Godfather

by Gene D. Phillips

  20. Goodwin and Wise, On the Edge, p. 197; see Pollock, George Lucas, p. 99.

  21. Pollock, George Lucas, p. 92.

  22. Biskind, Easy Riders, p. 100. Pollock dates this meeting in November 1969, which is impossible since THX 1138 was shot in 1969 and edited in 1970, at which point the rough cut was prepared for Warners-Seven (see Pollock, George Lucas, p. 99).

  23. Goodwin and Wise, On the Edge, p. 104.

  24. Pye and Myles, Movie Brats, p. 89.

  25. Over the years the film facility that Coppola originally named American Zoetrope has undergone various kinds of reorganization with attendant variations of name (e.g., it was temporarily called Omni Zoetrope in the 1980s). For the sake of consistency and to avoid confusion, I shall refer to Coppola’s production company as American Zoetrope throughout this book, especially since that has become the permanent name.

  26. Schumacher, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 151.

  27. Gene Phillips, Creatures of Darkness: Raymond Chandler, Detective Fiction, and Film Noir (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2000), p. 199.

  28. Gelmis, Director as Superstar, pp. 189–90.

  29. Stone, Conversations with Filmmakers, p. 717.

  30. Ibid., p. 643.

  31. Anita Busch and Beth Lasker, “United We Stand: The Directors Company,” Premiere 15, no. 4 (2002): 36, 34.

  32. Bergan, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 44.

  33. Chaillet and Vincent, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 43.

  34. Goodwin and Wise, On the Edge, p. 151.

  35. Richard Blake, After Image: The Catholic Imagination of Six Filmmakers (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2000), p. 191.

  36. Foster Hirsch, Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir (New York: Limelight, 1994), p. 171.

  37. Pye and Myles, Movie Brats, p. 99.

  38. Goodwin and Wise, On the Edge, p. 158.

  39. Vincent LoBrutto, Sound on Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound (New York: Praeger, 1994), p. 91.

  40. David Edelstein, “Gene Hackman,” New York Times, 16 December 2001, sec. 2, p. 29.

  41. Bill Desowitz, “A Still Topical Conversation,” New York Times, 2 January 2001, sec. 2, p. 28.

  4. In a Savage Land

  1. Mario Puzo, The Godfather Papers (Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Crest, 1973), pp. 34–36.

  2. Robert Evans, Kid Stays in the Picture, pp. 223–24.

  3. Bernard Dick, Engulfed: The Death of Paramount Pictures and the Birth of Corporate Hollywood (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001), pp. 126–27.

  4. Evans, Kid Stays in the Picture, p. 225.

  5. Goodwin and Wise, On the Edge, p. 113.

  6. Marilyn Yaquinto, Pump ‘em Full of Lead: Gangsters on Film (New York: Twayne, 1998), p. 42.

  7. Biskind, Easy Riders, p. 143.

  8. Chown, Hollywood Auteur, p. 63.

  9. Puzo, Godfather Papers, p. 17.

  10. The DVD edition of the Godfather Trilogy has both a documentary about the making of the three films and an audio commentary track by Francis Coppola on each film. I will quote both the documentary (which includes interviews with cast and crew) and Coppola’s commentary in discussing the films. I will identify in each case which is the source of a given citation.

  11. Edward Rothstein, “Chilling Balance of Love and Evil,” New York Times, 3 March 1997, sec. 2, p. 26.

  12. Pauline Kael, For Keeps (New York: Penguin, 1996), p. 434.

  13. Puzo, Godfather Papers, pp. 42–43.

  14. Ibid., pp. 60–63. See also Chown, Hollywood Auteur, pp. 66, 80.

  15. Dick, Death of Paramount Pictures, p. 144.

  16. Johnson, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 99.

  17. Michael Sragow, “Godfatherhood,” New Yorker, 24 March 1997, p. 48. See also Schumacher, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 100.

  18. Puzo, Godfather Papers, p. 63.

  19. Ibid., pp. 60–63.

  20. Karen Durbin, “Nonstop Perfectionist: Al Pacino,” New York Times, 12 September 1999, sec. 2, p. 52. See also Lebo, Godfather Legacy, p. 107.

  21. Durbin, “Al Pacino,” sec. 2, p. 52.

  22. Schumacher, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 113. See also Schaefer and Salvato, Conversations, p. 188.

  23. Biskind, Easy Riders, p. 156.

  24. David Breskin, Inner Voices: Filmmakers in Conversation, rev. ed. (New York: Da Capo, 1997), pp. 41–42.

  25. Peter Biskind, The Godfather Companion (New York; Harper-Collins, 1990), p. 76. See also Biskind, Easy Riders, p. 157.

  26. Sragow, “Godfatherhood,” p. 49. See also Michael Sragow, “The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, “ in The A List: One Hundred Essential Films, ed. Jay Carr (New York: Da Capo, 2002), p. 128.

  27. Evans, Kid Stays in the Picture, pp. 230–31.

  28. Ibid., p. 232.

  29. Jon Lewis, “Francis Coppola, Paramount Studios, and the Godfather Trilogy,” in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather Trilogy, ed. Nick Browne (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 31. See also Lebo, Godfather Legacy, p. 122.

  30. Lebo, Godfather Legacy, pp. 105–6.

  31. Schumacher, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 114.

  32. Vincent LoBrutto, Selected Takes: Film Editors on Editing (New York: Praeger, 1991), p. 20. See Glenn Man, “Genre in the Godfather Films,” in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather Trilogy, ed. Nick Browne, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 115–16.

  33. Gene Siskel, “Celluloid Godfather,” Chicago Tribune, 5 October 1986, sec. 13, p. 5.

  34. Michael Jarrett, “Sound Doctrine: Walter Murch,” Film Quarterly 53, no. 3 (2000): 5.

  35. Durbin, “Al Pacino.”

  36. Lebo, Godfather Legacy, pp. 62, 165.

  37. Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo, “The Godfather: A Screenplay,” in Best American Screenplays Three, ed. Sam Thomas (New York: Crown, 1995), p. 54.

  38. Chaillet and Vincent, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 37. See also Lebo, Godfather Legacy, p. 170.

  39. Chaillet and Vincent, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 37.

  40. Ibid.

  41. Sragow, “Godfatherhood,” p. 51.

  42. Naomi Greene, “Family Ceremonies in the Godfather Trilogy,” in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather Trilogy, ed. Nick Browne (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 144.

  43. Kathleen Murphy, “Dancing on the High Wire: Al Pacino,” Film Comment 36, no. 2 (2001): 23.

  44. Lebo, Godfather Legacy, p. 190.

  45. Evans, Kid Stays in the Picture, p. xiv. See also Peter Bart, afterword to The Godfather by Mario Puzo (New York: Penguin, 2002), pp. 447ff.

  46. Evans, Kid Stays in the Picture, pp. 350–51.

  47. Biskind, Easy Riders, p. 159.

  48. See Julie Salamon, “A Hollywood Used-to-Be,” New York Times, 28 July 2002, sec. 2, p. 22.

  49. John McCarty, Hollywood Gangland: The Movies’ Love Affair with the Mob (New York: St. Martin Press, 1993), p. 188. See also Jack Shadoian, Dreams and Dead Ends: The American Gangster Film, rev. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 271.

  50. Andrew Dickos, Street with No Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir (University Press of Kentucky, 2002), pp. 114–15.

  51. Kael, For Keeps, p. 439.

  52. Johnson, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 98.

  53. John Cawelti, Adventure, Mystery, and Romance: Formula Stories as Art and Popular Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), p. 53. See also Richard Combs, “Coppola’s Family Plot,” Film Comment 38, no. 2 (2002): 42.

  54. William Pechter, “Keeping Up with the Corleones,” in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather Trilogy, ed. Nick Browne (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 168.

  55. Johnson, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 125.

  5. Decline and Fall

  1. Chaillet and Vincent, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 49. See also Biskind, Easy Riders, p. 182.

  2. Biskind, Easy Riders, p. 181; Evans refers to his substance abuse in Kid Stays in the Picture, p. 269.

  3. Chaillet and Vincent, Francis Ford Copp
ola, p. 49.

  4. Chown, Hollywood Auteur, p. 107.

  5. Goodwin and Wise, On the Edge, p. 162.

  6. Bergan, Francis Ford Coppola, pp. 48,163.

  7. Mario Puzo, The Godfather (New York: Penguin, 2002), pp. 194–228.

  8. Chown, Hollywood Auteur, p. 102.

  9. Vincent LoBrutto, Principal Photography: Interviews with Cinematographers (New York: Praeger, 1999), p. 26. See Schaefer and Salvato, Conversations, p. 228.

  10. Lebo, Godfather Legacy, p. 228.

  11. Biskind, Easy Riders, p. 261.

  12. Goodwin and Wise, On the Edge, p. 181.

  13. Richard Combs, “Coppola’s Family Plot,” p. 44.

  14. Biskind, Easy Riders, p. 274.

  15. Stone, Conversations with Filmmakers, p. 644.

  16. Schumacher, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 178.

  17. Goodwin and Wise, On the Edge, p. 180.

  18. Kael, For Keeps, p. 596.

  19. Yaquinto, Pump ‘em Full of Lead, p. 135.

  20. Pye and Myles, Movie Brats, p. 106.

  21. Allesandro Camon, “ The Godfather and the Mythology of Mafia,” in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather Trilogy, ed. Nick Browne (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 69.

  22. See John Yates, “Godfather Saga: The Death of Family,” in Movies as Artifacts: Cultural Criticism of Popular Film, ed. Michael Marsden, John Nachbar, and Sam Grogg (Chicago: Nelson Hall, 1982), pp. 202ff.

  23. Kael, For Keeps, p. 595.

  24. Cited by Naomi Greene, “Family Ceremonies,” p. 150.

  25. Nick Browne, “Violence as History in the Godfather Films,” in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather Trilogy, ed. Nick Browne (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 14. See also Glenn Mann, “Ideology and Genre in the Godfather Films,” in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather Trilogy, ed. Nick Browne (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 121.

  26. Lebo, Godfather Legacy, p. 216.

  27. Yaquinto, Pump ‘em Full of Lead, p. 140.

  28. Johnson, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 155.

  29. Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo, “The Godfather-Part II: A Screenplay,” in Best American Screenplays Three, ed. Sam Thomas (New York: Crown, 1995) , pp. 112–13.

  30. Biskind, Godfather Companion, p. 114.

  31. Robert Warshow, “The Gangster as Tragic Hero,” in The Immediate Experience (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1962), p. 132.

  32. Biskind, Godfather Companion, p. 82.

  33. Kael, For Keeps, pp. 595, 600.

  34. A. O. Scott, “Seen This Guy Lately?: Al Pacino,” New York Times, 20 April 2003, sec. 2, p. 11.

  35. Oldham, Conversations with Film Editors, p. 337.

  36. Breskin, Filmmakers in Conversation, p. 31. See also Guy Garcia, “The Next Don?” American Film 15, no. 12 (1990): 27.

  37. Pauline Kael, Movie Love (New York: Plume, 1991), p. 309.

  38. See David Papke, “Francis Ford Coppola and the Popular Response to the Godfather Trilogy,” in Legal Realism: Movies as Legal Texts (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996), pp. 15–16.

  39. Breskin, Filmmakers in Conversation, p. 32.

  40. Cowie, Coppola, pp. 235–36. See also Biskind, Godfather Companion, p. 140.

  41. Stephanie Mansfield, “Andy Garcia,” GQ, December 1990, p. 332.

  42. Bergan, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 90.

  43. Cowie, Coppola, p. 235.

  44. Douglas Brode, Money, Women, and Guns: Crime Movies (New York: Carol, 1995), p. 172.

  45. Cowie, Coppola, p. 241.

  46. Dick, Death of Paramount Pictures, p. 146. See also Lewis, “Paramount Studios,” p. 51.

  47. Barbara Harrison, “Godfather-III,” Life, November 1990, p. 65.

  48. Biskind, Godfather Companion, p. 152.

  49. Mansfield, “Andy Garcia,” p. 341.

  50. Eleanor Coppola, “Further Notes,” in Projections Six: Filmmakers on Filmmaking, ed. John Boorman and Walter Donahue (London: Faber and Faber, 1996), p. 54.

  51. Jack Kroll, ”The Corleones Return,” Newsweek, 24 December 1990, p. 58. See also Garcia, “The Next Don?,” p. 27.

  52. See Kroll, “Corleones Return,” p. 61.

  53. William McDonald, “Thicker Than Water and Spilled by the Mob: The Godfather,” New York Times, 21 May 1995, sec. 2, p. 11.

  54. Richard Corliss, “Schemes and Dreams,” Time, 24 December 1990, p. 76.

  55. Eleanor Coppola, “Further Notes,” p. 61.

  56. Schumacher, Francis Ford Coppola, pp. 428–29.

  57. Lebo, Godfather Legacy, p. 253.

  58. Yaquinto, ,Pump ‘em Full of Lead, p. 168.

  6. The Unknown Soldiers

  1. Gallagher, Film Directors on Film Directing, p. 175.

  2. Peter Lev, American Films of the 1970s: Conflicting Visions (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000), pp. 118–20.

  3. Dale Pollock, George Lucas, pp. 128–29.

  4. Richard Thompson, “John Milius Interviewed,” Film Comment 12, no. 4 (1976): 15.

  5. Francis Ford Coppola, “Apocalypse Now: For the Record,” New York Times, 27 May 2001, sec. 2, p. 4.

  6. Karl French, On Apocalypse Now (New York: Bloomsbury, 1999), p. 163. See also Pye and Myles, Movie Brats, p. 111.

  7. Brooks Riley, “‘Heart’ Transplant,” Film Comment 15, no. 1 (1976): 26. Coppola states on the title page of his draft of the script: “Inspired by Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness.’”

  8. Goodwin and Wise, On the Edge, p. 196.

  9. French, On Apocalypse Now, pp. 109–10.

  10. John Milius, “Apocalypse Now,” unpublished screenplay (American Zoetrope, 1969), p. 2.

  11. Riley, “‘Heart’ Transplant,” p. 26.

  12. Tony Chiu, “Coppola’s Cinematic Apocalypse,” New York Times, 12 August 1979, sec. 2, p. 17.

  13. William Hagen,”‘Heart of Darkness’ and the Process of Apocalypse Now” Conradiana 13, no. 1 (1981): 49.

  14. Cowie, Coppola, p. 120.

  15. Linda Cahir, “Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ and Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now,” Literature/Film Quarterly 20, no. 3 (1992): 182–83.

  16. Francis Ford Coppola, “Apocalypse Now,” with John Milius, unpublished screenplay (United Artists, 1975), p. 5.

  17. Ibid., p. 150.

  18. Eleanor Coppola, Notes: On Apocalypse Now (New York: Limelight, 1995), p. 277.

  19. French, On Apocalypse Now, p. 123. See also Chaillet and Vincent, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 59.

  20. Jerry Ziesmer, Ready When You Are, Mr. Coppola, Mr. Spielberg, Mr. Crowe (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2000), p. 195. See also Lawrence Suid, “Hollywood and Vietnam,” Film Comment 15, no. 1 (1979): 21.

  21. Ziesmer, Ready When You Are, p. 234. See also Eleanor Coppola, Apocalypse Now, p. 103.

  22. Gallagher, Film Directors on Film Directing, p. 135; Biskind, Easy Riders, p. 355, documents Hopper’s drug addiction.

  23. Gallagher, Film Directors on Film Directing, p. 135.

  24. Ric Gentry, “Vittorio Storaro in Conversation,” in Projections Six: Filmmakers on Filmmaking, ed. John Boorman and Walter Donahue (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1996), p. 265.

  25. Coppola, “For the Record.”

  26. Eleanor Coppola, Apocalypse Now, p. 138. See also Michael Ondaatje, “Apocalypse Now and Then,” Film Comment 37, no. 3 (2001): 45.

  27. French, On Apocalypse Now, p. 96.

  28. Schumacher, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 228. See also French, On Apocalypse Now, p. 96.

  29. Ziesmer, Ready When You Are, pp. 26, 61.

  30. “Production Log,” in Apocalypse Now, Souvenir Program (United Artists, 1979), p. 3.

  31. Schumacher, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 253.

  32. Ibid., p. 218. See also Chiu, “Coppola’s Cinematic Apocalypse. “

  33. Eleanor Coppola, Apocalypse Now, pp. 180–82.

  34. Biskind, Easy Riders, pp. 360–61.

  35. Breskin, Filmmakers in Conversation, p. 17.

  36
. David Thomson, “Apocalypse Then and Now,” New York Times, 13 May 2001, sec. 2, p. 32. See also Breskin, Filmmakers in Conversation, p. 17.

  37. Coppola, “For the Record.”

  38. William Phillips, “Hearts of Darkness: A Documentary,” in Film: An Introduction, rev. ed. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002), p. 361. The author of the essay and book cited in this note is no relation to the author of this book.

  39. Breskin, Filmmakers in Conversation, pp. 45–46. See also Schumacher, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 239.

  40. Coppola, “For the Record.”

  41. Harrison, “Godfather-III,” p. 62. See also Eleanor Coppola, Apocalypse Now, pp. 42, 229.

  42. LoBrutto, Film Editors on Editing, p. 116.

  43. Ibid., pp. 183–84. See also Oldham, Conversations with Film Editors, pp. 33, 369.

  44. Michael Ondaatje, The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film (New York: Knopf, 2002), p. 63. See also Mark Cousins, “Walter Murch,” in Projections Six: Filmmakers on Filmmaking, ed. John Boorman and Walter Donahue (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1996), p. 159.

  45. French, On Apocalypse Now, p. 14.

  46. Cowie, Coppola, p. 127.

  47. Michelle Wallens, “Putting Films to the Test,” New York Times, 25 June 2000, sec. 2, p. 11.

  48. Goodwin and Wise, On the Edge, p. 257.

  49. Steven Bach, Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego, rev. ed. (New York: Newmarket Press, 1999), p. 126.

  50. Goodwin and Wise, On the Edge, p. 262.

  51. Thomson, “Apocalypse Then and Now.”

  52. Coppola, “Apocalypse Now,” unpublished screenplay, pp. 144–45.

  53. Chaillet and Vincent, Francis Ford Coppola, pp. 68, 62.

  54. Chiu, “Coppola’s Cinematic Apocalypse.”

  55. Schumacher, Francis Ford Coppola, p. 208. See also Chown, Hollywood Auteur, p. 124.

  56. Chiu, “Coppola’s Cinematic Apocalypse; cf. Siskel, “Celluloid Godfather,” sec. 13, p. 5.

  57. Louis Grieff, “Conrad’s Ethics and the Margins of Apocalypse Now,” Literature/Film Quarterly 20, no. 3 (1992): 190.

  58. Howard Hampton, “Apocalypse Now Redux,” Film Comment 37, no. 3 (2001) : 42; cf. Wallace Watson, “Willard as Narrator,” Conradiana 13, no. 1 (1981): 37.

  59. David Sundleson, “Danse Macabre,” Conradiana 13, no. 1 (1981): 44.

  60. Peter Cowie, The Apocalypse Now Book (New York: Da Capo, 2001), pp. 80, 156. See also John Tessitore, “The Literary Roots of Apocalypse Now,” New York Times, 21 October 1979, sec. 2, p. 21.