In world cinema, the film “The Godfather”, based on the novel by Mario Puzo and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is and will always be counted among the top 10 films. The writers, directors, actors, production designers, even the extras and set builders on the film set, all have some story or the other related to this film, some memory or the other. In every country of the world, every student studying film is required to read “The Godfather”. Not only is this film a successful film based on a successful novel, but its director Francis Ford Coppola and its actors have taken the film from being memorable to a classic. The novel has its own lovers and the film has its own fans, but the best thing is that film fans are extremely interested in knowing how the film The Godfather was made. Whatever information could be gathered from the books published about the film and from watching interviews of the writer/director or stars on television was gathered, but there was a pang that if we could see the full story behind this film, it would be worth it. It was released on screen for the first time on 14 March 1972 and even today, after 50 years, the interest in knowing the story of the making of this film has not diminished, so now you can watch a series of 10 episodes named “The Offer” on Voot. Only one episode of this web series was released every week.
The Godfather has a strange story of its own. Novelist Mario Puzo was going through a period of financial crisis. His previous books had not been successful, so he was under a lot of pressure to write a novel that would earn money for the publisher. Mario, for some unknown reason, started researching on mafia families in New York. After a lot of hard work, the outline of The Godfather was prepared. It is a myth that Mario himself was a resident of Sicily and he went to Italy and deeply investigated the life of the mafia. Mario lived in America from his birth till he wrote The Godfather. When the book was published, it was a New York Times bestseller for 67 weeks and about 90 lakh copies were sold in 2 years. Paramount Pictures bought it for about 80,000 dollars when it had not become a bestseller. Paramount was also fighting for its existence because most of its films were flopping. They did not even want to make The Godfather, but Paramount’s vice president Robert Evans was sure that this book was something different and a film should be made on it. Robert invited around 12 directors to make this film, including Francis Ford Coppola himself. All of them rejected it, and no director wanted to make a gangster film or a mafia film in those days. Francis Ford Coppola wanted to make a film in his own style and according to his mood, so finally he agreed to direct this film. Apart from Marlon Brando, there was not a single actor in the whole film who was well known to the people and Marlon’s career was also not going well. When the film started being made, the people of Italian origin living in America had strong objections to this film because they felt that the film was doing wrong by showing them as mafia. However, despite thousands of difficulties, the film was made and it diminished the stature of history.
In The Offer, the vice president of the film production company Paramount Productions, Robert Evans (Matthew Goode) convinces his boss Charles Bluhdorn (Burn Gorman) to produce The Godfather. Robert meets Albert S. Ruddy (Miles Teller) who impresses him a lot. Robert gives the responsibility of producing The Godfather to Albert. This web series is the whole story of Albert Ruddy. How he handles all kinds of difficulties like a master juggler, sometimes Marlon Brando, sometimes Al Pacino, sometimes Charles Bluhdorn, sometimes Robert Evans, sometimes New York’s most dreaded Italian mafia of that time Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi) and sometimes any other problem, using all means, including bribery and tact. Sometimes trying to get Mario to write the screenplay of the novel, sometimes trying to get permission to shoot, sometimes clashing with a politician, sometimes trying to get Al Pacino out of another film and cast him in his own film, Albert Ruddy does everything with great finesse. There are other characters in The Offer and the getup of some characters is so good that they look like exact copies of the stills from the shooting of the film. Dan Fogler as Francis Ford Coppola, Patrick Gallo as Mario Puzo, Justin Chambers as Marlon Brando and Anthony Ippolito as Al Pacino. Their acting, expressions, getup, makeup, everything looked so close to the real person that it reminded the audience of the scenes from The Godfather.
The specialty of The Offer is that this story talks about the hard work before the film was made and the difficulties of making the film, but not a single shot has been taken in the entire series that was in the film. The web series has been made with the theme ‘How the Godfather was made’ and directors Dexter Fletcher, Adam Arkin, Colin Bucksey, and Gwyneth Horder-Payton have taken special care that they do not tell the audience the story of the making of any scene of the film. Despite this, listening to the dialogues between Joe Colombo and Albert Ruddy, it seems that some of the most famous dialogues were inspired by them and reached the script of the film. Juno Temple has almost acted as a narrator in the role of Ruddy’s secretary Betty. The actors chosen for all the characters in The Offer are top class, even if they have come for only one or two scenes. The setting of the series is completely of 70s New York, the clothes of that time, the cars of that time and the environment of that time have been maintained. This web series is for everyone who has read the novel “The Godfather”.
A whole team of experienced writers like Leslie Greif, Albert Rudy, Michael Tolkin, Nikki Toscano, Russell Rothberg, Kevin Hines and Mona Meera have been involved in writing this web series. This web series is for every person who has seen the film “The Godfather”. This web series is for every person who likes The Godfather to the extent of madness, remembers every scene and every dialogue of it. There are people in the world who can recite the entire film including the dialogues, this web series is for them only. Through this, a new kind of content is seen which is a dramatization of the real story of the making of the film. It is interesting, it is new. And it is The Godfather. Because The Offer has such an offer that you will never be able to refuse.
Detailed Rating
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Isabel Summers/5 |
Tags: Film review
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 18, 2022, 14:33 IST