the.com/godfather
the man you ask politely, because the alternative was negotiated long before you walked in
means A man who sponsors a child at baptism and pledges to support their upbringing — or, by extension, a powerful patron who looms protectively (and sometimes ominously) over those in his circle.
from From Old English 'godfæder,' a compound of 'god' (in the spiritual, baptismal sense) and 'fæder' (father) — the man who became your father before God at the font. The 'God' here is the same one in 'godmother' and 'godparent,' marking a relationship of the soul rather than of blood. The ominous patron meaning is far newer, popularized in the 20th century — and cemented in the public ear by a certain 1969 novel and its films — though the underlying idea, a patriarch you owe respect and favors to, was waiting in the word all along.
- oscar refused
- Brando declined his statuette for the role
- real cat
- the opening cat was a stray Brando found
- horse head
- prop was a genuine head from a dog food plant
- mumbled menace
- Brando stuffed cotton in his cheeks for that jowl
- banned word
- the script never once says mafia