Five decades since it was released, The Godfather remains evergreen entertainment. When people say they don’t make them like they used to, this is the film they mean. The American Film Institute ranks it second (behind only Citizen Kane) in its list of Hollywood’s greatest releases, while many other organizations place it first. The motion picture — based on Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel of the same name — was widely successful, grossing $291 million at the box office and winning three out of seven nominated Oscars at the 45th Academy Awards. It also launched the careers of Coppola and Al Pacino while reinstating Marlon Brando among Hollywood’s elite after a few years of professional turmoil.
Interestingly, studio executives from Paramount Pictures had trouble finding someone to direct the movie. Several filmmakers were approached, namely Peter Bogdanovich, Arthur Penn, Peter Yates, Richard Brooks, Costa-Gavras, Franklin J. Schaffner, and Otto Preminger, but they all deemed it a waste of their time. Fresh off the success of the Dollars trilogy, Sergio Leone was also offered the position. At the time, there was no one more perfect for the job than him. He was Italian, and he understood what it took to make a gritty film revolving around lawbreakers. Despite his qualifications, he didn’t jump on the opportunity.
The Godfather’s Chaotic Production Process
The Godfather is a tasty meal, yet none of the chefs enjoyed cooking it. It’s the kind of film that would have easily languished in development hell had it been proposed in the modern impatient era. Interestingly, the studio bullied its production team into continuing their quixotic journey, despite extreme adversity, the lurking threat of getting fired, and an increasingly uncertain outcome.
Coppola, too, was initially skeptical about touching the script, describing the source material as cheap, sleazy, and sensational. Eventually, he chose to do it for the money. According to the director himself, he only took the job because his production company, American Zoetrope, owed Warner Bros. $400,000 for exceeding the budget of the movie THX 1138.
When he signed the contract, he found himself fighting with the studio about petty issues. Paramount felt the movie should only draw its inspiration from Puzo’s book, but transpose the action and characters to modern Kansas. Coppola disagreed. Paramount didn’t want Al Pacino either. Coppola disagreed. Struck by the actor’s raw talent, he pulled the “If he goes, I go” card.
So messy was the production process that members of Coppola’s team were even angling to get him fired. But like a smart mob boss, he pulled the trigger first. In the book, Godfather: The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola, he states:
“Like the godfather, I fired people as a preemptory strike. The people who were angling the most to have me fired, I had fired.”
The problems would extend beyond Coppola. Various reports indicate that the real-world mafia tried to interfere. The Italian-American Civil Rights League, led by the Colombo crime family boss, Joe Colombo, believed the film pushed Italian-American stereotypes, hence they demanded that all uses of the words “mafia” and “Cosa Nostra” to be removed.
As maybe a reminder of how seriously the mob took the matter, producer Albert S. Ruddy’s car was also shot at, prompting him to meet Colombo and give him assurances. On top of that, Marlon Brando almost never got the role, simply because the men in suits felt he was hard to work with. Thankfully, Coppola vouched for him and the rest is history.
Why Sergio Leone Turned Down The Godfather
When Sergio Leone was offered the chance to direct The Godfather, he was finishing up on his final Western, A Fistful of Dynamite, also known as, Duck, You Sucker! The fresh opportunity was perfect for him to prove he could do more than cowboy tricks, but he turned it down, claiming that the script and source material glorified the mafia too much.
Why not just tweak the screenplay to his liking? Well, that’s something the legendary filmmaker might have considered, if he didn’t have another project in mind. When the offer was made, Leone had started developing another mob movie based on Harry Grey‘s The Hoods. The project would eventually blossom into Once Upon a Time in America, about a decade later.
This was arguably not a wise decision. Once Upon a Time in America is good but nowhere near as revered as The Godfather. It has long been considered one of Leone’s lesser films, particularly by his fans. Admittedly, it falls short of the brilliance of his earlier masterpieces and the fact that it came out during one of the dullest decades for gangster movies, dates it and limits its overall appeal. Contrarily, no matter how many times you watch the Coppola flick, you cannot help but be awed by the sheer imaginative genius, the beauty of its design, and the saccharine nature of the story it tells about the irreconcilable skirmish between crime and daily life.
Like Coppola, Leone also had constant fights with the studio. Warner Bros reportedly trimmed the film from 269 minutes to 139 minutes for its US theatrical release, resulting in poor reviews and low box office numbers. The critically acclaimed director’s cut would later be released, but public interest had waned by then.
What Sergio Leone’s Godfather Might Have Looked Like
Close-ups, actors popping into scenes, long takes, the element of surprise, the theme of greed, great music, and great dialogue are some of the Sergio Leone trademarks that would have been infused into The Godfather. Still, many of these elements were employed by Coppola, so perhaps the movie wouldn’t have turned out too different.
The major differences likely would have been the score, the visual flair, and the faithfulness to the source material. Nino Rota, who composed for Federico Fellini and Nuno Visconti, did a great job in crafting appropriate melodies for the Corleone crime family’s adventures, but an Ennio Morricone score would have sounded a lot better. Leone’s pictures are also visually breathtaking, with vibrant colors cracking off the screen unlike movies half their age.
Lastly, all the novel’s themes likely would have made the transition to the screen intact, along with the background stories and lines of dialogue, perhaps making for a bulky film.
For Leone, directing The Godfather would have allowed him to do something he had never done before: exploring his homeland. Despite having been born and raised in Rome, none of the director’s films are set in Italy. In the mob movie, Michael Corleone flees to Sicily after killing the men who tried to whack his father, and it would have been nice to see Leone capturing the Italian landscape, tradition, and tranquility during this period.
Because the movie turned out just fine, no gangster genre fan will feel bad about this missed opportunity. There is the likelihood that the gangster flick might not have been as big as it became if Leone had made it. Francis Ford Coppola’s flaws might be as many as the heads in a megalopolis, but he sure did a good job. Stars like Al Pacino, James Caan, and John Cazale might not have emerged either, and because Leone died in 1989, The Godfather Part III might never have happened. Cheers to fate for taking its course.
The Godfather is available to stream on Paramount+
