The Offer (8/10)

by Tony Medley

10 Episode series

TV-MA

Who is responsible for the all-time movie The Godfather (1972)? Everybody eventually gets their say. Former Paramount Production Chief Bob Evans got his in his bio and film The Kid Stays in the Picture by claiming to have spent untold hours at the last minute (pardon the mixed clichés) recutting the film. Francis Ford Coppola, who wrote the script (with book author Mario Puzo) and directed, has poo-pooed Evans’ involvement.

Now the producer, Al Ruddy, gets to tell his version, and, naturally, it turns out that he thinks he’s the guy who should get all the credit.

This 10-part series is told from the POV of 42-year-old Ruddy (Miles Teller). It shows deep mob involvement, especially Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi), boss of the Colombo crime family. Evans (Matthew Goode in a splendid performance) is shown as a crazed, drug-addled over-the-top studio exec who green-lighted the film but fought Ruddy on just about every decision, from picking Coppola (Dan Fogler) to casting Marlon Brando (Justin Chambers, who does a fine job) and Al Pacino (Anthony Ippolito, whose performance is disappointing, but maybe his nervous, lack of confidence appearance is accurate; who knows? If it’s not accurate, it looks defamatory to me).

Then there’s the appearance of Bettye McCart (Juno Temple) who is shown to be the brawn behind Ruddy’s brains as his secretary/assistant. Really? Or is this buffed-up role just an answer to the criticism of some feminists that The Godfather is misogynistic? Some of the more unbelievable scenes involve her. Regardless, Temple gives a terrific performance despite her grating voice that is often difficult to comprehend.

There are incidents in the film that sometimes appear to be total fiction, straight out of Hollywood, especially regarding Crazy Joe Gallo (Joseph Russo) and his relationship to the film.

There’s a bad guy in the film, Barry Lapidus (Colin Hanks, who gives an excellent performance) a skelf, a fly in everyone’s ointment. Lapidus is a fiction of the writers’ imagination, meaning to represent a few executives who opposed the making of the film.

Gulf and Western CEO Charles Bludhorn (Burn Gorman) is the boss of everyone. In real life, he was a unique person. Whether he was as bizarre as Gorman plays him would be difficult to believe, although anything is possible.

As to casting, Fogler captures Coppola’s personality, Goode shows Evans to be probably the way he was/is. The series shows how Ruddy bent over backwards to kiss up to the Mob and he continues that posture with this movie, just a bunch of regular guys who happen to kill people for a living. Unjustly minimized is Peter Bart (Josh Zuckerman), who first optioned Puzo’s book for Paramount, and is a far stronger personality than shown here.

Notwithstanding, this well-made series is entertaining and enjoyable. Paramount+