10 Insane Rules Movies Weren't Allowed To Break
8. The Words "Mafia" & "Cosa Nostra" Couldn't Appear In The Script - The Godfather
The Godfather is of course one of the greatest movies of all time, yet despite focusing intimately on the internal machinations of the mafia, that word is never actually spoken even once throughout its epic 177-minute runtime.
While Mario Puzo's novel did use the word, the film was produced under a mandate that neither "mafia" nor "Cosa Nostra" ever be said, at the behest of mobster Joseph Colombo, who complained that the script emphasised Italian-American stereotypes.
Fearful that Colombo could use his powerful mob connections to sabotage the production, Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola removed a couple of mentions of the terms mafia and Cosa Nostra from the script.
This not only ensured that shooting went smoothly, but led the Italian-American Civil Rights League, which Colombo had founded, to ultimately support the script.
The two Godfather sequels, however, did include a few scattered spoken mentions of both terms.
As for Colombo, he was shot and paralysed in 1971 before the first Godfather was even released, leaving him severely brain damaged until he died in 1978.