Mario Puzo is a well-known American writer and screenwriter who became famous thanks to his novel and screenplay for the movie The Godfather. Despite this, he cannot be called the author of one book. Mario wrote many successful short stories, short stories and novels as part of the continuation of the life story of the Italian mafia clan, so outside it. Mario has also authored many scripts for successful films and series.
short biography
Mario Puzo was born in New York in 1920 in a family of immigrants from Italy. Despite the fact that he was undoubtedly a 100% American, he devoted a lot of space in his personal life and work to Italian culture and traditions. The future writer was born in Manhattan - the most criminal part of New York at that time, which was unofficially called "Infernal cuisine." During World War II, Mario served in the American 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 war, he was educated at the College of Social Sciences in New York, and then at Columbia University.
After graduation, the future author worked in various 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 leaves his job, which eventually leads him to the path of a writer.
The beginning of literary activity
In the mid-twentieth 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 work of Mario Puzo. The author’s books appear several years later. First, these are short stories in magazines, and then the first creation, “Arena Marka,” comes out. The book was written under the influence of the events of World War II and spoke about the love story of an American soldier and a girl from Germany.
Despite the rather successful debut, the book was not noticed by critics and did not receive much attention, which cannot be said about the following works of Mario Puzo. The Godfather was born ten years later, but this book brought the writer instant success.
"Godfather"
The novel was first published in 1969 and a year later became an undoubted bestseller. The book told about the life of America of those times with all its problems, laws and corruption. This liked and attracted readers, but Mario Puzo did not expect such huge popularity. The Godfather, according to the author himself, was written only to pay off his debts, and subsequently he completely provided for the whole family. After the overwhelming success of the book, Mario was also asked to write a script for the film based on his work, which he willingly did. The film received more than a dozen Oscar nominations, including an award directly for the best screenplay. Inspired by success, Mario, together with the famous director Francis Coppola, filmed the continuation of the story of the Italian mafia clan, which also received the most laudatory reviews 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 work of Mario Puzo. The books describe the mafia clan Carleone, operating in the early twentieth century in the United States. According to the author, the prototype of the main character Vito was the mother of Mario, who always took care of 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 hero, Michael, son of Vito, is a man who is trying to find himself and get away from family affairs, but life circumstances and situations compel him to continue his family business in a mafia business. After success, Mario took up the continuation of the story, which was also a great success for both readers and viewers after the release of films and the eponymous series. It is also thanks to this novel that such terms as caporegime, omerta, Cosa Nostra, etc. appeared in popular culture.
Other novels
In addition to The Godfather, other works of Mario Puzo also deserve special attention: The First Don, Sicilian and others. For the novels, the author wrote scripts that later turned into successful films. In the early 90s, Mario suffered a heart attack and after a short break he again returned to literary activity, in particular, he published the novel “The Last Don”. Mario Puzo sells film production rights to F. Coppole for more than $ 2 million. In 1997, the director makes a 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 is published, which became the final book of the trilogy about the mafia clan after The Godfather and 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 latest work “Family”. The book was published in 2001 and was completed by his wife Carol.
Activities as a screenwriter
Scenarios for films about the mafia clan Carleon - undoubtedly, the basis of Mario's activities as a screenwriter. To date, these films are considered classics of modern cinema and have not lost popularity. Despite this, the writer also worked a lot on scripts for other films, which were very successful. Among them are “Superman”, “Earthquake”, “Christopher Columbus” and others.
Mario Puzo is an outstanding personality in modern American literature and the film industry. His novel “The Godfather” is considered one of the most successful and popular in the whole world, and the film of the same name, shot according to the script of the author, has long been a classic of modern cinema. Based on his many works, successful films, series and video games were shot, and the names of his heroes often appear in the mass culture of not only America, but the whole world.