> All deliberate I'm sure
That would be odd. Only the following four are are from the movies alone; the rest are also in Puzo's novel, published in early 1969:
In the 1950s Richard was a Senator; during those same years Michael testified before the Senate.
Michael had connections in Cuba (Hyman Roth); Richard had connections in Cuba (Bebe Rebozo, some of the Watergate burglars).
Michael kept his friends close but his enemies closer; Richard made lists of his enemies.
Richard posed with Elvis in a White House photo; Michael posed with Carlo in the wedding picture.
And I'm not sure about the wedding picture item, that might have been in the book. It's been quite a while since I've read it and I'm not sure. But while Puzo might well have been trying to get some digs in at Nixon, who was already a public figure long before his 1968 run for the Presidency, the photo with Elvis hadn't happened yet. Neither had the Watergate burglaries, nor were Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Dean, and Liddy as notorious as they later became. And while I'm old enough to remember those times, it's been nearly fifty years and so I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure that when The Godfather (movie) was made, the existence of Nixon's enemies list hadn't become public knowledge yet.
So the answer is clear, it seems. Mario Puzo was actually a time traveler from the future.
reply
share
TinaKimo (867)
3 years ago
I did a google search, no picture of Michael posing with Carlo in the wedding showed up.
reply
share
ecarle (14979)
3 years ago
While Nixon may not have been on Puzo's mind when he wrote the original novel for 1969 publication(shortly after Nixon's first inauguration), I think Nixon -- and Watergate -- were very much on Coppola's mind when he was writing "new material" for Godfather II.
Godfather Ii came out in December of 1974. Nixon had resigned in August of 1974, and much of 1973 and 1974 had been given over to public televising of the Watergate hearings(especially in the summer of 1973 when, I believe, Godfather II began filming.)
The "DeNiro part" of Godfather II(about Young Vito) had been in Puzo's original novel. But the "Pacino part" was, I believe, almost all of Coppola's invention...and featured as part of it, a long sequence in which Michael Corleone is grilled by a Senate panel...which in and of itself invoked the Watergate hearings in DC.
Coppola's main theme in Godfather II, it seems is: "Don Michael is smart, but cold and will fail where Don Vito succeeded." A bit Nixonian -- also in Michael's paranoia about his enemies.
There is also, in both films, Michael's refusal of call girls and other carnal pleasures -- Nixon was often compared as a strait-laced guy in comparison to womanizer JFK, he had no taste for the sexual side of politics (see also: Clinton.)
In short, while I don't think Mario Puzo was thinking much about Nixon when he wrote The Godfather, I think that Coppola WAS thinking about Nixon when he wrote and made Godfather II -- and I also expect that carried on forward into Coppola's Godfather III years later.
reply
share
BullSchmidt (3189)
3 years ago
> Michael Corleone is grilled by a Senate panel...which in and of itself invoked the Watergate hearings in DC.
I'm sure it did, to viewers then with that recent memory. And Coppola may well have liked that aspect of it. But on the whole I think it was inspired by the McClellan hearings of the early 1960s, and to some extent the Kefauver hearings of the early 1950s. The chart showing the organization of the Corleone Family is clearly patterned after those used in real life for the same purpose. For example, photos of those charts are linked from this page (the photos can't be directly linked here). https://mafia.wikia.org/wiki/The_Valachi_Hearings
reply
share
ecarle (14979)
3 years ago
I'm sure it did, to viewers then with that recent memory. And Coppola may well have liked that aspect of it. But on the whole I think it was inspired by the McClellan hearings of the early 1960s, and to some extent the Kefauver hearings of the early 1950s.
--
OOPS. You got me there. I concede those points. Its not like I FORGOT those hearings...but I forgot them when I posted. Ha......Those WERE the influences on the film.
But I will offer the "save"(to myself) that those "hearings from the long ago past" may still have reminded viewers in 1974 of the Watergate hearings. DC is where the truth goes to lie...
---
The chart showing the organization of the Corleone Family is clearly patterned after those used in real life for the same purpose. For example, photos of those charts are linked from this page (the photos can't be directly linked here).
---
Yes. Funny...I recall decades later on The Sopranos, they showed the FBI using similar charts in their office to "track" Tony Soprano and his crime family. What was funny was that since we knew Tony and the guys as characters -- somewhat funny if deadly characters -- they looked a little out of place on the chart as suspects!
reply
share
BullSchmidt (3189)
3 years ago
Wow, funny thing!
When I Googled for "godfather wedding photo," most of the results were an image with the family posing without Michael and Kay. For example, https://www.art.com/products/p16258241792-sa-i6976947/the-godfather-1972.htm I had never noticed that there are two versions of the picture.
But Michael was in that photo with Carlo. Remember, the family is standing together, the photographer is getting ready to snap the pic, Mike says to hold on a second, goes and brings Kay into the group while she protests. Here's the picture. https://www.epicurious.com/images/articlesguides/entertaining/partiesevents/godfather_612.jpg
OK, Mike and Carlo are in the same picture but they're not exactly posing together, with each other ... but my OP was meant to be facetious.
The photos are very similar and at first glance I thought the first was a cropped version of the second, but it's not. The shadows are different, and Carlo's hand is in different positions.
reply
share
TinaKimo (867)
3 years ago
LOL on facetious. Thank you. This pic didn't come up in my search.
reply
share
BullSchmidt (3189)
3 years ago
I've gotta say, that second picture is terrible. Most of the people's faces are partially obscured by shadows. Carlo appears to be in the act of straightening his necktie. And if it's a family photo, who are those people just behind Kay and to her left (our right)?
The shadows alone should have been enough for the photographer to not snap it. I get it that they wanted to do it in that particular place. I wonder what happened? Maybe Pacino and/or Keaton had to be somewhere else later in the day so they snapped the one with them and hoped for the best, then snapped the one without them later in the day, when the light was better, in case the first one didn't work out. The picture without them was taken some time after the other one, comparing the shadows establishes that.
reply
share
TinaKimo (867)
3 years ago
That second pic is actually taken in the movie, but with everyone facing camera. Earlier in the day, they all gathered to take a pic and Vito basically said not w/o Michael. Later on, when Michael shows up with Kaye, they eventually take the pic, which is later in the day photo with shadows as you mention.
reply
share
BullSchmidt (3189)
3 years ago
It might have been that way in the movie, but it looks to me like the photo with Pacino and Keaton in it was in reality taken first. The Sun is more directly in front of them -- look at Keaton's shadow on the ground, in back of her. In the other photo, without those two, the Sun seems to be more to the left -- see Talia Shire's nose and Morgana King's (Carmela). It looks to me like the group was facing roughly south, and when the photo including Pacino and Keaton was taken then Sun was roughly south of them; when the other photo was taken it had moved west.
reply
share