Coppola's Attention to Details

Francis Ford Coppola is known for his fanatic attention to details in his movies. While researching another point I came across this gem proving that detailed fanaticism.... its a shot of Don Vito buying fruit just before he was gunned down. Notice the boxing poster behind Vito - its advertising a fight at Madison Square Garden.

That fight (between Jake LaMotta ["The Raging Bull"] and Tommy Bell) actually took place on the date indicated (LaMotta won by Decision in 10 rounds). The fight would have taken place about 3 weeks after Vito was shot.



(CLOSEUP)

See, it's things like this that distinguish the good from the WOW. People might think, Eh, these details are too small to pay attention to... but all the little things add up and make for some serious wow factor, don'tcha think?

sc do you find those photo stills somewhere on the internt or do you get them yourself?

This kind of things make me watch the movie over and over again, just to discover more of them. I know there's talked about other little details here before, like a Pepsi advertisement in one of the flashback scenes, and also the cars which were used for the films.

That particular detail is mentioned in either the commentary, or the documentary on the DVD bonus disc.

Excellent attention to detail though as you say, could have quite easily had nothing there at all and no one would have been any the wiser.

Nifty detail SC. There are many scattered throughout the GFs. I wonder if they find original posters or have them duplicated? I always thought the newspaper that announces that Vito's been shot looked a little fake, but maybe that's how they looked.

While watching GF on Spike last week I re-noticed one of my favorite detail items. In the hospital scene - Michael visiting Vito - check out the old style fire extinguisher hanging in the hallway; copper colored.

Another interesting detail (at least to me) is that Mike was picked up by Sollozzo in front of Jack Dempsey's Restarant. Jack Dempsey comes from Montrose Colorado which is where I'm from. They still got the old building he used to fight in.

Right! Right! Right! You can watch the films hundreds of times and still pick up new evidence of FFC's fanatical attention to detail each time. Among my favorites:
--The girls at Connie's wedding have their hair tied with wool strands, and the men are wearing short ties--both because silk and synthetics (like rayon and nylon), which ordinarily would be used for hair ribbons and ties, were needed by the armed forces. Note that all the cars at the wedding have "A" gasoline rationing stickers in their windshields.
--The soft-drink posters on the walls of Sr. Vitelli's cafe in Sicily are for contemporary products sold there in the immediate postwar years.
--Although Cuban dictator Batista's wife and kids appear on screen for less than three seconds during the New Year's Eve party, the actors and the clothes they wear are exactly what the real-life Batistas looked like and wore. The '57 Mercury Montclair that drives Michael in Cuba has a tinny European horn-- exactly what a Cuban driver of that era would have installed.
--After Batista resigns, you see crowds hitting parking meters with baseball bats. This is exactly what happened in Havana on that night: money from the meters was supposed to go to a children's hospital, but Batista diverted it to his brother-in-law's pocket, and everyone knew it.
There are lots of other examples.
You get a major insight into FFC's dedication in "Hearts of Darkness," the superb documentary his wife Eleanor made about the filming of "Apocalypse Now." In setting up a scene at a French plantation, you see FFC telling his crew: "I want the white wine to be Chassagne Montrachet, and I want it chilled to 45 degrees." My reaction was: "What? Who the hell will know if it's Chassagne Montrachet or chilled maiden's piss, and who'll care what temperature it's served at?" Then FFC tells the crew, "And get me real French people--go to France to get them if you have to. I want every French person watching this movie who lived through that era to believe that everything's absolutley authentic." Right, FFC! A director who sweats that level of detail will get everything else right. That's why he's the master!

Nice stuff.. I would never have noticed ANY of this without this topic.. or maybe until I reach my 500th viewing of the films.

getting there...