The Godfather Effect: Changing Hollywood, America, and Me

by Tom Santopietro

Overview

Fifty years and one billion dollars in gross box-office receipts after the initial release of The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola's masterful trilogy continues to fascinate viewers old and new. The Godfather Effect skillfully analyzes the reasons behind this ongoing global phenomenon. Packed with behind-the-scenes anecdotes from all three Godfather films, Tom Santopietro explores the historical origins of the Mob and why they thrived in America, how Italian-Americans are portrayed in the media, and how a saga of murderous gangsters captivated audiences around the globe. Laced with stories about Brando, Pacino, and Sinatra, and interwoven with a funny and poignant memoir about the author's own experiences growing up with an Italian name in an Anglo world of private schools and country clubs, The Godfather Effect is a book for film lovers, observers of American life, and Italians of all nationalities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493057160
Publisher:	Applause
Publication date:	03/01/2022
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	661,806
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Tom Santopietro is the author of Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters, The Sound of Music Story, Barbara Cook: Then and Now, The Importance of Being Barbra, Considering Doris Day (a New York Times Editor’s Choice), and Sinatra in Hollywood. A frequent media commentator and interviewer, he lectures on classic films, and over the past thirty years has managed more than two dozen Broadway shows.

Read an Excerpt

The Godfather Effect

Changing Hollywood, America, and Me

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By Tom Santopietro

Thomas Dunne Books

Copyright © 2012 Tom Santopietro
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9781250005137

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1     Don Vito in Hollywood

I am willing to sacrifice my best scene to make the film better … anything … I can always put it back. That’s the difference with life—you can’t put it back.
—FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

 
WHEN FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA arrived at Marlon Brando’s home in late 1970 to shoot a “makeup test” for the actor’s role as aging Mafia chieftain Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather, he had exactly one thing on his mind: how to conduct what amounted to a screen test without insulting the world famous Academy Award–winning actor. A legend at age forty-seven, the eccentric Brando had acquired a reputation for causing on-set difficulties and cost overruns, and with his recent films having tanked at the box office, no one at Paramount Pictures wanted a temperamental, box-office-poison has-been to play the role of “the godfather.” Time after time, Paramount Pictures executives had vehemently stated that Marlon Brando would never play the part. Never.
What those executives had not counted on, however, was the determination of Coppola himself. Along with his co-screenwriter Mario Puzo, whose 1969 novel had launched The Godfather tidal wave, Coppola had fixated on the idea of the brilliant, mercurial Brando in the title role, and nothing could persuade him to look elsewhere. Forget Burt Lancaster, Ernest Borgnine, Frank Sinatra, Anthony Quinn, and every other Hollywood star who had expressed an interest in the role. For Francis Ford Coppola, budding auteur, only one actor could fulfill the complex requirements of the role. Now he just had to find a way to finesse the test, so that the most acclaimed film actor of the past thirty years did not realize that he was being screen-tested for the consideration of Paramount Pictures executives.
It was actually co-screenwriter Puzo who had originated the idea of casting Brando by sending the actor a handwritten letter couched in the most flattering of terms: “I think you’re the only actor who can play the Godfather with that quiet force and irony the part requires.” Don Vito Corleone would appear on-screen for only one-third of the movie, but Puzo inherently understood that an actor of Brando’s strength, one who could dominate scenes and cast a presence over the entire film, would prove crucial for sustaining mood and texture throughout.
The battle over Brando—upstarts Coppola and Puzo pitted against the collective corporate weight of Paramount Pictures and its parent company Gulf&Western—had dragged on for months. Even when Paramount studio head Stanley Jaffe reluctantly agreed to consider Brando for the role (this after he had already told Coppola: “As president of this company, I say that you are not allowed to even discuss the option of Brando anymore”) he set forth a trio of potential deal killers :
1. Brando would not receive any up-front salary.
2. Financial responsibility for any delays caused by the actor’s behavior would remain his alone.
3. Regardless of having won an Academy Award and starred in no fewer than twenty-six films, Brando would have to screen-test for the role.
It was with these daunting preexisting conditions in mind that director Coppola, who admitted to being “scared shitless” of Brando, now found himself driving up to the privacy-conscious actor’s home. The camouflaged entrance from the road, designed to deter overzealous fans, seemed almost symbolic of the torturous path toward production which lay ahead, and as the director arrived at Brando’s front door, one question loomed ever larger: how best to wrangle a screen test out of the film legend without inducing a temperamental explosion?
Having set up the filming with Brando by telling him that he simply wanted to test equipment and “get a take” on the character of Don Vito, Coppola was granted an unexpected gift when the actor himself allowed as how a brief video in makeup would help allay his fears over his suitability for the role of an elderly Italian man. (In later years, Brando would claim he knew all along that he was auditioning.) But—and it was a big but—a test ostensibly made for Brando’s own reassurance or to check the makeup he envisioned for the role did not necessarily resemble a screen test suitable to win over studio executives already searching for reasons to summarily reject the actor. With all of these problems running through his mind, the still relatively unknown Coppola stepped through the front door of the legend’s home and began work.
Cerebral yet highly intuitive, Coppola instinctively understood the necessity for underplaying all elements related to the “test.” Knowing the actor’s penchant for privacy and quiet, Coppola had brought along only a skeletal crew. Setting out a cigar and a few props of Italian food in order to inject a bit of proper ambience, the director silently watched as the kimono-clad Brando began stuffing tissues in his mouth to achieve the look and sound he envisioned for Don Vito. Conceptualizing the godfather as a “bulldog,” Brando used the tissues to accentuate both a thrusting jaw and a hoarse speaking voice capable of suggesting the effects of aging. Pulling back his long dark-blond hair and applying shoe polish to darken his hair and suggest a moustache, Brando began his metamorphosis into Don Vito Corleone. Rolling back the collar of the white shirt Coppola had brought along (said Brando: “You know those guys, the collar is always bent”) and speaking in the gravelly register he felt accurate for a mobster he decided had been shot in the throat, the actor began to move around his home, adjusting his body language, fingering props, and falling deeper into character. Coppola was hooked—or perhaps more accurately—instantly felt vindicated by his choice. Here, in the flesh, stood Don Vito Corleone, just as the director had visualized. Only bigger and better, already a recognizably complex human being.
When the completed test was replayed, even Brando himself, often his own harshest critic, was pleased with the results, feeling that he had successfully captured the look of the aging mafioso—“mean-looking, but warm underneath.” Now Coppola had to convince the Paramount studio executives to acquiesce to his artistic vision. With nary a hit to his credit—previous directorial efforts Dementia 13, You’re a Big Boy Now, Finian’s Rainbow, and The Rain People had all flopped in the one area that mattered to studios, the box office—Coppola faced a decidedly uphill task. What he had going for him, however, was a bulldog tenacity at least the equal of Don Vito’s own, a nearly frightening intensity of belief in his own correctness, and for all of his cerebral nature, a certain street cunning and directorial intuition that allowed him to unveil the screen tests in precisely the fashion that showcased Brando to maximum effect.
When the time came to show the “makeup test” to studio head Stanley Jaffe and production chief Robert Evans, Coppola and the film’s producer, Al Ruddy (who came to call the test “the miracle on Mulholland”), cannily placed Brando’s test in the middle of others, thereby heightening its impact. Duly pleased as Evans and Jaffe were—Evans reportedly asked, “He looks Italian—fine. But who is he?”—it was the reaction of the formidable Austrian-born Gulf&Western chairman Charles Bluhdorn that assured Brando’s casting. After sitting through the test, Bluhdorn bluntly barked: “Who are ve vatching? Who is dis old guinea?” When told it was Brando, an amused and impressed Bluhdorn signed off on the casting. In Coppola’s slightly different yet equally compelling version of that same screening, Bluhdorn “backed away” when he saw it was Brando, but after watching the actor’s metamorphosis into Don Corleone, grunted “that’s amazing” and approved the casting.
Brando in place, further casting continued, and shooting finally began on March 8, 1971. Such was the anticipation of Brando’s performance that in the blitz of publicity undertaken before the film’s March 1972 release, Paramount heightened the stakes even further by purposely withholding photographs of the actor in costume and makeup. The studio knew they had a surefire object of audience interest on their hands: here was the world’s most famous actor playing a murderous mobster already familiar to millions of readers worldwide. What they didn’t know was how the audience would actually react once they sat through the three-hour film.
Upon the film’s release, the answer came instantly, in the form of nearly unanimous rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. Coppola and company had created the rarest of species, a truly adult blockbuster film; such was the power of Brando’s portrayal that, when combined with the golden-hued cinematography, era-evocative production design, and haunting music, viewers across the nation completely capitulated. They didn’t just like the film, they embraced it with a fervor that spoke of a desire to enter the very world of the Corleones—to become guests themselves at Connie Corleone’s wedding reception. Suddenly, mobsters or not, Italians were no longer caricatures worthy of derision. They were figures fit for admiration.
Within days of the film’s release, comedians, talk-show hosts, and even politicians were not just talking about the film—they were imitating Brando. Jaws thrust forward, voices lowered to bullfrog register, and incessantly repeating the words “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse” until it grew into an instantly recognizable catchphrase, citizens nationwide were already channeling their own version of Don Corleone. Poking fun out of both affection and approval, audiences surrendered to their own visceral reaction; here was a character they found frightening, admirable, and—dare they admit it—reflective of their own innermost fears and desires. In the figure of a Mafia don, Italian-Americans had suddenly gone mainstream.
With this one film, notions of ethnicity in America had been upended in rather spectacular fashion. Mobsters these characters may have been, but in their proud self-assertion, celebration of ethnicity, and love of family lay complex, readily identifiable human beings. For the very first time, Italian-Americans were not just embracing their own story but telling it on their own terms. In the wake of The Godfather’s release, it seemed as if the popular Italian-American aphorism might just be true—there did indeed now seem to exist two types of people in the world: Italians and those who wanted to be Italian.
The lasting effect of The Godfather ran even deeper, however, because in detailing the saga of the Corleones, author and screenwriter Puzo was examining nothing less than the state of America. His vision filled with an understanding of the fundamental contradictions inherent in all human beings, Puzo’s singular achievement lay in his ability to celebrate the virtues of the Italian family while never losing sight of the tragedy lying at the heart of The Godfather and America alike. What Puzo and screenwriter/director Coppola delivered—brilliantly—was nothing less than a disquisition on the madness, glory, and failure of the American dream. In exploring that dream in distinctly Italian-American terms, they succeeded in delivering nothing less than the Italianization of American culture.
Even to those who never particularly cared to be Italian. Especially to those who had never cared to be Italian.
Like me.

 
Copyright © 2012 by Tom Santopietro


Continues...

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Excerpted from The Godfather Effect by Tom Santopietro Copyright © 2012 by Tom Santopietro. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

1 Don Vito in Hollywood 1

2 Spring 1992 9

3 Ancestral Voices 15

4 From La Via Vecchia to L'America 39

5 The Lure of the Corleones 69

6 Forefathers on Film 97

7 Godfather Cinema 111

8 Frank Sinatra 153

9 La Famiglia (di Santopietro, Corleone, e Coppola) 169

10 The Godfather: Part II 193

11 Patriarchy 205

12 Religion, Death, and Grief 229

13 The Godfather: Part III 243

14 The Shadow of The Godfather 259

15 Godfather: Part IV? 277

16 March 3, 1902 281

Acknowledgments 287

Notes 289

Bibliography 307

Index 311

Editorial Reviews

Slickly told... it's the connections with family that give it a center as sweet as cannoli cream.” ―Newsday

“Slickly told... it's the connections with family that give it a center as sweet as cannoli cream.” ―Newsday

“Engaging...slick...entertaining” ―Kirkus Reviews

“A fascinating, great read” ―Patti LuPone

From the Publisher

Through the lens of the influential Godfather trilogy, Santopietro (Sinatra in Hollywood) examines the impact of the films on American culture and on his own life in this hit-and-miss exploration of what it means to be Italian. While personal reflections often make film studies more nuanced, Santopietro shifts awkwardly between the history of the first Godfather film—from Coppola’s battles with Paramount to his wooing of the notoriously difficult Marlon Brando—and his own family’s immigrant saga, beginning with his grandparents. The connection Santopietro feels to the films is poignantly depicted, as are the correlations he draws visually between Corleone family events and those from his childhood, particularly Sunday dinners with the extended family, and young Don Vito’s visions of Little Italy in the early 20th century and the grocery store owned by Santopietro’s grandparents. The larger cultural ideas he tries to weave together—the nature of “Italian-ness” and the impact of the trilogy on the gangster film (and later television) genre—aren’t always cohesive, owing in large part to a lack of an overarching organizational structure. The history of the films’ production can’t help being fascinating, as contentious stories from Hollywood always are, from casting battles (Brando was at the bottom of the studio’s list) to the reasons for Godfather III’s critical panning. But readers looking for an integration of the personal and the cinematic as seamless as Coppola’s undeniable masterpiece may be disappointed. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Santopietro (Sinatra in Hollywood; The Importance of Being Barbra) presents a mélange of personal family memoir, Mafia/Sicilian history, study of the assimilation of Italians in America, and analysis of The Godfather, both the best-selling novel by Mario Puzo and the iconic film trilogy. Raised in a religiously mixed upper-middle-class family in Connecticut, the author was largely uninterested in his family's Italian heritage until the success of Francis Coppola's cinema epic and its two sequels. Although Santopietro possibly elevates The Godfather phenomenon to too exalted a place in the fabric of American culture, he makes thought-provoking observations. Among them is the comparison of the Corleone clan's criminal activities to the excesses of capitalism and Nixon-era governance. Frank Sinatra, whom Santopietro admires as an example of a premier Italian American success story, rates a chapter of his own. VERDICT Although this book is hard to place within any one particular genre, Santopietro's lively writing and occasional insights make it a worthwhile read for general audiences and film buffs.—Roy Liebman, Los Angeles P.L.

Library Journal

Amusing fusion of memoir and cultural critique, focusing on the family saga none of us could refuse. Broadway theater manager Santopietro (Sinatra in Hollywood, 2008, etc.) asserts that with the 1972 release of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, "notions of ethnicity in America had been upended in rather spectacular fashion" especially for young Italian-Americans who felt conflicted about many aspects of their heritage, including a stifling emphasis on family ties, love for America paired with distrust of authority and, of course, a convenient stereotype of pervasive criminal involvement. The author claims that it was his early viewings of the film and its sequels that revealed to him "just what had transpired in my grandfather's leap to L'America," allowing him to transition into a family history in which his grandparents settled in Waterbury, Conn., around 1917, where the effects of anti-immigrant prejudice were evident despite the Italian community's established local roots. Since his most of his mother's family were locally prominent WASPs, this resulted in an embarrassed confusion regarding his upbringing and inner identity. His narrative shifts between this personal history and an examination of the production and impact of the three Godfather films. He discusses many intriguing aspects of the original production, including studio resistance to Coppola and the actors Al Pacino and Marlon Brando (their indelible performances notwithstanding), and the long-rumored presence of actual mobsters on the set. He also explores other relevant cultural tangents, such as the many shoddy pastiches of mob culture (and some good ones, like The Sopranos) and the transformative impact of unapologetic paisano Frank Sinatra. The writing is slick, and most engaging when Santopietro looks back nostalgically at his personal history, but many of the observations drawn about the Godfather trilogy's effect on American society since then seem familiar. An entertaining but slight merger of social and personal history, via the lens of popular culture.

Kirkus Reviews