The Iconic Scene That Saved Al Pacino From Being Fired From The Godfather

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"The Godfather" is one of the greatest movies ever made, and the story about the making of the film has become the stuff of legend. The behind-the-scenes shenanigans that went into Francis Ford Coppola's American masterpiece have become so ingrained in the popular culture that someone even made an entire TV show about the making of the film ("The Offer," which premiered in 2022). If you're a film buff, you likely know the details: Coppola was still a young director at the time, and he had to fight hard to maintain his specific vision for the project. In the end, Coppola got his way, and "The Godfather" became a box office smash that took home several Oscars. But getting there was not easy.

One of the many clashes Coppola had with the studio, Paramount, involved casting of the film. The cast members of "The Godfather" are so pitch-perfect that it's hard to imagine anyone else in their respective roles, but Coppola had a rough time convincing producers of his desired cast. These days, everyone knows who Al Pacino is, but when "The Godfather" made its leap from Mario Puzo's bestselling novel to the screen, Pacino was still an up-and-comer. Pacino had begun making a name for himself on stage, appearing in Off-Broadway productions. He made his big screen debut with a very small role in the 1969 movie "Me, Natalie," but it was 1971's "The Panic in Needle Park" that helped put him on the path that would lead to "The Godfather." Pacino was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a heroin addict in that film, and while such a nomination certainly helped him, it didn't exactly make him a star. Which is why Coppola had a hard time selling the studio on Pacino for the role of Michael Corleone in "The Godfather."

Coppola ultimately got his way, but both Pacino and the filmmaker immediately ran into trouble and Pacino came very close to getting fired from the film. Pacino has talked about almost being fired from "The Godfather" in the past, and in his new memoir "Sonny Boy," the legendary actor goes into more detail, revealing that filming one specific scene probably saved his job in the end. 

Al Pacino wanted Michael Corleone to be an enigma in The Godfather

In "The Godfather," Michael Corleone is the youngest son of mafia boss Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). While Michael's older brothers Sonny (James Caan) and Fredo (John Cazale) are both involved in the family's crime business, Michael starts the film as an outsider — a fact that Vito is happy with; he didn't want Michael to be part of his criminal empire. Of course, everyone knows what happens: as the film progresses, Michael ends up becoming fully engrossed in the family business, and by the end of the movie, he's become the new head of the Corleone criminal empire. The story is ultimately a tragedy, following one man's slow slide into immorality. 

Pacino is an actor who thinks long and hard about his characters, and when he took on the role of Michael Corleone, he deliberately set out to play him as a bit of an enigma. As he says in his new book "Sonny Boy," "My whole plan for Michael was to show that this kid was unaware of things and wasn't coming on with a personality that was particularly full of charisma. My idea was that this guy comes out of nowhere. That was the power of this characterization. That was the only way this could work: the emergence of this person, the discovery of his capacity and his potential ... By the end of the film, I hoped that I would have created an enigma."

As a result of this approach, many of the early scenes Coppola shot with Pacino as Michael were deliberately understated. These days, when people think of Al Pacino performances they tend to think of him yelling at the top of his lungs. But his work in "The Godfather" is muted. Michael is a quiet guy, and while he eventually becomes a criminal kingpin, he remains subdued throughout the entire film. History has proven Pacino was right to take this approach, but when studio heads saw early rushes of the footage, they were underwhelmed. Pacino's plan was backfiring, and the studio wanted Coppola to give him a pink slip. 

Francis Ford Coppola moved up the filming of the restaurant scene in The Godfather

As Pacino tells it in "Sonny Boy," a few weeks into shooting, Coppola summoned him to a meeting and bluntly told him "you're not cutting it." Pacino sat down and watched some rushes of his performance. "I went into a screening room the next day," Pacino says in his book. "I had already been warned that it was possible I was going out of the picture. And when I looked at the footage, all scenes from very early in the film, I thought to myself, I don't think there's anything spectacular here. I didn't know what to make of it. But the effect was certainly what I wanted. I didn't want to be seen."

In other words, Pacino felt like he was doing exactly what he needed to do for the character — but the studio bigwigs were underwhelmed. Rumor has it that Coppola then took matters into his own hands and changed the movie's shooting schedule to film more action-oriented scenes. In his book, Pacino says that Coppola denies he did this intentionally, saying: "The jury's out on whether he did that deliberately, and Francis himself has denied that he orchestrated it for my benefit ..." Regardless of whether it was deliberate or not, Coppola decided to move up the filming of the now-famous restaurant scene. 

This scene signals the true beginning of Michael's turn towards crime. At this point in the film, Michael's father Vito has survived an assassination attempt organized by rival mob boss Sollozzo (Al Lettieri). Things are arranged for Michael to have a sit-down meeting with Sollozzo and a corrupt cop named McCluskey (Sterling Hayden). The understanding is that since Michael is an outsider (or a "civilian," as they put it in the film) not involved with family business, the meeting will be safe. But Michael, wanting revenge, plans on murdering both men in cold blood.

The Godfather restaurant scene saved Al Pacino's job

It's an explosive, violent scene, and it's also a great showcase for Pacino. Michael is understandably tense through the whole meeting — he's never murdered anyone before. The scene builds and builds, and there are moments where Coppola and cinematographer Gordon Willis keep the camera tight on Pacino's face as he waits for the right moment to shoot. Pacino does a lot of acting with his eyes here — we can sense the gears turning in his head as the tension becomes almost unbearable. Then, finally, Michael takes his shot — literally. He shoots both men in the head, drops the gun (something he was advised to do — although in a brilliant touch, there's a split-second where it looks like he's going to forget to follow these instructions and take the gun with him), and leaves just as Nino Rota's now-famous musical score kicks in. 

While it's up for debate as to whether or not Coppola moved the filming of this scene up to save Pacino's job, that's exactly the effect it had in the end. As Pacino says in "Sonny Boy":

"Because of that scene I just performed, they kept me in the film. So I didn't get fired from 'The Godfather.' I just kept doing what I did ... I did have a plan, a direction that I really believed was the way to go with this character. And I was certain that Francis felt the same way."

It's notable that Pacino didn't do anything different; he kept playing the character the same way he had been from the start. But the intensity of the restaurant scene clearly helped signal that he was onto something with his approach. In the end, it all paid off: "The Godfather" became both a hit and a cultural phenomenon that's hailed to this day, and Pacino would return to play Michael in both "The Godfather Part II" and "The Godfather Part III."