1 00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:04,880 From Indias largest newsroom, I'm Meenal Paghel and this is 2 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:17,000 the Times of India podcast. 52 years ago, one of the best films 3 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:18,840 ever made in Hollywood was released. 4 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:22,840 We've done this episode when the film turned 50 in 2022, and 5 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:24,680 we're bringing back that episode today. 6 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:32,840 If ever there was a great example of how the best popular 7 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:37,360 movies come out of a merger of commerce and art, The Godfather 8 00:00:37,480 --> 00:00:41,520 is it. That's Sopranos actor Edie 9 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:45,000 Falco, reading from Pauline Kane's review of The Godfather 10 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:49,480 in The New Yorker. This March 15th marked 50 years 11 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:53,880 since Francis Ford Coppola's godfather burst on movie screen 12 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:57,040 and became one of the most beloved films the world over. 13 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:01,680 The story of an aging mafia, Dawn and his family set in post 14 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:05,800 Second World War America, is based on Mario Puzo's racy novel 15 00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:09,840 and became an enduring classic that has been called a master 16 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:12,840 class in writing, acting and directing. 17 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:17,600 It has led to numerous inspired lifts, including a Bollywood 18 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:21,040 film called Aatanki Aatank starring Aamir Khan and 19 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:24,480 Rajinikanth no less. Here's filmmaker Vikramaditya 20 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:28,720 Motwani on the impact that Godfather has had on film makers 21 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:34,240 and moviegoers alike. Vikramaditya Godfather turns 50. 22 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:36,720 That's proper middle age, even for films. 23 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:39,040 How do you think the movie has aged? 24 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:42,200 Honestly, the film hasn't aged one single bit. 25 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:46,240 It is fresh, It is unique. It is, it's incredible. 26 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:48,680 It's incredible. It's a master class in 27 00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:49,880 everything. I mean and then this is an off 28 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:53,120 stair, you know, term of being a master, but it truly is. 29 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:58,440 It's a film that runs close to three hours long, but yet has a 30 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:03,520 phenomenal amount of minimalism of storytelling that he just, 31 00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:07,200 you know, hits the right note at the right time. 32 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:10,120 It's that perfect, you know, mixture of it, of it being 33 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:14,760 gently paced enough, but yet there's that massive amounts of 34 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:17,880 tension that are building up, you know, through the entire 35 00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:20,280 film until the very ending. It's a, it's really like when 36 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:23,720 you watch it. The Michaels, Michael's story, 37 00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:25,120 Michael's character, Michael's story. 38 00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:30,080 Michael's entire plot of, you know of of going from A-Z with 39 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:32,560 the characters. Something that you know that as 40 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:34,640 a writer, one gets very conscious of. 41 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:37,960 It's something that I'm constantly telling new writers 42 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:40,520 and you know, like just have your characters go from there. 43 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:43,720 Hey let them go to Zed. Don't even know A to B or A to C 44 00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:47,800 you know like have the entire gamut of you know of a journey 45 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:49,360 that's a real character's journey that goes. 46 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:52,800 And Michael who starts off as being in his army uniform as you 47 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:58,040 know this guy who's like they're my family they're not me to 48 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:01,120 becoming the you know you've gone full 180 over there but 49 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:03,800 it's believable the 180 is believable. 50 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:05,920 The 180 you're you're with him on his journey. 51 00:03:05,920 --> 00:03:09,600 You understand. You understand he's he's also 52 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:12,160 flawed. He's also egotistical. 53 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:14,520 He's also all those things. I mean, it's fast. 54 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:16,120 Cold, right? Eventually. 55 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:17,000 Very cold. Yeah. 56 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:19,480 Very, very cold. Eventually somebody who had 57 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:24,240 warmth and had love and understood his power understood 58 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,600 you know the you know of of and that development and there's a 59 00:03:27,640 --> 00:03:29,600 whole section when he goes to Italy when you're wondering kind 60 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:31,960 of like OK you know you you think like why am I watching 61 00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:34,120 this why am I seeing Michael Jordan in Italy especially with 62 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:37,280 what is what is about. And then you realize afterwards 63 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:40,960 that you know the it's it's the development of his sense of 64 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:44,480 power the development of his sense of of his sense of self of 65 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:48,200 his you know what he can achieve by just being who he is and how 66 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:50,160 he can get what he wants by being who he is. 67 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:54,480 So what was amazing was also the faith that you know Coppola and 68 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,000 Mario Fuzzo have in the audience. 69 00:03:57,000 --> 00:03:59,680 I think that that is amazing and you know that that's a lesson 70 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:01,360 for all of us. It's like you know trust your 71 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:03,720 audience. And the last third of the film, 72 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:08,000 when, when they plot when when they've basically gone and 73 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,680 they've played Carlo, you know like when the other like said 74 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:15,280 that OK Tom Hagan is not going to be the conciliary is actually 75 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:18,880 going to be you know and so and the way they've played him into 76 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:22,040 that and, you know. But when it plays out and when 77 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:26,360 you realize who has been who who's betrayed who and the fact 78 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:30,280 that Carlo has to has to be, you know, gotten rid of there is 79 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:32,320 there is an amazing it's not like there's a nudge, nudge, 80 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:37,480 wink, wink, dekho. And they've trusted the audience 81 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:39,840 to get it. That's what really makes you 82 00:04:39,840 --> 00:04:44,880 love the film because the film makers have have given you, you 83 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:47,440 know, like they've given you the keys in a certain certain sense. 84 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:49,280 We are also part of the conspiracy. 85 00:04:49,280 --> 00:04:51,360 You don't need to be told you're also part of the conspiracy. 86 00:04:51,360 --> 00:04:53,200 Get it. And that is very very. 87 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:55,360 It's beautiful. It's beautiful because you you 88 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:57,480 know you you you've been trusted. 89 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:01,240 It was a book that was picked up by Paramount Studios, which was 90 00:05:01,320 --> 00:05:05,200 a kind of throwaway, let's make it for $1,000,000 kind of film. 91 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:07,040 We have the rights and let's make it. 92 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:10,840 So let's get Albert Ruddy, who's a producer who's known to get 93 00:05:10,840 --> 00:05:12,640 films in under budget. Like that's his. 94 00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:14,760 His speciality is not like he can produce great movies like he 95 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:17,400 can get it in under budget. Like that was a big business 96 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:18,960 decision. That was a bit and because at 97 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:23,920 that point of time your your big movies were working were love 98 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:27,400 story was the was was the big one at that time which was like 99 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:29,600 this is the film, this is the template of film that's going to 100 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:31,600 be working at the box office and that kind of stuff. 101 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,760 So the Godfather gangster drama let's get it to we have it, 102 00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:36,120 let's make it sure it'll be interesting. 103 00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:39,040 Let's get ready to do it. Ready goes and gets Coppola. 104 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:41,880 Coppola goes and gets Brando. The next thing you know the film 105 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:45,080 is out there and they get better to sign a contract where if he 106 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:46,840 delays the film he will pay for it. 107 00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:50,720 They finish two days early. I mean, all that stuff is a part 108 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:56,240 of, you know, is is folklore. Coppola has written somewhere 109 00:05:56,240 --> 00:06:00,160 that on the second reading, when I realized that I was going to 110 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:04,000 make Godfather, and on the second reading, much of the book 111 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:06,800 fell away in my mind. Revealing a story that was a 112 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:11,640 metaphor for American capitalism is the tale of a great king with 113 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:15,400 three sons, oldest given his passions, aggressiveness, second 114 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:18,960 his sweet nature, childlike qualities, and the third is 115 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:20,880 intelligence, cunning and coldness. 116 00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:25,480 So he actually found the universal story within, and 117 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:30,920 perhaps you think that explains the enduring love that the 118 00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:33,920 audience has for Godfather. Absolutely. 119 00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:36,240 It's it's it is extremely relatable. 120 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:37,760 The film can really take place. You watch it. 121 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:39,800 It's like, well, this doesn't. Yes, it's it's part of the 122 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:46,000 American capitalist dream of, you know, capitalist folklore. 123 00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:50,680 But it's a it's a you could place the same story in a in a 124 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:54,040 in the Shakespearean world put it back in the 18th century 125 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:56,600 quite honestly in in Russia of all places or in England or 126 00:06:56,600 --> 00:06:59,160 anywhere else in India. I mean and and the same story 127 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:03,920 the same story works it's it's it's how the power you have to 128 00:07:03,920 --> 00:07:08,320 use it responsibly not you know use it responsibly. 129 00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:10,960 It's about, you know, who of your sons in a sense, you have 130 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:13,600 to be able to choose who are leading towards. 131 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:17,840 This is a, this is a tale of the ages today. 132 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:22,360 What we talk about about saying the hero's journey or whether 133 00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:27,000 it's about a reluctant protagonist or whether you know 134 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:28,760 all those things that we talk about today, which are things 135 00:07:28,760 --> 00:07:32,680 that are thrown around. Were these were these conscious 136 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:34,840 back then or, you know, was it? Honestly, I don't know. 137 00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:38,200 But it has become, you know, a part of screen writing, 138 00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:43,040 one-on-one in a, in a sense where you so many things from 139 00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:45,640 the Godfather you refer to. And that's just the storytelling 140 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:47,840 part. There's also there's also the 141 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:51,280 the visual you know elements of it figure. 142 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:53,200 I mean the actors are all phenomenal and you know there's 143 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:58,000 there's great characters but what Gordon Willis did in in 144 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:01,320 terms of if of the shooting of the film was no one had done 145 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:05,360 that before to shoot a film with that sort of natural approach 146 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:08,520 and and it's still it's things that we still have to fight for 147 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:10,920 today to be able to sort of like say because everybody's going to 148 00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:13,320 come and say yeah, it's very dark and it's very busy. 149 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:16,600 We can see characters, faces, we can see their eyes and you can't 150 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:19,760 have them in shadow. And 50 years ago, Gordon Willis 151 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:22,840 has done that and sort of broken every rule as far as it's 152 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:24,320 concerned. And I'm sure they must have had 153 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:27,920 panic at that point in time. But one tends to sort of like 154 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:29,760 forget the fact, yes, their godfather. 155 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:33,000 It's the top of the IMDb chart. It's one of the most loved 156 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:34,159 films. It's considered the greatest 157 00:08:34,159 --> 00:08:36,760 film of the, you know, the history of cinema, all that sort 158 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:38,679 of stuff. But you also forget that it 159 00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:41,679 made, when you take into account inflation has made a billion 160 00:08:41,679 --> 00:08:44,520 dollars at the box office. That's the same amount of money 161 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:46,480 that Spider Man has made to us. You think about that. 162 00:08:46,520 --> 00:08:49,200 It's a huge hit. It is a massive, massive, 163 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,720 massive hit, which gives a lot of us a lot of hope and a lot of 164 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:55,200 say, yeah, if the Godfather can do 50 years ago, what are we 165 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:56,400 worried about today? Why? 166 00:08:56,400 --> 00:08:58,920 Why You still sort of like having boundaries around you 167 00:08:58,920 --> 00:09:12,090 today? In the the 1960s there was this 168 00:09:12,090 --> 00:09:17,880 movement away from the formulas of the studio system of 169 00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:20,440 Hollywood as it used to be in the class. 170 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:23,960 In the great days of the studio system younger film makers 171 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:27,240 partly influenced by world cinema, partly influenced by 172 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:33,480 studying film for the first time formally were trying to make 173 00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:36,920 more personal films And and and we're trying to do things that 174 00:09:36,920 --> 00:09:41,800 were moving away from the old, more mannered forms of 175 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:45,040 expression in American cinema. And as as a result of that 176 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:47,640 starting with say films like, you know in the late 60s films 177 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:50,800 like Bonnie and Clyde. They began this whole movement 178 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:55,200 and and and let's not forget that film criticism also was 179 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:57,360 becoming a little more expansive around the same time. 180 00:09:57,360 --> 00:10:00,680 So you know, so you you had the French who had come in with this 181 00:10:00,680 --> 00:10:03,200 idea of the Oughtour theory around a decade earlier. 182 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:05,480 And then what happens is that this whole generation of 183 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:08,920 American film makers led by Francis Ford Coppola, which 184 00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:11,400 which you know, the the kids with beards as they were known, 185 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:15,880 Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, who's who's possibly my personal 186 00:10:15,880 --> 00:10:20,920 favorite, Spielberg, George Lucas, they just started making 187 00:10:20,920 --> 00:10:25,200 these films in ways that they found interesting, working with 188 00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:28,160 material that they thought they could do something personal 189 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:31,280 with. And and American cinema was just 190 00:10:31,280 --> 00:10:33,400 changing in a big way. And I think The Godfather is 191 00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:38,560 probably the film that's just the fulcrum of that that era. 192 00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:41,440 It's, you know, right at the center of everything. 193 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:45,680 It gave so many important actors to American cinema. 194 00:10:45,680 --> 00:10:49,000 It just brought a new aesthetic in terms of Gordon Wills and 195 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:52,760 Venice's, you know, incredible cinematography which which took 196 00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:55,840 pulp material, Mario Puzo's pulp novel, and just turned it into 197 00:10:55,840 --> 00:10:58,760 something very majestic and grand looking. 198 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:03,720 That's writer and critic Jay Arjun Singh, who says Coppola 199 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:07,680 almost didn't make Godfather because he wanted to move away 200 00:11:07,680 --> 00:11:12,000 from the Ratio B movies he had made early on in his career. 201 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:16,320 I was having this conversation earlier with Vikramaditya 202 00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:18,200 Motwani, and I was saying the same thing. 203 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:22,840 That this whole idea of adaptation, to turn it into 204 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:26,480 something which is almost Shakespearean in its kind of 205 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:29,960 depth, is what what great adaptations can do. 206 00:11:30,520 --> 00:11:33,480 Since you bring that up, it's worth remembering that Francis 207 00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:36,280 von Coppola himself was very reluctant to work with that 208 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:38,200 book. You know, he if you, if you 209 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:40,280 know, you know his history as a filmmaker. 210 00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:42,880 He started off working as an assistant director with Roger 211 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:46,560 Corman on B movies, and in the early 60s he directed a couple 212 00:11:46,560 --> 00:11:51,960 of very cheap B horror films like Dementia 13, Coppola and. 213 00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:55,040 And when this book came along, he was trying to do something 214 00:11:55,040 --> 00:11:57,440 more overtly respectable. He was, you know, thinking of 215 00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:01,040 himself as as an artist who was going to do these things. 216 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:04,000 And he was. He looked at the Puzo novel and 217 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:07,680 like you said, it's a riveting, it's a page Turner, but it is a 218 00:12:07,680 --> 00:12:11,120 pot boiler essentially. And he looked at it and said, 219 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:14,160 what sort of you can't make a respectable film out of this? 220 00:12:14,160 --> 00:12:16,880 It will be a genre film and I want to do something else. 221 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:20,320 And he was very reluctant at first, but of course eventually 222 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:23,400 he stuck with it And then he when he managed to bully 223 00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:26,600 Paramount into doing the things that he wanted like like getting 224 00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:29,000 Brando on board, getting Pacino on board. 225 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:31,960 These are people who though the studio did not want at all. 226 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:35,800 You know the as you might know, Brando had a reputation for 227 00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:38,680 being very difficult. He, you know it was perceived 228 00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:41,600 that his, you know that the best of his days were over. 229 00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:45,280 Pacino was you know there were Paramount executives who were 230 00:12:45,280 --> 00:12:48,760 apparently just referring to Pacino very condescendingly as 231 00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:52,360 that dwarf because of his height and then and they thought he 232 00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:53,920 wasn't leading man material at all. 233 00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:56,920 Coppola stuck with that and you know through a series of 234 00:12:56,920 --> 00:13:01,400 decisions and and he, I think he just, he just took that novel 235 00:13:01,400 --> 00:13:03,280 and elevated it into something else. 236 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:08,760 What do you think that Coppola did that that makes it such a 237 00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:13,360 Seminole film? As lay audience, what we see, we 238 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:16,920 understand quality and we are immersed in a film. 239 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:20,200 But what as a filmmaker, what do you think that he did? 240 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:23,400 What were the cues that he he gave to the audience? 241 00:13:24,400 --> 00:13:28,720 First and foremost thing he did was to just get a lot of 242 00:13:29,760 --> 00:13:33,080 elements together and to you know orchestrate them and to 243 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:35,640 oversee them in in such a way that they really work well 244 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:36,800 together. You know, you you have the 245 00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:39,720 actors of course the casting which you know we we we all know 246 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:43,600 about that. But but you know what to to work 247 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:46,400 with Gordon Willis's cinematography to create that 248 00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:51,600 stygian, that dark stygian look to work with Nino Rota's score, 249 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:53,680 we just you know which which which you know all of us. 250 00:13:53,680 --> 00:13:56,520 It is just part of our filmmaking, our film watching 251 00:13:56,520 --> 00:13:58,880 mythology, right, that that music score. 252 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:01,840 I just found myself humming a little tune from The Godfather 253 00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:05,240 Part 2 a few days ago without you realizing what I was doing. 254 00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:07,840 It's just there and and it immediately puts you in a 255 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:09,960 certain mood, a certain frame of mind. 256 00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:13,480 It's also worth say worth mentioning that popular after 257 00:14:13,480 --> 00:14:17,360 his initial reluctance about the novel, at some point when he 258 00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:22,120 really did become interested in making this film, I think he 259 00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:24,320 brought a lot of his own personality and his his own 260 00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:26,840 concerns into the film as well. You know, I was like I I, I 261 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:29,960 remember reading a biography once where where there was, you 262 00:14:29,960 --> 00:14:33,120 know, his elder brother August Coppola, who was who was an 263 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:36,040 academic and a writer himself. He was always the chosen one in 264 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:39,400 the family and Francis was the younger brother was meant to be 265 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:43,600 the you know the outsider figure and eventually of course he he 266 00:14:43,760 --> 00:14:46,360 became the big figure in in American film. 267 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:49,000 So. So that journey almost seems to 268 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:52,880 in some ways parallel the rise of Michael Michaels rise and 269 00:14:52,880 --> 00:14:56,240 going past Sunny and in and in that context is worth mentioning 270 00:14:56,240 --> 00:14:59,800 that that Francis for Coppola cast his own sister in the role 271 00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:02,600 of Connie Pollyone Tilatalaya Shire. 272 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:06,200 And I think, I think the material became very personal to 273 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:09,200 him at some point. He started relating with it and 274 00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:11,760 once that happened and all these other elements just came 275 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:15,880 together the way they needed to Brando Pacino, you know that 276 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:21,440 even the the, the smallest roles, the the grandness of, you 277 00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:24,640 know, the the great set pieces of the film like the the the the 278 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:27,760 climactic see the scene with the with the intercutting between 279 00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:30,960 the baptism and the killings that then becomes a commentary 280 00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:34,040 on on this. You know, organized crime, 281 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:37,360 organized religion, everything. You know, a whole culture was 282 00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:41,760 important. Which is your favorite scene 283 00:15:41,800 --> 00:15:45,440 from The Godfather? Are we talking only about the 284 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:47,480 1st? Film or no, you can take, you 285 00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:49,920 can take though I doubt if anyone has a favorite scene from 286 00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:52,600 Part 3, but you can take the trilogy. 287 00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:55,040 Well well well, well. I actually do have a favorite 288 00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:59,760 scene from from Part 3. But but you know but well having 289 00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:03,600 said of course that it's that it's not as good as the first 290 00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:07,280 two And my favorite scene is this the unabashedly 291 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:12,640 melodramatic operatic finale with with with Michael's silent 292 00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:15,360 scream and and that great burst of music over it. 293 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:17,960 And in the Godfather part three what's sticking with the God for 294 00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:21,040 you know there are little little moments in the Godfather which 295 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:26,240 are just so we which which actually make the bigger 296 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:29,080 operatic moments even more interesting. 297 00:16:29,200 --> 00:16:30,720 You know so. So that that scene where where 298 00:16:30,720 --> 00:16:34,240 Michael is outside the hospital. His father's in hospital and 299 00:16:34,240 --> 00:16:36,760 suddenly there's this crisis where these men are going to 300 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:40,600 come to the hospital potentially to kill to kill Vito. 301 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:44,440 And Michael has to put up that little pretence with with that 302 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:46,120 friend of his who's really nervous. 303 00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:52,720 And that scene where Michael is lighting the cigarette and and 304 00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:56,440 you know and he notices it's almost like he notices that his 305 00:16:56,440 --> 00:16:59,440 own hands are not shaking you know he's he's up to this the 306 00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:02,480 other guy is nervous like anything but Michael who up to 307 00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:06,119 this point we've been led to believe is this innocent who who 308 00:17:06,119 --> 00:17:08,280 is not meant to be in this mafia business. 309 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:12,280 He's found the steel in himself at that point. 310 00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:14,720 Now it's it's such a small moment but it's so telling as 311 00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:17,280 well. Part 2 has many great favorite 312 00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:20,560 scene that I think some of the dissolves in Part 2 between the 313 00:17:20,560 --> 00:17:23,520 present and the past. When we go back to Vito's youth 314 00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:25,839 are are are so interestingly done. 315 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:30,000 You know the the the scene halfway through Part 2 where 316 00:17:30,280 --> 00:17:33,320 Vito Colione has committed a murder for the first time and he 317 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:35,280 comes back to his family, sitting with his family and he 318 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:39,160 takes little Michael's had fingers in his hand and says 319 00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:41,360 says an Italian your father loves you very much. 320 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:43,960 And it's that at exactly the midpoint through the film. 321 00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:48,600 And it's it's a clear metaphor for for the father's, for the 322 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:51,360 father tainting his, his son's hands. 323 00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:54,600 It's very obvious, but it's so well done that you just look at 324 00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:56,560 it and say yeah, it's a great moment. 325 00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:07,800 He'll come to me in friendship. Then the scum that ruined your 326 00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:09,920 daughter would be suffering this very day. 327 00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:14,680 And if by chance, an honest man like yourself should make 328 00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:20,720 enemies, then he would become my enemies, and then they would 329 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:33,280 fear you. Be my friend, godfather. 330 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:41,600 Like you never told me you knew Giant Fontaine? 331 00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:43,640 Sure. You want to meet him, huh? 332 00:18:44,360 --> 00:18:45,440 Oh. Sure. 333 00:18:46,160 --> 00:18:47,600 My father helped him. With his career well. 334 00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:48,880 My plan. He did. 335 00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:53,720 How? I have but listen to the song. 336 00:18:54,080 --> 00:19:04,360 No Michael Vikramaditya Motwani advises all young film makers to 337 00:19:04,360 --> 00:19:07,720 watch the famous opening scene of The Godfather, which 338 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:11,040 introduces the main characters and sets the scene. 339 00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:14,440 It's a study in masterful filmmaking, he says. 340 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:20,000 It's 2025 minute in that wedding sequence, right, which starts 341 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:22,360 off which establishes everything. 342 00:19:23,360 --> 00:19:25,560 It establishes the dawn and establishes this power. 343 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:29,280 It establishes characters. It establishes Tom, Hagan and 344 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:33,160 Sunny and his relationship with Michael and Michael and Kay and 345 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:37,800 Connie and the singer. I forget his name. 346 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:42,160 Everybody, right. Everybody has been established 347 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:45,160 in that opening sort of 2025 minutes in the film and it's all 348 00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:46,800 and it's and that's a master class. 349 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:50,080 That's when you're like how, how beautiful and how amazing and 350 00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:54,440 how interesting and yes, how and yet how minimal it takes one 351 00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:55,920 run. I mean, and I mean just 352 00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:57,480 examples. It's whether it's about, you 353 00:19:57,480 --> 00:20:01,600 know, the dawn saying that I will not take a photo without 354 00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:04,720 Mike. That moment in itself, right 355 00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:07,760 says so much. It doesn't you don't dispel out 356 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:09,480 anything else. You're talking about a father's. 357 00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:13,280 The fact that is Michael the favorite son. 358 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:15,840 Maybe Yes, that moment kind of does tell you, but it also gives 359 00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:18,640 you the power that yes is waiting for the photo to be 360 00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:19,840 taken. And he's like, screw it, I'm 361 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,120 just going to walk away. You're doing so many things. 362 00:20:22,120 --> 00:20:25,200 You're establishing so many things in that one small moment 363 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:28,560 of him just walking away from the and with. 364 00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:31,200 Very few dialogues. Exactly. 365 00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:35,320 That's the thing. When you see, for example, 366 00:20:35,320 --> 00:20:39,080 Connie, when, when, when What's his name? 367 00:20:39,080 --> 00:20:39,760 Johnny. Fontaine. 368 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:40,600 Johnny. Fontaine. 369 00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:42,640 Johnny Fontaine When Johnny Fontaine comes to the wedding 370 00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:47,280 and Connie runs, you know, from the to come and greet him at the 371 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:51,040 gate and walks back with him again, it's telling you so much 372 00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:53,160 about her character right there. You're talking about the fact 373 00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:56,840 that she's genuinely excited. She doesn't really give a shit. 374 00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:59,240 Part of the same point of time she so wants to show off the 375 00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:01,800 fact that she knows Johnny Fontaine and she can sort of 376 00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:03,520 like, do this and he's going to be jealous about that. 377 00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:06,800 Tiny things like that establish so much about character. 378 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,920 There's, you know it, it, it really is. 379 00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:11,920 And that's that's a master class in writing. 380 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:13,080 That's a master class in directing. 381 00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:14,920 That's a master class. And so, like, knowing exactly 382 00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:16,920 what. So if you look at, for example, 383 00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:21,120 Michael's, Michael's arc, right. And Michael senses tends to feel 384 00:21:21,120 --> 00:21:24,640 like, OK, this guy is, you know, the he is in the end of the day 385 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:28,720 the hero of the film. But if you sort of like plot his 386 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:32,440 arc, there's very few scenes. He's actually, there's not like 387 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:33,840 he's not there in every single scene. 388 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:36,360 He's like, OK, he's there in the wedding where you've established 389 00:21:36,360 --> 00:21:41,520 the fact that that this is my family, I'm not that I'm a war 390 00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:42,960 hero. I'm different from them. 391 00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:45,840 The next time you see them is after the dawn has been shot, 392 00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:47,960 right? And then Michael sort of sees in 393 00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:49,520 the newspaper and he's like, should I have to go to my 394 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:52,680 father, He comes back to the father the father likes and he 395 00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:56,480 needs to save the father. And then he, he has the moment 396 00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:58,600 in the hospital where he ends up saving the father with that guy, 397 00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:01,920 which is a great moment, which is his sense coming of age, of 398 00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:05,560 the sense that I can do this. The next time you see him And 399 00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:08,120 when he started talking about this is when he's when he's with 400 00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:11,000 and he gets punched in that scene by the by the cop. 401 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,320 And the next time you see him is when he's telling them exactly 402 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:17,240 what should be done, forcing four scenes to establish the 403 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:19,040 fact that this guy is your dawn in the week. 404 00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:22,200 And then of course, then there's the way Coppola does those 405 00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:24,480 moves. You know, the there is that sort 406 00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:29,400 of when when Michael is sitting in the chair and Tom is sitting 407 00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:31,480 behind him, and when Michael starts talking, this is that 408 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:33,120 scene where he's saying this is what we should do. 409 00:22:33,120 --> 00:22:35,240 And Sonny's still alive. Of course Sonny's still, you 410 00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:37,880 know, the potential dawn. But Michael talks, and there's a 411 00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:41,680 very gentle movement that goes into Michael and you land up at 412 00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:45,640 him and Thomas sitting behind him, and you've already told the 413 00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:48,640 audience that that's the dawn and that's the conciliary 414 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:50,280 sitting behind them. This is what it's going to end 415 00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:52,360 up being that you're foreshadowing what's about to 416 00:22:52,360 --> 00:22:54,960 come. Until the rest. 417 00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:58,160 Well, in a month from now, this Hollywood big shot is going to 418 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:00,200 give you what you want. It's totally they. 419 00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:03,960 Start shooting in a week. I'm going to make them an offer 420 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:08,760 they can't refuse. Both Mario Puzo and Coppola said 421 00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:11,600 that they had researched into the lives of American gangsters. 422 00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:14,480 Italian, American gangsters. So the gangsters were also 423 00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:19,280 inspired to behave in a certain way, perhaps how it happened in 424 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:21,720 Satya. I want you to talk a little bit 425 00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:25,360 about Vikram, about the role of minor characters. 426 00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:28,840 You know, like, you know, we know Luca Brazzi, we'll talk 427 00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:32,640 about Barzini, we know talk about Tom Hagan or Johnny 428 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:37,240 Fontaine. Your films are very tight and 429 00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:40,840 small and contained in the sense of numbers of characters, 430 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:47,160 usually as a filmmaker, when should a film have multiple 431 00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:53,080 characters and how? How is it that they become so 432 00:23:53,120 --> 00:23:55,120 alive and so memorable for the audience? 433 00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:58,560 It's to the purpose. I think the multiple characters 434 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:02,160 in The Godfather are important because they are important and 435 00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:04,600 they all, all they are. They are important to the 436 00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:08,880 storyline vis a vis your main characters when it comes down to 437 00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:11,520 it. So the The Who is a threat to 438 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:14,240 the dawn and who needs to be taken care of and who's, who's a 439 00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:17,880 friend and who's a foe. And I think that's where the 440 00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:21,880 multiple characters start to become. 441 00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:25,680 But again I would, I would, I would give a lot of that credit 442 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:28,520 to the writing, the directing and the casting and and of 443 00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:29,840 course I mean the end of the day the acting. 444 00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:34,360 But again it comes out of Coppola being able to I think 445 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:38,160 make those characters memorable. I mean if you take in take the 446 00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:40,720 cop for example, I think Sterling Hayden was played in 447 00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:45,720 again two scenes, two scenes, one where he punches and one 448 00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:47,880 where he ends up getting sort of like short afterwards. 449 00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:50,760 I mean so amazingly memorable because you just said what 450 00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:54,160 you've given him and how he's played it and and and and and 451 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,080 the effect of why would you shoot his entire scene in a 452 00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:00,840 close up, for example versus you know, so is he important, is he 453 00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:02,760 not important? This is levels of information. 454 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:05,200 This is the information that the director that point of time 455 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:09,560 wants you to to have but it counts you know and you have to 456 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:13,240 you have to even Luca Brazzi in a sense, I mean has it's it's 457 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,840 literally his most memorable. Yes he comes to dawn and meets 458 00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:21,040 him but it's the rehearsal outside which makes him like 459 00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:25,920 that scene makes Luca Brazzi where he is and that's the 460 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:27,960 that's the I think that's the genius of sort of like you know 461 00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:30,720 giving giving them personality like giving them personality 462 00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:33,120 that you can sort of connect to and and and that you can like 463 00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:35,440 not not keeping them out of the book or off the pages. 464 00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:38,720 They come off the pages because they've been cast amazingly. 465 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:43,560 They've been given moments that really, you know, work for them. 466 00:25:45,120 --> 00:25:48,960 It's the same with it's the same with Fredo, you know, and John 467 00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:51,440 Kazal just being the phenomenal. I love a little bit of trivia. 468 00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:53,320 I love, I love like, sorry I took my nephew to see this, for 469 00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:56,880 example, who loves the godfathers as I come. 470 00:25:56,880 --> 00:25:58,640 We have to see it in the theater and the sort. 471 00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:00,680 And he's like that Fredo. And I'm like, whoa, because I'm 472 00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:03,040 like, that's John because the guy did five films in his life 473 00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:05,040 and all five films were nominated for best Picture. 474 00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:08,560 They was like, that's a record I think that nobody's ever, 475 00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:13,240 nobody's ever had. Again, I mean, Fredo is around, 476 00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:15,080 right? You sense him. 477 00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:18,240 And again, here's the genius of of the of the writings that 478 00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:20,880 Fredo is always in the background for most of the film. 479 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:24,800 He comes into the foreground When it comes to Vegas, that's 480 00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:26,400 the moment of Fredo comes into the foreground. 481 00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:31,320 And again, he says one scene, you know, to to to chew up and 482 00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:33,600 John Casale, just being John Casale is so brilliant, but he 483 00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:36,360 has one scene to be able to sort of say that, my God, this guy is 484 00:26:36,360 --> 00:26:38,400 a threat. You know, Fredo is also a 485 00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:40,120 threat. He's the brother, but he's also 486 00:26:40,120 --> 00:26:44,040 a threat to, you know, do I trust him or do I not trust him? 487 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:50,040 Fredo, you're my older brother and I love you. 488 00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:55,600 But don't ever take sides with anyone against the family again. 489 00:27:05,770 --> 00:27:09,450 Few films have glorified gangsters and violence in a 490 00:27:09,450 --> 00:27:11,250 sense. Of course there is the the 491 00:27:11,610 --> 00:27:17,130 tragic arc but it's also very sexy And at the same time he 492 00:27:17,130 --> 00:27:21,730 then makes Apocalypse Now where which also violence is sexy. 493 00:27:21,730 --> 00:27:25,770 But you know, it's really the most anti war film that that one 494 00:27:25,770 --> 00:27:30,360 can find. How do you think Coppola has, as 495 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:36,760 a filmmaker, influenced the way we look at violence in cinema? 496 00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:40,840 Pretty much everything you said, you know, I mean, you know, you 497 00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:42,000 know, these things are subjective. 498 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:45,960 I mean and I imagine there will be many viewers who would look 499 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:49,080 at the the violence scenes in The Godfather and just be 500 00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:52,440 entirely repulsed and just you know want to move away from the 501 00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:55,800 screen and then you can you can make the argument that for those 502 00:27:55,800 --> 00:28:00,240 viewers, you know it's at a moral level it's work because 503 00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:02,960 it's made violence ugly. But but but I agree with you. 504 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:06,960 I mean, I I look at the the, the big set pieces, the big violent 505 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:10,760 moments in in the Godfather films and I I find it thrilling. 506 00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:15,680 Say for instance, Tarantino, who's also very violent, but you 507 00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:20,760 know his violence, while fun, has a cartoonish quality that 508 00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:24,680 you know you can't take it seriously with Godfather if you 509 00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:28,120 do take it seriously. No, absolutely agree. 510 00:28:28,120 --> 00:28:30,120 And I mean and you know the little things like like that 511 00:28:30,120 --> 00:28:32,920 that scene at the at the end of the part of the cross cutting 512 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:38,040 the murders at the end of The Godfather where where the guy 513 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:41,120 shot in the eye and his glasses sort of break, you know, as he's 514 00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:43,520 being massaged. It's a you know it's it's a sort 515 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:45,120 of thing that it's a sort of scene where you can 516 00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:49,040 simultaneously admire the filmmaking and say wow you know 517 00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:52,600 this is pretty good filmmaking and it's it's so impactful and 518 00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:55,920 at the same time think you know this is but this is really ugly 519 00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:58,600 and nasty and you know and and it sort of brings you back down 520 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:01,440 to earth and says and and and you think you know all these 521 00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:03,960 people that we've been finding so exciting, so interesting. 522 00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:07,600 These characters they are doing stuff like this which is so yeah 523 00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:09,040 so of course you do take it seriously. 524 00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:12,880 You can even even while you find the filmmaking sighting. 525 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:15,880 I think the Tarantino, of course you know Kabir is part of a 526 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:18,680 different generation where it's all post postmodern. 527 00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:20,440 And his cinema is very. Different, of course. 528 00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:23,160 And there's and there's always this meta commentary this is 529 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:26,840 this ironic nudge winking at at films of an earlier time. 530 00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:28,800 So. So so then as you see it became 531 00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,880 becomes a bit cartoonish and too self refresher. 532 00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:35,200 But yeah you know it's I would also agree with you that though 533 00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:41,720 you I think you implied it that Apocalypse Now is on balance. 534 00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:46,920 I think it's a more effectively unpleasant film than than the 535 00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:49,560 Godfather films are in the sense that it's you know again it's 536 00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:52,000 God set pieces it's got things that that will excite you 537 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:57,520 cinematically but there's this by the end it's depressing. 538 00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:01,440 So in a way that The Godfather perhaps isn't because you know, 539 00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:04,400 it just, you know, The Godfather leaves you with this tremendous 540 00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:09,120 high of, you know, you know, for the, you know, all these 541 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:11,720 exciting things happening on the stream. 542 00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,760 Violence in cinema has definitely been influenced by 543 00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:19,240 not just by The Godfather, but also by by by those other 544 00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:21,080 American films being made around the same time. 545 00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:26,400 Scorsese films, Mean Streets and Taxi Driver and and a lot of 546 00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:30,840 other films, even something like like Spielberg's Jaws, which 547 00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:33,760 which, you know, was more more cartoonish and more populist. 548 00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:38,080 But again, it it shows gore. It it makes certain things, you 549 00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:40,120 know. It it it it it introduces this 550 00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:43,480 thrilling music score when the shark attacks are happening. 551 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:48,480 From Hitchcock's psychological violence to real physical 552 00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:49,960 violence. Yeah, absolutely. 553 00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:51,800 Yeah. And that is again part of the 554 00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:55,160 trajectory of what was happening to American cinema between, say, 555 00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:59,000 the 1950s and the 1970s where suddenly, of course, you know, 556 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:02,080 the censorship has been relaxed. It becomes easier to, you know, 557 00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:04,480 coming back to Bonnie and Clyde, which was a very important film 558 00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:07,040 in this whole movement with the climactic scene where where 559 00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:09,680 Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are just riddled with bullets 560 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:12,000 and their and their bodies are dancing around like that. 561 00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:17,000 It's it's all part of this this moment where where violence is 562 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:21,840 being presented in this, you know, no holds barred way, at 563 00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:26,240 the risk of making it really exciting also and perhaps you 564 00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:30,000 know, increasing the the tolerance threshold for viewers. 565 00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:34,040 So viewers who you know who in the 1950s might have recoiled 566 00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:39,400 at, at a certain sort of scene now in the 70s are finding it 567 00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:42,600 much easier to watch really bloody really gory stuff. 568 00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:45,160 So the so, yeah. So the so the godfathers played 569 00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:52,920 a big part in that, I think. The president of Paramount told 570 00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:56,560 me in these words, he says Francis, as president of 571 00:31:56,560 --> 00:32:00,560 Paramount Pictures, I am telling you that Marlon Brando will not 572 00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:06,840 be in this movie. Marlon Brando was only 47 when 573 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:08,760 he played the agent Vito Corleone. 574 00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:12,920 He was in the midst of a career crisis with a series of flops 575 00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:15,880 and he was battling his reputation as a hell raising 576 00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:18,720 star on set. But with Godfather, which earned 577 00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:22,760 him the Oscar for Best actor, Brando scripted a remarkable 578 00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:25,120 late career turn around, says Vikram Aditya. 579 00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:30,640 Marlon Brando. I mean Coppola somehow has taken 580 00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:35,360 him and reduces him to big parts and yet which are like so great. 581 00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:41,960 I mean whether it was Captain Kurds in the in the pop trips 582 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,840 now or who comes right at the end or even in Godfather, I mean 583 00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:48,400 he's there but very, very few scenes. 584 00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:53,720 And and Brando, I mean was also transitioning into a different 585 00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:56,200 phase of his career at the time like that. 586 00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:00,320 I mean, we have so many actors who are also transitioning and 587 00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:02,120 it's a tough transition to manage. 588 00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:06,800 One is I think it's Brando himself willingly coming on 589 00:33:06,800 --> 00:33:08,880 board and saying, hey, I really want to do this, right. 590 00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:11,320 And I think we have and we've seen a lot of actors are so 591 00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:16,200 unwilling to to drop a lot of their baggage and baggage is a 592 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:20,280 very broad term here. They also unread. 593 00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:22,480 I mean but here was Brando who was you know, saying OK fine, 594 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:24,200 I'll do it. You want me to be, you know, I 595 00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:27,400 mean I don't it's not I don't have to be Adonis. 596 00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:31,080 I I I need to be. I I can sort of like, you know 597 00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:34,960 have the, the the jaws look that way and my hair like that look 598 00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:36,800 older and and all that sort of stuff. 599 00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:39,120 So yes, there is. And I honestly, I don't know 600 00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:41,760 what battles there would have been between him and Coppola and 601 00:33:41,760 --> 00:33:43,440 that kind of stuff. I mean clearly he did Apocalypse 602 00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:44,680 Now, so obviously there was no problems. 603 00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:48,480 I do think The Godfather, definitely it helped him more. 604 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:55,560 It it it, you know it, it brought the way De Niro and 605 00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:57,760 Pacino in their career, especially in the 70s, 606 00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:02,600 experimented with playing these kind of characters who were, you 607 00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:06,040 know, great definitely. But also if you look at De Niro 608 00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:08,960 in De Hunter for example, I mean he's not, he's actually in a 609 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:15,000 sense he is not the lead in it. But at the same point of time, 610 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:17,360 he's magnificent in that film and it's not a problem you're 611 00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:20,520 you're you're, you know you're you're helping to sort of like 612 00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:23,080 do the film, helping to sell the film or whether it's De Niro and 613 00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:25,159 the mission or you know, it's all those kind of things like 614 00:34:25,159 --> 00:34:27,800 you know you see Brando having set that tone. 615 00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:31,760 But specifically with Brando, yeah, he he's not. 616 00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:34,960 It's not a big part, definitely, but definitely it's not. 617 00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:36,600 You know, Michael is the hero of the self. 618 00:34:36,679 --> 00:34:39,360 Yeah. But when, again, when Brando's 619 00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:41,960 given the moments to sort of like do what he has to do, 620 00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:48,920 whether it's the opening scene in the wedding, whether it's the 621 00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:51,120 one where he shakes up Johnny Fontaine, which is so 622 00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:57,480 unexpected, like laughing. And then that scene, and of 623 00:34:57,480 --> 00:35:01,520 course the end, the last scene with Michael, which is just 624 00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:04,600 incredible. He is incredible in that scene. 625 00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:11,400 He brings so much emotion to the bit when he's repeating himself, 626 00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:14,680 you know that. Remember that the one who sets 627 00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:16,240 up the meeting is the one who's going to betray you. 628 00:35:16,240 --> 00:35:19,560 I think that. Giving all the life lessons. 629 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:22,320 Yeah, but the life look. But again, there's so much in 630 00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:23,720 that moment. You're giving life lessons. 631 00:35:23,720 --> 00:35:25,160 You care for your son, you're getting older. 632 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:28,640 You know your memory is clearly you know it's there's those kind 633 00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:30,920 of things. At the same point of time it's 634 00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:34,080 like you also do I know that I'm going to go is that why I'm 635 00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:36,880 trying to just like you know get my, get all my get all my ducks 636 00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:39,680 in a row am I trying to sort of like cross my DS and drop my 637 00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:42,920 eyes before I go and that kind of and you know and all that 638 00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:45,760 sort of stuff. So again, I mean in in writing, 639 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:48,160 directing, acting, you've brought in so much into one 640 00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:52,480 moment there which tells you so much more than than what's just 641 00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,440 on the page and he's he's brilliant in that in the film 642 00:35:55,440 --> 00:35:58,640 and. And and and do you think Coppola 643 00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:03,680 could have, should not have made Godfather 3? 644 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:14,840 Not if I couldn't refuse. Today's episode is produced by 645 00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:17,680 Jayaraj Singh, Arun George and Sunay Marathi. 646 00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:21,720 For a daily spotlight on people, ideas and stories that matter, 647 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:25,600 subscribe to us. We are available on TOI, Plus, 648 00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:30,040 Spotify, Apple, Google Podcasts and all other platforms of your 649 00:36:30,040 --> 00:36:33,400 choice. For any news tips, reach us at 650 00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:35,920 UI podcasts. At times, Internet dot in.