Original subtitles

>> I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse. >> FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA: It's a

metaphor for capitalism in its purest form. >> There would be no way

you could ever forgive me. Not with this Sicilian thing that's been going on for 2,000

years! (yelling) >> JAMES CAAN: It's not

glorifying bad guys, but you're glorifying what people would do for their family.

>> Do you have any interests or control over gambling and narcotics?

>> I challenge this committee to produce any witness or evidence against me.

>> What do you think, this is the army where you shoot them a mile away?

You got up get up close like this-- bada-bing! You blow their brains all over

your nice Ivy League suit. (gunshots) >> AL PACINO: Sure, I met mob

guys. (rapid gunshots) I'm lucky they liked it, that's

what I say. (chuckles) >> NARRATOR: It was a book that

caused a sensation and a film that is considered one of the greatest ever made.

After more than four decades, The Godfather and its sequels still manage to entertain,

engage, frighten, and involve. >> Just when I thought I was

out, they pull me back in. >> NARRATOR: It is the saga of an American family.

It is the story of America.

>> I believe in America. America's made my fortune, and I raised my daughter in the

American fashion. I gave her freedom, but I taught her never to dishonor her

family.

>> PACINO: A few months ago, for the first time I'd watched

The Godfather, and there's this beautifully shot scene

where the guy comes to the Godfather and asks him to

help him.

And starts relating the story of how his daughter was abused. >> Do what I beg you to do.

>> What is that? >> PACINO: I thought this is what made the movie.

Everyone can relate to that. The universe can relate to that. Here's a guy, got really tragic

problems, his daughter being raped and beaten. He goes to the Godfather because

nobody else will help. >> We've known each other many years, but this is

the first time you ever came to me for council or for help. Now you come to me and you say,

"Don Corleone, give me justice." But you don't ask with respect. You don't offer friendship.

You don't even think to call me Godfather. >> PACINO: Everybody feels that

thing of, if only I had some place I can go to get justice, to get taken care

of, to be helped. >> Be my friend... Godfather?

>> PACINO: It's everybody's dream to have the father, the godfather, call it a godfather,

who comes and helps you with your issues.

>> ALBERT S. RUDDY: I was sitting in my office one day and

got a most astounding phone call from Stanley Jaffe, who was the

president of Paramount Pictures, saying, would I be interested in

producing The Godfather?

Of course, at that point, I hadn't read the book. So of course, I said, "It's my

favorite book." I then went right out and I got a copy of The Godfather.

And of course, like everyone else in America, I couldn't stop reading.

I read it in one sitting. >> NARRATOR: Originally published in 1969,

The Godfather was author Mario Puzo's fifth novel, and unlike his previous efforts, it

became a huge bestseller. The story of a New York-based crime family, The Godfather was

attracting interest even before its publication.

>> PETER BART: Puzo's editor called me and said, "He has

written 60 pages of a new book, which he feels, and I feel, has

real commercial potential. Could find an audience, unlike

his other books."

I said, "What is it about?" And he said, "The mafia," and I thought, oh, no.

>> RUDDY: Paramount had done a movie two years prior to that called The Brotherhood,

which was a financial disaster. They were totally convinced nobody wanted to see "a mob

movie" anymore. >> TODD BOYD: In early Hollywood, there were a series

of popular gangster movies like Little Caesar, Public Enemy, the original Scarface.

Gangster films were thought of as B movies in a lot of cases,

um, not very important, not very significant.

>> Crime breeds crime, and one gang of outlaws is

linked to another. >> BOYD: And gangsters were seen as a social problem,

as a societal menace. >> FBI, Dillinger. (gunshots)

>> BART: But clearly Mario Puzo had a book that was beyond the standard mafia sort of tale.

>> ROBERT VISCUSI: In The Godfather novel, Don Corleone is painted not as a disease,

rather he's painted as God. He's a father to his family.

This is something entirely new, and this is the great

ideological innovation that Puzo introduced into the whole

conversation.

>> NARRATOR: In a surprising move, Paramount Pictures production chief, 38-year-old

actor-turned-mogul Robert Evans, hired a relatively unknown director with a short

list of credits and an audaciously long name, Francis Ford Coppola.

Although he had made a handful of Hollywood films, including the big-screen musical Finian's

Rainbow, starring Fred Astair, Coppola considered himself an outsider, a maverick with a

strong independent spirit. He preferred to operate from Northern, not Southern

California, where he was running his own production company, American Zoetrope.

And for him, filmmaking was a family affair.

>> COPPOLA: In those days-- I was about 27-- I was

determined to be what we called, uh, up there in San

Francisco, a personal filmmaker.

I wanted to be involved in the cinema rather than to be a big Hollywood director.

>> BART: And Francis was interesting because the idea of doing a mafia story from the

point of view of a director who's really interested in making independent pictures,

that's what struck us as fascinating. And typically, Francis Coppola,

when confronted with the material, didn't want to do it. >> COPPOLA: Much of the

original book was a potboiler. So, it was not a film I particularly wanted to do, but I

had no money and my then-young assistant, George Lucas, said, "Francis, you got to get a job,

because the sheriff's gonna come and put a chain on the door of American Zoetrope, 'cause we

haven't paid our bills. Do this movie." And so I ultimately took the

job and wrote the screenplay. I just took the novel and went through it and underlined

everything that I thought that I could use. >> TALIA SHIRE: Francis was up

against it. You could've gone either way with that book.

You could have made it into a great gangster piece. However, he wanted more.

He wanted the subtext. He wanted the inner life.

But that takes a lot of courage on the part of a director, you

know, a lot of courage to pull that off.

>> NARRATOR: Coppola's outsider's approach to filmmaking quickly made itself

evident as he began to cast the film. For the leading roles, he

preferred actors who were either unknown, unlikely, or, in the case of Marlon

Brando, unpopular with the Hollywood studios. But in an effort to prove that

he could convincingly play an Italian mobster, the 47-year-old actor submitted to a makeup and

wardrobe test. >> BART: Marlon Brando was not the sort of person that you

would go to if you worked for a studio. Brando was self-destructive and

was pretty well burned out. But we finally agreed, over the objections of other people,

Coppola's going to direct this movie, so let him decide that he wants a Marlon Brando.

>> NARRATOR: But there was one actor who was universally favored by both Coppola and the

studio: James Caan. >> 68. >> Action.

>> Michael? >> Hmm? >> Why are all those people

bothering your father on a day like this? >> Oh, well, that's because they

know no Sicilian can refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day.

>> COPPOLA: He was up for Michael, but I always imagined him as Sonny.

He's not Italian, but Jimmy knows about Italians, 'cause he was raised in Sunnyside,

right... a few blocks next to my grandmother. >> CAAN: I don't think it

mattered if I was Italian or not Italian.

You know, Italians were guys from Sicily or Naples or

wherever. We were playing Americans,

who happened to be Italian.

>> NARRATOR: But of all director Francis Ford Coppola's casting choices, perhaps the

most controversial and difficult for the studio to accept was his choice of

newcomer Al Pacino for the role of Vito Corleone's youngest son, Michael.

>> BART: Evans had a concern about Pacino, because he was very young.

>> 209. >> BART: His screen tests weren't terrific.

>> Action. >> Michael, why are all these people bothering your father on

a day like this? >> Why are you bothering my father?

(laughter) >> Do you want to be like him? All the favors he does for

people, all the respect they have for him? >> Oh.

>> Oh. >> Is he like you? >> Nobody's like me.

You know that. >> Cut it. >> COPPOLA: Bob Evans wanted

someone like Ryan O'Neal, or even Redford, for Michael. Wanted a good-looking guy and

stuff. I realized at one point, Bob Evans wanted a guy that sort

of looked like him, and I wanted a guy that sort of looked like me, you know.

>> 104. >> COPPOLA: But I had Al Pacino's face burnt into my

mind. >> Well, this is a slow wedding. This isn't a wedding.

>> PACINO: I was thinking, why would Francis want me to play that part?

I'd much prefer Sonny. The one that's more robust,

more, uh... There's more to play there.

There's more fun there.

How do you play Michael? I thought, but he sees me as Michael.

I thought, gee, he's seeing something I don't see.

>> NARRATOR: Production on The Godfather began on March 23rd, 1971.

The principle location, the Corleone's family compound, was on Staten Island, New York, at

the family home of Edward and Mary Norton. Seen here for the first time are

home movies taken during the film's preparation and shooting.

>> ED NORTON II: My mother documented the entire process.

My mother is a fanatic for detail.

She actually wrote a diary, too, of when they showed up,

what they did every day.

They actually built an addition onto the back of the house that would be the Godfather's den

for that famous scene where the people came in and asked for favors.

They put up an eight-foot plywood wall and then put plastic sheeting in front of it

to simulate stone. The wall closed off the house. There was a gate, so that formed

the compound. >> NARRATOR: Despite the intensity of the film's dramatic

storyline, the atmosphere on the set was often disrupted by the outrageous antics of the actors,

particularly those of Marlon Brando. >> CAAN: I remember the day they

bring him home in the stretcher. So me and Bobby, we both picked it up and started to take him

upstairs, and my gonads near hit my ankles. I mean, I said, "Holy geez."

Well, what he did, he had put about 500 pounds of plates underneath the mattress.

(laughs) He started to laugh after about three steps. He just thought I was

hysterical. >> NARRATOR: But for Francis Ford Coppola, writing, producing

and directing The Godfather was no laughing matter. Cost overruns, production delays

and constant interference from the studio made the experience of making the film a nightmare.

>> COPPOLA: I was in deep trouble throughout the whole making of The Godfather as far

as the studio was concerned. >> BART: During the shooting, Francis was almost fired-- for

example, he didn't warn us that he was shooting the film very dark and they were

trying to experiment. >> RUDDY: Paramount said, "What are you guys doing?

We're not making an art house movie here. And who's Al Pacino?

He's a midget." >> BART: There was a plot afoot to name a successor to Francis.

I didn't know about it and neither did Evans, which really pissed me off.

>> RUDDY: We're all on the edge of being shown the door, okay? That's how it was.

>> COPPOLA: It was on such a track to be a failure. Everyone hated it.

I remember we were all in the editing room, and everyone was talking about this sensational

movie, which was called The French Connection. And one of the assistant editors

says, "It's really exciting and electric, a real movie." Then I said, sort of fishing,

I said, "Well, I guess by comparison they'll think The Godfather just a long, boring,

dark movie." And he said, "Well, yeah, I guess you're right."

>> BART: The people at Paramount saw it, and unanimously felt it was too slow and too talky, and

at two hours and 20 minutes, would not really be a success commercially.

>> NARRATOR: The Godfather had its worldwide premiere at Loew's State Theater in New York

on March 15, 1972. After years of negotiations and bitterness on all sides of the

production, the fate of the film now rested in the hands of the public.

The Godfather, as a motion picture, was completed. But The Godfather legacy

was only just beginning.

>> Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your home

on the wedding day of your daughter. >> That man over there is

talking to himself. See that scary guy over there? >> He's a very scary guy.

>> Well, who is he? What's his name? >> His name is Luca Brasi.

He helps my father out sometime.

>> NARRATOR: The Godfather tells the story of an Italian-American crime family.

Set in the 1940s, the plot was loosely inspired by real-life mobsters who operated out

of New York City.

>> COPPOLA: The book The Godfather didn't reference

anything real; it was filled with innuendi about,

who was the Godfather?

Was he Profaci or was he Genovese? So I went to the

local library and I took out four books on the New York Mafia and I read them all.

And I began to know about the so-called Five Families. And I started to know

about the real story.

>> GIANNI RUSSO: Well, I had several conversations with Mario

Puzo, and basically he told me he used three different

godfathers.

Obviously, Carlo Gambino was the image of Brando and all of that in the garden.

And then the line about, "You have all these politicians in your pocket," that was

Frank Costello. And Joe Profaci was Genco Oil, 'cause he was the olive oil

king of the world. So using those three characters is how he came up with

Vito Corleone. >> NARRATOR: Unlike other mob films, Coppola and

author-turned-screenwriter Mario Puzo chose to show the characters' more vulnerable,

human side. >> COPPOLA: Being an Italian- American, I knew my own family,

who were a family of musicians and tool-and-die makers, but living in New York, and so I

knew what the family life was like. I was very much anxious to draw

upon my own family in terms of how we lived and what it was like in the house and what we

ate and what the day-to-day feel of an Italian family was. But I used as much of my own

memory of my family to give it a kind of authenticity, and that was my approach.

(lively music playing)

>> GEORGE DE STEFANO: The Godfather presented this image of a familial culture that was

rooted in centuries of history, and it gave this image of this stability and continuity.

>> Hey, Paulie, let me have some wine!

>> DE STEFANO: That opening sequence of the wedding reminded

me of Italian-American weddings I'd attended as a child.

Everything that the people did, the way they talked to the way they pronounced certain foods,

the envelope with the money given to the bride. >> 20-30 grand?

In small bills, cash? >> DE STEFANO: They were the most Italian Italians I'd ever

seen in a movie before. >> Maron. If this was somebody else's wedding, sweet tonnato!

>> GIANNI RUSSO: It really gave it the flavor-- the oil and garlic as we call it-- of

the movie. (laughs) >> NARRATOR: For movie-going audiences in the 1970s, the

world they were living in was being threatened by drastic social change.

>> OFFICER: Move it! >> PROTESTERS: One, two, three, four, Tricky Dick,

stop the war! >> NARRATOR: Institutions like marriage and family were targets

of the counterculture, and The Godfather's focus on the strong, tight-knit bond between

Don Vito Corleone and his mobster family was by contrast both traditional and reassuring.

>> You spend time with your family? >> Sure, I do.

>> Good, 'cause a man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man.

Come here. >> TOM GUGLIELMO: The Godfather is this perfect reflection of

its time period in a lot of ways.

And perhaps for members of the audience, they were comforted by

the fact that here you have very traditional, very clearly

defined male roles and female roles.

>> NARRATOR: It is during the wedding scene that the audience is introduced to The Godfather's

rich tapestry of characters. There's Connie, the daughter, whose marriage to Carlo Rizzi

becomes the catalyst for the drama that follows. Sonny, the quick-tempered

oldest son. Fredo... >> Hi.

>> How you doing? >> NARRATOR: ...the dim-witted but sensitive middle child.

>> This is my brother Mike. >> NARRATOR: Tom Hagen... >> The Senator called.

He apologized for not coming personally. >> NARRATOR: ...the adopted

son, who serves as the Corleone family's consigliere. >> Salud.

>> NARRATOR: Clemenza and Tessio, the trusted lieutenants. Luca Brasi, the enforcer.

And Michael, Don Vito's youngest son, the war hero who has, so far, managed to remain

uncorrupted by the family business. >> Michael, you never told

me you knew Johnny Fontaine. >> Now, when Johnny was first starting out, he was signed

to this personal service contract with a big band leader. And as his career got better

and better, he wanted to get out of it. And my father went to see

this band leader. Within an hour, he signed a release.

>> Well, how'd he do that? >> My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

>> What was that? >> Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him

that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract.

That's my family, Kay. It's not me. >> PACINO: I don't think Michael

ever felt really comfortable in himself.

And I think he had to acclimate to the new America and

its values.

To the point where he actually enlists into the army and becomes a war hero.

>> DR. ROBERT PHILLIPS: He is the quintessential outsider, it would appear.

In fact, to some extent, it almost seems like he's mocking his family.

"This is what they do. This is not who I am."

Michael is a war hero. Michael is a person who is so

far removed from the family business, and by design.

>> NARRATOR: In The Godfather films, members of the Corleone family are depicted not as

one-dimensional criminals, but as multilayered family men whose chosen business is crime.

>> ALEX ROCCO: What made it hold up was the values that Don

Corleone, played by Marlon Brando, had for his children

and his family. As twisted as they were, in his

mind, everything he did was for them.

>> CHRIS MESSENGER: We see ourselves in their family

rituals. You're invited to their

weddings, you're invited to their baptisms, you eat

spaghetti in their kitchens.

>> You start out with a little bit of oil. And you fry some garlic.

Then you throw in some tomatoes, and tomato paste, you fry it, you make sure it doesn't stick.

>> PACINO: Imagine a film that had these gangsters feeding children and cooking.

This was unheard of. It puts you right in the kitchen.

Right in the living room. These people were us. >> NARRATOR: In the film,

a turning point for the entire family comes when Don Vito Corleone stifles attempts by a

rival gang to add the sale of narcotics to the mob's list of illegal operations.

>> I need, Don Corleone, those politicians that you carry in your pocket.

Like so many nickels and dimes.

>> BOYD: Don Corleone doesn't want to sell drugs.

This turns out to be a mistake, it turns out to be the wrong

decision from a business standpoint, but morally he's

uncomfortable with it. >> MICHAEL CHERTOFF: There's

almost no area that the mob didn't earn its money.

Construction, extorting money from people who were building

buildings. Gambling, loan sharking.

But they tended to stay away from narcotics.

>> It's true, I have a lot of friends in politics. But they wouldn't be friendly

very long if they knew my business was drugs instead of gambling, which they regard as

a... a harmless vice. But drugs is a dirty business. >> BOYD: The point is, in

capitalism, morals are often changing and evolving to fit the needs of the situation, and I

think that's what you see in The Godfather. So, one is not uncomfortable

because morals and the construction of morals are constantly being questioned.

>> NARRATOR: The tensions between the Corleone family and their rivals escalate,

resulting in Don Vito being gunned down in the street. (gunfire, shouting)

>> SPITZER: We should never lose sight of the fact that these are

criminals, crooks, thieves, murderers, dispensing drugs and

heinous activities to our society; and yet after you watch

The Godfather, you begin to feel for the Marlon Brando

figure. (sobbing)

>> I want you to take care of that son of a bitch right away.

Paulie sold out the old man. I don't want to see him again.

Make that first thing on your list, understand?

>> What time are you gonna be home tonight?

>> I don't know. Probably late.

>> Don't forget the cannoli! >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

>> FATHER ROBERT LAUDER: You catch yourself saying, my gosh,

they've got me rooting that someone murders somebody else.

That kind of thing, I think, is possible.

You can be sort of seduced into this and you find out, what am I

doing? You know, this is bad.

(gunfire)

>> NARRATOR: But the moral ambiguity of The Godfather

challenges the audience's notions of good and evil.

>> Leave the gun; take the cannolis.

>> SELWYN RAAB: You almost liked them; you humanized them;

you rationalized them; you justified what they were doing.

You could see what motivated them, and you could understand

that they were loyal to their own family, to their own ideal

of ethics.

>> PHILLIPS: Compartmentalization is a phenomenon that the brain uses

to separate out feelings. Good feelings, bad feelings. And it's a phenomenon that makes

people like Vito and Sonny and Michael compartmentalize the good, the bad and the ugly.

>> CAAN: It was all for the sake of family and I think that came from Francis, and Francis'

handling of a subject that could otherwise be extremely coarse. But you don't really so much

remember the violence as much as you do the relationships.

Everything was sort of condoned because everything was done for

the family, everything.

>> What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here now.

>> I'm Michael Corleone. This is my father. There's nobody here.

What happened to the guards? >> Your father just had too many visitors.

The police made them leave about ten minutes ago. I'm sorry, but you will have to

leave. >> Uh... You and I are going to move my

father to another room. Now, can you disconnect those tubes so we can move the bed

out? >> That's out of the question. >> You know my father?

Men are coming here to kill him. You understand? Now help me, please.

>> NARRATOR: After the assassination attempt on his father, Michael Corleone is

compelled to join his brothers in protecting and avenging him. >> I'm with you now.

>> NARRATOR: A decorated war hero, Michael will now fight to defend something even more

important than his country... >> I'm with you. >> NARRATOR: ...his family.

But in guarding Don Vito, Michael Corleone is drawn into the very world of crime and

corruption from which his father struggled to shield him.

>> I thought I got all you guinea hoods locked up. >> What happened to the men who

were guarding my father, Captain? >> Why, you little punk!

Take ahold of him! Stand him up! Stand him up straight.

>> YOUNG: There's a great turning point.

The horror is worse than we imagined life would serve up.

And because of these tragedies, we are changed.

And that is what happens to Michael.

>> Let's set the meeting. Get our informants to find out where it's going to be held.

If Clemenza can figure a way to have a weapon planted there for me...

...then I'll kill 'em both. (laughter)

>> Nice college boy, huh? Didn't want to get mixed up in the family business, huh?

Now you want to gun down a police captain. Why?

'Cause he slapped you in the face a little bit? Huh?

What, do you think this is the army, where you shoot 'em a mile away?

You gotta get up close, like this-- bada-bing! You blow their brains all over

your nice Ivy League suit. Come here. >> Sonny...

>> You're taking this very personally.

>> PACINO: I think Michael is always thinking on his feet.

I think he was a pragmatist. That's what made him a good

leader. He was practical.

And I think he knew that things happen.

And you deal with them. So, in a way, you could say he's

a survivor. >> LOUIS FERRANTE: Michael's

choice to go shoot Sollozzo and McCluskey was something that

every gangster could relate to. He had his father's honor on the

line. So he's doing what he's doing

for an honorable reason. Every mob guy on his way up

makes his bones somehow. And that was the day that

Michael made his bones. >> NARRATOR: Reminiscent of the

hero's great exploit described in many ancient myths and

legends, Michael's act of revenge will forever change his

destiny. >> COPPOLA: Myth is derived

from basic human principles. Myth originates to try to

illuminate human behavior, human life, and so it's in us.

It's in our souls.

>> YOUNG: At some point, the hero will face a challenge. If he can rise to that, then he

can show he is the extraordinary leader that is blessed and can take power.

(train rumbling)

(choking)

>> YOUNG: The moment Michael takes up the family business, he changes himself forever.

He has redefined his life story. He has departed from one world and entered another.

>> NARRATOR: While Michael Corleone escapes to Sicily, his brother Sonny begins fighting a

bloody mob war. >> BOYD: You break the law, you pay the price.

What you see with the gangsters, if you break their rules, you will pay, there will be no two

ways about it. There is something about that sense of vengeance that's

utterly affirming.

And if that means someone has to die, then unfortunately someone

has to die. >> COPPOLA: People always

love the antihero, because deep down everyone feels they're

an outsider or that they're not enfranchised.

They love the bad guys in the Westerns, they love Billy the

Kid. You tend to like the criminal.

>> SPITZER: It's sort of this love of the people outside the

norms in whatever way, who stand up and fight back even if

they go down in a fusillade of bullets.

There's something that we've romanticized in our culture

about that.

>> Dillinger was put in the custody of Sheriff Lillian Holly.

She boasted that she could keep him, and he boasted she couldn't.

This didn't prevent the amazing happy family picture in which the sheriff posed with Dillinger

in apparently affectionate intimacy.

>> MICHAEL FRANZESE: It's the glamour, it's the money,

it's the power, it's the... I want that girl, she's mine.

I want that business, I'm taking it.

I drive in the best car, you better respect me.

People are turned on by that; they really are.

They key in on the glamour, and I think that's prominent

throughout all of society in general.

>> DE STEFANO: For many people, it's the fantasy of outlaw-hood,

the idea of the lone individual who makes his own destiny,

who isn't subject to the rules of conventional society.

The man with the plan who puts it into play, and is not a

nine-to-fiver, and isn't subject to a lot of the constraints that

us regular folks have to deal with in our daily lives.

>> Flashbulbs almost obliterate the figure of Al Capone, who had himself obliterated so many

others. This is one of his many trips to Cook County Police Station.

A writ of habeas corpus barely dry, he is free again.

>> HARLAN LEBO: I don't know if we're all fascinated by

gangsters as much as we're fascinated by men of action.

These were deliberate, ruthless men.

They are unsavory, horrible people and murderers.

Yet there's something attractive or compelling about them that

really fascinates everyone. It's part of American culture.

>> JENNIFER MASCIA: In pop culture, the way that they've

co-opted the gangster, The Godfather, I still see the

romanticization. But when my father was arrested

in front of me when I was five, I had an idea he was a criminal.

But it wasn't until I confronted my mother when I was 17,

I realized he was in the mafia.

My mother said that taking life was part of my father's business.

It was an unintentional byproduct of what he did. And she made it sound like it

was a spontaneous thing that happened. But five times?

Six times? You know, somehow he got it in his head that violence could be

a solution to a problem. >> NARRATOR: But while Sonny and Don Vito struggle to maintain

their power in New York, their rivals are about to exploit another weakness: the women of

the Corleone clan. And even Michael, exiled in Sicily, will discover his

greatest vulnerability.

>> Since McCluskey's killing, the police have been cracking down on most of our operations.

And also the other families. There's been a lot of bad blood. >> They hit us, so we hit them

back. >> (whispers): Where's Michael?

>> It was Michael who killed Sollozzo.

>> NARRATOR: While his family wages a bloody mob war in New York City, Michael Corleone is

sent to hide out with friends in Sicily.

There, in his father's ancestral home of Corleone, he meets a beautiful local girl...

...named Apollonia.

>> YOUNG: Michael is sent off to Sicily to hide from American law.

It's not America, it's not New York, it's not the cosmopolitan

world, it is Eden. It is innocence itself.

Or so it appears.

>> NARRATOR: While hiding out in Sicily, Michael treats Apollonia

with respect, in sharp contrast to how his brother Sonny behaves

back home. >> Hey!

I'm gonna knock you dead, you... >> PHILLIPS: I think sex has an

interesting role in The Godfather films.

Clearly, in many instances, there is the dichotomy between

what people do in their families.

They have a wife, they have a family, but they have a gumar.

And it is an acceptable part of the culture.

>> NARRATOR: The release of The Godfather in 1972 came duringa

time when gender roles were being challenged.

>> PAGLIA: The Godfather films appeared at a time after the

women's movement had revived in the late 1960s.

Masculinity in general was being denigrated by the very inflammatory rhetoric of the

early women's movement. Men were losing a sense of what they should be and who they

should be. >> NARRATOR: In contrast, The Godfather reflected the

traditional role of men as the head of the family. >> Well, Papa never talked

business at the table and in front of the kids. >> Hey, shut up, Connie.

>> Hey, don't you ever tell her to shut up, you got that? >> Okay.

>> NARRATOR: Women, however, were powerless. And nowhere was this more

apparent than when Sonny notices that his sister has been brutally beaten by her husband.

>> What's the matter? Huh? What's the matter?

>> It was my fault! >> Where is he? >> Sonny, please.

It was my fault. Sonny, it was my fault. I hit him.

I started a fight with him. Please, Sonny. I hit him, so he hit me.

I... >> Shh-shh-shh-shh-shh. >> CAAN: The way Francis handled

it and Mario handled it, there was no choice.

The guy had it coming. If he didn't do it, there was

something wrong with his honor. >> Come here, come here.

Come here, come here! >> FERRANTE: When Sonny threw

the broomstick at Carlo, I mean, that was funny.

First of all, when we were beating somebody up, anything

that wasn't tied down, we hit the guy with.

I mean, that's just the way it was.

You know, if your shoe fell off, you hit the guy with your shoe.

>> CAAN: I mean, there was no rules that said it's okay to go

break some guy's head open. But they were living in a world

that was full of that. You get into that world, it's

just automatic, right? >> You touch my sister again,

I'll kill you. >> MESSENGER: The Godfather is a

deeply male dream of patriarchy and order.

And within that dream, the Corleones demand absolute

respect for their family and their family's welfare.

But they have no respect for anyone else's family and for the larger American family, which

they treat with contempt. That is seemingly the major contradiction in the Corleone

version of respect and honor.

>> NARRATOR: Back in Sicily, Michael Corleone's shy courtship of Apollonia is more than a

romance. He seems to be seeking redemption from his act of

murder and from the crimes that have contaminated his family. >> YOUNG: Apollonia in mythic

terms is called the temptress. She is very attractive and alluring.

Michael is in lust and in love. As a psychologist, I would speculate that he has a

projection of some quality that he cannot get at home. A quality of otherworldliness.

I would call it innocence.

(horn honks)

>> No! No, Apollon...

>> NARRATOR: The death of his innocent bride convinces Michael that there can be no redemption

for him, no chance for future happiness or atonement. No turning back.

But, perhaps, of greater consequence to the fate of Michael Corleone are the events

involving his sister Connie back in America. >> I hate you!

>> Now, go ahead! Now I'll kill you! You guinea brat, you.

Get out here! (Connie sobbing, screaming) (belt cracking)

>> SHIRE: Beating up a pregnant woman is such a horrific thing,

even though we know that Sonny's being set up.

>> Hold on. You just wait there. >> SHIRE: But that's Sonny's

role in the piece. He's the older brother, you know; he's got to do this.

>> Son of a bitch! >> CAAN: He beat up my sister, and he knew that I was

passionate about my sister, and he did it again, and he trapped me.

>> Sonny, Sonny, come on! Get out here! >> FERRANTE: The Greeks said

character is destiny. The Godfather movies said character is destiny without

saying it. Sonny's character was his destiny.

His hot temper came back to get him. You know, they knew if they

caused a problem for Sonny, he's gonna leave now to come there when his sister cried on the

phone.

(screaming)

>> CAAN: The biggest thing was the shooting of me. I mean, that was, but that was--

when you look at it, that was a ballet. I say, "Hey, Francis, you

putting, like, 147 squibs on me," and they just blew up. That was pretty violent, but I

don't think the picture was about violence. It was about people who could be

violent because they were screwing with their family.

>> NARRATOR: The brutal, ritualistic death of Sonny reminds the audience that the

Corleones live and operate in a violent world. It also catapults the story into

an unexpected direction. >> I want you to use all your powers and all your skills.

I don't want his mother to see him this way.

>> NARRATOR: With Sonny dead, no one in the Corleone family is safe.

Don Vito has lost his oldest son, and the Corleones are now more vulnerable than ever.

>> Look how they massacred my boy.

>> My youngest son was forced to leave this country, because of this Sollozzo business.

All right. I have to make arrangements to bring him back here safely.

Let me say that I swear on the souls of my grandchildren that I will not be the one to break

the peace we've made here today.

>> NARRATOR: In what is widely considered to be The Godfather's third and perhaps most dramatic

act, Michael Corleone returns home to America following his exile in Sicily.

>> How long have you been back? >> I've been back a year. Longer than that, I think.

>> NARRATOR: But Michael is no longer the wide-eyed American war hero.

>> It's good to see you, Kay. >> NARRATOR: He is now cold, cynical and remote.

>> PACINO: You find things in all characters you play to like.

Well, you like his struggle, you know, when you think of it.

Having to deal with the things he's dealing with.

>> I'm working for my father now, Kay. >> PACINO: You like his

conflicts, what he goes through, and how he tries to manage this world that he has inherited.

>> But you're not like him, Michael. I thought you weren't going to

become a man like your father. >> My father's no different than any other powerful man.

>> Uh... >> Any man who's responsible for other people.

Like a senator or president. >> Do you know how naive you sound?

>> Why? >> Senators and presidents don't have men killed.

>> Oh. Who's being naive, Kay?

>> BOYD: When you think about, for instance, the

conversation Michael has with Kay upon his return from

Sicily...

>> Kay, my father's way of doing things is over; it's finished. Even he knows that.

I mean, in five years, the Corleone family is going to be completely legitimate.

>> BOYD: ...the transition is amazing. He goes from being this guy

in this military uniform with his girlfriend, to someone who sees himself as a powerful man

conducting business. It just so happens that, in his line of business,

things take place that maybe don't take place in other lines of business.

>> NARRATOR: Michael's transformation is vividly portrayed as he

rekindles his relationship with Kay. Unlike his awkward, boyish

courtship of Apollonia, Michael now behaves less like a lover and more like a negotiator,

conducting a business transaction. >> I want you to marry me.

>> It's too late; it's too late. >> Please, Kay, I need you. And I love you.

>> BOYD: Michael sees the relationship with Kay as business.

You know, it's business, never personal. He needs someone to raise his

offspring, who will eventually become the matriarch of the family.

>> NARRATOR: The change in Michael Corleone's character is contrasted with that

of his father Don Vito. >> I want you to arrange to have a telephone man check all

the calls that go in and out of here... >> I did it already, Pop.

>> You know, it could be anyone. >> I took care of that. >> Oh, that's right.

I forgot. >> NARRATOR: The aging crime boss now appears tired and

weak... >> What's the matter? >> NARRATOR: ...and finally

willing to transfer his power to his youngest son.

>> COPPOLA: It was the story of a family and it was kind of

Shakespearean in that there was a great king and he had three

sons, and each of the sons had a part of the talent of the old

man but none really all of it.

The youngest had the cunning, and the second had the sweetness, and the older had the

rage and the violence. >> I knew that Santino was going to have to go to through all

this... and Fredo, well... Fredo was... and I never, I never

wanted this for you.

>> REVEREND LAUDER: I heard a mafia leader once being

quoted saying, "Most of us do not want this for our children."

>> I don't apologize-- that's my life-- but I thought that... well, when it was your turn

that... that you would be the one to hold the strings. Senator Corleone.

Governor Corleone. Something. >> Another pezzonovante.

>> YOUNG: There is always a drama when power is passed,

whether it's presidents, kings or gods.

This goes back as far as recorded history and before.

A great deal of power is amassed, the Godfather gets older and others are waiting to

try to push him aside. Will his son be able to rise to the occasion and preserve the

family privilege? That is the story.

>> Give me a orange.

(moaning eerily) (Anthony crying) >> Oh, no... (chuckles)

>> TALIA SHIRE: It was Marlon Brando who cut the rind and made

a monster of himself, which is an extraordinary piece of

acting-- the genius...

because he's dying with his grandchild, but as a monster. >> COPPOLA: I never knew, for

example, the famous symbolism of the orange that I put into The Godfather.

I just did it. After a while, there were enough oranges that it began to

be a metaphor for some impending doom. But, you know, you don't always

know. (wheezing, groaning)

(Anthony laughing)

>> NARRATOR: With the death of his father, Michael Corleone's dark transformation

is complete. >> YOUNG: The old saying, "The sins of the father are visited

upon the children." The hero's task often begins taking on the unfinished

business of the father. >> NARRATOR: During the funeral, Michael plans a crime wave

of murders and executions. >> After the baptism. >> NARRATOR: All of his father's

enemies will be destroyed. >> Then I'll meet with Don Barzini and Tataglia-- all the

heads of the Five Families. >> NARRATOR: Or, as he puts it, "all of the family business"

will be settled. >> Michael Francis Rizzi, do you renounce Satan...

>> I do renounce him. >> COPPOLA: The birth of drama comes out of ritual, so that

it seemed obvious to me to tell all the stories through the various rituals--

combine them all during the baptism ceremony. >> And all his works...

>> PHILLIPS: So that, again, there is this ability, uh, to

compartmentalize, to observe very sacred and solemn

traditions in the Catholic Church and in with that, are the

killings of the people who stand in his way.

>> I do renounce them. >> ANASTASIA: It was

fascinating cinema, but if you took each one of those things

individually, they were horrific.

They've kind of desensitized the idea of murder. >> And all his promises?

>> I do renounce them. >> JENNIFER MASCIA: When I see people being shot...

...people being whacked, like the famous baptism scene, I just

think, you know, this isn't real, it's not real, you know.

The truth is so much more horrific.

>> Will you be baptized? >> I will. (priest speaking Latin)

Michael Rizzi, go in peace and may the Lord be with you. Amen.

>> MASCIA: My father couldn't live with it, according to my mother.

He would have nightmares. In real life, it takes a psychic toll that you

don't see in the movies. >> NARRATOR: In The Godfather, the wave of killings continues

as Michael eliminates anyone who might threaten his family or his power.

>> You have to answer for Santino, Carlo.

>> GIANNI RUSSO: Carlo was a thread through the movie,

obviously, because with Carlo undermining the family and

marrying into the family and getting Sonny shot, you do

something wrong, you're gone.

>> Hello, Carlo.

(groaning) >> RUSSO: I mean, yes, it was violent... but if you join the

club, you should know the rules. >> NARRATOR: In the film's chilling final scene,

Michael Corleone has formally assumed his father's role as the Godfather.

>> BOYD: He's pulled into the game. And over time, he has to become

something he didn't necessarily want to become. Something his father didn't want

him to become. >> Michael, you lousy bastard! You killed my husband!

>> BOYD: He has to become a gangster, and eventually transform himself into the

Godfather. >> She's hysterical. >> Michael, is it true?

>> Don't ask me about my business. >> No...

>> Enough! >> NARRATOR: He also commits what is, perhaps, the

ultimate act of betrayal. >> This one time...

This one time, I'll let you ask me about my affairs. >> Is it true?

>> No. (sighing, sobbing)

>> MICHAEL FRANZESE: I think most of the guys with the

old-time thinking kept everything away from their

wives. You know, their girlfriends

might've known something, but the wives didn't know anything,

and that was certainly by design.

You tried to protect your family.

>> MICHAEL CHERTOFF: I think, actually, mobsters tend to

treat women less well than in the movie.

There's the scene at the end when you see Diane Keaton, who

plays his wife, looking into another room, a kind of darkened

room, you see people coming up and basically bowing and kissing

Michael Corleone's hand.

And then the door shuts and you realize that she's now gonna be shut out of his new life.

That's a great metaphor for what the mafia is. >> NARRATOR: Although Michael

Corleone's transformation from innocence to evil may have been where The Godfather ended,

it was by no means the end of the story. The Godfather legacy

would continue.

>> NARRATOR: The morning after its New York premiere in 1972, critics and audiences began

praising The Godfather as "gripping," "explosive" and "brilliantly dramatic."

By the end of the week it was obvious-- the film that director Francis Ford Coppola feared

might be a failure would become a global phenomenon.

>> RUDDY: I remember driving to the office Wednesday

morning when we opened, 8:30 in the morning, it was raining

outside, and at the Astor Theatre, there were lines

around the block.

Something bizarre happens occasionally in a movie, where it becomes more than just a

movie. It becomes an event. >> COPPOLA: The whole success

of it totally shocked me.

All I can imagine is the devil must have popped out behind a

hedge and says, "Hey, if you sell me your soul, I'll make The

Godfather the most successful movie ever made."

Something like that must have happened that I don't remember, because maybe

when you make deals with the devil, part of it is you don't remember.

>> Please have your tickets out and ready, and please keep the line moving.

>> LEBO: The Godfather at its peak was making about a million

dollars a day, which doesn't sound like a lot today,

but in 1972, it was incredible. That was a gigantic hit beyond

anything that Paramount could have imagined.

>> NARRATOR: Almost overnight, The Godfather became a pop culture phenomenon.

Movie memorabilia such as posters of Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone sold in the

millions. 40s style "mob-chic" became something of a fashion craze,

and memorable lines from the film became part of the national dialogue.

>> I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse. >> It means Luca Brasi sleeps

with the fishes. >> You got to get up close like this-- bada-bing!

You blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit. >> COPPOLA: Jimmy should be

getting a royalty on things like, uh, "bada-bing," because he picked that all up

from the guys he wasanging out with. >> CAAN: It was like, you know,

having fun. It was a lot of improvisational stuff then.

I mean, the whole bada-bing thing, none of that stuff was written.

>> NARRATOR: Another unintended consequence of The Godfather was its immense popularity with

real-life mobsters.

>> FERRANTE: The Godfather was absolutely hands down the

mafia's best recruiting tool. It kind of put a veneer on

criminal life.

It made it okay to be a crook. Instead of being ostracized by being a criminal, you were kind

of put on a pedestal because everybody in your neighborhood saw The Godfather.

>> MASCIA: My parents, forget about it. They would go around quoting

The Godfather to each other all the time.

And that mythology actually became part of our language with

each other, part of our running inside joke.

They actually absorbed some of the customs, like the kissing of the ring, into their real lives.

They became the myth. >> NARRATOR: The Godfather went on to earn a total of ten

Academy Award nominations, winning three, including Best Adapted Screenplay,

Best Actor for Marlon Brando, and Best Picture of the Year. For Paramount Pictures, the

enormous box-office success of The Godfather made the idea of a sequel irresistible.

But for Francis Ford Coppola, the director who had been plagued with the studio's

frequent threats to replace him during production, the invitation to return to the

world of the Corleones was not so appealing. It would literally take an offer

the 34-year-old filmmaker couldn't refuse. >> COPPOLA: I had no desire

to do a second film. I only made it because I was given carte blanche to

make the second Godfather totally on my own. And I had always had an idea

about doing a film about a son and a father in the same story. >> NARRATOR: The Godfather:

Part II was set in the late 1950s. >> Mama!

>> NARRATOR: The story featured many of the same characters from the original film...

>> I thought you was never coming out west, you big bum. >> NARRATOR: ...but now with

a darker and deliberately more political tone. >> My lawyer, Tom Hagen,

Senator Geary. >> And I intend to squeeze you. I don't like your kind of

people. I don't like to see you come out to this clean country and your

oily hair. >> NARRATOR: Most particularly changed is Michael, the

ruthless new Don. >> Trying to pass yourselves off as decent Americans.

The dishonest way you pose yourself, yourself and your whole family.

>> NARRATOR: He is now a far cry from the reluctant crime boss depicted in the first

film. >> Senator... we're both part of the same

hypocrisy. But never think it applies to my family.

>> PACINO: I can only speak from the character's point of

view; I could tell you about the character, the struggle he was

having, which-which was made him a depressed person.

>> So, let's just say that you'll pay me because it's in your interest to pay me.

But I want your answer and the money by noon tomorrow. >> PACINO: There's no doubt

when you see Part II, the melancholia just starts to come in.

>> Senator, you can have my answer now, if you like.

My offer is this. Nothing. Not even the fee for the gaming

license, which I would appreciate if you would put up personally.

>> NARRATOR: In the film, Michael Corleone must face what is perhaps his deadliest threat,

because, unlike his mob opponents in the past, this time his enemy is someone within his

own ranks. >> Michael, why are the drapes open?

(gunfire)

>> MESSENGER: Certainly in the second Godfather film, that night the assassination

attempts on Michael Corleone and his family. They shoot right in the

bedroom windows. >> Kay, you all right? Are you hit?

(panting)

>> MESSENGER: And therefore the idea that the gang is safe

within their own... their own compound is-is-is wrong, and

that's how the second movie really begins.

>> NARRATOR: Determined to uncover the traitor, Michael suspects that Hyman Roth, a

life-long business partner of his father's, is behind the attack.

Enlisting the help of his capo, Frankie Pentangeli, Michael deviously plots his revenge

against crime boss Roth. >> My father taught me many things here.

He taught me in this room.

He taught me, "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." I want him completely relaxed

and confident in our friendship. Then I'll be able to find out who the traitor in my family

was.

>> PHILLIPS: The betrayal of one family member against

another, it would be a horrific event, uh, if anyone

perpetrated this act.

But it's perpetrated by friends or family members. Evil is always more dangerous

when it takes the cloak of familiarity. >> NARRATOR: But The Godfather:

Part II is much more than a sequel. Using an elaborate series of

flashbacks, the film weaves together contrasting characters and events.

Juxtaposed against the modern story of Michael Corleone is the more nostalgic tale of his

immigrant father, Vito Andolini, the orphaned casualty of a bloody Sicilian vendetta.

(gunshot)

>> NARRATOR: After escaping to the United States, young Vito, now renamed Corleone, follows

the path of many Italians who fled poverty in an effort to seek freedom and fortune

in a new land. >> TOM GUGLIELMO: Anyone who knows anything about U.S.

immigration history will recognize these images.

The Godfather was the-the first big epic tale about

European immigration.

There's a desperation. He comes as a young boy. He has nothing on his back, no

resources, very few connections as far as we can tell. He's clearly living a pretty

poor existence in Lower Manhattan. That's his life.

>> NARRATOR: In the role of Vito as a young man, Coppola cast 30-year-old Robert De Niro,

fresh from his success in Mean Streets, Martin Scorsese's gritty portrayal of modern

gangster life in New York. Young Vito, like many American immigrants, works menial jobs to

feed his growing family.

He witnesses local gang boss Don Fanucci terrorizing his Italian neighborhood.

The corruption reminds Vito of the injustices he had hoped to leave behind in Sicily.

>> Vito, come here. Come on. >> COPPOLA: People had left the

Old World because of the aristocracy and traditions and advantages that certain

families had because of their connections and their name, and America was supposed to be, uh,

where all that was gone, and there was really a government that was gonna look out for you.

And to some extent, that was true, but very often, to the lowly immigrant it wasn't true.

>> GUGLIELMO: If you didn't think the system in America worked for you, the mafia was

an option around the system. >> NARRATOR: Now the young Vito must make a choice:

either live as a coward...

(gunshot) ...or as a criminal. (screaming, gunshot)

There would be no turning back.

>> Now, Mr. Corleone, you have been advised as to your legal rights.

We have testimony from a witness, a previous witness, one Willy Cicci.

He has stated that you are head of the most powerful mafia family in this country.

Are you? >> No, I'm not. >> The witness has testified

that you are personally responsible for the murder of a New York City police captain

in 1947, and with him, a man named Virgil Sollozzo. You deny this?

>> Yes, I do. >> Is it true that in the year 1950, you devised the murder of

the heads of the so-called Five Families in New York to assume and consolidate your

nefarious power? >> It's a complete falsehood.

>> It's rather a suspicious coincidence that the records

which showed these matters were destroyed six days after the

break-in at the Watergate.

>> Mr. Chairman, the adjectives that you're using: "clear, coincidence" and

"suspicious coincidence..." >> Well, don't you think it's rather suspicious?

>> No, I don't. >> NARRATOR: Filmed in the wake of the sensation-filled

Watergate hearings in 1973, The Godfather: Part II offers a pointed political metaphor as

Michael Corleone comes face-to- face with the very senators and politicians his father Vito had

hoped he would grow up to be. But as seen in the film, the government-- like the mafia--

is equally corrupt and contaminated by greed.

>> MESSENGER: It's a brilliant achievement in cinema.

And only goes to show how aware Coppola and Puzo were

of how integrated business and government, politics and

nations were to mob control. >> SPITZER: When I was in

Manhattan's D.A.'s office, you had a convergence of corrupt

politicians, corrupt union leaders in organized crime.

And that sort of intersection of three forces when corrupted was

extraordinarily powerful. >> MICHAEL CHERTOFF: There was a

time in the United States when the mob did have a lot of

influence in political life in certain cities.

And they had either bribed politicians or bribed judges or

had influence through the labor unions on what was going on

politically. >> FRANZESE: We did favors, we

expected them in return. You know, even political favors.

I had, without mentioning his name, one of the most powerful

Democratic leaders of the Democratic Party who was in New

York was very tightly involved with us.

We had to go to all his fundraisers.

Whenever we needed a favor, we went to him, sat with him many, many times, so that goes on

quite a bit.

>> NARRATOR: Set against the backdrop of the mob's activities in pre-Castro Cuba, the film

chronicles Michael's rising influence in politics and business.

But at a meeting in Havana, he discovers the identity of the traitor within his family.

>> I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!

>> NARRATOR: Throughout the film, Coppola and Puzo sharply contrast the story of Michael

Corleone's struggle to retain control with that of his father's acquisition of power

and influence during the 1920s.

>> PHILLIPS: Vito is extremely committed to gathering respect.

There is nothing more important to him.

>> Grazie, grazie.

>> PHILLIPS: Vito is seeking the acknowledgment of his ability to provide protection.

The ingratiation of a community, if you think of how he started, taking care of widows who were

being overcharged in their rent.

All of these sorts of things really are the coin of the realm for Vito.

>> Grazie, grazie. >> PHILLIPS: Michael is very different.

In many respects, he runs his family like a well-oiled military operation.

No room for error, no room for questioning authority and absolute annihilation of any

enemy who stands in his way. >> NARRATOR: But Michael's determination to hold onto the

power he inherited will ultimately cost him the very family he claims he is

protecting. >> I know you blame me for losing the baby.

I'll make it up to you, Kay. I swear I'll make it up to you. >> Michael, you are blind.

It wasn't a miscarriage.

It was an abortion, just like our marriage is an abortion! Something that's unholy

and evil!

>> GUGLIELMO: It's really the first time where she does

contest Michael's power and does call him out for all

the horrible things he's been doing.

>> It was a son! A son, and I had it killed because this must all end!

I know now that it's over. I knew it then. There would be no way, Michael,

no way you could ever forgive me, not with this Sicilian thing that's been going on

for 2,000 years! (yells)

>> YOUNG: Throughout Greek mythology, the hero king is

undone by his own arrogance.

>> You won't take my children. >> I will.

>> You won't take my children! >> They're my children, too. >> YOUNG: Someone with great

authority, wealth, the advantages of life gets full of themselves, takes their strength

a little too far, and ends up lost or alone or dead, and to a degree that happens to Michael.

>> NARRATOR: As if to leave audiences no doubt about his descent into corruption and

self-loathing, Michael Corleone commits what is perhaps his ultimate crime: ordering the

murder of his brother Fredo. >> Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners.

>> SHIRE: It's one thing if your enemy hurts you, but if a brother kills a brother...

(gunshot) ...that's tragedy.

Now you're moving in another direction, and you know that has

to have some kind of consequence, spiritually.

>> PACINO: It shows Michael, the only way for him to survive, was

to assume this kind of person with these ideas and

these ideals. Killing his own brother, you

know, it's like a Greek tragedy. >> COPPOLA: Mario questioned the

murder of Fredo-- which was not in the book and was my idea--

as being, you know, too much. And then he sort of relented

when I said, "They won't kill him until after his mother

dies." He says "Okay, then

it's all right." (laughs)

>> NARRATOR: The Godfather: Part II paints a sad portrait, not only of the Corleones but of a

tarnished American dream; a dream that began with optimism and faith, and became

contaminated by betrayal and disillusionment.

>> CAMILLE PAGLIA: At the very end, when Michael is sitting in his house at Lake Tahoe

utterly alone, utterly cold. Just his eyes, totally conscious, totally sleepless,

watching. He's become Roman.

It's amazing piece of underplaying, steely

understatement. That is it. That captures it.

>> NARRATOR: But for Michael Corleone, his journey has not yet ended.

His unspeakable crimes require atonement. But from whom does a godfather

seek redemption if not from God himself?

>> NARRATOR: In December 1974, Paramount Pictures released The Godfather: Part II to critical

and commercial acclaim. The film went on to earn 11 Academy Award nominations,

winning six, including Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Director and Best Picture,

a feat unmatched by any movie sequel. >> PACINO: It's the story.

It's a good story.

It's about human beings who are going through things, in a way,

and I think that's what Francis was able to capture.

And so you're able to follow their struggle. >> NARRATOR: In the wake of The

Godfather: Part II's success, Paramount Pictures executives begged director Francis Ford

Coppola to write and direct yet another sequel. But exhausted by what had been a

four-year process, the 35-year-old filmmaker refused. >> COPPOLA: I always vowed I

would never make another Godfather.

I never thought there should be more than one Godfather film.

I never subscribed to the idea that a successful movie had to

have more of them made, because I knew it was just

a commercial decision.

>> NARRATOR: But during the decades that followed, rumors persisted that a Godfather film

was in the works. Rumors that turned out to be true when, in 1989, it was

announced that Francis Ford Coppola had agreed to helm the project.

>> COPPOLA: The third one got made 15 years later, when I was, like, absolutely in all kinds

of dire financial need. I wanted to call it The Death of Michael Corleone.

I always saw the third movie should be more like a coda. It shouldn't be like

a third installment. >> What'd you come here for? >> I came here to protect

my son. >> I spent my life protecting my son.

I spent my life protecting my family!

>> NARRATOR: Once again co-written by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo,

The Godfather: Part III concerns Michael Corleone's efforts to achieve legitimacy

for both himself and his family. >> Smile! (applause)

(chanting in Latin) >> NARRATOR: This leads him to forge a financial and political

alliance with the Roman Catholic Church. >> In nomine Patris...

et Spiritu Sancti. >> NARRATOR: And, in the process, he seeks spiritual

forgiveness for his past sins. >> Amen. >> I killed men.

And I ordered men to be killed. >> Go on, my son. Go on.

>> I ordered the death of my brother. He injured me.

I killed my mother's son. >> PACINO: Michael is letting go of this character he's become.

Killing his own brother-- he wanted to be forgiven for that.

He wanted to move on and-and become what he was before he was... started in the family.

>> MESSENGER: Michael now wants to buy off his immortal soul.

It's a very intriguing storyline because he wants to give a

billion dollars to the Vatican and then have the Vatican

disperse this money through a foundation, and therefore

somehow believe that he is not going to burn eternally.

>> NARRATOR: But Michael's almost desperate efforts to atone for his past sins are

thwarted when he discovers that forces within the Catholic Church are even more corrupt

than the mafia. >> COPPOLA: I have always known that the Catholic Church--

which, uh, is a story that's thousands of years old-- its history is nothing to be

proud of. They're masters of immorality. >> The church owns 25% of a

large corporation. Immobiliare. >> That's true.

>> And the Vatican vote is necessary for control. The Corleones are prepared to

deposit $500 million in the Vatican bank at such time as Mr. Corleone receives majority

control of Immobiliare. >> $600 million. >> PHILLIPS: Michael is a very

tragic figure.

He'll never be legitimate. It's the classic line.

>> Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. >> PHILLIPS: It's at that point

that he realizes he will never be legitimate. He can't be.

And that is his greatest frustration and the greatest cross to bear.

>> Our true enemy... has not yet shown his face.

>> Michael! (screams) Michael!

>> NARRATOR: But in The Godfather: Part III, Michael Corleone is not only

spiritually weakened, he is also physically handicapped. (gasping)

>> PACINO: Francis puts in his battle with this disease. He has this diabetic kind of

a recurrence and you could see that's a metaphor for what's died in him.

>> NARRATOR: His battle with disease now makes the once formidable Michael vulnerable

to attack by a rival mob boss. >> As for Don Corleone, well, he makes it... very clear to me

today that he is my enemy. (rattling) >> What the hell is that?

>> It's a hit. Let's go; follow me. >> Let's get out of here!

(people shouting)

(machine-gun fire)

>> Mikey! This way! >> Go! Go!

>> NARRATOR: In contrast to Michael Corleone's decline is the strength and cunning now

demonstrated by his sister, Connie. Battered by past events, she

emerges as a ruthless matriarch with an iron will... >> If anything happens to

Michael, I want you to strike back. >> NARRATOR: ...and an appetite

for revenge. >> I'll have everything ready. >> You swear?

>> SHIRE: Connie does embrace power, but her expression of it is all dark.

>> I swear to you. >> SHIRE: In many ways, she is-- in her mind-- the concept of her

father.

So she is taking power in this other way.

You know, she is... hovering over who will be the next king.

>> JOE MANTEGNA: Talia's character, the evolution of it all still ties to the strength

of the family.

That's part of the strength of the film, that even in times of

the most horrific strife, at the end of the day, that old line...

blood's thicker than water.

>> NARRATOR: Michael's hopes for redemption are shattered when an assassin's bullet, intended

for him... (gunshots, screaming) ...takes the life of his

daughter, Mary.

>> Dad? >> SHIRE: He now has to witness the death of a daughter.

There's nothing glamorous about all of this. You know, yeah, you have the

symbols of power, but not when this kind of horror is brought to your family and there's

nothing you can do about it. (screams) >> Mary!

>> NARRATOR: With his dead daughter clutched in his arms, Michael Corleone's mouth becomes

frozen in a silent scream, as if he were trying to utter a prayer that even God refuses to

hear. >> MESSENGER: As he watches his daughter shot to death on the

steps of the opera house in Palermo, Sicily, Michael descends into a hell of his own

making but one in which he is certainly justly punished. >> FRED GARDAPHE: He becomes

this kind of impure opposite of his father. (screams)

Where his father's about keeping the family together, he ends up,

you know, inadvertently destroying the family.

>> NARRATOR: In The Godfather: Part III's final scene, Michael Corleone is shown in

the last moments of his life. He is living in Italy, without power, without friends, and

without the family he had spent so much of his life trying to protect.

>> GARDAPHE: At the end of Godfather III, Michael Corleone is very much alone,

and the Italians have this phrase, "morte come un cane"-- you should die like a dog.

When dogs die, they go off on their own and they know they're gonna die.

And Coppola, I think, does a great job of showing that at the

end, that this is what happens to people, um, who betray their

own families.

And Michael, who is betraying the honor of his family by killing his sister's husband,

killing his own brother. So Michael Corleone dies alone, and he dies like a dog.

>> LEBO: We can tell by that very brief scene at the end of The Godfather: Part III

that this has been a tragic life that he's lived.

Against everything he had ever hoped for, everything he ever

planned for, he wound up becoming exactly what he did not

want to be.

He became part of the family business, and became more ruthless and more powerful than

his father before him. >> COPPOLA: What is that famous quote?

"What profits you where you gain the whole world and you lose your soul?"

And I thought the irony of the Michael Corleone story

was that, in an attempt to protect his family, he destroyed

his family, and himself as well.

>> NARRATOR: Although The Godfather: Part III would go on to earn a total of

seven Academy Award nominations-- including one for Best Picture-- the film received

mixed reviews from critics, and disappointed many fans. >> COPPOLA: There were many

things about the third Godfather that I liked, but I didn't feel it was necessary.

The last book is always the weakest, because you've already shown all your tricks.

You've already exposed all the themes. You-You're out of stuff to do.

>> PACINO: Godfather III... I don't know how much the audiences related to that.

Its motivation was different-- redemption.

But then there are actually people out there... they like

it, you know, and so yeah, I-I don't question them any further.

Well, what about it did you like?

You know, I don't do that. I sort of... I say, hey, I'll leave well enough alone.

>> NARRATOR: But in spite of the criticism, The Godfather: Part III has joined its

predecessors as a classic. The Godfather Saga stands as a towering achievement in

filmmaking, and has embedded itself in the American consciousness.

Like a collective memory, it reflects everything from the immigrant experience to the

importance of family. It also exposes the harsh realities of crime,

its relationship to society, and the darker side of the American dream.

>> LEBO: The Godfather is really part of American culture, as

much as baseball or cornflakes or anything else, it really is.

>> MESSENGER: The testimony to the power of any popular cultural event is the way that

its styles and its language move into the larger culture.

For decades now, Americans have been saying in the workplace,

"I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."

>> BOYD: I know people who will quote lines from the film as a mantra for their own life

as though it didn't come from a movie, but it came from a holy book.

People can use these films to go start a corporation and bankrupt

nations if they wanted to.

>> My father taught me in this room. He taught me, "Keep your friends

close, but your enemies closer."

>> COPPOLA: There's no accident that all of these business moguls and dictators like

Saddam Hussein and Qaddafi, that was their favorite movie, because Vito Corleone and his

sons are powerful people, and the logic of The Godfather is capitalism in-in its purest

form. >> GARDAPHE: So much of The Godfather has a

resonance in it.

It's this incredible reflection of an American fantasy, but

kind of a historical reality. And when you fuse those two

things together, you end up with something that is genuinely

mythic.

>> RUSSO: The life that was portrayed by-by that family, the Corleones, it's been embraced by

every culture there is. >> CAAN: I won the Italian of the Year twice.

Not once, twice. I tried to explain to 'em I couldn't take it... (laughs)

'cause I'm not really Italian. But I'm very fortunate that I was in that movie.

>> COPPOLA: Of course, I'm well aware that the status I enjoy comes from The Godfather.

It was an extraordinary group of people I was involved with. And the biggest factor of luck,

I think, is the timing related to the audience being ready to see a film like that.

>> BART: This picture, I think, reflected the best of '70s filmmaking.

It married artistic sensibilities to a more commercial canvas.

>> MANTEGNA: As my friend Vinnie told me when I got Godfather III, he said, "Wow, you're

gonna be in the Italian Star Wars." (laughs)

>> SHIRE: It dares to be epic. And it has those themes of power and dynasty.

And how a family of crime is still a family. >> PACINO: It's the underpinning

of what is the American dream. And what family means, to everybody, all over the world,

really. Captioned by access.wgbh.orgup at WGBH