Corrected entry: Sonny and the crew get the call from their police inside informant from the station house as to where the meeting between Michael and Sollozzo (along with NYPD Captain McCluskey as Sollozzo's bodyguard) will take place (recall that it is made clear that a Police Captain must let it be known where he will be at all times if he is away from the station house). It is to be held at a restaurant in the Bronx. This is important so they have time to plant the gun in the bathroom for Michael. Tessio immediately says he knows this restaurant - a family place, good food, etc. *but* - in actuality, it would *not* be Tessio but rather *Clemenza* who would know this small neighborhood restaurant, since Clemenza's territory - where he is a captain - is the Bronx and Tessio's is Brooklyn. This is such an obvious mistake it boggles the mind no one on the set caught it, especially the writer, Mario Puzo.
Corrected entry: Prior to going off to kill McCluskie and Sollozzo, Michael is "trained" by Clemenza in how to shoot a pistol - as if Michael has no experience with firearms. Yet as a Marine who just returned from war - especially one decorated for battlefield heroism - it would be expected that Michael had both formal training and practical "fluency" with a range of firearms. Granted Michael might be anxious about committing brazen murder in public and even more so about whether the gun indeed will arrive for him in the right place at the right time at the restaurant - these are natural and plausible things for Clemenza to counsel him on. But the actual *use* of the firearm should present Michael no problem at all. And yet Clemenza talks to Michael as if he has never fired a weapon... Plot-wise, is there too much effort here expended on trying to depict Michael as being, at this point, naive, so as to enhance the "end-of-innocence" pivot that the murder of McCluskie and Sollozzo will come to signify, both for Michael's father Vito and the audience?
Correction: Clemenza is basically telling him specifically how to use that gun, such as about the tape and why it's so loud. As well, killing people in war is far different than murdering someone in cold blood. Clemenza is telling him how to keep calm while doing it and how to avoid being caught by the police.
Corrected entry: Carlo beats up Connie when she is pregnant, and she calls Sonny and he is killed on the causeway. When Michael comes back from Italy and looks up Kay, she asks how long he has been back and he says a year, maybe longer. Michael and Kay get married and then the scene shifts to a few years later (Kay and Michael have a son). The Godfather asks Michael how his son is and Michael says he is "smarter than me; he is three years old and can read the funny papers". But then, Michael decides to be Godfather to Connie and Carlos' baby. How long was Connie pregnant? This implies she was pregnant for four years.
Correction: Or, thinking a bit more sensibly, that Carlo and Connie had two children. Which they do, Victor and Michael Francis. When Michael has arrived at Carlo's house to 'make him answer for' Sunny's death, When Carlo replies, to Michael, he refers to swearing "on the kids...", plural. We are all thinking that the baby whose baptism they just participated in was Connie's first baby, but Kay and Michael (as previously mentioned) were now already married and have a 3 year old, so this has to be Connie's 2nd baby with Carlo, yes? And Carlo does say, I swear on "the kids."
Corrected entry: Everytime someone dies there are oranges in the scene.
Correction: This isn't true. In fact, it doesn't happen more than it does. There are no oranges present when Paulie the driver is killed, or when Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey in the restaurant, when Apollonia is blown up in the car in Sicily, or when Sonny is gunned down, when Moe Green and the heads of the five families are killed, or when Clemenza strangles Carlo in the car.
Corrected entry: Since the film came out, the Catholic term "Godfather" (the principal witness to a child's baptism, usually a relative) has largely been replaced by "sponsor".
Correction: This is incorrect. In Catholicism, the term Godfather (and Godmother) are still used at baptism. Its at the Sacrament of Confirmation (usually when the child is 12) where a Sponsor is chosen- nothing to do with the Godparents.
Corrected entry: Prior to killing the mob leader and cop in the restaurant Michael tries out a Colt .38 Spl pistol in the basement. There is a close-up of the pistol being fired; there is no recoil and one spark is seen coming from the barrel. This pistol had significant recoil and a substantial muzzle blast would have been visible in the close-up.
Correction: The pistol used was .22 caliber, not .38 caliber. A .22 has significantly less muzzle blast and recoil than a .38 caliber pistol.
Corrected entry: As the gangster hands Michael a pistol to try in the basement he tells him that the grip and trigger has a special tape that latent prints can not be lifted from. There is no such tape.
Correction: At the time, fingerprints had to be very clear to be lifted from an object. Simple atheletic tape has a rough enough texture that would make it nearly impossible to get prints from.
Corrected entry: In the first of the baptism murders, there are 3 people in the lift but Clemenza fires the shotgun only twice.
Correction: Shotguns generally use many small pellets. Two blasts would certainly be enough to kill three people in such an enclosed space.
Corrected entry: At the beginning of the Godfather, Michael Corleone was referred to as a Marine and a war hero in Europe. The Marines didn't fight in Europe, they fought in the Pacific.
Correction: Marines worked with the British in a variety of roles - many non-combat, but some worked behind enemy lines and in combat, most notably Captain Peter J. Ortiz who received a Navy Cross for his role in Europe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_J._Ortiz.
Corrected entry: When Clemenza gets out of the car just before Paulie is shot, it doesn't make sense that he would stand in front of the car where he's right in the firing line. When he returns to the car you can see bullet holes in the windshield. He was lucky not to be hit. Someone as smart as Clemenza would have stood behind the car where he would have been safe.
Correction: He's not really in the line of fire. He's in front of the car but also off to the side.
Corrected entry: 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. (01:19:45)
Correction: That vehicle is actually part of the strategy. As they complete the u-turn you can see the vehicle moving forward and stopping exactly to block every other car from attempting the same u-turn. This was done to make sure nobody was following them.
Corrected entry: At the wedding scene, Michael is wearing many ribbons. The 'highest' rated ribbon, the first, is the 'Silver Star'. It is very visible. In a scene much later in the movie there is talk about 'knocking off' Michael but someone says,"He is a war hero. He won the Navy Cross . This is higher ranked than the Silver Star and should have been worn first in the line - if he did in fact earn it.
Corrected entry: Luca Brasi is killed after his left hand is pinned down with a knife. Watch carefully and notice Brasi is wearing a ring on his left hand. In the final death scene, you can see that the hand pinned with the knife appears to be the right hand, not the left and the ring is gone.
Correction: Bruno Tataglia holds Luca's left hand on the bar, while Sollozo pins Luca's right with the knife. There is no switch.
Corrected entry: When Sonny beats up Connie's Husband in the street, he throws him into a tiny area where the trash cans are and starts beating him. Watch closely when he hits Connie's Husband with his left hand and you will be able to see that he doesn't even touch him.
Correction: Already submitted.
Corrected entry: During the fight with Sonny and Carlo on the street, the actor who played Genco, Vito Corleone's old friend and business partner in Part II, is seen in the crowd (maybe a younger relative?).
Correction: If this is a mistake, it should be listed under "Godfather II", as it would be there the continuity error would have been noticeable. But as the submitter says, this can be explained by the person watching the fight being a younger relative that resembles Genco, so there is really no error.
Corrected entry: When the heads of the other families get killed during Michael Jr.'s baptism one guy gets shot through a blocked glass door. The first shot that's aimed at his body shatters the glass but leaves the man unharmed, only the second shot causes a visible wound. (02:34:05)
Correction: First: the child being baptized is Michael Francis Rizzi, Carlo and Connie's child; there is no Michael Jr. Second: The first bullet could have been deflected by the glass in another direction. The man behind the glass (Cuneo?) isn't reacting to being shot; he's already shouting because he realizes what's happening to him.
Corrected entry: When the heads of the five families meet to call a truce, right in the middle of where Don Barzini makes his famous comment, "After all, we're not Communists," his elbow slips off the table. I guess Coppola decided to keep it in.
Correction: How is that a movie mistake? It's not even a character mistake. That's a human slip up.
Corrected entry: When Tom Hagen is meeting with Jack Woltz at the restaurant, the server fills his wine glass with red wine. Yet when he lifts it to drink, there is nothing in the glass.
Correction: First, they're not in a restaurant, they're at Woltz's home. Second, Tom has two glasses next to his plate, a small glass for wine, and a larger glass for water. The glass that Tom picks up to drink is the larger one with water.
Corrected entry: When Michael visits Kay for the first time since he's been back, the first shot shows a cloudy day, then when they are walking with the car behind them all of a sudden it's a beautiful day. (02:08:15)
Corrected entry: In the scene in the hospital when Michael is wheeling the Godfather's bed to another location for safety, as they go through the doorway you can see that Marlon Brando's hand get pinched. He jerks it up to his chest, despite the fact that he's meant to be unconscious... (01:02:00)
Correction: Even unconscious, a body will react to pain.
Correction: Complete and utter nonsense. What, you think that these people would have total knowledge of their own territory, but know nothing whatsoever about anything outside it? There is absolutely no reason why Tessio couldn't be familiar with the place - restaurants with good food can draw in customers from many miles away; entirely reasonable that Tessio could have visited it at some point. So obviously not a mistake that it boggles the mind that you thought it could have been.
Tailkinker