The Godfather
The Godfather mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Sonny is shot at the toll booth the front windshield is torn apart by bullets yet when the bodyguards arrive thirty seconds later, the windshield is intact. (01:53:20)

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Suggested correction: Look again, the broken windows you are seeing are from the side windows, the windscreen was shot out entirely.

The screenshot shows the windscreen is intact after being shot out.

Ssiscool

Continuity mistake: Before Paulie is shot, Clemenza gets out of the car to relieve himself and walks only a few steps away from the car. As Clemenza hears the gunshot, he looks back at the car to see Paulie slumped over the steering wheel, and the car is a much greater distance away, than just the few feet he had walked away from it. As Clemenza walks back to the car, it again takes him only a mere few steps. (00:54:40)

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Suggested correction: This is wrong. The shot taken from a distance is not where Clemenza is standing. You can actually see Clemenza standing just a few feet to the right of the car from this distance shot. The scene is accurate.

Trivia: The term "godfather" was never actually used by the actual mob, author Mario Puzo just made it up. Yet after the book and film came out people started assuming it was, so it started appearing in news reports. And it is now actually used by the mob.

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Suggested correction: This is incorrect, Joe Valachi - The First Rat used the term "Godfather" when describing the mafia's initiation of a crew member to a made man during the subcommittee hearings on organized crime held between 25 September 1963 and 16 October 1963.

Factual error: At the end of the movie, when Michael's car pulls up in front of the Las Vegas hotel, if you look through the glass windows, two men wearing 1970's shirts and gold neck chains, with "hippie-style" haircuts walking through the lobby, though this is supposed to be in the late 40's or early 50's. (02:13:50)

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Suggested correction: Similar to another entry about the supposed anachronistic style of the Vegas scenes, the style was not unheard-of at the time, especially in Las Vegas, where people tended to dress a little more outlandishly.

Factual error: When Luca Brasi goes to meet the Tattaglia family and Sollozzo to pretend he would like to defect, and they garrote him, Brasi is making all kinds of loud noises while being strangled until he dies. During choking or strangulation, one is unable to make much (if any) sound because air cannot pass through the vocal chords on its way out of the body just as it cannot enter the body and get to the lungs. (00:41:25)

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Suggested correction: By tightening the neck muscles, one can resist strangulation, especially if one is stronger than the person strangling you. Luca is very physically powerful and so resists in this way, which is why he is able to make gargling noises as he struggles. Eventually, though, the reduced oxygen takes its toll, and he succumbs.

Continuity mistake: Before Luca Brasi's hand gets pinned to the counter by Sollozzo's knife, Tattaglia holds it down on the counter with both hands, but then, in a close-up of the stabbing, Brasi's hand is hovering over the counter and Tattaglia's hands are nowhere. (00:41:20)

NancyFelix

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Suggested correction: Incorrect. Throughout the murder, Tattaglia holds Brasi's left-hand down, with both his own, while Solozzo stabs Brasi's right hand with the knife, which pins it to the table. Any apparent "hovering" is due to Brasi struggling to lift his knifed hand. There is no point where this changes.

Revealing mistake: When being transferred to another room the supposedly unconscious Don pulls his left arm up so it won't hit the door frame.

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Suggested correction: He's shown to be awake when Michael is talking too him moments later, albeit weak. He was probably woken up by the movement before this point, so he was conscious enough to move his hand.

Factual error: In the scene when Michael visits his father in the hospital in 1945 there's a NYC Fire Dept. Sign on the wall with the name of the Commissioner, Robert O. Lowery, who was commissioner from 1966 to 1973.

Ray Palermo

More mistakes in The Godfather

Tom Hagen: I'm an attorney for the Corleone family. These men are private detectives hired to protect Vito Corleone. They are licensed to carry firearms. If you interfere you'll have to appear before a judge in the morning and show cause.

More quotes from The Godfather

Trivia: Marlon Brando won a Best Actor Oscar for his role as Vito Corleone. Robert DeNiro, who played the role via flashbacks in Part II, won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. They remain the only two actors to win Oscars for playing the same character. Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix both won for playing the Joker, but not really the same character, given the very different films and portrayals.

More trivia for The Godfather

Question: What is the name of the melody/song that is played just after Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey? It is played while you see some newspapers with big headlines etc.

don_corleone

Chosen answer: The mattress montage music is called "This Loneliness." It is written and performed by F.F.C's father.

More questions & answers from The Godfather

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