Fans of The Godfather are only just realizing why one specific word is never used in the film.
If you’ve never seen the film series, you’re surely missing out.
It has it all, love, betrayal, loyalty, a code of conduct, and organized crime.
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However, what it doesn’t have is one word that you’d probably expect for a mobster film.
The series is one of the greatest achievements in Hollywood history, as it follows on family in the US who essentially run the mob.
The Godfather is the head of the family who makes sure that everyone stays in their lane and does not cause trouble.
But if you want to know just why a word wasn’t allowed to be mentioned, it’s because they were threatened by real-life crime bosses.
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Lenny Montana, who was cast in the film as hitman Luca Brasi, had actually worked with the Colombo family.
His boss was Joe Colombo, who was not happy with several parts of the film.
Under the Italian-American Civil Rights League, the crime boss and crooner took the most issue with was the word ‘mafia’.
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Essentially, they said that they would not back the film if it appeared in the script, as ‘mafia’ is a derogatory term to Italian-Americans.
Colombo said to the New York Times in 1971: "What is the Mafia? There is not a Mafia. Am I head of a family? Yes — my wife, four sons and a daughter. That’s my family."
So, Al Ruddy - the producer - came up with a plan with the league to not use the word, and they tiptoed around it instead.
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Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell went on to tell all in an episode of Revisionist History that the producer was cornered by men of the mob because they were worried about how the film would portray their organization.
He shared: "According to Ruddy, Colombo and three henchmen met with him because they thought the movie would be bad for the mafia.
"They couldn't even take the time to read the script, so they made one request, 'Take the word 'mafia' out of the script.' Ruddy immediately obliged, letting them believe they had bullied him into submission and successfully neutered the film, but he secretly knew that mafia appeared only once in that draft of the script."
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But then another thing happened that you might not know about.
As part of the deal, someone who was actually in the mob was put in the film too.
Montana was an enforcer for Colombo, who made his his screen debut in film as part of the lobbying process the Civil Rights League carried out, and it’s said that he was very nervous to star alongside Marlon Brando, which was then written into the script to give the character a reason to be scared.
So, not only is it one of the greatest movies to date, it also has an incredible real-life backstory to go with it.
Topics: Crime, Film and TV, True crime
Britt Jones