Matt Ott - Final Project

The Godfather: The Birth

The Godfather: The Legacy

Gangster films have always been an acquired taste for me. That all changed when I started watching HBO’s Sopranos, it engaged me in a way that I thought to be realistic and lively, it made this world real. Sopranos gave me a sense to actually watch The Godfather in a new light. I had previously seen it here and there on television, never really taking note of what is what and who is who, it seemed mildly entertaining but until it was shown in class I couldn’t bring myself to sit down and watch it.

Before I had seen The Godfather I had sat down, not knowing what to expect, and watched The Kid Stays in the Picture. This movie was about Robert Evans, actually narrated by Evans himself. The movie was hard to stomach at the times of his own self infatuation, but gems emerged as he talked about his workings as head of production at Paramount and the movies he created with them. Evans was promoted from vice president in charge of production to executive vice president, he was a powerful man (Cook, 305). Evans played a part in the making of such films as The Odd Couple, Italian Job, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Godfather. His talking’s about The Godfather left me quite astounded, as he made it sound as if the whole world was against him in his journey to make the film. He portrayed Coppola as a raging lunatic, crazed and power-hungry. This really sparked my interest is how such a highly acclaimed movie such as The Godfather was be made with so much drama. Luckily after seeing The Godfather I went out and got a copy of the DVDs so that I could watch the special features. Coppola seems to be a genius film maker, I took so much out of his process, the way in which he would break down a scene, work it together and work with the core text which was originally a novel so greatly it was really inspiring. He wrote the script with Mario Puzo, the original writer of the novel, which I think is amazing for a check and balance to make sure you are getting the right details down that are important.

For my first video, The Godfather: The Birth, I wanted to capture the entire conception of The Godfather. We know Al Pacino is the star, we know Marlon Brando is the god of acting, but we rarely get to share the people that put the passion beyond the delivery of lines into the film. I loved Evans for his bluntness and mildly ignorant attitude. I really enjoyed the way he just snapped on anyone and everyone because he thought he could, namely Coppola because then when you actually see those two pieces together you see what they were working for and how much they really just loved the project they were trying to accomplish together (as much as they may have hated each other at the time). I thought this was a good place to start, the birth, the reason this picture was made and the struggles it went through to become one of the most acclaimed films ever.

In an article in Rolling Stone, Sopranos creator David Chase says “In The Godfather, there's this idea that it's not personal, it's business. But in The Sopranos it's all personal, (it) never feels like it's just business.” Though despite that disconnect between these two works, I think there were a lot of similarities, throughout The Godfather I saw The Sopranos. What I really wanted to do was take something like Sopranos, which I think has greatly influenced me as for what I would like to do as a film maker, and put it up against what it had drew from, its inspirations, and then maybe through this I could develop a deeper relationship with both of these works of art.

The first two clips presented in The Godfather: The Legacy to me shows the idolization of what an early Sopranos wanted to evoke. I really love the fact that Tony uses Silvio’s impression of such a classic moment in Part III to cheer him up, it is such a great nod that it was easy for me to get it to flow so seamlessly together. The whole Luca Brasi scene is also awesome. The best part about Christopher, the one that says “Louis Brasi” is that he is the shows film buff; he idolizes The Godfather throughout the show. He even eventually becomes a writer and producer, and because he feels so strongly about gangster movies he makes his own, The Clever. “Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes” has become a classic line that will not die, and The Sopranos does it part in keeping it alive.

Oranges and death, this is the most interesting connection I have found between The Sopranos and The Godfather. What I did for the assassination attempts on Vito and Tony was cut them together in a way that I thought really brought meaning to their differing and shared styles. This was not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be, but I really think it is the perfect closing to The Legacy. Oranges seem to in some way signify death; you can see Vito buying oranges right before the attempt on his life while Tony buys up a bottle of orange juice. The way these scenes flow together leave me to believe that this is not a coincidence; The Sopranos are directly paying homage to The Godfather. The story of the wicked orange continues, Tony is seen in the last episode in the safe house eating an orange, just as Vito is eating an orange right before he dies. Now this might speak to the open ending us Sopranos fans were left, with the curse of the orange, maybe Tony really did die (The Sopranos, Wikipedia.com).

For a trilogy started in 1972 it is awe-inspiring to know that even through the hardship of making the movie, something so spectacular can come out that will be idolized even today.

Bibliography:

Cook, David A. lost Illusions. Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. 305

Dana, Will. "Godfather." Rolling Stone. 23 March 2006: 34-34.

The Godfather: DVD Collection. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Paramount, 2001. DVD.

The Kids Stays in the Picture. Dir. Nanette Burstein. Highway Films, 2002. DVD.