#92. 'The Godfather' Turns 50
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This bonus episode marks the 50th anniversary of The Godfather (1972) and skips the usual opening banter to dive straight into the rewatch: Vic caught it in Dolby Atmos on the huge screen at Tysons with his son, marveling at the sound and the deliberately grainy B-roll, while Sonny couldn't make it to a theater and instead rewatched the gorgeous Coppola Restoration Blu-ray at home, praising the film's surprisingly episodic structure that makes it "compulsively watchable" no matter where you drop in. JVL recalls first seeing it at a Godfather watch-party dinner in Vic's old apartment and likens the experience to Casablanca — a movie so mythologized that actually watching it still delivers. Vic attempts his usual Quadrant grading and it falls apart under the group's ribbing: Sex/Nudity gets a C+ (Sonny argues for at least an A- on the strength of Apollonia's memorable pasties), Plot starts at a C but rises to a B+ on rewatch once you catch that "it's Barzini all along," and Action/Violence is rated A++++++++, with Sonny insisting the three hours are "the most propulsive... ever set to screen." The trio digs into craft and story details — the VHS double-tape break at Sonny Corleone's death, the real horse's head and real gunshot-to-the-eye effects, and a debate over whether Michael cuts Tom Hagen out of the family hierarchy to protect him or because Hagen sided with Sollozzo and can no longer be trusted. Vic, who has read Mario Puzo's novel (unlike JVL), recounts its extraneous subplots (an unnecessary vaginal-plastic-surgery detour) alongside useful backstory on Al Neri — dubbed "the Boba Fett of the Godfather universe" — and period Mafia slang like "pezzonovante" and "Mustache Petes." They close by briefly relitigating The Godfather Part III (Sonny still defends Sofia Coppola) before trailing off on a shared, deadpan "It's fine."
From the show notes
Good movie, tbh.
Full transcript
Vic00:00:00Hello and welcome to another bonus episode of the Sub-Beacon. I'm Victor Matus along with Jonathan V. Last�iBunch. Just a reminder, the Sub-Beacon is now available through Patreon. Go to subbeacon.com, you'll easily find us. Please subscribe. Today we're talking about The Godfather, the original from 1972. It's the 50th, believe it or not, the 50th anniversary. So it was back in theaters. The funny thing is, I remember seeing it in theaters for the 25th anniversary. Wow. And I can't remember if you were with me, JVL, because it was playing, I believe, in the Avalon. And if I didn't see it with you, I saw it with my friend Todd's cousin, Allison. But I remember going to the theater. And at first, when I was trying to figure out when did I see it, I thought, it can't be 25 years ago, because that's like
JVL00:01:07half of, it's half of 50. Wait. Oh, we're old. You and I went and saw an anniversary showing of Goodfellas. Oh, yes. At the Uptown. Yes. Yes. We saw that together, not Godfather.
Vic00:01:18Okay. Yes. So I did see it with my friend Allison. And that was great. And that was very exciting. And that was that was a crowded theater. I went over the weekend and decided to take my son. I figured it was it was time. It's time. It was time. So and he had sadly seen parts of it because it's, you know, you'd go through days like certain holidays on am on AMC. And it's just round the clock. Sonny, you were gonna say that?
Sonny00:01:50Well, no, but also like it is just a reference point in so many things that like it is it you can't see it. You can't really I even when I saw it for the first time, you know, 20 years ago, like you can't see it without having already kind of seen it.
JVL00:02:04Yeah, I'm sorry. Did you guys not catch the moment in the Tinder swindler, which we talked about this week, where one of the idiot women says, you know, as he always told me, you got to keep your friends closer, but your enemies closer as if this guy Simon had come up with this brilliant line. My God.
Vic00:02:25Yeah, that's right. Thank you very much, JVL. I saw that because they actually showed it like they had the text out, you know, and I thought, yeah, wow, that's that he could have also said, you know, you know, Tessie was always the smarter one. Oh, I know. You
JVL00:02:40know, he just came up with that. He always said, leave the gun, take the canola. Yeah, I was amazed. He's so amazing. So deep. Yeah, so deep. Okay. When did you first banged him on the first date?
Vic00:02:55You know what? Fancy hotel rooms bring that out of people. I'm just going to say that the power of the never underestimate the power of a fancy hotel room. I wouldn't. When was the first time I felt in the cosmopolitan? Oh, the bonus material and the show now. That's it. That's it. Glad. Thanks. Thanks for listening. Listening. I hope you like the Godfather. We love the Godfather. Awesome. Great movie. The end. And when was the first time you saw the Godfather and how Sonny or me? Both. I don't I mean,
Sonny00:03:34I I almost certainly rented it on VHS from Blockbuster in like the mid 90s. Oh, JVL.
JVL00:03:42First time I saw it was with you. Oh, I had never seen the Godfather. So you had a real treat. They had a Godfather watch party apartment at my apartment. I think you guys have talked about this before. I'm sure we have. And we. The question is, did we watch it on DVD or VHS? I had to be. I think DVD, maybe. And
Vic00:04:01I don't know. I remember watching part two with you as well. And your lovely wife. Yeah.
JVL00:04:05Well, and we watched the first two. We didn't watch the. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. And we cooked all sorts of Italian dishes. That's right. And I imagine where there are
Vic00:04:13other people, where there are other people. They're there. Yeah, we had a couple a couple
JVL00:04:17of kids. The and it blew my mind. Yeah, absolutely. It was one of the things where, you know, the very few experiences I've had where people have talked about a movie is not just like it's a great movie, but is this is a one of the five best movies ever made. Ever made. And upon watching it, the reaction is, oh, yeah, no. OK, totally. Yeah, I get it. I get it. And, you know, Casablanca is the other one. Yes. Which, you know, you see Casablanca and you're like, oh, yeah, that's why everybody says this is.
Vic00:04:51Right. Exactly. You hear all these things that are now currently cliches. And then you realize that.
JVL00:04:55Yeah. You know, and Godfather was like that. It's so impossibly good that even going into it, think being told that you're about to see, you know, the greatest movie of the like, you're like, oh, yeah, OK.
Vic00:05:06But it actually is. The VHS thing is is terrible. If I remember, I don't know how it was for you, Sonny, but what I remember about renting it on VHS is, you know, it's two tapes.
Sonny00:05:18It's one of the double tapes.
Vic00:05:19It's a double tape. And do you remember where the first tape ends and the second begins? No.
JVL00:05:25Is it when she gets to Cecily?
Sonny00:05:26No, it's no. It's when it's. Wait, let me see if I it's when it's when he meets with Kay again. No, no, no. I'll tell you at the school or no, I'll tell you what it is for me. I remember
Vic00:05:41the tape ends just as Sonny is getting killed in the causeway.
Sonny00:05:45Oh, really? It's like, oh, my God, that's the halfway point.
Vic00:05:49Yeah, it is. And you can't believe you're devastated by this because you seek vengeance. I'm sure we don't have to explain the movie The Godfather to our listeners, but it's where Sonny is about to Sonny Corleone is about to go over to, you know, to to beat the shit out of Carlo, who's married to his sister, Connie, because he beat her up bad and and he's going over and he's he's a hothead and then he gets stuck in the causeway. And then the guys with Tommy guns come out. And it totally surprised me when I saw this for the first time. I, you know, and I saw it. I think it was on HBO or something when I was younger. And I just I was so devastated by that because you wanted to seek that that
JVL00:06:33that vengeance. Oh, that's funny. I was so happy when he died because I hated Sonny. And I wanted Sonny dead. I absolutely wanted Sonny dead. He was a hothead. He had no idea what he was doing and he was going to wreck the family. And and he was a bully. I wanted Sonny dead. So
Vic00:06:53I wanted him to be it. I found it cathartic. Oh, my gosh. And this happens. And it is, I believe, the most squibs up to that point that were ever used on a guy is the story
Sonny00:07:06because I mean, yeah, he gets shot like seventy eight times. I mean, yes. So he's complete.
Vic00:07:12And it and it looks amazing. It's not the CGI blood violence that we're seeing a lot of now. And I remember this and we saw I remember being bothered by this. By another movie we had seen a few months ago. And it was just so clearly just CGI blood and violence. It's just, you know, it just this is you need the Peckinpah squid. Yes. Yes. Like the wild bunch. The whole deal. And then all of a sudden the tape just ends and then you have to pop in the other tape. And then who knows? And you never know that second tape might not even be rewound. And then it's like a ten minute intermission as you have the whole thing. Yeah. Rebound. So I went to see it at Tyson's and it was in Dolby Dolby Atmos. Dolby Atmos. So it was in a it's a huge screen. It's almost like you think it's IMAX. It's so big that those blacks were amazing. Yes, they were. I bet those I bet those Tommy Guns sounded good. Yes. Everything was great. Except for the only thing that's not is the actual quality of the film. They hadn't done anything special. It wasn't restored. It wasn't restored. It is. It is restored. I mean, they they they
Sonny00:08:20have done it. They've done a restoration. Did they really? I mean, like, but you're you're watching. I mean, it's that close. What are you going to sit there with? You're not going to sit there with like the Blu-ray or whatever and compare it shot shot. But they have done they have done another 4K. They have done a restoration on it for the new 4K prints, which is what you were watching. And there's going to be a new 4K release. But the the Blu-ray restoration that they did, I mean, there's a whole story behind that. Like they had they had to track down like the original negative was in such bad shape. They had to track down like second gen bits and pieces. And like it was it's it was a whole process. But apparently they found some more of the original material and were able to clean it up a little bit better.
Vic00:09:03The one thing that they can't clean up because it was originally even in the original, it was grainy. Is this like footage of before they kill before they leave the gun, take the cannoli scene and they kill Polly because he was supposed to be the driver for Vito Don Corleone. And he was. In on it. Right. It turns out that, you know, and that's why he wasn't there to take him that day. And then Fredo there was there and the whole deal. So they just show it's like B-roll of New York and they're going through underneath this, the elevated train and stuff like that at the time. And even even now, it's it was always grainy then and it still is grainy now. So that didn't work out. But the sounds were the sounds were great. And it's nice to see you forget, because even on AMC, they do cover up a few things, you know, in terms of the violence that that is it's a little bit toned down. There's certain scenes when Sonny gets gunned down. There's the extra gratuitous scene where his body is lying there. And, you know, in the head. Yeah. And before the kicking in the head, they do another the other straight rake. Yes. And and I hadn't seen that in a long time. And it's really amazing. The only funny thing that you notice is later on they cut to, you know, they they cut and it's it's a scene where he's further away and the suit is less bloody than than previously. So, I mean, they obviously had to, like, do takes and then I don't know what happened. So it was, you know, anyway, the suit was a little bit more.
Sonny00:10:36Where was your where was your run pee break? None. You didn't go to the bathroom.
Vic00:10:42Didn't go. It was so gripping. Did you fast for a full day before? Yeah, I think it must have been that I just stopped drinking the night before. And so I was I went in there and neither me or my son, we sat there the entire time and I figured at some point I'd have to get up. And then I also thought, how horrible would it be if you hadn't seen this before and you get up just before the causeway seat or something or just before, you know, some some chemo, but that would be awful. But the thing and even to this day, I don't know. I hope that kids of the current generation still watch it and feel the same way that we did. Like, this is an amazing movie.
Sonny00:11:23I do think it I think it I think it has a pretty good hold on on viewers. I don't think it it does not have the reputation with some people that like Citizen Kane has that it's, you know, kind of slow and, you know, a bit of a wank. I mean, the thing about Godfather. So I did not I sadly wasn't able to go to the door. I really wanted to go see it.
Vic00:11:40You were asking about the trailers.
Sonny00:11:42I was asking about the trailers because I was going to try and go see it at an 8:00 p.m. show. But then I looked on the map and the theater I was looking at is like 30 minutes from my house. I was like, I can't I can't I can't do it. And like the theater closest to my house was doing a 7:00 p.m. show, but it didn't work out with kids bedtimes. Like I just I couldn't justify it to myself to to go do it. So I watched it at home on the on my on the Coppola Restoration Blu ray. Right. Which is just a gorgeous disc. Like I am I'm I will probably buy the 4K upgrade just because I'm a sucker. But it'll be great. But the. But the the the Blu ray, they did an amazing amount of work on it. It upscales really well on my TV. Like it it I don't know, maybe maybe the HDR will make it worth it. I don't know. But I had planned on throwing it on and kind of flipping around a little bit, you know, like skipping that. But it's just compulsively watchable.
JVL00:12:39I mean, like I was trying to I was in a 20 minute wedding is like
Sonny00:12:42I was trying to think about how how exactly it works. And I the thing that jumped out at me this time watching it is that it is actually a very episodic movie. It's it's it is not it. It has like a through line and it has a narrative through. But every every portion is like kind of distinct and is its own thing and flows really well. I mean, like there's there's no there's no moment where I was watching. I was like, all right, I want to I want to even even the stuff in Sicily, which is like is like the slowest part of the movie when he first goes down. When he first goes to Sicily. Even that stuff has like the great little things with like the Italian guy
JVL00:13:24who's repeating the lines. Yes, yes. You know, like a call a little bit Italian, Greek after.
Sonny00:13:31And it's just like it has these nice little moments. It flows. It's it all. Every every section is its own little bit and it works. And like, I don't know, man, it is. It really might be the great American movie,
Vic00:13:46but it's so visually rich. And just listening to them speak, the Sicilian Italian, it's just so pleasant on the ears. And it's no, I totally agree. What I think you'll really benefit from, Sonny, is there are so many scenes that are take place in very dark settings that if you just watch it on AMC or just watch it on TV, it just all sort of is sort of this fuzzy look to it. But you'll probably see all the different nuances and. - Sharp blacks. - Yeah, no, when Luca Brasi meets with Philip Tattaglia and Salazzo, for example, it's a very, very dark scene. He walks through these hallways and things like that. It's a, no, it's just very, it's very rich. There's actually going to be, did you see this? There's a movie coming out about making the movie.
Sonny00:14:38- There's a making of the Godfather movie. - With Robert Evans and Al Ruddy, right? - The Paramount Network or something.
Vic00:14:44- Oh, is it just on the Paramount Network?
Sonny00:14:48- Yeah, it's going to be on one of those streamers. I can't remember which one. Maybe it'll be on Netflix. I don't remember.
JVL00:14:54- Victorino? - JVL. - Would it be fair to say that the Godfather is either your favorite movie ever or top three? - This is a, it's definitely, it is definitely top three.
Vic00:15:07- Okay. - Along with Godfather II. My number one movie of all, yeah, my number one movie, favorite movie of all time used to be Goodfellas. And then, you know, I watched a million times and then I just haven't seen it now in several years. - Okay. All right. I just wanted to get that as a baseline.
JVL00:15:24Now do me a favor, do the quadrants. Because they're a lie.
Vic00:15:29- I don't have, you know, I had it.
JVL00:15:32- Sonny, this is where we break the quadrants.
Vic00:15:33- No, you break the, you break the quadrants. They're never coming back. Yeah, well, the problem is the duration is about. - How about the duration?
JVL00:15:42- Yeah, it's, it's, it's like Batman length,
Vic00:15:46the Batman length and then.
Sonny00:15:47- It's, but here's. - How about the sex nudity?
Vic00:15:50- Well, sex nudity does well because Apollonia is wearing something that I've never seen in a movie before. And it's so intriguing that on the big screen, it's worth it actually. You know, she wears the nipple caps and you're like, what is going on here? And great, great. And she's an amazing woman. And the funny thing is really, she really, I don't even know the actress's name, but she is so alluring and the way she speaks. And she's very standoffish at first, you know? She has this look like daggers in her eyes, you know? And yet, oh, just exudes this.
JVL00:16:27- Grade it on sex nudity, Victorino. - Yeah, I think I gave it maybe a C+.
Sonny00:16:34- It has nudity, so it's at least an A minus. - Yeah, oh, and-
JVL00:16:38- What nudity does it have, Sonny?
Sonny00:16:39- Well, Apollonia, she's not naked.
JVL00:16:42She's wearing like weird pasties or something.
Vic00:16:45- Yeah, but that alone was just exotic enough, I find it fascinating. You get points for originality and- - D. - And you can't wait. You're not allowed to rate the quadrants. And plot is a tough one. Plot is about a C, but it goes up to a B+ because you watch it a million times that you finally understand when he says Tattaglia's a pimp. Ah, I see what's going on here. It's Barzini all along. But here's the thing. Action violence is A++++++++. So it equals out to an A. The Godfather gets an A. No, it's the best violence ever. It is the best violence ever. Mo Green getting shot in the eye is quite something. And here's something that he also cut out in, if you watch it on AMC, it's just the glass on the lens shattering. They don't actually show the blood gushing out of the eyeball. And that's a great trick because again, this is not like special effects. So they must've rigged some device where it's in the glass.
Sonny00:17:48It's not special effects. They actually shot him in the fucking eye.
Vic00:17:50They shot Alex Rocca in the eye and he's blind. He was blind in one eye for the rest of his life. No, I mean, there's like, so it's clearly something coming out of the eyeglass.
Sonny00:17:58Bullets still lodged in his brain.
Vic00:17:59Yeah, no, he's right. The horse's head, they went to a slaughterhouse. That is not a fake horse. That is a real horse's head that they went to and dumped that in the bed. And it remains a mystery how they were able to sneak into Waltz's, you know, bedroom while he's sleeping, unless he's a really deep sleeper and get it underneath the silk sheets.
JVL00:18:20You listen to me, my Kraut-Mick friend.
Sonny00:18:22That's right, my Kraut-Mick friend. It's my favorite line in the whole movie. Yeah. It's actually my, you know, I'm German-Irish.
JVL00:18:28Sir, I'm German-Irish.
Vic00:18:30It's so fantastic. And Robert Duvall. You get the hell out of here. Robert Duvall is so good and this is Tom Hagen. I love, for some reason, I remember this in the 25th anniversary in the theater at the Avalon when Mo Green walks in, in the Vegas scene, people clapped for Mo Green. And the funny thing is Alex Rocco, who plays Mo Green, it's such a small role, but it's so memorable and people love him and I love him. And I always felt, you know, I just wish if I were Mo Green, I would be like, yeah, okay, you can buy me out.
Sonny00:19:01This thing here, this thing here he does with his hands. Yes.
Vic00:19:04Yeah.
Sonny00:19:05What he says? He was taking cocktail waitresses two at a time.
Vic00:19:08The players couldn't get to the table. Just set them straight.
Sonny00:19:11Yeah. You set my brother straight. I, the whole thing is, I mean, but so this is to go, circle back to the quadrants for a second. Yes, it's three hours, but it is the most propulsive three hours ever set. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no.
Vic00:19:25There's nothing else that is even close. It doesn't feel like, you know, every moment, as you say, it's just enjoy, you can jump in at any time and you'll just watch it.
Sonny00:19:32And this is what I'm saying. When I say it's episodic, I mean, it is like actually a very good TV movie because there is, if you just throw it on, there's a very good chance that you're, you're right at the beginning or about to be at the beginning of like another segment.
Vic00:19:47Yeah, and another segment that's enjoyable. You know, Don Corleone comes every,
JVL00:19:53every one of those moments is really great. I want to go back to Sonny for a minute.
Sonny00:19:57Yeah. So the four key members of the Corleone.
JVL00:20:01Corleone, the four key members of the family are the Don, Michael, Tom, and Hagen.
Sonny00:20:08Tom Hagen. Tom Hagen and.
JVL00:20:11And then Sonny, right? Right, sorry. So Tom, Michael, the Don.
Sonny00:20:16And Sonny. And Sonny, right? So that's four. Of those four, three of them are very shrewd,
JVL00:20:23very smart guys who can be trusted to do right for the family and Sonny is not. And Sonny is a danger to the family because he's stupid and he's a bully and he's a hothead. He needs to die.
Sonny00:20:41Fine. I mean, I think that that is, for Michael to take his place in the family, this is true. What's more interesting is that Tom Hagen gets cut out. And I think this is what I realized this time rewatching it. Again, it's not to protect Tom. It's because Tom took the side of somebody other than the family. He took the side of Salazzo.
Vic00:21:00Oh, in wanting to make the drug deal?
Sonny00:21:04He took the side of Salazzo in the discussion about whether or not to make peace if the Don dies. And I think that is the moment when Michael writes Tom out of the family hierarchy.
Vic00:21:17Well, he says, and I always thought it was gratuitous when he says, "You're out, Tom." Because, but you know, Don Corleone is much more sympathetic to him.
Sonny00:21:25But he does it in such a disdainful way. Yes, yes. That it is clear that Michael is filled with...
Vic00:21:36Bitterness? Pettiness?
Sonny00:21:38Disgust. I think he just, I think he doesn't trust him. I don't think he trusts him. Except for, don't forget. To the extent that he needs to trust the consigliere.
Vic00:21:44Don't forget in the beginning of Godfather II, after the failed assassination attempt in Reno, and he talks to Tom and he says, "You know, I know there are times where you felt like, you know, I was pushing you out or I was, you know, this and that to you, but it's only because I wanted to protect you." And so I'll take him at his word.
Sonny00:22:03Well, at that point, there was nobody he had left to trust.
Vic00:22:07So he wasn't, he wasn't sure. One of the great scenes, and there are many great scenes in the movie, but one of the great ones is after he gets his jaw broken. Michael gets his jaw broken by McCluskey, the dirty cop, played by the great Sterling Hayden.
Sonny00:22:19Sterling Hayden.
Vic00:22:20And they're sitting around trying to figure out what to do next. And Michael is not sitting in like, you know, the Don seat, he's just sitting in a seat, but Coppola has, he's got the camera fixed on him. And he comes up with the idea of going to a neutral place, the restaurant, where he is going to take out both Sollozzo and McCluskey, and the camera slowly, yes Sonny, exactly, slowly moves in on him and gets closer and suddenly he is the focus. I mean, he's framed as the Don. It's just a great scene. So, of course they laugh at him, but it's--
Sonny00:23:03- Talking about a corrupt cop, a dirty cop.
JVL00:23:05- Who says that, right? Where's it written you can't kill a cop? - That's right, that's right. - We had reporters. We had newspapers too, don't we? - It's so good.
Sonny00:23:16I was a little, so Tom getting cut out bothered me
JVL00:23:24a little bit because it didn't seem shrewd, right? Michael is above everything else shrewd. And that seems to be elevating loyalty above the good of the family. In a weird way, right? So the good of the family is coming into conflict with this idea of absolute and total fealty. And I don't know, it's like one, not a false note.
Vic00:23:53- You know what, he's cut out, but he's not really cut out because the future, as you know, the future of the Corleone family is gonna be in Nevada, right? And he's gonna be their lawyer in Nevada. So that's very important. And he did have his father to turn to. And the only thing the father was fixated on is, you know, when are they going to assassinate my son, you know? And watch out for who comes to you wanting to make the peace. And whoever says that, you know, they can make a deal, that's the traitor and then they realize it's Tesla. So he's constantly thinking going over and over and over again, but you know, it worked out.
Sonny00:24:28- I mean, again, what does Michael say? He says you're not a wartime consigliere. And that's, I think Tom Hagen proved that in the discussion surrounding Sollozzo. - And Sollozzo. - And how they should have handled it.
Vic00:24:43- Did you ever read The Godfather Companion, Peter Biskin's little book? It's just sort of, it's not even a book, it's just a bunch of factoids about Godfathers one through three. And one of them was, you know, obviously, and they're gonna talk about this if they do, you know, in this movie about the making of The Godfather, but how the studio obviously did not want Brando, right? He was too much of a liability. But the two names that came up, like for the role of, you know, Corleo, were Danny Thomas and Ernest Borgnine. - Sure, why not?
Sonny00:25:14Think about how good it would have been.
Vic00:25:16- Ernest Borgnine. - And I can see how the sort of the studio, they, you know, they must have been, you know, just in panic mode because here's this guy, you know, Coppola doing this movie and the openings, it's so unconventional. The opening scene is a 20 minute wedding. You know, it's like, really, we're gonna go with this? But, you know, glad they did. Do you have any other Godfather thoughts?
JVL00:25:39- Did you read the book, Victorino?
Vic00:25:41- I did.
JVL00:25:42I read it in the-- - How long did it take?
Vic00:25:45- Oh, that was a quick one. It's no 1984, you know, this was like, oh man. - 'Cause it's pretty long. - Six months. - No, no, no, no. It might've been a month or something, but it was such compelling reading. And I was at the Kennedy, I think I was living in the, I was living in a studio in the Kennedy Warren when I read it. I read "Goodfellas." I think I read "Goodfellas" first. I read "Goodfellas" when I was in college, "A Wise Guy" by Nick Pelleggi, which is a terrific book. And then I read "The Godfather" probably in '96 or '97. And the book, did you read the book, JVL? - No, I have not. - There is so much extraneous. It's like, Mary Puzo's great, but there's so much of the book that is not necessary, including, you know, this doctor who performs weird vaginal plastic surgery on Sonny's mistress. It's not even detailed about the surgery. I'm like, is this really necessary? So that, could do without that in the book. However, there's a lot that appears later in part two, the movie part two, that is mentioned in the book. So, I mean, elements of the book gave birth to both parts one and two, so that was very helpful. And you learn a lot, for example, that, you know, there's no, like, was Paulie the guy who actually, you know, who they kill, leave the gun, take the cannoli. Was he really responsible for Vito Corleone's death? Or did he have role? Yes. And the reason is because they were tapping the phone lines and they had a friend, the Corleones had a friend who worked for the phone company and they get the logs and they realized they were making calls to, I guess, you know, some outside people, whoever it was, Barzini or whoever. That's one thing. And the other thing was, I think there was a little bit, you got a little backstory on Al Neary, who is one of my favorite characters. - Oh, your favorite. - Al Neary, who was-- - Al Neary is the Boba Fett. - Al Neary and Rocco Lampone.
JVL00:27:38- Al Neary is the Boba Fett of the Godfather universe.
Vic00:27:40- Yes, yes he is, yes he is.
JVL00:27:43- This man of mystery that everybody loves.
Vic00:27:45- Yes, and he was an ex-cop, which is why in the movie, you see him, he has a badge and he has the uniform. So he's still that, there was a background story to him. So if you want to know more about a lot of these people and can get through the plastic surgery parts, read the book.
JVL00:28:02- Was Neary a maid guy or is he just a button man?
Vic00:28:04- No, he's just a button man. You know what's funny? Yeah, he was not a Kappa regime. And that's the other thing, you learn all the terms, right? Pets and Avanta, you ever hear, they keep on saying this in the Godfather.
JVL00:28:16You know, I'm not a Pets and Avanta. I don't ever want to be a pet, which means,
Vic00:28:19it just means a big shot. I don't want to be one of these big shots. But there's all these terms that come out. Mustache Pete's is just the old guard versus the new guard. It's great stuff. Okay, it's nice talking about a book that you actually read. It's kind of, okay, great. I can't wait till we do a Godfather, Father Three next week.
Sonny00:28:39Yeah, we did Godfather Three. We did Godfather Three, remember? It was good.
JVL00:28:43That's right, that's right, because you came to the defense of Sofia Coppola.
Sonny00:28:46Is that what happened? We got to do Godfather Part Two at some point. The whole thing was good. In two years, we're at the 50th anniversary.
JVL00:28:52This is, I look, it's not nearly as good as either one or two, but taken for what it is, taken on its own, the recut version of it was good. It's an enjoyable movie. Fair. It's fine. I'm sure it's fine. It's fine.
?00:29:07It's fine.
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