The
Godfather
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Movie
| Book
| Author
| Director
& cast
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Famous quotes
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Movie: The Godfather (1972)
Book: The Godfather (1969)
Premise
movie:
"Popularly viewed as one of the best American films
ever made, the multi-generational crime saga The
Godfather (1972) is a touchstone of cinema: one of the most widely imitated, quoted and
lampooned movies of all time. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino star as
Vito Corleone and his youngest son Michael, respectively. It is the
late 1940s in New York and Corleone is, in the parlance of organized
crime, a "godfather" or "don," the head of a Mafia family. Michael,
a free thinker who defied his father by enlisting in the Army to
fight in World War II, has returned a war hero. Having long ago
rejected the family business, Michael shows up at the wedding of his
sister Connie (Talia Shire) with his non-Italian girlfriend, Kay
(Diane Keaton), who learns for the first time about the
family "business." A few months later at Christmas time, the don
barely survives being shot by gunmen in the employ of a drug-trafficking rival whose request for aid from the
Corleones' political connections was rejected. After saving his father from a
second assassination attempt, Michael persuades his hotheaded eldest
brother Sonny (James Caan) and family advisors Tom Hagen (Robert
Duvall) and Sal Tessio (Abe Vigoda) that he should be the one to
exact revenge on the men responsible. After murdering a corrupt
police captain and the drug-trafficker, Michael hides out in Sicily
while a gang war erupts at home. Falling in love with a local girl,
Michael marries her, but she is later slain by Corleone enemies in
an attempt on Michael's life. Sonny is also butchered, having been
betrayed by Connie's husband. As Michael returns home and convinces
Kay to marry him, his father recovers and makes peace with his
rivals, realizing that another powerful don was pulling the strings
behind the narcotics endeavor that began the gang warfare. Once
Michael has been groomed as the new don, he leads the family to a
new era of prosperity, then launches a campaign of murderous revenge
against those who once tried to wipe out the
Corleones, consolidating his family's power and completing his own moral
downfall. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winning for Best
Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, The Godfather was
followed by a pair of sequels."
from:
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/
movie.html?v_id=20076
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Premise
book:
"The story of Don Vito Corleone, the head of a New York Mafia family, inspired some of the most successful movies ever.
It is in Mario Puzo's The Godfather that Corleone first appears. As
Corleone's desperate struggle to control the Mafia underworld
unfolds, so does the story of his family. The novel is full of
exquisitely detailed characters who, despite leading unconventional
lifestyles within a notorious crime family, experience the triumphs
and failures of the human condition. Filled with the requisite
valor, love, and rancor of a great epic, The Godfather is the
definitive gangster novel."
from:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg
/detail/-/0451167716/104-0543604-2577531?v=glance
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Author:
"Mario Puzo was born October 15, 1920, in "Hell's Kitchen"
on Manhattan's (NY) West Side and, following military service in
World War II, attended New York's New School for Social Research and
Columbia University. His best-known novel, The Godfather, was
preceded by two critically acclaimed novels, The Dark Arena and The
Fortunate Pilgrim. In 1978, he published Fools Die, followed by The
Sicilian (1984) and The Fourth K (1991). Mario Puzo has also written
several screenplays, including Earthquake, Superman, and all three
Godfather movies, for which he received two Academy Awards®. Mario's
latest novel, 1996's The Last Don, was made into a CBS television
miniseries in May 1997, starring Danny Aiello, Kirsty Ally and Joe
Montegna. In 1997, Part II was aired. Also in 1997, Mario's The
Fortunate Pilgrim was re-released by Random House. Mario passed away
July 2, 1999, at his home in Bay Shore, Long Island. His novel
Omerta was released a year later. He is survived by his companion of
20 years Carol Gino and five children."
from:
http://www.jgeoff.com/puzo/
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Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Marlon Brando (Don Corleone), Al Pacino (Michael
Corleone), James Caan (Sonny Corleone), Richard S. Castellano
(Clemenza), Robert Duvall (Tom Hagen), Diane Keaton (Kay Adams).
from:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/
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Famous
quotes:
Don Corleone "What have I ever done to make you treat me so
disrespectfully? If you'd come to me in friendship, then this scum
that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if
by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies, then they
would become my enemies. And then they would fear you. "
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