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Cast Of The Godfather Reveal How Hard It Was To Make The Movie

Cast Of The Godfather Reveal How Hard It Was To Make The Movie

"Where do we go from here? We’re gone. It’s over. This is the worst film ever made.”

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

It's been 45 years since the American crime classic debuted at the Loew's State Theatre.

It tells the story of Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of a fictional crime family in New York, based on the novel written by Mario Puzo.

The Godfather is widely considered one of the greatest movies of all time. It also has several of the best movie lines ever. Most of those are spoken by Don Vito Corleone, played by the late Marlon Brando, including, 'I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse', and 'Revenge is a dish best served cold'.

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Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone. Credit: Paramount Pictures

But after more than four decades and two sequels, the cast has reunited at the Tribeca Film Festival to talk about how the movies were made.

The event went for nine hours, which included watching the first and second films along with a Q&A with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, James Caan and director Francis Ford Coppola.

According to the cast, Paramount Pictures was incredibly difficult to work for.

Al Pacino went through hell to get the career defining role of Michael Corleone, the Don's third son. Coppola told the crowd: "Once I called [Pacino] after he had tested six times, his girlfriend came on the phone and I said, 'I just need Al to come in one more time' and she said, 'What are you doing to him? You're torturing him!' She yelled at me and berated me."

But if Pacino thought it was hard to get the role which saw him get two Academy Awards, Marlon Brando found it much tougher.

Paramount studio executives didn't think Brando would be commercially beneficial and Coppola was forbidden from bringing up his name at one point.

Coppola said: "After that I fell on the floor in a faint. I said, 'If I can't even talk about him, what am I supposed to do?' Fred Roos, who was involved in all of the casting, said, 'All right, if Marlon will do a screen test, will do it for nothing, and will put up a million-dollar bond that he won't cause trouble during the production, you can have him.' And I said, 'I accept.'"

He says that the movie franchise wouldn't have been given the go ahead if it was proposed to movie executives in this era. The director said: "The first Godfather cost $6.5 million (£2.7 million*) and the second cost about $11 million (£4.6 million*) or $12 million (£5 million*). If you convert that, it would take a major studio (to make it), but it would never get through the process of getting an OK.

"Nothing can get a green light unless it's a movie that they can have a whole series of, or a Marvel comic."

Al Pacino recalled how he was sitting with Diane Keaton, who played his girlfriend, after a scene and they were so worried about their careers. He said: "The whole thing had a surreal feeling. We were talking about, 'Where do we go from here? We're gone. It's over. This is the worst film ever made.'"

Luckily he was wrong and the movie went on to be nominated for nine Academy Awards, six Golden Globes, and five British Academy Film Awards.

* Figures have been adjusted for 1972 currency rates

Featured Image Credit: Tribeca Film Festival

Topics: Al Pacino