Epic, Shakespearean, Butally Tragic
Year Released: 1972, 1974, 1990, 2020 (The Godfather Coda)
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Screenplay by: Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola
(R, 178, 202, 162, 157 min.)
Genre: Drama, Crime

“That’s my family, Kay. That’s not me.” – Michael Corleone (Al Pacino)

With Hollywood still sputtering, now is the time to review some old favorites and see them in a new light. Such is the case with the Godfather Trilogy, one of the best films series ever made.

Even better than the best selling book of the same name, which writer Mario Puzo said was more a rough draft. In the films, in collaboration with the great Francis Ford Coppola, we have the rare occasion of a film bettering the novel upon which it is based.

*Different Drummer herself has new respect for The Godfather trilogy after watching all three films in a row, Godfather 3 being replaced by the newly released Coppola cut now named what the director and writer originally wanted: Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.

Originally rejecting what seemed to be a glamorized portrait of mobsters, after watching the whole trilogy in sequence, Different Drummer now realizes her earlier judgment was absolutely wrong.

Instead of glamorizing the gangster life, The Godfather trilogy is a tragedy in the Shakespearean sense. A fatal flaw initiates its protagonist’s fall from grace. The conventional wisdom is that The Godfather is like Shakespeare’s King Lear, with Vito Corleone’s three sons competing for his love and attention in the same way Regan, Goneril and Cordelia did for King Lear, except, of course, that Cordelia, his best loved, did not compete at all.

But that analogy would make Vito Corleone the tragic hero, and it is clear that he is not. This myth is probably due to Marlon Brando’s oversized and memorable portrayal of Vito as well his unforgettable lines in the original Godfather film of 1972. Who can forget his “I’m going to make him an offer he cannot refuse,” and the subsequent bloody scene in California involving the death of such a magnificent horse? And, of course, that voice, even more compelling than Clint Eastwood menacing whisper.

All that presence aside, though, it is Michael Corleone who is the tragic hero; it is his fall from grace that permeates all three films. And here he is much like Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

As in Shakespearian tragedies, the hero does not enter right away, but he is talked about to set up his stature. Vito Corleone, host at his daughter’s wedding, shows us his respect for Michael by waiting for his arrival to take the family wedding picture. And Michael’s late arrival is a sort of power play in itself, planned or not planned.

But the most essential quote from a trilogy is the line that the fine young actor Al Pacino literally throws away. Of course, that line nails the story arc that ignites everything. A lesser actor would have “strutted it across the stage,” so to speak. But Michael just says matter of factly to Kay (Diane Keaton), his very WASP girlfriend,

“That’s my family, Kay. That not me.”

Everything about Michael shows him trying to separate himself from his family’s expectations, even the well-drawn path upward that Vito has planned – Michael becoming a lawyer. But Michael cuts loose here, joining the Marines and becoming a war hero, too. The fact that he chooses to wear his military uniform to his sister’s wedding advertises that intent as well.

But as he says in later films, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”

Except, that denies Michael’s free will. He did not have to be the one to volunteer to kill the crooked cop and Barzini (Richard Conte), the rival mob boss at the Italian restaurant. Was the war hero getting his own hero complex here? Maybe that is his fatal flaw.

He still has some idealism, though, and we see that in his time in Sicily, where he is thunderstruck by the beauty of Apollonia (Simonetta Stefanelli), her name the female version of Apollo, the sun god, appropriate for her blinding beauty. He woos her in the very traditional sense, patiently waiting for her hand. Maybe it is her death that changes him.

So when he returns to America and takes over the family business, it is a very different Michael who awkwardly intercepts Kay a full year after returning from Sicily. His marriage proposal is wooden, as is his almost perfunctory declaration of love. It is almost a business proposition he offers rather than a marriage proposal, and his new description of his role as mob boss defines the new Michael:

Michael Corleone: I’m working for my father now Kay. He’s been sick, very sick.
Kay Adams: But you’re not like him Michael. I thought you weren’t going to become a man like your father. That’s what you told me.
Michael Corleone: My father is no different than any other powerful man, any man who is responsible for other people, like a senator or a president.
Kay Adams: You know how naive you sound?
Michael Corleone: Why?
Kay Adams: Senators and presidents don’t have men killed.
Michael Corleone: Oh. Who’s being naive, Kay?

The difference between this and his courtship of Appolonia is stark and it is his relationship with Kay that best details Michael’s fall from grace.

Later he lies to his wife Kay about ordering the death of his sister Connie’s (Talia Shire) husband, as he shuts Kay out of his life more and more. Connie (Talia Shire), however, is not so easily deceived. Throughout the saga, it is Connie who seems to know her brother best, and it is she who is sometimes able to persuade him against his stubbornness.

Godfather 2 shows Michael wheeling and dealing, brutally disposing of those who get in his way, such as Moe Greene (Alex Rocco ) and Hyman Roth (master method actor coach Lee Strasberg) when they refuse to acquiesce to his plans for more and more power. The fact that these men are so powerful and well connected shows Michael’s ruthless ambition making him more and more like Macbeth

“I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er.”

But it is with Kay that we see Michael’s utter debasement. When she intends to leave him, he doesn’t just slap her; her punches her in the face, then taking the children away and literally shutting door in her face after she visits them. What was a figurative shutting out in the earlier film is now literal.

Not to mention having his brother Fredo killed.

“I know it was you, Fredo . You broke my heart. You broke my heart.”

Apparently, having Michael order the death of his own brother, or even having Fredo be the one who had betrayed him was not author and screenwriter Mario Puzo’s idea. It was Coppola who had to convince him to it. The compromise was that Michael would spare Freda as long as his mother was alive. And so it is shortly after Mama’s death that Fredo swims with the fishes.

Which gets us to the most disparaged film of the trilogy, Godfather 3, now out in a new form and Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Coreleone.

Originally this was supposed to be a stand a lone film. It premiered in 1990, 16 years after Godfather 2, which had followed Godfather 1 with a gap of only 2 years. Some speculate that Coppola never wanted to make this film, but a few poorly received films and the need for cash brought him around.

There are many reasons why The Godfather Part III failed to meet expectations. Here is an overview.

The Godfather Part III was a movie that Francis Ford Coppola never intended to make. The first two movies told the complete story of the rise and fall of Michael Corleone and the Corleone family. There was nothing more that needed to be added. But Paramount Pictures wanted Coppola to make a sequel. For fifteen years they begged him to helm the third installment, but he always refused. They tried to get other writers and directors to make the movie, but nothing ever materialized.

Unfortunately, fate was smiling upon Paramount Pictures while aggressively frowning on Coppola. Almost all of Coppola's films during the 1980s took a beating at the box office.

· One from the Heart flopped.

· Rumble Fish underperformed.

· The Cotton Club was a massive failure.

· Gardens of Stone flopped.

· Tucker: A Man and His Dream underperformed.

· And finally, the New York Stories compilation not only performed poorly at the box office, but critics were quick to point out that Coppola's segment was the weakest of the bunch and the worst work of his career (the other segments were by Woody Allen and Martin Scorcese).

Peggy Sue Got Married was Coppola's only success during the 80s (The Outsiders met expectations, but wasn't a success).

The string of flops left Coppola and his production company, American Zoetrope, in poor financial standing. Realizing that he needed the money, he agreed to make Godfather Part III. –Aaron Ellis

But the real spanner in the works was the casting of Sofia Coppola in role of Michael’s teenage daughter, Mary.

The character of Mary Corleone proved to be a curse. Actress Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered after she auditioned for the part. Winona Ryder was cast in the role, but then dropped out at the start of filming due to "exhaustion." Desperate for an actress who could work on short notice, Coppola ended up casting his daughter, Sofia, to play Mary. Sofia didn't want the role, but took it to appease her father, despite having no significant acting experience..– Aaron Ellis

Apparently Coppola turned down the studio recommendations for Madonna or Julia Roberts because he thought they were too old. He has said that he wanted Mary to still have the baby fat on her face, and 19-year-old Sofia Coppola did. Later, after her performance was panned, he opined that just as Mary took the bullet designed for her father Michael in the film, so Sofia, doing him a favor in taking he role, took the bullet his critics aimed at her performance.

At any rate, Different Drummer thinks the third film in this new cut is much better than the critics thought. Sofia as Mary doesn’t cut it for me either, but Al Pacino brings back some dignity to Michael, so that his final tragic fall hits us anew. Especially good is his final confession to Cardinal Lamberto (Raf Vallone), who is briefly the Pope before the corrupt Cardinals take him out:

Michael Corleone: I betrayed my wife.
Cardinal Lamberto: Go on, my son.
Michael Corleone: I betrayed myself. I killed men. And I ordered men to be killed.
Cardinal Lamberto: Go on, my son. Go on.
Michael Corleone: It’s useless.
Cardinal Lamberto: Go on, my son.
Michael Corleone: I killed, I ordered the death of my brother. He injured me. I killed my mother’s son. I killed my father’s son.
[Michael breaks down]
Cardinal Lamberto: Your sins are terrible, and it is just that you suffer. Your life could be redeemed, but I know that you don’t believe that. You will not change.

But Michael does try to change. He cedes to Kay’s wishes and lets their son pursue a career in music instead of law, mirroring the young and idealistic Michael abandoning his father’s lawyerly plans for him when he joined the Marines. And it is on the culmination of that new career, with Michael having a kind of rapprochement with Kay and watching his son as the star tenor in a Sicilian opera that the final tragedy strikes.

If Michael had been killed off in Godfather 2, we probably would have cheered it on, but to have him spiritually killed here, after he has tried to redeem himself, elevates him to at least some stature so we also feel his anguished cry and lament his fall.

What better choice for the long weekend ahead than to revisit this fine film trilogy and see it with new eyes?

Godere!

*It is said that if you find new meaning in an old book, it is not the book that has changed, but it is you. Perhaps that is true with films as well. Some age wonderfully, like The French Connection or Cool Hand Luke while other not so much (Play Misty for Me, unfortunately)

The earlier me could not get over what seemed to be glamorizing gangsters, especially given my Italian roots and my mother’s profound dislike of that genre, since she thought it made everyone think all Italians were gangsters. My own Italian grandfather, Vito – yes, that was his name – originally came over from Italy with a group who started a banking company in Chicago. But he found them crooked and left the group to open up the little grocery that supported his wife and 11 children as long as he lived.

–Kathy Borich
🥁🥁🥁🥁1/2

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

The Godfather Trilogy is an Italian/Sicilian feast cinematically and literally as well.

Like all epics, most of the important meetings take place at weddings and funerals. Not to mention baptisms, first communions, or opera openings with a huge spread of delicious Italian fare to accompany them.

Then there is the humble kitchen where Clemenza gives Michael a cooking lesson. His secret to “Sunday Gravy,” or Italian meat sauce, is quite simple and almost like the sauce my Italian mother made:

Capo Peter Clemenza teaches Michael how to make Sunday gravy. "Start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic, then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste—you fry it, make sure it doesn’t stick—then you get it to a boil and you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs. Add a little bit of wine and a little bit of sugar, and that’s my trick."

The sugar takes away the acidity of the tomatoes. However, Clemenza doesn’t know about my mother’s secret ingredient, pork necks. They give the sauce a special flavor and richness.

***

But our featured recipe is anything but simple. Maybe that ensured that good Italian wives, especially the mobster’s wives, stayed long hours in the kitchen and never meddled in their husband’s business affairs.

Our featured recipe goes back to one of the more famous lines in Godfather I.

“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”

Our Cannoli recipe is from Nada, who learned how to cook from her Sicilian mother.

Just like my mother, Nada is quite adamant about her ingredients: Here is a little bit about my Italian mother (top row, left), my grandmother, aunts and their attitudes toward cooking:

I owe my love of cooking to my Italian/French grandmother, who helped raise me among the powdered lace of drying pasta, the warm earth of a back yard tomato garden, and the pungent sweetness of giambotte, her savory stovetop stew of weekly leftovers.

In the crowded kitchen, ensconced in the yeasty aroma of fresh bread, my mother and her sisters argued about the merits of basil versus oregano with the same passion some people reserved for politics. They judged their gravies, sauces, and the quality of the fresh herbs they chopped and diced with a sort of sibling jealousy usually saved for potential beaus.

Here is what Nada says about cannoli and her preference, or should I say dictum about using ricotta.:

Sicilian cannoli with ricotta filling are my favorite dessert. Don’t try to offer me any custard filled cannoli. Everyone close to me knows that I will only eat a ricotta filled cannoli. And not ricotta with candied fruit or orange peels or any other fancy filler. Perhaps just some crushed pistachios as shown in my photos. The chocolate ones are for my children. –Nada

Take the Gun Leave the Cannoli Recipe

Ingredients

For the shells:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup red wine
3 tablespoons milk
1 egg white for sealing the edges
vegetable oil for frying

For the ricotta filling:

4 cups whole milk ricotta
3/4 cup powdered sugar or more if you prefer a sweeter filling
dash of cinnamon
semi-sweet chocolate chips roughly chopped (optional)
chopped pistachios optional
powdered sugar for sprinkling on top

Instructions

To make the shells:

Place flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the egg, oil, sugar, red wine and milk. Stir the ingredients in the centre and gradually incorporate the flour in order to form a dough. Using your hands, knead until a dough is formed.

Using a pasta roller or a rolling pin, cut off a small piece of dough and flatten with your hands. If using a pasta roller, begin with the widest setting and end by rolling your sheet of dough through the narrowest setting. The dough should be very thin, about 1/8 inch. Roll all the pieces of dough and cover them with a kitchen towel in order to prevent the sheets from drying out.

Using a 4 inch diameter circular shaped bowl or cup, cut out rounds of dough with a knife. Once again, cover to keep from drying out the dough. When all the dough has been used up, wrap each round of dough around a bamboo dowel or stainless steel cannoli molds and seal the edges with the beaten egg white.

Fill a deep pot half way with vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, fry 3 or 4 cannoli shells at a time until golden. You may have to hold them down to ensure that all sides are evenly fried. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate or tray. Carefully separate the cannoli molds from the shell (be careful, they will be extremely hot!) and continue to fry the remaining rounds of dough.

For the ricotta filling:

In a bowl, whisk together the ricotta, powdered sugar and cinnamon until smooth. Use a pastry bag or a plastic freezer bag with the tip cut off to pipe the ricotta filling inside the shells. If desired, dip the ends in chocolate chips or pistachios. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Notes

Ideally, I recommend you prepare the shells ahead of time and then fill them just before serving or they will become soggy.

The shells will keep well for weeks if stored in an air tight container in a cool dry space.

If the brand of ricotta you use is very watery, place in a cheese cloth in a colander and let drain in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Mangiabedda.com