“I always really treasured the times with the family and loved all of them very much ? and as the movies were made one after another, more and more ‘The Godfather’ became just kind of the biggest ‘home’ movie in history.”
–Francis Ford Coppola, director

Every few years there is an event in the entertainment industry that strikes us as so important, so crucial and necessary in our lives that we are willing to stand in line for hours — even days, in the case of “The Phantom Menace” and “The Seagull” — simply to experience it. A new release from The Wu-Tang Clan failed to meet this hype, as did George Lucas’ sophomoric prologue to “Star Wars,” and Kubrick’s dying masterpieces sidestepped hype with creepy ambiguity. Add “Survivor 2,” “Who Wants to Be a Princess” and Run-DMC’s “Crown Royal” to that list.

Now, nearly 30 years after the original and over a decade since its most recent sequel — more than enough time for bucketloads of hype to generate — the “Godfather” trilogy has been released on DVD. If ever the pesky nuisance that is hype has been nailed, it is now. Paying tribute to what has inarguably become the greatest trilogy of all time (George Lucas made that debate easy by tacking on an additional Star Wars movie), The Badger Herald takes an in-depth look at “The Godfather” trilogy and its recent DVD release.

“The Godfather” for Dummies

The Setup: Picture a family — three boys and a girl. The Corleones. The youngest, Michael, served in the Korean War and, if his mother has her way, he’ll be the president someday. The oldest boy, Sonny, fiery and tough as nails, got involved in the family business and some day he’ll take over. And the middle child, Fredo? We all think he was dropped on his head as a child — he ain’t too smart. And then there’s Connie, the whiny sister whom you should never, never underestimate — she’s about as manipulative as Grandma Soprano.

What’s the family business? It started as an olive oil company, but now it’s bigger ? much bigger. Gambling. Unions. Money laundering. Protection. Anything you can think of ? just not drugs.

Part I: So, Papa Corleone, Vito, comes to America and raises this wonderful family, and on the day of his only daughter’s wedding — a day when no Sicilian can deny a favor — they all come together for the first time in a long while. Soon Vito gets a proposal from Sollozzo, a shady Turkish drug dealer who wants the family’s help in funding his drug trade. In denying Sollozzo (remember, no drugs), the family gets engaged in a full-scale war and there is an attempt on the Don’s life, but five bullets in the back can’t take him down. So Michael kills Sollozzo and his police protection at a sit-down and flees to Italy for a while, where he gets married to the beautiful Appolonia (no, not the girl from “Purple Rain”), but she too gets assassinated in a fiery car explosion.

Back home, Sonny is set up and gets shot down at a tollbooth and Michael returns, only to see his father pass away peacefully, allowing him to take over. As his first act he has the five family heads and the man who set up Sonny (Connie’s husband) killed in a bloody finale. End part I ? (deep breath).

Part II: As Part II begins, Michael has gotten the family into the casino business in Las Vegas but he wants more and makes a push for involvement in Cuban tourism. But a stout old man named Hyman Roth gets involved, even making an attempt on Michael’s life, so Michael has him and everyone else standing in his way killed.

Enter the U.S. government, looking to take down Michael with his own people serving as informants. But Michael knows the value of family; he weasels his way out and takes care of the previous assassination attempt by killing the man who set him up — his brother Fredo.

Part III: So, as Part III begins, we have Michael, looking much older, but still running the family, much to the chagrin of new kid on the block Joey Zaza, who has beef with Michael’s nephew, Vincent Mancini — the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone.

Zaza makes an attempt on the lives of all the mob bosses from a machine gun-equipped helicopter, but fails, ultimately sealing his own fate and strengthening Michael’s hold as the supreme Godfather with all the other bosses gone.

Still, Michael has forever longed to get the family into legitimate business and out of the dirty stuff, so he makes a push to buy a large portion of the Vatican-owned Imobiliare — a global conglomerate that would pay the bills for Michael’s grandkids and his grandkids’ grandkids. If you’ve learned anything yet, you know the Corleones always get what they want ? and they do.

My two dads:

MICHAEL (Al Pacino)

“He wasn’t a star, which was not pleasing to the executives. He didn’t look like stars looked.”
— Don Roos, Producer

MEMORABLE QUOTE: “If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anyone.” — “The Godfather II”

COULDA BEEN: Martin Sheen, James Caan. Portions of both screen tests are included on the DVD bonus disk.

WHAT EVERYONE ELSE THOUGHT:

James Caan (Sonny): “They were not happy with Al’s tests. But I know Francis wanted Al ? and he kept sneaking Al in. They kept testing him.”

Francis Ford Coppola (Director): “I was told, ‘Cast Al Pacino because he undresses you with his eyes.'”

Pacino: “I was aware that they didn’t want me. At one point I thought: ‘Francis — look, we’ll do another movie together.’ While we were shooting, there were hints that I wasn’t wanted ? People were actually giggling when I’d go on camera.”

Talia Shire (Connie): “No one knew when you were going to get fired in the first one, so it was a matter of getting more footage in the can — keep shooting.”

VITO (Marlon Brando)

“As president of Paramount, Marlon Brando will not be in this movie.”
— ex-Paramount president to Coppola

“Johnny Fontane never gets that movie!”
— Jack Woltz, “The Godfather”

MEMORABLE QUOTE: “Do you spend time with your family? Good. Because a man that doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.” — “The Godfather”

COULDA BEEN: Anyone. Paramount execs were adamant about keeping Brando — Coppola’s first choice for Vito — out of the film because of the disastrous antics he was known to bring to a set.

SALARY: Although Brando claims he never got anything for his role in Part I — hence, he never returned — he reportedly received $50,000 for his six weeks of work and $300,000 for the 5 percent of the film’s ownership that he sold back to Paramount.

You’ve gotta see it for yourself: DVD features you have to see to believe

— Brando’s screen test: Tissue paper stuffed in his cheeks, false teeth protruding from his mouth and black shoe polish in his hair. Anyone alive to witness this scene had to know, this IS the Godfather,

— James Caan sarcastically laughing his way through a screen test for the part of Michael — not the role he wanted.

— James Caan and Robert Duvall, engaged in the “If-your-father-passes-away” scene, break into laughter as Duvall screams at Caan: “You started it!”

— In Part III, Vincent bites into Joey Zaza’s ear in a very operatic moment. But when Garcia bit on the first take, he missed his mark and here we see him come away with a whole prosthetic ear, not to mention a mouthful of hair. Mike Tyson, eat you heart out.

— James Caan’s Brando impression — almost as good as John Travolta’s.

— James Caan’s back. The restored version is so clear that the infamously hairy Caan looks like Sasquatch in a wife-beater.

See, it was supposed to happen this way ?

“The only thing that was sacred was what was in the can and if it wasn’t in the can it could change the next day ? With Francis, the script is like a newspaper — a new one comes out every day.”
— Andy Garcia

— The government official who gets stabbed to death in Part III with his own glasses was supposed to have his neck broken. On the set, it was decided he would get stabbed in the aorta with a pencil. “But I don’t want him to use a pencil,” Coppola complained. So, glasses it was. An NC-17 rating was imposed until the blood spray from the man’s neck was toned down.

— There’s a flashback scene in Part II at the dinner table that Brando was scheduled to appear in ? but he never showed up. Coppola rewrote the scene, making it into a surprise birthday party, allowing his presence to be felt, although never seen.

— Vito’s death scene was almost completely ad-libbed by Brando. Unsure of how the scene was going to play out and hoping to finish up soon, Brando stepped up and basically offered: “How’s this?” Brilliant, Marlon. Brilliant.

One more go at it?

“Paramount owns ‘The Godfather’ and it would be for them to go to Mario Puzo and to commission him to write (“The Godfather IV”) and they know that he would do it ? but they don’t make that offer.”
— Francis Ford Coppola

“I really hope there will be a ‘Godfather IV’ because I see it so clearly as something that would really, really work.”
— Mario Puzo (1920-1999)

The Trilogies Square Off: The Godfather Vs. Star Wars
The Spread
Boba Fett 5 Luca Brasi
Darth Vader EVEN Vito Corleone
Mafia _ The Dark Side
Jedi 35 U.S. Government
New York 3 A Galaxy Far, Far Away?
Coppola 5 Lucas
Lightsabers 7 Pistols
Tuxedos 21 Robes
Fredo EVEN Lando