Oh Khartoum: How 'Godfather' Started An Unending Thread On WhatsApp Group

‘The Godfather’ is a conversation starter. If anyone proof of it was needed, on a seemingly dull news day the Whatsapp group for Outlook employees started buzzing, when one of the members shared a news article about the fifty years of the ‘The Godfather film’, tagging Outlook’s entertainment journalist; A usual thing to do in the official WhatsApp group, flagging off an ‘interesting’ news item. What followed after that was an unending conversation about the cinematic masterpiece that the Godfather is. From discussing the details about the infamous ‘horse scene’ to how oranges were used to depict death and tragedy in the first film, here is the entire conversation in its entirety:  

RB: He [John Cazale] was so good in godfather 2 too. It’s like the actor was as ignored as freddo by his family, in godfather 

SG: Oh yeah brilliant actor. Dog day Afternoon, [The] Deer Hunter, all of them. 

RB: would be a nice read. the forgotten Corleone. (Smile emoji) 

IR: A series which can be watched again and again. 

CS: That horse head scene. I remember that horse 

SG: Khartoum! 

The horse head scene refers to the early incident from the book setting up Don Vito Corleone's hold as a mafia boss in Hollywood, is widely considered as one of the most iconic scenes in American film history. After Jack Woltz, the bigshot Hollywood producer rudely sends away Tom Hagen, Vito Corleone's consiglieri, he wakes up in bed, along with the severed head of his beloved horse, Khartoum. The studio had encouraged Francis Ford Coppola to use a fake horse head, but he didn’t like the mock-up. His scouts found a horse ready for slaughter at a dog-food plant in New Jersey. “When that one is slaughtered, send us the head. One day, a crate with dry ice came with this horse’s head in it,” Coppola recalled.  

CS: That was the don thing to do 

RB: This was actually one of the few films that I have ever found to be better than the books 

SG: Nooooooooooooooooo! As much as I love the film. I am sorry I will always love the book more. 

RB: Oh God! (laughter emoji) 

SB: Have read all three And watched it so many times. Al Pacino's best of course 

SG: I disagree again (inserts a Marlon Brando gif as Vito Corleone) 

RB: This one, I agree.  

SB: Reading Fools Die secretly was the highest thrill when we were teens  

SG: "Nothing is funnier than love travelling through time. Everything is comical".... What lines 

SB: Make an offer he can't refuse  

SP: We must also do a story on how The Godfather series has influenced Bollywood through the years, right up to Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee. 

SG: And RGV also - the Sarkar series is blatant rip off, in many ways. 

SP: Some are total copies like Dharmatma but so many are based on it. Mani Ratnam's Nayakan.  

SP: If I'm not wrong, the horse scene is there in a cheap Govinda comedy.  

IR: A few scenes in Sarkar by Ram Gopal Verma was totally picked up from Godfather 

PS: It was entirely picked up from there… Even the camera angles… 

SB: True 

SG: Hollywood has done some really good mafia movies. Of course, nothing comes close to Godfather though. 

RB: There was this interesting thing about the use of oranges. Coppola used oranges in the film to foreshadow tragedy. like in the scene when Vito Corleone is killed, a box of oranges spills out right before. same with Freddie's shooting. there's more to it of course. but it stood out as a detail. 

SG: i think the oranges one was only in the first movie. freddo dies on a boat all alone (sorry for spoilers if anyone has not seen the film) in the second one. The oranges were there even in that horse scene, the dinner table conversation between the Hollywood producer and Tom Hagen 

SB: Also, the theme music of Godfather makes the film so haunting. 

SG: Listen to the song raja ko rani se pyar ho gaya. Won’t be haunting anymore. 

SB: Why do we do such terrible rip offs 

PS: Anu malik made his entire career on that 

SP: Discussing Godfather in a group will be unending. Any more story ideas? 

SG: As you said, ideas can be unending. but i think these three will suffice for now?  

SB: The whole Don genre of movies :) 

SG: Exactly. Martin Scorsese says hi! 

SB: Right!