and Sofia Coppola.

Coppola and Puzo originally wanted the title to be The Death of Michael Corleone. However, Paramount Pictures would not accept that title. Coppola states that The Godfather series is in fact two films, and Part III is the epilogue. Part III received mixed to positive reviews, grossed $136,766,062 and was nominated for seven Academy Awards.

The Godfather Part IIIContents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather_Part_III

Paramount Pictures converged with EA (Electronic Arts) to create two games linked with ‘The Godfather Part I & II’.

‘The Godfather’ The Game is an action/adventure game developed and published by Electronic Arts. It is the first video game in the Godfather series and based upon the 1972 film. Originally released in March 2006 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows, The Godfather has since been released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. A smaller variant of the game has also been published for the PSP (PlayStation Portable).

The game is notable in that it features the return of several actors from the original film to voice characters within the game. The participating actors are James Caan as Sonny Corleon, Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, John Martino as Paulie Gatto, and Abe Vigoda as Salvatore Tessio

The Godfather II is a 2009 video game based on The Godfather Part II. The game is published by Electronic Arts and was released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. This is also a sequel to The Godfather: The Game, which was also developed and published by EA in 2006. The game was released on April 7, 2009

The Godfather GamesContents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather:_The_Game

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