2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
Mario Puzo is a famous American writer and screenwriter who became famous thanks to his novel and screenplay for the film of the same name "The Godfather". Despite this, he cannot be called the author of one book. Mario has written many successful short stories, short stories and novels, both within and outside of the continuation of the life story of an Italian mafia clan. Mario has also written many scripts for successful films and TV shows.
Short biography
Mario Puzo was born in New York in 1920 to Italian immigrants. Despite the fact that he was undoubtedly one hundred percent American, he devoted much space to Italian culture and traditions in his personal life and work. The future writer was born in Manhattan - the most criminal part of New York at that time, which bore the unofficial name "Hell's Kitchen". During World War II, Mario served in the US Army in Germany and several Asian countries. All this tempered the character of the future writer and partially became the basis of his subsequent novels and scripts. After the end of the war, heReceives education at the College of Social Sciences in New York, and then at Columbia University.
After graduation, the future author worked in a variety of government organizations, including abroad. For 20 years, he constantly changed his place of work and moved a lot. After his 40th birthday, Mario decides to radically change his life and quits his job, which eventually leads him to become a writer.
The beginning of literary activity
In the middle of the 20th century, Mario worked as a freelancer in various magazines and newspapers, and then got a job as a journalist and editor in the magazine of the famous publisher Martin Goodman. This was the beginning of the literary activity of Mario Puzo. The author's books appear a few years later. First, these are short stories in magazines, and then the first creation of Arena Marka comes out. The book was inspired by the events of World War II and told about the love story of an American soldier and a girl from Germany.
Despite a fairly successful debut, the book was not noticed by critics and did not receive special attention, which cannot be said about the following creations of Mario Puzo. The Godfather appeared ten years later, but this book brought the writer a lightning success.
The Godfather
The novel was first published in 1969 and a year later became an undisputed bestseller. The book told about the life of America of those times with all its problems, laws and corruption. This was liked and attracted readers, but suchMario Puzo did not expect huge popularity. The Godfather, according to the author himself, was written only to pay off debts, and subsequently he fully provided for the whole family. After the overwhelming success of the book, Mario was also asked to write a film script based on his work, which he willingly did. The film received more than a dozen Oscar nominations, including Best Screenplay. Emboldened by the success, Mario teamed up with acclaimed director Francis Coppola to film a sequel to the story of an Italian mafia clan, which also received critical acclaim and huge success.
Features of the novel
The story of the mafia, and their laws of honor - this is undoubtedly the basis of the literary activity of Mario Puzo. The books describe the Caleone mafia clan operating in the early 20th century in the United States. According to the author, the prototype of the protagonist Vito was Mario's mother, who always cared about the integrity and unity of her family. The controversial hero of the novel - at the same time cruel, but fair, attracted the attention of readers around the world. The second character is Michael, Vito's son, a man who is trying to find himself and retire from family affairs, but life circumstances and situations force him to continue the family business in the mafia business. After the success, Mario moved on to continue the story, which was also a great success with both readers and viewers after the release of the films and the TV series of the same name. It was also thanks to this novel that such terms as caporegime,Omerta, Cosa Nostra, etc.
Other novels
Besides The Godfather, other works of Mario Puzo also deserve special attention: The First Don, The Sicilian, etc. The author wrote scripts for the novels, which later turned into successful films. In the early 90s, Mario suffered a heart attack and, after a short break, returned to literary activity, in particular, he published the novel The Last Don. Mario Puzo sells the rights to direct the film to F. Coppola for more than $2 million. In 1997, the director shoots the television series of the same name, which was a huge success.
In 1999, Mario Puzo suddenly dies of heart failure in his home. A year after his death, his novel Omerta was published, which became the final book of the trilogy about the mafia clan after The Godfather and The Sicilian. Unfortunately, Mario did not have time to write the script for this book as planned. The author also did not have time to finish his last work “Family”. The book was published in 2001 and was completed by his wife Carol.
Activities as a screenwriter
Scripts for films about the mafia clan Caleone are undoubtedly the basis of Mario's activities as a screenwriter. Today, these films are considered classics of modern cinematography and have not lost their popularity. Despite this, the writer also worked hard on scripts for other films, which received great success. Among them are "Superman", "Earthquake", "Christopher Columbus" and others.
Mario Puzo is an outstanding personality in modern American literature and film industry. His novel The Godfather is considered one of the most successful and popular in the world, and the film of the same name, based on the author's script, has long become a classic of modern cinematography. Based on his numerous works, successful films, series and video games were shot, and the names of his heroes often appear in popular culture not only in America, but throughout the world.
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