The Offer (2022) * * *

Starring:  Miles Teller, Juno Temple, Dan Fogler, Matthew Goode, Colin Hanks, Burn Gordon, Nora Arnezeder, Patrick Gallo, Giovanni Ribisi, Justin Chambers, Anthony Ippolito

Paramount+ presents with its ten-part limited series The Offer, about the troubled production of The Godfather which in a less-determined producer's hands would've been shelved.   Would we have seen another version of the Mario Puzo novel?  Probably, but would it have been the Francis Ford Coppola-directed classic of cinema?  Likely not and all of movies have suffered.   The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are the biggest 1-2 punch in cinematic history, but after all of the issues which plagued the making of the first film, it's no wonder producer Albert S. Ruddy (Teller), even after winning the Best Picture Oscar for The Godfather, decided not to return for the sequel.   He instead made The Longest Yard, which was a cakewalk production in comparison, or I would assume.

Based on "Albert S. Ruddy's experience making The Godfather", The Offer (in which Ruddy serves as executive producer at 92) is engaging and moves along quickly and smoothly for the most part.  I would bet there were plenty of embellishments and dramatic license taken, but The Godfather's rise from Puzo's bestseller to one of the greatest films of all time was rocky at best and potentially deadly for Ruddy at worst. Ruddy himself was a computer programmer who quit his job and lit out to be a Hollywood producer.   The Offer would have you believe that Ruddy came right off the streets to pitch Hogan's Heroes to studio execs and find himself at the helm of a successful TV series.  It wasn't quite that fast, but it does detail Ruddy's nerve and confidence when he solicits Paramount's struggling studio head Robert Evans (Goode) for a job as a producer.  Evans likes Ruddy's chutzpah and, even after Ruddy's first film with Robert Redford flops, gives Ruddy The Godfather with a paltry four-million dollar budget in which to make movie magic.  Good luck with that.

Among Ruddy's and Coppola's (Fogler-in the show's best performance) challenges are:  the mafia's (and Frank Sinatra's) distaste for the novel and their efforts to stop the production, Ruddy's battles with Evans over the casting of Al Pacino (Ippolito), Coppola absolutely having to film on location in New York and Sicily despite knowing doing so would inflate the budget, and Ruddy's and Evans' battles with the penny-pinching corporate owners of Paramount, Gulf and Western.   I don't know how much or often Gulf & Western interfered with The Godfather, but it couldn't have been fun having guys like CEO Charles Bludhorn (Gorman-whose Bludhorn shows us he could easily play Major Toht if Raiders of the Lost Ark were ever remade) breathing down everyone's neck.   Colin Hanks is also on hand as an annoying accountant aiming for Evans' job who learns he doesn't have what it takes to be a studio head.   Evans has the unfortunate position of having to schmooze investors, placate upset talent, and have his wife Ali McGraw (star of Love Story which reversed Paramount's financial fortunes) run off with Steve McQueen and sending Evans into a drug-filled tizzy.

Ruddy himself is also married to hotelier Francoise (Arnezeder), whose job as Ruddy's wife is to lament that he isn't home enough and keeps secrets from her.   I'm reminded of Roger Ebert's suggestion concerning this trope in biopics to "just make the man single" and avoid such cliched scenes altogether.  We don't even miss her when she's gone.   The other woman in Ruddy's life, albeit not sexual or even romantic, is Betty (Temple) who is way too smart and knowing as Ruddy's assistant not to eventually branch out into her own job as a manager or agent down the line.   Teller as Ruddy exudes a pressure-cooker existence and a producer's creativity, but the role itself is limited to showing us these facets.   Any story of The Godfather wouldn't be complete without Marlon Brando (Chambers-who exhibits Brando's infamous eccentricity and difficulty nicely).

The Offer has the look and feel of 1970's Hollywood down right and thankfully we are spared episodes which delve into Ruddy's past (or Brando's, Coppola's, Pacino's, or mostly anyone else for that matter).  The Offer is paced well, although the scenes involving Evans' job hanging in the balance begin to feel repetitive, and while it doesn't revolutionize television, it gives us an apt feeling of how producing The Godfather must've felt like a reward and a punishment all at once.