Our Daily Trailer: THE GODFATHER
One of the things I love about The Godfather is that Francis Ford Coppola made a masterpiece from some pretty base elements. Mario Puzo’s novel is a page-turner, but a literary classic it ain’t. A potboiling mass market middle of the road book, The Godfather nevertheless contained everything necessary to turn it into one of the pinnacles of American filmmaking. This is what a good story can do - it can come alive and be more than the sum of its parts.
The trailer for The Godfather is flat out weird. A series of still images for about three minutes until it goes motion in the scene where Vito Corleone dies in the garden, this trailer almost plays like the very lengthy opening credits of a The Godfather TV show.
The scant research I did before posting this doesn’t reveal whether this is an original trailer or whether it was cut for a rerelease or the second wind of the film’s original release. The still photos and the heavy reliance on the historic theme song do indicate that this is a trailer for a pre-sold audience. Any insight is welcome in the comments.
