The Offer is Worth Considering

Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972) is one of the most talked about, discussed and written about films in the history of cinema. Books have been written about its famously tumultuous production, particularly Coppola’s fights with the studio over the casting of Brando and Pacino. The ten-part TV series The Offer tells the story of the making of The Godfatherbased on the “experiences” of its producer, Albert Ruddy.

Ruddy was 30 when he produced The Godfather, and he was 90 when he sat down to recall his experiences to Michael Tolkin (best known for writing the script for Robert Altman’s The Player) who created and developed The Offer. How reliable Ruddy’s memories are, is open to question. Naturally Ruddy has made himself the unsung hero of the making of The Godfather, someone without whom this film would have never been made, at least not in the form that we can see today.

In this version of the story it was Ruddy (Miles Teller) who helped Coppola (Dan Fogler) get the cast that he wanted, he also managed to get the extra funding to shoot part of the film in Sicily, his friendship with Mafia boss Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi) helped resolve the problems with Mafia and the unions, and most importantly he managed to get the personal backing of Paramount owner Charles Bluhdorn (Burn Gorman), with much help from his assistant Bettye McCartt (Juno Temple) who had established a close relationship with Bluhdorn.. To top it all, Ruddy has recalled that he was irresistible to women.

Undoubtedly the most interesting part of Rudy’s recollections, and the series, is his relationship with Paramount’s head of film production Robert Evans (Matthew Goode). In his memoirs, The Kid Stays in the Picture, Evans has written about his own experience of working on The Godfather. The documentary The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002), based on Evans’s book, starts with this quote by Evans: “There are three sides to every story: your side, my side and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each differently.”

In The Offer Evans comes across as mostly helpful and a key player in the making of The Godfather. Both in Evans’s book and in The Offer Evans persuades Coppola to put back the footage that he had cut from the movie under pressure from the studio to make the film shorter to allow more showings per day. In his memoirs Evans has reproduced a telegram from Coppola to him that read as follows:

“Dear Bob Evans,

I’ve been a real gentleman regarding your claims of involvement on The Godfather. I’ve never talked about you throwing out the Nino Rota music, your barring the casting of Pacino and Brando, etc. But continually your stupid blabbing about cutting The Godfather comes back to me and angers me for its ridiculous pomposity.

You did nothing on The Godfather other than annoy me and slow it down that is why Charlie (Bluhdhorn) put in The Godfather II contract that you could have nothing to do with the movie.

If you want a PR war or any kind of war, no one is better at it than me.”

In an interview with Sight and Sound magazine in 1972 Coppola, in answer to the question “How did you manage to stay on (The Godfather)?”, stated “Everyone hated Brando’s first day. Bob Evans started to make enquiries to see if (Elia) Kazan was available. They figured that Kazan was the only director who could really work with Brando. Finally, after the first three weeks, Charlie Bluhdhorn had a nice meeting with me and gave me his support. Then I took control of it.” But interestingly, in answer to the question “How did they feel about the film before it was released?” Coppola replied, “I have to give Bob Evans credit there. As soon as he saw the film, he decided it would be a major hit. He staked his career on it, because he was the guy who fought for length. I was chicken. I was going to cut 15 minutes out. Evans really means well, and has some good intuitions, and he worked very hard on it.”

So what about the series itself? Though in the beginning it is a bit jarring and looks like a soap opera where they’ve gathered a bunch of lookalikes to tell a story which glorifies its narrator, Al Ruddy, it soon grows on you, specially if you are a fan of The Godfather movies. The one who holds it together and raises it above a soap is Matthew Goode who is superb as Robert Evans and makes him the most fascinating and the only fully three-dimensional character in the series. The Offer may not be high quality drama, but it is definitely a guilty pleasure and an offer that The Godfather aficionados should not refuse.

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