The Godfather: The Real History Behind Michael’s First Kill
The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola from the bestselling novel by Mario Puzo, has just hit another historic milestone: its 50th anniversary. Released on March 24, 1972, it is a landmark film that made and remade history. The ultimate saga, which can be seen in the recently-released The Godfather Trilogy 4K Ultra HD edition, follows an immigrant family as they rise in American society. The Corleones reflect the vantage point of one of the Five Families of New York’s organized crime ruling commission.
While the words “mafia” and “cosa nostra” are never used in the film, many of the scenarios reflect specific points in the mob’s story. Some of these are strictly from Puzo’s imagination for the novel, like the horse’s head in a Hollywood producer’s bed scene. There is no evidence in gangland history to a corresponding incident like that. However, one of the most pivotal scenes in The Godfather is very similar to the incident which inspired it: The scene where Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) executes Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) and police captain Mark McCluskey (Sterling Hayden) at Louis’ Italian American Restaurant in the Bronx.
The moment is a turning point in many ways. It captures Michael’s transformation from war hero to mobster, and it starts a mob war. It also marked a turning point in production. Paramount Pictures was banking on a gory gangster picture filled with bullets and bloodshed, and Coppola kept delivering intimate personal scenes of subtle suspense and too much talking. The studio constantly threatened to fire Coppola, keeping stand-in directors on set to intimidate the young filmmaker.
To paraphrase Mike’s older brother, Coppola was about to get fired when the studio executives at Paramount got brains splattered all over their Ivy League suits.
The pivotal scene that changed studio minds occurs in the finished film after the attempted assassination of Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), the head of the powerful crime family who turned down a partnership offer on a lucrative heroin deal. Sonny (James Caan) now heads the family and wants revenge. Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) is against it. The consiglieri is on the record as saying, “Some of the other Families won’t sit still for all-out war.” Michael is the one who agrees to the sit-down. He explains his reasons, they are sound. He plans the strategy, right down to how it will play out in the press. It is reasonable. In this way, he is just like his old man.
Michael, decorated for service in World War II, is a civilian in the family business. He is the only person trustworthy enough to sit at a table and negotiate. A gun, which Michael gets acquainted with, is planted in the bathroom. It has tape on the grip and trigger to conceal fingerprints. He is picked up at Jack Dempsey’s bar and frisked. Sollozzo’s driver does an illegal U-turn on the George Washington Bridge to make sure the car is not being followed, and they head uptown to the Bronx. There’s a place there with the best veal in the city.
The negotiations are mainly spoken in Sicilian, and Michael actively listens, and even hints at the offer of a last-chance reprieve on the man who shot his father “for business.” He asks for a guarantee that no more attempts will be made on Vito’s life. This may have changed the outcome, but “the Turk” blows it.
“What guarantees could I give you Mike? I am the hunted one,” Sollozzo says. “I missed my chance. You think too much of me, kid. I’m not that clever. All I want is a truce.” It is the line which breaks the peace. We can see the anger on Michael’s face, but he keeps his cool, so as not to act in anger. He excuses himself, asking permission to go to the bathroom.
In the book, on page 149, Michael “really had to go, his bowels were loose. He did it very quickly, then reached behind the enamel water cabinet until his hand touched the small, blunt-nosed gun, fastened with tape. … He washed his hands and wet his hair. He wiped his prints off the faucet.” He then goes out and blows Sollozzo’s head off.
