how much collaboration was there between puzo and copola in the making of the gf movies?

my question stems from something i noticed the other day while watching part 1. at vito's funeral, just after tom informs michael of barzini's proposal, michael states that he's going to deal w/ the heads of the five familes. the statement in and of itself would lead one to believe that there are in fact five other familes besides the corleones. soon afterwards, though we see that there are only 4 dons that are killed.

without getting into that whole debate, i have to wonder about copola's intentions when introducing this line in the movie. i assume it was his idea to change the book's climactic death scene to one we presently see in the movie.

it seems that if copola himself had a definite number of families in mind he could have settled it when mike's statement was made. i tend to think that the statement indicates there were 5 familes including the corleones. however, as many have pointed out, the book can sometime seem to infer that there were 6.

was there perhaps a chance that copola, having read the book and not having been persuaded on a definite number, used this line as a way of leaving it up to the viewer?

am i making any sense at all?

Emilio Barzini
Carmine Cuneo
Victor Stracci
Phillip Tattaglia
Moe Green

These are the 5 heads that we see get whacked.


Don Cardi

Green wasnt the head of anything, only his casino.He was small potatoes. Do a search for family #s, you'll find a lot of threads already talking about it.

Right, but the Corleone's ARE one of the five families. Hence, the death of the 4 other heads is essentially the same as whacking all the OTHER families. But I think most people figure out that the Corleones are one of the big 5.

Moe Greene wasn't one a head of a family, in NY/Jersey at least. He was the "Bugsy Seigel" character out in Vegas, heading the gambling, but certainly not one of the five heads.

I suppose you are asking about why the 4 got killed (Stracci, Cuneo, Barzini and Tattaglia), along with Moe, instead of just Barzini and Tattaglia. Well it's been suggested that this was a slightly more shocking and dramatic ending to the film. Mike whipping floor with them is quite dramatic and one of the most ultimate climaxes of all time IMO.

But anyhow it can be inferred that they had some hand in the hit, either by approval or by likewise conspiracy in the drug dealing ring because in the boardroom they all expressed interest and that's a hop, skip and a jump into them being potentially involved.

That aside, FFC had actually followed the book very religiously except for that point, really. In fact many key scenes in the book were filmed and not added as a testiment to his faith in the material presented in the book. IMO, from seeing video (extras DVD) and knowing something of the working realtionship between FFC and MP, I think it was a mutual decision to change this point for dramatic purposes.

As for their comrotery in the 2 & 3, I know little about it and I hope a true guru would step forth and enlighten us with facts. But judging from the plot and the movie I think MP had a great hand in GF II and suspect he was very involved in 3, there are just too many signiture things in both 2 & 3 to not have come from one source. But once again I bow to the experts on this issue.

actually, while trying to avoid the whole 5 families vs. 6 familes argument, what i'm really trying to get at is, was copola himself sure of the answer to that question?

the book is somewhat, though not entirely, vague as to the answer. as we've seen in the past it could be argued either way. so i wonder (and i realize this is somewhat far-fetched) if ffc didn't fully answer the question in the movie, but rather utilized lines such as the one michael used in the aformentioned scene, as a way of side-stepping the question. this way, he wouldn't "offend" those who might have argued the opposite point-of-view.

Yes I do realize that he was not actually the head of a family, but I was merely trying to point out that he was the 5th boss who was wacked. After all he was "The Boss" of Las Vegas, under the Barzini's. He reveals this to Michael when he tells him " I spoke to Barzini, the Don is.....etc." This is probably what made Mike realize that Moe had to go too.

Don Cardi