Al Pacino reveals why ‘The Godfather’ is better than its sequel
The legendary American actor Al Pacino is currently on an interview tour to discuss his illustrious career, which boasts major credits like The Godfather, Scarface, Serpico and Heat. During a new interview with David Rubenstein as part of 92NY’s ‘People Who Inspire Us’, the 82-year-old actor discussed the prospect of retirement and revealed his thoughts on the first two Godfather movies.
Revealing that he’s currently writing a memoir, Pacino said: “You get to that age, you start to do things like that. I stayed away from it, but I think I’ve got to sort of talk about certain things. It’s fine, I have kids and all, it’d be a good idea, and I’m working on it.”
Later, Pacino addressed the audience to see how many people had watched the recent Paramount+ series The Offer, which follows the behind-the-scenes making of the first Godfather movie, which arrived in 1972. “I watched it, and about half of it was true. Really, that’s a shock,” Pacino said of the series.
The actor recalled the project as a bit of a disaster at the time due to funding disputes, revealing that after the first day of shooting, “Diane Keaton and I got drunk and thought, ‘This is it, our careers are over. This is a mess.'”
Alas, the movie turned out to be quite the opposite of a “mess”. It received 11 Oscar nominations and is today regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time. Rubenstein then asked Pacino if he had been irked that Marlon Brando was nominated for the ‘Best Actor’ Oscar while Pacino was deemed a supporting actor, despite the fact he had more lines.
“How does a story like that get out? I wasn’t upset. Are you kidding me?” Pacino said, explaining that the rumours are likely grounded on the fact he didn’t appear at the Academy Awards ceremony that year. It wasn’t “because of that,” he said. “Let’s clear the air on that one. I’d been hearing about that up the grapevine.”
Rubenstein also asked Pacino if he thought, as many fans do, that The Godfather Part II was better than The Godfather. “No, I don’t,” Pacino replied. “I really think it’s more — what would you call it — artistic or something, I don’t know. I don’t mean to play it down and be overly modest because I star in it with Bob de Niro, but at the same time, it’s a different film.”
“You see, The Godfather is more entertaining,” he continued. “Godfather II is this study, this personal thing for Francis [Ford Coppola],” Pacino continued. “Godfather I – I saw it recently – it’s always got two or three things going on in a scene. You’re always in the story, you’re going. You don’t know what’s going to happen next, it’s storytelling, it’s really storytelling at its best. Godfather II sort of linearizes, and [it’s] kind of different, sombre, moves slowly. But it’s a great movie, I have to say.”
Watch the trailer for The Godfather below.
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