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Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.

And when it comes to lists of men's favorite movies, the Godfather is a perennial inclusion.

And as hard as it may be to believe, the critically acclaimed and popularly beloved film is coming

up on the 50th anniversary of its release.

Journalist Mark Seale wrote an in-depth piece on the making of the Godfather for Vanity

Fair magazine back in 2009. And after doing even more interviews with director Francis Ford

Coppola, the actors of the film, and other behind-the-scenes players wrote a new book on

the subject called, Leave the Gun, Take the Canoli, the epic story of the making of the Godfather.

It's easy to forget that the film was based on a novel by Mario Puzzo, and we spend the

first part of our conversation there, with Mark unpacking how an indebted gambler became

a best-selling novelist. From there, we turned to how Puzzo's novel was adapted for the

screen, a story as dramatic and entertaining as the film itself. Mark explains why Coppola

took the job of directing the film, and his genius for casting. He delves into the unexpected

selection of Marlon Brando to play Don Corleone, and how James Conn inhabited the role of

Sonny despite not being Italian-American. We get into how our real-life character named

Joseph Colombo temporarily shut down production of the film, in opposition to the stereotyping

of Italian-Americans' mafia, despite the fact Colombo was a mob boss himself. Mark explains

why Coppola considered making the Godfather the most miserable experience of his life,

and the ex-factor that ultimately made the film so good.

And we inter-conversation with whether movie like The Godfather could be made today. After

the show's over, check out our show notes at a-wim.is slash Godfather.

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