The Offer episode 8 review: Al Ruddy yearns to go to Sicily, but it comes after some bloodshed

3/5

Story: The Godfather’s filming is at its final stages and Coppola wants to shoot in Sicily, but the budget won’t allow it. As Joe Colombo remains in a hospital after getting shot, a new man takes charge of the mob and he has different ideas. 

Review: In the last episode, we saw the infamous shooting where Joe Colombo is shot when on stage. We start the latest episode with Al Ruddy having nightmares of this and his life would soon become a real life nightmare. The episode has a good mix of all the avenues the show has focussed on so far, and gives us an answer as to why James Cann actually assaults Gianni Russo. 

The episodes show the final stages of The Godfather’s filming. We learn that Talia Shire, who plays Connie in the movie, who is also Coppola’s sister in real life, is upset because Gianni Russo actually hits her during the filming of a scene for the movie. Ruddy has an answer as to how to deal with this but decides to keep it a secret. We then see the filming of the iconic scene from the movie, where James Cann’s Sonny thrashes Russo’s Carlo in the streets. Russo has stated in an interview that the fight scene ended up being done differently as to how they had rehearsed and that Cann actually hit him. Now we know that this was Ruddy’s way of letting Russo know never to do something like that in a cinema set. 

Russo has also stated in real life that Marlon Brando, who was unhappy with his acting and the fact that he was a newcomer, wanted Coppola to fire him. Russo explains that he threatened to kill Brando and this is how he kept his role in the movie. 

Coppola wants to shoot the scenes of Michael in Sicily in Sicily, but the budget restricts them. Ruddy does what he does best and moves things around and pulls a few strings and gets the budget ready. However, following the fall of Colombo, Joe Gallo (Joseph Russo) has taken charge now and he wants a share from the movie. Ruddy says that he has no money left but Gallo threatens him and says that it could end up bad for him if he does not pay up, and gives Ruddy a deadline. Now Ruddy is torn between saving the money to shoot in Sicily or saving his life by paying the money to Gallo. 

We also get a look at a destroyed Robert Evans, who has learnt that his girlfriend Ali MacGraw has now left him for Steve McQueen. A drunk and drugged up Evans also causes a scene at the wrap party, showing his fall from grace. 

Behind the scenes of the movie, Caesar (Jake Cannavale) goes ahead and takes out Gallo, showering him with bullets from close range before giving him Colombo’s regards. This clears the way for Ruddy, who lets Coppola know that they could finally film in Sicily. 

The episode does not have much to offer, but gives the truth about how Ruddy has indeed crossed a line. He has now been deep enough with the mafia, that one could argue that he knows too much and is a mafia man himself. “You are one of us now”, Colombo told him a few episodes ago, and one could argue now that he was right. However, The Godfather is almost done and we could expect to see what happens next in the next episodes. 

Verdict: This is an episode that does not have much to offer, especially to The Godfather fans. While we do get an answer as to why Russo was actually assaulted by Cann during filming, the episode gives a lot of focus on a power shift with the mafia and how it affected Ruddy.