Logging

Screenplay: The Godfather 

I read over an early version of the script called Second Draft, dated March 1, 1971. Given the film came OUT in 1972, this must be pretty close to a Production Draft. Nevertheless, an incredible number of differences to the final film, some of which I log below:

-script suggests that studio chief jack woltz is a child molester

-we meet genco - the old consigliere as he is dying / dead

-there is a scene early in the film between michael and the don about him joining the family business

-a bunch non-linear storytelling in this draft where events are not fully shown and then when our main characters find out, we cut backwards to see what happened. for example - we cut back to luca brasi getting killed only after the fish is delivered. same thing later in the script with sonny's death. we see his death only after bonosara finds out sonny has been killed. thus, we are with characters, not ahead of them. obviously, this is jolting and the actual film plays it much better.

-there is no line "take the cannoli" - must've been added later

-spend a whole lot longer time on the paulie hit -- follow clemenza for the entire day

-sonny instructs michael what to do with the don in the hospital when they find out he's unguarded. in the film, michael figures all this out himself.

-carlo beats up connie and sonny is killed on the way back. in the film, sonny beats him up and then later connie calls him again. in the script this logic doesn't quite fly. i'm guessing they did reshoots to get this.

-as mentioned before, we reveal sonny's death thru bonosara. it really doesn't work. 

-the michael in italy sequence comes after santino's death. 

-in general, major storytelling elements integrated differently

-in italy, michael is curious to find out about how his father became godfather. hears a story, they cut back to 1920. this basic outline of events of course finds itself in to part 2, but is stretched out much further.

-in general, we use a lot more POVs in the script. bonosara has more of a POV, clemenza, mama, and kay. in the film, we get more sonny, fredo, tom. casting makes a huge difference.

-in vegas, michael says to fredo when he appeals to tom "i'm running the family now, all business through me." in the film, tom says it. more powerful as a line coming from tom.

-no puppetmaster scene from don. a much thinner, smaller version of the classic scene. i wonder how they figured that one out.

-michael, and others find don dying, his final words are. "life is so beautiful" eek. glad they got rid of that.

-i was never clear on the timeline in the film, but via the script, the events at the end are 9-10 years after the beginning. doesn't feel this way in the movie.

-a weird moment at the end: michael completes the final "hit" after he kills carlo. he goes to a pizza parlour and kills fabrizzio - the bodyguard who betrayed and killed apollonia.

There are of course more differences, but these are just interesting to note. The biggest thing to recognize is that were this film being made today, the guilds and studio would impose diversity requirements and we'd have a BIPOC POV character (see The Many Saints of Newark). In reading over and thinking about the complex storytelling and filmmaking realities that made this film such a miracle, one can easily see how this dumb consideration would completely derail the ability of a filmmaker to make such a film today. This is why we will not see a film of this caliber ever come out of the present incarnation of Hollywood.