How ‘The Offer’ reaffirmed everything I love about films

In the world of OTT content, Paramount Plus stands like a lone soldier taking on an army of content giants . Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Hulu, HBO Max are among the biggest in the business.

Suddenly in April this year, they were all the hype. With one tv show that no one saw coming, based on the super hit that everyone saw coming. The Offer is a semi fictionalised re telling of the story of how the greatest film of all time, the Godfather was made.

That’s the pitch I heard, and that was enough to convince me. I love the Godfather. I revisit the film once a year, and every time I notice a single detail I missed out before, that convinces me of its greatness yet again. I truly believe that in the process of making the best film they could, every single actor, technician, assistant delivered possibly the best work they have in their lives. While some may prefer other performances of Al Pacino, Brando or James Caan, I do think this combination of a team was the right one.

But I did have my reservations. Sometimes when a filmmaker tries to tell a story that they know people love already, they get into dramatising certain aspects and using the old cliches. Plus this was a story produced by Paramount about Paramount, in a nutshell. The scope for propaganda was real.

But despite having its cliches, The Offer stands firm like a pillar. It is a fantastic retelling of the story that elevated Paramount as a studio among its competitors. It is a story of a crazy director, a crazy producer who believed in a story so much, that it became like the air that they were breathing.

The story is nothing short of a dream. The year is 1970, and producer Al Ruddy (Miles Teller) who is fresh off a successful tv show, approaches Paramount boss Robert Evans(Matthew Goode) for a job to produce for Paramount. He pulls off one of the rare miracles, and Evans takes him on.

The first project handed to him? The Godfather, which is based on Mario Puzo’s incredibly controversial book of the same name. Back when the Godfather came out, the book caused a huge stir within the Italian American community. Puzo based the book on some people he saw while growing him in New York in the 1940’s and the resemblance to the Italian mob was uncanny.

The book was majorly protested about by the Italian Civil Rights League and they threatened to use their power over the unions to derail production. There was also a rumour that one of the characters in the book, Johnny Fontaine, was loosely based on Frank Sinatra. According to Hollywood rumours, Sinatra used his connection with the mob to fast track his acting career, and there was a lot of buzz about the actor that would play Johnny Fontaine in the movie.

While Ruddy is dealing with all this backlash, he’s faced with other problems. A studio who doesn’t want to invest in a director’s vision, a budget which keeps increasing day by day, actors with temper issues and every other thing that can go wrong within a film set.

In fact, Paramount themselves initially protested against getting Al Pacino to play the role of Micheal. As we get through the story, we realise how close the audience were from ever seeing true genius in action. Pacino as Micheal Corleone gave such a haunting performance that it is impossible to imagine anyone else in that part. In this retelling, the job of playing both Pacino and his character falls to Anthony Ippolito who delivers an absolute standout performance.

The rest of the cast is amazing too. The task of playing Marlon Brando falls to Justin Chambers who delivers a fantastic performance. Dan Fogler plays Francis Ford Coppola and Matthew Goode is a brilliant brilliant fit as Robert Goode, president of Paramount.

But the absolute standout of them all is Miles Teller playing the producer Al Ruddy. After delivering a career defining performance In Top Gun Maverick, to do this right after is the stuff of legend. The role is a complex one to play and he does it with a quiet grace. Another standout is Juno Temple, as Betty Whyte, who was Al’s assistant at that time.

The Offer starts off fantastic, but moves onto some usual cliches and unnecessary dramatisation. Al Ruddy’s confident demeanour, seems overused in some episodes.

But what the series gets absolutely bang on is the entire experience of making a film. The uncertainty, the excitement, the anxiety of watching a product in your head come to life on screen. As much as audiences nowadays have evolved to enjoy different different aspects of a film, its nowhere close to understanding how lonely the process is.

For the filmmaker, it takes months, sometimes years to get the final product to the audience. For the audience to appreciate it, it takes less than an a couple of hours. Not quite fair is it?

But thats life for a filmmaker. Some stories land, some stories don’t. But the beauty of it is the process. Hundreds of people coming together to create one single product every day. It’s almost like constructing a building. Much like buildings, films can and have stood the test of time.

And somehow, putting in the effort in these times seems more relevant than ever. We’ve gotten used to everything being available on an instant basis.

And that’s why the Offer in my opinion is an instant classic, much like the film it was based on. In a world of instant access, it was time to tell people a story of what happens when you put in the effort into something and pour your heart and soul into it :)

You can watch the Offer on Voot Select.