Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather

by Mark Seal

How these two titanic forces came together—the moviemakers and the Mob—is one of the most astounding stories in the annals of film.

The only way forward, they realized, was to arrange a meeting with the real-life Mafia don who was preventing them from making a movie about a fictional Mafia don.

“It was,” Coppola later said of filming The Godfather, “the most miserable time of my life.”

“Always remember three things: Have the definitive script ready before you begin to shoot. There’ll always be some changes, but they should be small ones. Second, work with people you trust and feel secure with. Remember good crew people you’ve worked with on other films and get them for your film. Third, make your actors feel very secure so they can do their job well.”

During postproduction, all the aspects of the picture—“film, dialogue, sound, music and effects”—come together in either “film magic or film mediocrity.”