Mario Puzo
Il Padrino

More than half of the 32 chapters of The Godfather, a novel written by Mario Puzo (an American of Italian descent), were used by Francis Ford Coppola to create almost two films of the trilogy that so many know.

The story is about a young Sicilian boy in the early 1900s, Vito Andolini, who, after witnessing his father being killed by the boss who runs his hometown, Corleone, is secretly put on a ship to New York where, as soon as he arrives, his surname is changed to ‘Corleone’. He begins a difficult life in the Italian immigrant neighborhood.

As a young man, after killing the powerful head of a terrorist organization operating in the area, he creates a vast and powerful system of criminal activities, corruption, and favors, eventually becoming a ‘man of respect’, a great boss, feared and famous in New York and the rest of America.

After the Second World War, Vito hands over control of all activities to the youngest son in his family, Michael, who not long before had saved him from yet another attempt on his life by a drug trafficker.

With the move of the Family and the operations from New York to Las Vegas, after his father’s death Michael has the heads of New York’s rival Families who wanted him dead eliminated, as well as some from his own Family who had collaborated with them; in the end, he is recognized as the new Godfather.

The Godfather works just like the film: not only does it make the recounted events come alive in your mind, but it enables you to fully understand the historical periods in which these events take place—for example, the 1920s in America, the era of Prohibition, and the figure of the gangster, like the famous Al Capone.

If one wanted to compare the book and the films to find the differences, two things have to be done: exclude chapters 12, 13, 15, 21, 22, 25, 27, 30, and 32, and notice that in the others, not all events are shown in the films (and there are some deleted scenes on Youtube).

It was curious for me to read the names of the film characters in the book and, despite the descriptions, to imagine them with the faces and physiques of the actors who played them. An example is Michael and Clemenza, one of Vito's most loyal men: Michael, disfigured by the punch from the police captain who in the book is ‘unwatchable’ and suffers from the consequences of that blow, like his nose running often; Clemenza with his obesity that, in the book, makes him awkward when he moves and in his facial expressions.

The Godfather is perfect, one of those rare cases where both a book and the movies made from it are perfect. And if we imagine Vito with Marlon Brando’s face…

(Date un’occhiata, se volete, alla recensione de Il bell’Antonio di Vitaliano Brancati...)