A rambling, indulgent re-telling of how The Godfather nearly wasn’t made
There are not many ‘‘making of’’ stories as tangled as the ones that came trailing in the wake of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather.
The Godfather eventually became a cultural phenomenon, a box office and critical triumph and is not one, but two of the greatest American films ever made. But the road to all that was bumpy.
Author Mario Puzo was told to ‘‘write what you know’’ and responded with a layered family saga set in Sicily and New York’s Hell’s Kitchen in the years after World War II. Puzo had grown up in those streets and, although he didn’t pal around with mobsters himself, he had seen enough to paint a vivid portrait of a family trying to move from crime into American legitimacy.
The novel became a best-seller and a movie adaptation seemed assured. But members of the Italian community were outraged at their portrayal, mob-connected figures stood adamantly opposed, and the hugely insecure Frank Sinatra hated that everyone believed the character of Johnny Fontane was a caricature of him. Which, naturally, it was.
Over the years, there have been a few documentaries and numerous ‘‘extras’’ on the various DVD and Blu-Ray editions. But The Offer is something new. This is a – fictionalised – 10-part series on how The Godfather was and nearly wasn’t made.
The show tells the story from the point of view of Al Ruddy.
Ruddy wasn’t the most experienced producer at Paramount Studios, but he was a favourite of the legendary Robert Evans. Ruddy had famously created Hogan’s Heroes out of thin air at a failing pitch meeting for another show – but as a film producer he had only two barely successful titles on his CV. While director and co-writer Coppola was no-one’s first choice, as he was coming off the loss-making The Rain People (which is an intoxicatingly good film, if you can ever find a copy).
With Miles Teller stepping in at the last minute as Ruddy, Dan Fogler as Coppola, Juno Temple as Ruddy’s all-seeing assistant Bettye – and Matthew Goode as Evans, The Offer has a deep bench.
This is a rambling, indulgent re-telling of events. But it is also a hell of a lot of fun. Of course. it plays fast and loose with the truth, inventing and rewriting events and characters as it needs to, in order to put on a good show. But I like to think that Evans, Ruddy, Coppola and Co. wouldn’t object to that at all.
The Offer is now available on TVNZ OnDemand. New episodes debut at 7pm on Thursdays each week.