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

Michael: My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.
Kay Adams: Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don't have men killed.
Michael: Oh. Who's being naive, Kay?

More quotes from The Godfather

Trivia: When Vito is in the garden with his grandson, he puts an orange peel in his mouth, and the kid looks scared. Well, the kid really is scared. Marlon Brando improvised that, and the kid wasn't expecting it.

More trivia for The Godfather

Question: Why did Don Corleone send Luca Brasi to gather intel on Sollozzo? Wouldn't it have been obvious to the Don that sending his bodyguard, who was widely known to be unquestionably loyal, wouldn't fool his adversaries, which would eventually, with Brasi dead, lead to his own death?

Answer: Luca wasn't Vito's bodyguard, Paulie Gatto was. In Mafioso circles the bodyguard is also usually the chauffeur which was the other part Paulie played. Luca was an independent who had loyalty to Vito. Unlike other members of the family, Luca had his own operation and his own scams. He was usually only called into service by the Don when some particularly nasty piece of business needed to be taken care of for which Luca was paid handsomely. Few people knew why Luca was loyal to Vito, it had to do with a bit of trouble Luca got into with a young girl, Luca was looking at some hard time and Vito was able to get him out of it. As explained in the books, Luca didn't care if he lived or died, he didn't even care if he was killed, but he cared very deeply that he wouldn't be killed by Vito. That was the hold Vito had on Luca which made his loyalty so deep. So far as the rest of the underworld was concerned Luca was just an independent contractor who worked for the Corleone's from time to time. If you'll recall when Kay sees Luca Michael tells her "he helps out my father sometimes." Barzini was probably the only other one who truly understood how deep Luca's loyalty went. So, why did Vito send Luca: Vito thought he was dealing with the Tataglias. Ten years prior to the Sollozo meeting there had been a Mafia war. Vito planned the strategy of the war while Sonny handled the tactics. The war was bloody and costly but the Corleone's were able to out maneuver the other families and come out on top. After that war Vito was top dog of all the 5 families. Had Vito been correct that Philip Tataglia was behind Sollozo, sending Luca would have been a smart move. As Vito mentions after the meeting of the commission "Tataglia is a pimp, he never could have out fought Santino." Tataglia would have seen getting Luca as a huge win, not only would he have Vito's special muscle, but he'd probably also believe he'd be able to get information from Luca. Where Vito made the mistake was not seeing Barzini pulling the strings, had he believed Barzini was involved he'd have handled it differently.

The line in Goodfellas seems illuminating here where Henry Hill explains that the Mafia is essentially an organisation that offers protection for those who can't turn to the legitimate law of regular society. This suggests that these "family" ties are not as strong as we imagine. These criminals are not a definite part of an orderly corporation, like head of HR at IBM, but a loose confederation of connections and loyalties that are rather more fluid. This is a theme also explored very well in the book and film, Donnie Brasco. Therefore, it wouldn't be totally unthinkable that someone in Luca Brasis position could turn to another "family" if he felt it expedient. However, these kind of guys have a tendency towards mistrust.

Answer: Luca was instructed by Don Corleone to act as if he was unhappy with his current situation within the Corleone family. In the book, this mission was planned more thoroughly and was spread out over a longer period of time with Luca frequenting the Tattaglia family's bars and bordellos, where he (falsely) bitterly complained to the prostitutes and anyone who'd listen about how he was underpaid and undervalued by the Godfather. Either this ploy did not fool Sollozzo or, if he did believe it, he didn't care and used it to send a message to the Corleones by killing Luca.

raywest

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