Don Corleone: Bonasera, Bonasera, what have i
ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? if you’d come to me in friendship, then
the scum that ruined your daughter would be
suffering this very day. and if by chance an
honest man like yourself should make enemies,
then he would become my enemies. and then
they will fear you.
[Slowly Bonasera bows his head and murmurs.]
Bonasera: Be my friend?…Godfather?
[Bonasera kisses Don Corleone’s hand.]
Don Corleone: Good. [walks Bonasera to the
door] Some day, and that day may never come,
i’ll call upon you to do a service for me. But
until that day, accept this justice as a gift on my
daughter’s wedding day.
Bonasera: Grazie, Godfather.
Don Corleone: Prego.
Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, from
The Godfather. Marlon Brando played Don Vito
Corleone; Salvatore Corsitto played Bonasera. After
his first two novels were rewarded with favorable
reviews but few sales, Puzo received an offer of
$12,500 to develop the outline of a novel called
mafia from Paramount Pictures in 1967; two years
later, The Godfather appeared, spending sixty-seven weeks on the new york times Bestsellers
list. The film won Academy Awards for Best Picture,
Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
