Series looks at struggle to make ‘The Godfather’
“The Godfather” is having a rather golden moment. The 50th anniversary of the 1972 film — widely considered to be one of the greatest ever made — already has led to the release of a 4K set featuring restored versions of it and its sequels. It’s a fan’s musthave.
And now comes “The Offer,” a 10-part limited series from Paramount+ that dramatizes the behind-thescenes struggle not only to get the film made, but also to make it as we know it today: a three-hour epic with lots of thematic texturing lovingly plastered around its requisite gangster violence.
The first three episodes debuted April 28 and the rest will be released on subsequent Thursdays on Paramount’s streaming platform — “The Offer” is a show some may be able to refuse. Unlike the work it celebrates, it is not high art.
It is, however, a generally entertaining work of television, a pretty bingeable show boasting some nice performances — one of which stands above the others — and overall casting that constantly impresses. (You will have no trouble, for example, believing Anthony Ippolito as then-soft-spoken theater actor Al Pacino.)
The story is told mainly from the perspective of “Godfather” producer Albert S. Ruddy (Miles Teller), one of several producers of the miniseries and a solid protagonist.
We meet Teller’s Ruddy coasting through a job with the RAND Corporation before talking himself into a gig producing future hit sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes.”
After concluding it’s making movies that truly would fulfill him, he ensnares legendary producer and Paramount Pictures boss Robert Evans (Matthew Goode) into a spontaneous meeting on the studio lot.
Ruddy is able to sell himself on Evans and before long is producing his first movie … which bombs.
He then is handed the reins to “The Godfather,” the rights to which the studio purchased before Mario Puzo’s Mafia novel — about an Italian-American crime family, the Corleones, led by Vito Corleone, a powerful aging don — became a bestseller.
Patrick Gallo’s lovableloser version of Puzo is a big player in the fast-moving debut episode, “A Seat at the Table.” Puzo has to be convinced by his wife to write a gangster book, one that draws from the world he grew up surrounded by, after passion project “The Fortunate Pilgrim” flopped.
“(Expletive) art, Mario,” she says bluntly. “Start typing.”
In the early episodes, Gallo shares some fun scenes with Dan Fogler (“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”), whose Francis Ford Coppola is let out of “director jail” to direct and co-write the picture. For example, we see the mostly amiable pair argue during a pasta sauce-making session, which inspires Coppola to imagine a similar scene involving war hero and future don Michael Corleone as he’s drawn into the belly of the criminal family.
Coppola knows what “The Godfather” should be — a story about a family and commentary on American capitalism — and early on conjures its perfect first line: “I believe in America.”
Throughout “The Offer,” Coppola fights to make “The Godfather” the way he envisions it, but it’s an understatement to say there are a few obstacles standing in the way of achieving that goal. It’s the same basic deal for Coppola’s strongest advocate, Ruddy, who prides himself in doing whatever it takes in the name of making a good film.
Many of the issues stem from Paramount’s desire to make the film on a relatively modest budget — a laughable goal when one is armed with the knowledge of how well it will be received. Charles Bluhdorn (Burn Gorman, “Halo”), the colorful owner of Paramount’s parent company, is regularly begged by Ruddy, Coppola and Evans for more dough, but a two-dimensional bean counter, Barry Lapidus (Colin Hanks, “Life in Pieces”), constantly works to tug him in a more fiscally responsible direction.
The bigger hindrance, arguably, is the Mafia’s distaste for Puzo’s book, which leads to their not-so-subtle objection to the planned adaptation. That Puzo is of Italian heritage does him no favors.
“Mario Puzo is a traitor!” bellows rising gangster Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi, “Sneaky Pete”) at a rally for his proposed Italian-American Civil Rights League.
It doesn’t help that famed singer Frank Sinatra — portrayed here as being mob-adjacent — vehemently hates the book due to the widespread belief the character of Johnny Fontaine is based on him, and he wants the movie whacked. (And it doesn’t help “The Offer” that the casting of Frank John Hughes as Sinatra is one of the few misfires in that department.)
A bond that eventually forms between Colombo and Ruddy is oddly sweet — so much so that, as with much of “The Offer,” you wonder just how much dramatic license was taken by showrunner Nikki Toscano and the other writers.
Ultimately, “The Offer” succeeding depends on a strong performance from Teller (“Whiplash,” “Only the Brave”), and that’s what it gets. While Teller often is cast as not-so-easy-to-like supporting characters, it’s easy to root for Ruddy from his induction through the movie’s wildly successful release.
We’ve gone too far without mention of Juno Temple as Ruddy’s secretary, Bettye McCartt. McCartt is a strong character — she is the more-than-capable woman behind the man — and, as is the case with Apple TV+ favorite “Ted Lasso,” you never mind a minute Temple is on screen.
However, it is Goode’s sublime performance as Evans that is the show’s greatest asset. Goode (“Downton Abbey,” “The King’s Man”) simply oozes smooth and cool whether Evans is enjoying a drink with a few lovely ladies at 9 a.m. or calmly solving problem after problem — at least for a while.
Speaking of problemsolving, it is the fuel that feeds the fire in “The Offer.” And the show’s structure can become tedious: Big problem emerges; big problem is solved. Again and again.
Nonetheless, there’s plenty here for even casual fans of the movie — only a few seconds elapse in the series before we hear the word “cannoli” — but it is a little disappointing we see no actual footage from the film. (Feels like the various arms of modern-day Paramount could have come together to make that happen, doesn’t it?)
“Rocketman” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” director Dexter Fletcher is at the helm for “A Seat at the Table” and the second episode, “Warning Shots,” and this first fifth of “The Offer” is it at its most irresistible. Unlike “The Godfather,” there is some fat that could have been trimmed, but the quality level remains fairly constant as the director’s chair is filled by Adam Arkin (TV’s “Get Shorty”) and others.
Look, you’ll want to be there when Ruddy, Coppola and McCartt meet with eccentric star actor Marlon Brando (a convincing-enough Justin Chambers) to pitch him on the movie.
You’ll want to be there when Pacino films the famous restaurant scene — at a time when a couple of studio suits are scheming to replace him.
But the movie’s infamous horse head? Eh, you probably don’t want to know. Maybe fugget about it.
It’s not perfect. But refuse “The Offer” at your own risk.