The Godfather Script

[Rick DeVille]

Friend gave me the script to read on a plane - you read it and the movie plays in your mind, every scene.


FADE FROM BLACK: Int. of Don Corleone's home office -day



BONASERA (seated in front of the Don's desk, facing the camera)

I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the

American fashion. I gave her freedom, but -- I taught her never to dishonor her family. She

found a boyfriend; not an Italian. She went to the movies with him; she stayed out late. I

didn't protest. Two months ago, he took her for a drive, with another boyfriend. They made

her drink whiskey. And then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her

honor. So they beat her, like an animal. When I went to the hospital, her nose was a'broken.

Her jaw was a'shattered, held together by wire. She couldn't even weep because of the pain.

But I wept. Why did I weep? She was the light of my life -- beautiful girl. Now she will

never be beautiful again.

[Bonasera breaks down. The Don gestures to Sonny to give Bonasera a drink]

Sorry...

[Bonasera, taking the drink, sips from the shot glass]

I -- I went to the police, like a good American. These two boys were brought to trial. The

judge sentenced them to three years in prison -- suspended sentence. Suspended sentence!

They went free that very day! I stood in the courtroom like a fool. And those two bastard,

they smiled at me. Then I said to my wife, "for justice, we must go to Don Corleone."


VITO CORLEONE (sitting behind his desk, petting a cat)

Why did you go to the police? Why didn't you come to me first?



BONASERA

What do you want of me? Tell me anything. But do what I beg you to do.

 

[phrodeau]

Here's a massive archive of film scripts (The Godfather included).
Drew's Script-O-Rama

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Not that it really matters, but what you're reading is not actually the screenplay.

Screenplays that you purchase are more like novelizations -- accounts written after the film is shot. In other words, the writer has put in all the little directorial touches and edits that the director put in months after the original shooting script was completed. That's why reading it feels like you're watching the film.

(For example -- the "petting the cat" thing was not in the original script. The cat was wandering around the set the day they were shooting, and Brando picked it up on whim.)

 

[Rick DeVille]

I know the difference, this was written after the movie was made, it still brings it back. The screenplays I've seen change every minute of the shoot depending on who's got a good idea or who's got the better drugs

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

In the case of The Godfather that would be Coppola and Keaton, respectively.

 

[Rick DeVille]

In the case of The Godfather that would be Coppola and Keaton, respectively.

Exactly, although Brando added the sidebars

 

[Cheyenne]

So have you two figured out yet whether you know each other in real life?