The Godfather (1972) - 54 mistakes

Revealing: When Sonny is punching Carlo under the spraying fire hydrant, he misses an audible punch by at least six inches.

Revealing: At the Godfather's funeral, as Al Pacino stands up, you can see a reflection of his mother over on the right of the screen. It's clear in the widescreen video. The same happens when he sits down again.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: After Michael shoots Sollozzo in the head, he turns to McCluskey and shoots him in the throat and then in the head. But in the long shot, before he shoots McCluskey in the head, you already can see the hole in the forehead.

Revealing: When Moe Greene is shot through his right eye, the eyeglass is cracked, but has no hole where the bullet penetrated the glass.

Continuity: When Tom Hagen is meeting with Jack Woltz, the server fills Tom's wine glass twice within a split second.

Factual error: In the scene where all the heads of families meet shortly after Sonny's death, there is an exterior shot of a large grey-brick building with an American flag hanging from it. If you look carefully, the flag is a current flag with 50 stars, with alternating rows of indented stars. But, the scene is takes place circa late 1940's when there were only 48 states and all the rows of stars were even. (By the way, the flag inside the meeting room is the correct one.)

Revealing: When Vito Corleone is walking Johnny Fontane out of his office, he opens the door and you can see an extra walk by and stop, look at the camera and actors, and back up out of the shot. (Mentioned on the commentary).

Continuity: When Michael and Kay are eating lasagna during the wedding, Kay is smoking a cigarette. But depending on the shot, that cigarette disappears from her hand, then reappears.

Continuity: When they're all having a meal in Sicily, watch behind Appollonia. Two people, one in red, one in white, walk past in the same direction twice - once in a wide shot, and once in a close-up of Appollonia.

Continuity: When Clemenza knocks at the door Sonny gets a gun from a drawer and puts it in his belt. When he pushes Clemenza the gun disappears, but it's back a moment later. As the shot where the gun disappears is uncut the gun must have slipped down his pants.

Audio problem: When Carlo gets strangled in the car and kicks the windshield the sound of breaking glass can be heard before it actually happens.

Continuity: When Tessio delivers the bulletproof vest and the fish, Sonny's hands are in one position (one below, one on top of the parcel), a fraction of a second later they are in a very different position (both on top, unwrapping). The parcel is half open while Tessio is carrying it but fully closed when he puts it on Sonny's lap.

Continuity: In the first scene the undertaker Bonasera asks the Godfather for help. When the Godfather gets up from his desk the rose in his lapel is either fresh and straight or slightly wilted and bent in alternating shots. Also later in the wedding scene this rose keeps recovering from intermittent spells of weakness.

Visible crew/equipment: After Paulie gets shot there's a reflection of a cameraman in the small triangular side window of the car.

Continuity: When Michael is talking to Mo Green in Las Vegas, he takes his money out of his pocket twice in 2 seconds.

Continuity: When the 'baker' is meeting with Don Corleone about keeping his son in the country, he's holding a 'shot glass' in one hand, and a thin cigar in the other. When he reaches out to clasp the Don's hands in gratitude, the items are GONE. A split second later, they're BACK.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: When Don Vito Corleone gets shot, the camera angle from the side of the car shows Fredo bent over trying to pick up the gun he dropped, but when we see him from the camera angle from above, he's just walking to the front of the car. When the angle cuts back to the front of the car, Fredo is once again bent over trying to pick up the gun.

Continuity: When Diane Keaton and Al Pacino have dinner, he gets up, puts on his coat and sits down again. Now watch Diane Keaton's glass: When the camera's on Al Pacino she's holding the stem, but when the camera's on her she's holding the body of the glass. Another mistake is that at the end of the scene the amount of wine in her glass suddenly doubles.

Revealing: After Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey, as he quickly leaves the restaurant and he pushes his way out of the front door, you can see that the shot is jarred because the camera must have been bumped.

Other: After Sonny is shot on the causeway, there are a very large number of bullet exit holes visible on the sides of the tollbooths, which could only have been made if the gunmen shot through the walls (not the windows) of the buildings from the inside. This is common in movies. In real life, bullet entry holes in wood appear as small black dots, not the more dramatic-looking splintered gashes made on the other side of the wood as the bullet exits.

Continuity: Right before Sonny collapses his jacket is covered over and over with blood. When he is shot at while he is lying on the ground the amount of blood has gone down substantially.

Continuity: When Kay Adams and Michael Corleone are having dinner in her apartment, look at Michael's glass. First it is one fourth filled, then it's one third filled, and suddenly it is half filled.

Revealing: When Michael and Fredo arrive at the Las Vegas hotel Fredo's actor is replaced by a double who doesn't resemble him even remotely.

Continuity: In the scene where McCluskey breaks Michael's jaw the two cops who hold Michael by his arms get replaced by two others between shots.

Continuity: When the Godfather tells Tom that he is going to California tonight his glass switches from his left to his right hand.

Continuity: When Marlon Brando is gunned down at the fruit stand, he drops the bag of fruit he just bought. However, when he's collapsing against the car, the bag of fruit is now on the hood of the car.

Factual error: On the way to the meeting when Michael is going to kill Solozzo, the car made a U-turn on the George Washington Bridge (GWB), which connects Manhattan to New Jersey. However, the scene is shot on the Queensborough (59th Street) Bridge, which connects Manhattan to Queens. They look nothing alike, the GWB is a suspension bridge, the Queensborough Bridge is a cantilever bridge.

Audio problem: During the assassination of Don Corleone, the last shot that one of the assassins take makes no sound, but smoke is seen coming from the gun.

Continuity: When Barzini's driver gets shot the killer first shoots him into the chest but the driver grabs his stomach, where he is going to receive the second bullet.

Continuity: In the meeting at the Las Vegas Hotel, while Michael is talking to Johnny before Moe Green enters, Fredo takes his sunglasses off and puts them away. A moment later he sits down with his sunglasses back on and takes them off again.

Continuity: When Michael announces that he is going to kill Sollozzo his speech suddenly turns mumbly. Also the props in his swollen cheek change shape several times in this scene, as well as the way he is combed.

Revealing: When Sollozzo picks up Tom Hagen after killing Luca Brasi, you can easily tell that the snow falling is made of thin plastic.

Continuity: When the Godfather sits in the garden, talking to Michael who has just returned from Las Vegas, he is holding his wine glass in his hand. When he puts it down the amount of wine in the glass doubles.

Revealing: Before the car that takes Michael to the clandestine meeting at Louis' makes a sudden u-turn on the highway, the car in the left lane almost stops to make room for the stunt.

Continuity: When Michael Corleone goes to Las Vegas for his interview with Moe Greene, watch carefully when Moe sits at the table while continues his arguments with Michael. There's a glass of water that changes places from shot to shot. At one moment, the glass is behind Moe's arm, then, at the next shot is in front. Moe moves the glass at one point, but nevertheless, the glass continues to move from shot to shot.

Revealing: When Michael calls Sonny, after he finds out that his father has been shot, the phone booth he calls from has a broken dial - you can see that the dial is off center and would not work in that condition.

Continuity: When they're all deciding whether to wait until the Don is better before making a deal, the cigar box is closed. The camera cuts away for a second, then back and Sonny closes the miraculously open box. He can't have opened it while the camera was elsewhere, because opening it would have taken the lid right past the camera.

Revealing: At the end of the movie, when the Michael and company's car is parked in front of the "Las Vegas" hotel, if you look thru the glass windows you can see 2 men with 1970's "hippie style" haircuts walking thru the hotel lobby. This was supposed to be the late 40's or early 50's.

Continuity: During the strangulation of Luca Brasi, two mistakes occur between the front and side shots of him dying. First the knife in his hand disappears; second his head goes from being about a foot under the counter to about 6 inches over.

Factual error: Fredo is wearing a very 1970's sport coat and wing-tipped shirt ensemble in the Las Vegas hotel scene, set some 20 years earlier.

Continuity: When Barzini gets shot in the back we see a lot of blood and other matter pouring out. When he rolls down the steps his coat is intact again.

Continuity: When Sonny is gunned down at the toll station the bullet holes in the car roof disappear and reappear. Plus, there are some dents in the roof where the bullet holes appear.

Continuity: When Vito Corleone gets shot, he rolls on his back and his coat opens up to show his shirt. Then we see Fredo sitting down on the nearby steps and crying. In the next wide shot, Vito is lying on the side, totally covered by his coat, and Fredo is sitting farther away than where we saw him before.

Continuity: When Luca Brasi goes to meet Sollozzo and Tattaglia, he gets stuck in the hand with a knife and the blood runs out. Some few seconds after you see a shot of the hand, where the blood is already dry.

Continuity: In the meeting of the heads of all families, when Tattaglia asks the Godfather for assurance that there will be no vengeance, we see him leaning back in his chair, waiting for an answer. In the next shot the camera is on the Godfather, and we see Tattaglia leaning back again.

Continuity: When Tom Hagen and Woltz have dinner the scene starts with a wide shot with a huge log fire in the fireplace behind Woltz. In all later shots the fire is about half as high.

Continuity: When Michael asks Kay if she wants to meet Johnny Fontane the drink in his glass almost disappears between shots, then reappears later.

Revealing: When Michael is riding in the car with Sollozzo before the assassination, notice the headlights in the rear window during the close-up. You can notice that many of them move directly on top and underneath each other, impossible for real car's headlights to do such a thing.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: Outside the hospital McCluskey punches Michael. A few days after the episode outside the hospital, Michael shoots McCluskey and Sollozzo at the restaurant, but there is no mark on his chin where he was hit. Then at Sicily when Michael for the first time meets Apollonia, there is still no mark on his chin, but suddenly at Apollonia and Michael's wedding, he has a LARGE mark on his chin.

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.

Revealing: In the kitchen scene where Sonny is talking on the phone one can see that the lower portion of the telephone handset has no internal parts.