[NABS-L] The Godfather

[Steve Cook]

The NFB of SC would like to invite everyone to movie night! This months presentation is the audio described version of The Godfather! Below is the Zoom information you will need to join and more information about the movie. 

 

Federation Center Zoom

 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8032543777?pwd=QTVQd2RzN3l6QnNmZ0FmSnp6NG8vQT09

 

Meeting ID: 803 254 3777

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Date: Friday, July 1, 2022

Time: 8:00 PM eastern 

Rating: TV 14

Run Time: 2 hours and 55 minutes 

 

In 1945 New York City, Corleone crime family don Vito Corleone listens to requests during his daughter Connie's wedding to Carlo. Michael, Vito's youngest son and a former Marine, introduces his girlfriend, Kay Adams, to his family at the reception. Johnny Fontane, a popular singer and Vito's godson, seeks Vito's help in securing a movie role. Vito dispatches his consigliere, Tom Hagen, to persuade studio head Jack Woltz to give Johnny the part. Woltz complies after he finds the severed head of his prized stallion in his bed.

 

Near Christmas, drug baron Sollozzo asks Vito to invest in his narcotics business and for protection from the law. Vito declines, citing that involvement in narcotics would alienate his political connections. Suspicious of Sollozzo's partnership with the Tattaglia crime family, Vito sends his enforcer Luca Brasi to meet with the Tattaglias. Brasi is garroted to death during the meeting. Later, enforcers gun down Vito and kidnap Hagen. With Corleone's first-born Sonny now in command, Sollozzo pressures Hagen to persuade Sonny to accept the narcotics deal. Sonny retaliates for Luca's death with a hit on Bruno Tattaglia. Vito survives the shooting and is visited in the hospital by Michael, who finds him unprotected after NYPD officers on Sollozzo's payroll cleared out Vito's guards. Michael thwarts another attempt on his father's life but is beaten by corrupt police captain Mark McCluskey. Sollozzo and McCluskey request to meet with Michael and settle the dispute. Michael feigns interest and agrees to meet, but hatches a plan with Sonny and Corleone capo Clemenza to kill them and go into hiding. Michael meets Sollozzo and McCluskey at a Bronx restaurant; after retrieving a handgun planted into the bathroom by Clemenza, he fatally shoots both men.

 

Despite a clampdown by the authorities for the killing of a police captain, the Five Families erupt in open warfare. Michael takes refuge in Sicily and Fredo, Vito's second son, is sheltered by Moe Greene in Las Vegas. Sonny publicly attacks and threatens Carlo for physically abusing Connie. When he abuses her again, Sonny speeds to their home but is ambushed and murdered by gangsters at a highway toll booth. In Sicily, Michael meets and marries a local woman, Apollonia, but she is killed shortly thereafter by a car bomb intended for him.

 

Devastated by Sonny's death and tired of war, Vito sets a meeting with the Five Families. He assures them that he will withdraw his opposition to their narcotics business and forgo avenging Sonny's murder. His safety guaranteed, Michael returns home to enter the family business and marry Kay. Kay gives birth to two children in the early 1950s. With his father nearing the end of his life and Fredo not suited to lead, Michael assumes head of the Corleone family. Vito reveals to Michael that it was Don Barzini who ordered the hit on Sonny and warns him that Barzini would try to kill him at a meeting organized by a traitorous Corleone capo. With Vito's support, Michael relegates Hagen to managing operations in Las Vegas as he is not a "wartime consigliere". Michael travels to Las Vegas to buy out Greene's stake in the family's casinos and is dismayed to see that Fredo is more loyal to Greene than to his own family.

 

In 1955, Vito dies of a heart attack. At Vito's funeral, Tessio asks Michael to meet with Barzini, signaling his betrayal. The meeting is set for the same day as the baptism of Connie's baby. While Michael stands at the altar as the child's godfather, Corleone hitmen murder the dons of the Five Families and Greene, and Tessio is executed for his treachery. Michael extracts Carlo's confession to playing a part in Sonny's murder, assuring Carlo he is only being exiled, not murdered; afterward, Clemenza garrotes Carlo to death. Connie confronts Michael about Carlo's death while Kay is in the room. Kay asks Michael if Connie is telling the truth and is relieved when he denies it. As Kay leaves, Capos enter the office and pay reverence to Michael as "Don Corleone" before closing the door.

 

Cast

A screenshot of Michael and Vito Corleone in The Godfather

Brando (right) and Pacino as Don Vito and Michael Corleone, respectively

Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone: crime boss and patriarch of the Corleone family

Al Pacino as Michael: Vito's youngest son

James Caan as Sonny: Vito's eldest son

Richard Castellano as Clemenza: a caporegime in the Corleone crime family, Sonny's godfather

Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen: Corleone consigliere, lawyer, and unofficial adopted member of the Corleone family

Sterling Hayden as Capt. McCluskey: a corrupt police captain on Sollozzo's payroll

John Marley as Jack Woltz: Hollywood film producer who is intimidated by the Corleones

Richard Conte as Barzini: a crime boss of a rival crime family

Al Lettieri as Sollozzo: an adversary who pressures Vito to get into the drug business, backed by the Tattaglia family

Diane Keaton as Kay Adams: Michael's girlfriend and, later, second wife

Abe Vigoda as Tessio: a caporegime in the Corleone crime family

Talia Shire as Connie: Vito's only daughter

Gianni Russo as Carlo: Connie's abusive husband

John Cazale as Fredo: Vito's middle son

Rudy Bond as Cuneo: a crime boss of a rival crime family

Al Martino as Johnny Fontane: singer

Morgana King as Mama Corleone: Vito's wife

Lenny Montana as Luca Brasi: Vito's enforcer

Johnny Martino as Paulie Gatto: a soldier in the Corleone crime family

Salvatore Corsitto as Bonasera: the undertaker who asks for a favor at Connie's wedding

Richard Bright as Neri: the soldier in the Corleone crime family who becomes Michael's enforcer

Other actors playing smaller roles are Alex Rocco as Moe Greene, Simonetta Stefanelli as Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone, Tony Giorgio as Bruno Tattaglia, Angelo Infanti as Fabrizio, Franco Citti as Calò, Joe Spinell as Willi Cicci and Corrado Gaipa as Don Tommasino.[6]