Who can forget Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone, cigar in hand and a sinister light in his eyes while his voice drawls innocuously, “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse." In the Godfather saga, directed by Coppola, "offers that can’t be refused" are usually physical threats made by the Corleone mafia family as a way of forcing submission to their "requests." In the case of Don Vito, he promises his godson Johnny, a struggling actor, that he will convince the head of a film studio, Jack Woltz, to give him a part in his next film. It eventually ends in Woltz waking up to find the bloody severed head of his prize stud horse in the bed with him. And yes, unsurprisingly, Johnny does get the part.

Just the other day I was watching the movie again and I was immediately brought back to the initial “gooseflesh” feeling – Don Vito as the caring family man moving in the vibrant atmosphere of his daughter’s wedding, smiling and showering favors to all with a smile that gave a hint of all the horror of the grave behind it. He’s the “good bad guy,” in control of his vices--indulgent and loving with his own set of principles (for example, he won’t have anything to do with drug-dealing). We end up rooting for him. I guess the film creates a sort of resonance in me, especially Don Vito’s character, because it shows that life can’t be measured in black and white, that people one would think of as “bad guys” or enemies can have personalities that command respect and even love. It would have to be a “really bad guy” who doesn’t have anyone to mourn him when he is gone.

Brando definitely delivered one of the best performances of his career with this one – and to think that, if not for Coppola’s insistence, he nearly missed making the cast because Paramount studios didn’t want him in the picture. As a compromise Coppola had to take him on with a paycut. It was in any case an offer Brando could not refuse, and it eventually landed him an Oscar award and a character role that will live on in the Movie Halls of Fame.