Goofs for
The Godfather (1972)
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Continuity: A glass of wine in the wedding scene.
Continuity: When Don Coreleone is talking to the pastry shop owner during the wedding scene, the man is holding a small shot glass. As he is getting up to grab Don Coreleone's hands, the glass is still in his hand but in the next shot it is gone.
Anachronisms: In several scenes wine bottles are shown with the DOC Italian wine classification designation shown on the bottle. DOC designations did not come in effect until the 1960s.
Continuity: The waiter fills Tom Hagen's glass twice within seconds during his dinner with Woltz.
Continuity: Kay's hands when she asks Michael when she will see him again.
Anachronisms: A building reflected in the window of the police car during the assassination of Barzini would not be built until more than ten years after the supposed time frame of the assassination.
Continuity: Level of wine in the glasses while Michael and Kay are having dinner following the attempted assassination of Vito Corleone.
Continuity: The windshield of Sonny's car is shattered by machine-gun fire, but is whole again by the time his bodyguards arrive.
Revealing mistakes: The bullet hole on McCluskey's forehead appears (in the long shot) before Michael fires the gun.
Anachronisms: 50 star U.S. flag in 1947 (on the building where the "peace conference" is held).
Anachronisms: At the airport at night, a swept tail Cessna 182 is shown. Production of this airplane didn't start until approximately the mid-1960s.
Continuity: A shot of Michael in the hospital walking past the camera is obviously reused a couple of minutes later.
Continuity: The placement of Moe Green's drink during his meeting with Michael.
Continuity: Fredo removes his sunglasses twice during Michael's meeting with Moe Green.
Crew or equipment visible: During Vito's funeral, when Michael stands up to talk to Tessio, the face of Mama can be briefly seen under his arm, tinted orange-red and chewing gum. After Roger Ebert reported this in his "Movie Answer Man" column in 2001, Francis Ford Coppola and Kim Aubry investigated: they confirmed that King was not supposed to be in the shot, but had gotten into it by an accidental reflection in the optics, probably off a filter (hence the tint) in the matte box.
Continuity: The level of wine in Vito Corleone's glass when he is discussing Barzini's move to kill Michael.
Continuity: When the dons meet, one of them sits back twice: once before and once after an edit.
Continuity: When Sonny is machine-gunned on the causeway, bullet holes appear at the roof line of his car, then disappear, then appear again.
Factual errors: When Michael Corleone calls home after his father is shot, the dial on the pay phone is clearly out of alignment.
Continuity: The death of Barzini: During the string of shootings during the baptism, Don Barzini (Richard Conte) is shot on the courthouse steps. In the medium close shot, the squib bullet-hits are clearly visible. In the long shot, however, Conte's stunt double tumbles down the stairs without any bullet holes on the back of his jacket.
Continuity: During the string of shootings during the baptism, the guy in the bed with the woman falls down twice. Just before and after the cut from far to close.
Continuity: When McCluskey is harassing Michael at the hospital, Michael's jacket changes. Michael's jacket is open a few inches near his tie as McCluskey is puling back his arm to hit Michael. After the cut his jacket is closed and straight when he gets punched.
Anachronisms: The first anachronism has to do with the DOC designation on Italian Wines. It actually took effect in 1963.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The exterior set-up shot for the summit meeting of all families is of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. While this seems like an unlikely place for a "family" meeting, it's an indication of how high their influence reaches.
Continuity: While Michael is talking to Apollonia's father after he has given her the necklace. The same two people pass by twice - once in a close-up of Apollonia and the other in a wider shot.
Revealing mistakes: The blood on the bed in the "horse head" scene. First it's there, then it disappears.
Continuity: When Woltz first sees Khartoum's head lying on his bed, the blanket is covering part of the neck stump. In the next shot, the blanket has been completely removed from the stump.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The punch to Michael's face broke his cheek bone which gave him a permanent black eye (and caused his sinuses to continually run - hence the use of a handkerchief all the time) until he got back to America and had surgery to fix it (Freddie says, "that doctor did a good job.")
Anachronisms: The movie's chronology indicates the time frame of the movie when Sonny is gunned down is late 1948 or 1949; however, he was listening to the 3 October 1951 radio broadcast of Russ Hodges calling the Dodgers-Giants playoff, a half-inning before Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World," specifically identifying the date of the murder as two years later than the movie's timeline indicates it should be.
Continuity: The amount of blood on Sonny after he is murdered on the causeway.
Anachronisms: Just before he is shot, Don Corleone shops for fruit at a shop. Cardboard boxes of Sunkist oranges in that shot feature graphics that weren't introduced until the Seventies. And in 1945 most oranges were still shipped in wooden crates.
Revealing mistakes: When Vito Corleone shows Johnny Fontane out of his office, we see an extra walk onto the frame from the left, but as soon as she sees Vito, she quickly lets out a little smile and backs away, as if she was in the wrong place.
Anachronisms: When Michael is arriving in Las Vegas, supposedly set in the very early 1950s, when he, Fredo, Tom and others are getting out of the car in the hotel driveway, two long-haired, bearded "hippie types" from the early '70s can be seen through the window in the lobby. (In the DVD commentary, Coppola admits that he is embarrassed by this oversight, but that the shot was done on the cheap by the second unit)
Revealing mistakes: When Michael gets out of the car in front of the hotel in Las Vegas, he is with his brother, Fredo. However, it is clearly not John Cazale (Fredo) getting out of the car, but someone else (notice the hairstyle in the scene).
Continuity: In the wedding scene, immediately after Kay Adams meets Tom Hagen, the cigarette in her hand disappears and then reappears.
Crew or equipment visible: When Clemenza goes for a pee, crew reflected in side window of car in which Rocco has just shot Paulie.
Continuity: The gun that Sonny gets from the drawer in the dining room when Clemenza comes to the house following the attempt on the Don's life, is in his belt, disappears when he throws Clemenza against the counters and reappears as he turns around after talking to his wife.
Anachronisms: The stop sign in New England when Michael returns from Sicily is red and white. Stop signs were yellow and black at that time and did not change to red and white until the 1960s.
Continuity: While Michael is telling Kay the story of Luca Brasi, the gun and the contract, Michael is leaning back in his chair, but we cut to Kay on the other side of the table and Michael is leaning forward.
Anachronisms: In late 1945, the Empire State Building is shown with the 222-foot television antenna mast that it did not acquire until 1950.
Continuity: When the cop shoots the man at the top of the stairs during the baptism sequence, three shots are fired, but only two can be heard.
Revealing mistakes: When Sollozzo's car pulls a "surprise" U-turn to throw off any tails on the way to the sit-down with Michael, the car in the left-hand lane slows down and stops before Sollozzo's car cuts in front of it.
Continuity: When the package of dead fish is placed in Sonny's lap, the position of his hands changes in close-up.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: During Sonny and Carlo's fight, one of Sonny's "movie" punches is shot from the wrong angle and clearly misses, but still produces the sound of an impact.
Anachronisms: When Michael moves his father's bed from the hospital room into the hallway, there is a sign on the wall over Michael's shoulder which lists Robert O'Lowery as the Fire Commissioner. He was Commissioner during the time the movie was filmed, not during the 1940s (it should have been Patrick Walsh).
Anachronisms: Sonny is killed on Captree State Parkway, so named until 1963 when it was renamed the Robt. Moses Causeway.
Continuity: When Sonny talks to Paulie in the meeting room and tells him to get some brandy for his cold, his right hand is between his legs. In the next shot, Sonny's right hand is on top of the couch.
Revealing mistakes: When Michael is moving his father to another room in the hospital, the apparently unconscious Don Corleone pulls his hand away when it hits the door frame.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Vito is gunned down by the fruit stand, one of the hitmen's pistols emits a muzzle flash, visible just after a cut to the overhead shot of them running away, but there is no accompanying sound effect for this last gunshot.
Anachronisms: Tom Hagen flies to California to see the movie producer in a Lockheed Constellation. The first production model of the Lockheed Constellation was not produced until 1947, and did not enter commercial service until even later. Tom's flight was apparently in 1945 ("almost 1946" according to movie dialog).
Revealing mistakes: When Cuneo is killed in the revolving door of the hotel the first shot breaks the glass in front of him but no blood squib appears on his shirt. It is not until the second shot goes off does blood appear.
Continuity: In the first scene of the film, Bonasera approaches Don Corleone to whisper to him. He keeps his left arm by his side. In the next shot he takes his left hand from Don Corleone's chair back.
Continuity: When Tom addresses Woltz studio, he is carrying the suitcase in his left hand. But indoors he appears with the suitcase in his right hand.
Continuity: After he gets shot, Don Corleone lays on his back with his right arm folded on his chest. Thereafter he appears turned to his left side, with his right arm stretched-out on his right side.
Continuity: When Tessio brings the package of dead fish to the meeting in Don Vito's study, the paper is disarranged and a little open. But when Sonny takes it, it is tidy.
Continuity: While he instructs Michael how to behave after to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, Clemenza has a cigarette in the mouth. From one shot to another, when Michael passes in front of him, the cigarette jumps to his left hand.
Continuity: When Michael gets in the car in which Sollozzo and McCluskey are, we see that there is a long distance between the two men on the back seat and Michael on the front seat. However, in the next shot, with Michael in close-up, the two others appear just behind him.
Anachronisms: When Vito is taken home in the ambulance, the curbing on the side of the road is painted yellow to indicate "no parking". However, this practice was not incorporated until the 1960s.
Revealing mistakes: After Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey, he bumps into the camera as he passes it exiting the restaurant
Continuity: When Michael is telling Kay about Luca Brasi, she has a cigarette in her left hand which disappears and reappears between shots. A few seconds later, the cigarette is gone and Kay has a fork in her left hand which then jumps to her right hand.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Connie is yelling at Michael because he had Carlo killed, she says, "That's your husband, that's your husband." Her lips do not match what she is saying.
Revealing mistakes: During the fight between Sonny and Carlo, when Carlo is pinned against the wall one of Sonny's punches doesn't come close to hitting him, but Carlo acts like it did.
Continuity: When the car that Appolonia is driving explodes, Michael is knocked backwards into the bushes and immediately disappears.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Sollozzo releases the abducted Tom Hagen, he says to him "...and bad luck for you if you don't make that deal!" His lip movements, however, show that he only says "...and bad luck for you!"
Factual errors: The main gate of Woltz International Pictures shows the rear of a car which is either a 1952 or 1953 Chrysler. The scene supposedly takes place in the late 1940s
Continuity: Enzo (the baker) visits Don Corleone in the hospital after he is critically wounded. Enzo is holding a large bouquet of pink carnations and baby's breath. Later, when he is standing outside the hospital with Michael, the bouquet has been changed to a much smaller one with orange carnations.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: After Fredo yells at Michael for trying to negotiate with Moe Greene, we see a shot of Michael smoking. As Michael exhales, we see a cloud of smoke quickly disappear from his mouth as the camera splices to another take of the shot.
Miscellaneous: After Sonny is gunned down, when his bodyguards arrive you can see shallow breathing from his chest.
Factual errors: Michael was awarded the Navy Cross for heroism while in the Marines but he does not have the ribbon for this decoration on his uniform during the wedding scene. The highest ribbon that he is wearing is for the Silver Star, which is the next lowest in order of precedence for US bravery awards. In Godfather Part II, during his testimony to the Congressional hearing he states that he was awarded the Navy Cross in the war.
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When the hit men tried to kill Vito Corleone, they fired - at close range - at least ten times. But Solozzo says he was hit five times.
Continuity: When Michael reads the paper about his father being shot, he crumples it and then starts to run across the street. The paper is crumpled in his hand as a car passes in front of him on the street. After the car passes, Michael throws the paper down. When he does this, the paper is very smooth and neatly folded.
Anachronisms: When the funeral procession drives into the graveyard, modern 18-wheelers and vehicles can be seen on the freeway at the top left and top right of the scene. The freeway with these vehicles is visible throughout the scene during various shots.
Factual errors: In the wedding scene, Michael is wearing a number of ribbons. One is the Army Good Conduct Medal and he is supposed to be in the Marines. The other is service in WWII in Europe, Africa or the Middle East. The problem here is there were very few Marines in that theater and he is showing a battle star on the ribbon. Very unlikely that a Marine would have such a decoration.
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: After Michael kills Virgil Sollozzo and the crooked Captain McCluskey, the camera slowly pulls away from the two bodies in the restaurant. During that time, the dead McCluskey blinks.
