Al Pacino picks his favourite out of The Godfather films, talks of retirement plans

Al Pacino has a clear favourite among all three Godfather films from the super-successful mafia trilogy. In an interview as he relived his career, working on The Godfather and his decision to turn down Star Wars, Al Pacino sat down with David Rubenstein as part of 92NY’s “People Who Inspire Us” series for an hour-long chat.

Commenting on his big break in The Godfather, Al Pacino said that the first film was far superior to the others. On whether he has seen the recent Paramount+ series The Offer, which follows the behind-the-scenes making of the 1972 film, he said, “I watched it and about half of it was true. Really, that’s a shock.”

He recalled starting work on The Godfather, and after the first day of shooting, “Diane Keaton and I got drunk and thought, ‘This is it, our careers are over. This is a mess.'”

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On The Godfather 2 being superior to The Godfather, Al Pacino replied, “You see, The Godfather is more entertaining. Godfather II is this study, this personal thing for Francis [Ford Coppola]. Godfather I, I saw it recently, it’s always got two or three things going on in a scene. You’re always in the story, you’re going. You don’t know what’s going to happen next, it’s storytelling, and it’s really storytelling at its best. Godfather II sort of linearises, and [it’s] kind of different, somber, moves slowly. But it’s a great movie, I have to say.”

Al Pacino regrets turning down Star Wars as he admitted that he was new at the time and a lot of offers were coming his way. “So I was there and all of a sudden they gave me a script that was called Star Wars. I said, ‘I got the script, they offered me so much money, but I don’t understand it. I gave Harrison Ford a career, which he has never thanked me for!” he joked.

After nearly 50 movies, Pacino said he currently has four more on the schedule and hopes to do an adaptation of King Lear next year. On his retirement plans, he said, “I’m always retired. I retired when I was 25. I mean, who cares? Please don’t call it retired, I just don’t want to work anymore.”

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