The entrance of Paramount Studios
Loyalty.
That is what The Offer, a sprawling 10-episode drama about the making of The Godfather, is all about. The characters, based on real-life people—some famous like Albert Ruddy, Robert Evans, Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola—are animated in one form or another by loyalty. Loyalty to each other and, most importantly, loyal to the mission—of making the movie.
The drama is fictionalized, so whatever truths are distilled come from watching the characters who may or may not be exactly as they are in real life. As critics have noted, the series is a pain to Hollywood filmmaking in a hinge moment, when the studio system reigned, but new talent, each with a singular vision, was rising.
These characters are loyal to their truth, to what they want to accomplish. So, as an exercise in leadership, it works examining.
Backstory
Like all Hollywood dramas of the time, it is the story of the hero struggling against the system. The Godfather itself was conceived as such by Mario Puzo, who told the story of Don Corleone, who came to America in search of a better life and, in the process, built a successful enterprise, primarily criminal. But loyal to family.
In The Offer, the chief protagonist is Al Ruddy (played by Miles Teller), a one-time computer programmer for the Rand Corporation who sold a series, Hogan's Heroes, to CBS and then walked away to pursue a career as a Hollywood producer. His passion for film and is what gives him the drive and the chutzpah to make such the movie.
Robert Evans (played by Matthew Goode) is the larger-than-life producer at Paramount. He gambled on the unproven Ruddy and allowed him to make The Godfather for a paltry $4.5 million, a sum that would grow over time.
Charles Bludhorn (played by Burn Gorman) looms large. His loyalty is to money, as he candidly admits. Hollywood, if anything, bores him, and he lets Evans run the show until Evans, beset by personal issues and mega-doses of cocaine, implodes.
Francis Ford Coppola is the director on a mission: to create a movie about family – what Mario Puzo envisioned. But, again and again, they push back at the studio brass that labels it a mob movie, meaning it won't do well at the box office.
And then there is Joe Columbo (played by Giovanni Ribisi), an ambitious Mafioso bent on "improving" the image of Italian-Americans. Initially, he is against the movie, thinking it will make the Mafia look bad as if they ever looked good in the first play. Finally, however, it is Ruddy who assures him that this story is about family and, by extension, loyalty.
Lessons to learn
What we can draw from the drama are lessons in the following:
Entrepreneurship. If Ruddy received a dollar for every time, he was told no before, during, and after the picture, he could have funded the picture himself. But instead, he got his way through guile and the ability to read people, not for himself per se, but for the image.
Swagger. Robert Evans, a former actor with Hollywood looks, was a natural charmer. People liked his company. He also backed his image with an intuitive insight into what made a good picture. He also produced Love Story and Chinatown, both big box office hits.
Commitment. Puzo and Coppola knew the story they wanted to tell. So, based on Puzo’s novel, they slimmed it into a richly visualized and superbly acted production that resonated with drama and family.
Plan B. Ruddy’s right-hand person is Bettye McCartt (played by Juno Temple). Ostensibly a secretary, McCartt is the go-to person to get things right. She is endlessly inventive when navigating quandaries, whether they involve Bludhorn, the Mob, or even Bludhorn. In addition, McCartt is very committed to making the movie right.
All these elements come together in a group of folks working for a single purpose, making a motion picture that speaks to its times and its filmmaker's intentions.
"The strength of a family, like the strength of an army,” said Mario Puzo, “is in its loyalty to each other.”
