There's a scene in You've Got Mail that I simply can't get out of my head. It's where Katherine Kelly (Meg Ryan) and Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) start talking about The Godfather.
Joe Fox: The Godfather is the sum of all wisdom. The Godfather is the answer to any question. What should I take on my vacation? Leave the gun, take the cannoli. What day is it? Maunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday. The answer to your problem is Go to the mattresses...
Now, I may be about 29 years too late in recommending this film for your weekend viewing, but it seems to me that there is really no other gangster flick in the history of cinema that matches up to The Godfather.
And yet while the film itself was being made, director Francis Ford Coppola was always under the threat of losing his job to someone else! Why, he even picked almost the entire cast of actors much to the chagrin of Paramount Studio, the makers of this classic epic.
Coppola takes us though the making of The Godfather through an audio commentary on a DVD that has been released for the very first time in India. Now, there are no other special features in this disc. But for those who believe that The Godfather is indeed, the I-Ching and the sum of all wisdom will be pleasantly surprised to know that there is a lot more from where it came.
Besides, of course, taking us through the technical aspects of filmmaking, Coppola also narrates the story behind The Godfather. And Coppola is a very accomplished storyteller.
Coppola jokes that The Godfather was a movie about a family made by a family. His father Carmine Coppola, a distinguished composer, conductor and arranger wrote the additional music for the film and also makes an appearance (complete with a gun) playing a piano in a particular shot. Carmine's wife also makes an appearance, as do the director's two sons, who play Tom Hagen's kids.
Coppola's sister Talia Shire plays Connie, daughter of the Corleone family and the infant Sofia, her son, who is being baptised at the end of the movie.
We are also told of the immense pressures Coppola had to face during the making of this film. Right from day one the casting was an issue as the studio turned down Coppola's choice of the two primary actors - Marlon Brando and Al Pacino.
The Studio wanted Laurence Olivier for Vito Corleone's role and Robert Redford or Ryan O'Neal to play Michael.
It seems Coppola had to fight tooth and nail to get them on board and even convinced Brando to agree to three rather humiliating conditions - to work on a lesser salary than his previous films, perform a screen-test and sign a bond agreeing that he would not cause a delay in the production (as he had done on previous films).
Brando went on to win the Academy Award that year but refused to accept it.
Interestingly the scene with Marlon Brando and Al Pacino (where the retiring Don advises his son) was written much later and shot almost towards the end of the schedule.Coppola speaks at great length and with much respect about the cinematographer - Godron Willis.
He tells us of the pragmatic man he was and his fixed traditional views of camera angles and how the two eventually began to understand and respect each other.
I could probably go on and on about the wealth of information that this DVD gives us. But the fact is that there is little else the disc has to offer. In fact the frontal nudity scene too has been cut thanks to the censor board.
Despite this however, The Godfather – available on Big Home Video – is a good DVD toad to your collection. It's something Joe Fox would switch to if he needed advice… it is, as he says, 'sum of all wisdom'.
Available on Big Home Video for Rs 499
Comments
0 comment