The Offer , a new series about the making of the 1972 classicThe Godfather , has proven to be a story well-nigh as compelling as the Corleone saga . Chronicling producer Al Ruddy ’s efforts to get Mario Puzo ’s novel adapted for the sieve , the series frequently pits Hollywood against real - life Sicilian Mafia figures who areconcernedtheir clandestine criminal activities will be exposed .
In one episode , Ruddy ( Miles Teller ) appears topromisethat he will move out any mention ofmafiafrom the script in an elbow grease to appease family boss Joe Colombo ( Giovanni Ribisi ) . It seems like a huge fall , but it ’s precisely what happened .
In 1971,The New York Timesreportedthat Ruddy remove the wordsmafiaandla cosa nostrafrom the film ’s hand , which was write by Puzo and conductor Francis Ford Coppola . The intelligence came at a press conference , allegedly sprung on Ruddy by Colombo , that was on the face of it to placate the Italian - American Civil Rights League , a pro - Italian - American organization said to be bear on over how the film might stereotype Italian - Americans as criminals . The League was largely a front for the crime syndicate to wield influence over how it was depicted in pop culture .
The film instead use language like “ the five family ” to reference organise crime .
Colombo would subsequently be the dupe of an assassination endeavour during a public rally while the film was shooting just blocks aside in New York City . ( He spent seven years in a coma before dying in 1978 ; his assailant was photograph and kill on the spot . )
Mafiaappeared throughout Puzo ’s book , of course . To keep the film on track without being disrupted , Ruddy made what he believe to be a pocket-sized yielding . As a upshot , the most famous film of all time about the mafia never actually uses the term , though you canhearMichael Corleone ( Al Pacino ) utter it ( with some despite ) during his Senate testimony in 1974’sThe Godfather Part II .
[ h / twhattowatch.com ]
