WATCH: Francis Ford Coppola Compares Roger Stone Trial to The Godfather
MSNBC’s Ari Melber normally injects a fair amount of pop culture references into his show. Watchers of his program, The Beat, are used to hearing Melber reference movies, television shows and rap lyrics.
There are few TV hosts that would be better to speak with Francis Ford Coppola about the connection between his Godfather films and the Roger Stone trial. The famed director told Melber that the behavior of his characters is not behavior that he would recommend.
Godfather was first connected to the Stone case through the Mueller report. According to the findings, Stone had encouraged witness Randy Credico to “do a Pentangelli.”
Frankie Pentangelli was a character from the Godfather who refused to testify against the Corleone family. Prosecutors in the case have asked for permission to play that clip from the movie. The prosecutors argued that if they didn’t show the clip, it would, “deprive jurors of significant context.”
Melber asked Coppola if the clip should be played at the trial. The director answered:
“If it’s relevant to the case, and I mean, Godfather has become part of the culture — from my point of view anyone who would take stuff from a fictional gangster picture and put it in real life, that’s not behavior — the behavior in The Godfather is not behavior I recommend. I always thought people who would use intimidation and violence and cruelty are below my lowest regard for another human being. So I don’t recommend that kind of behavior.”
Watch a clip of the interview here, courtesy of MSNBC:
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