Home / The Godfather / Lenny Montana
- Actor
- Lenny Montana
- Character
- Luca Brasi
- Watch
- Unidentified watch
- Status
- Unidentified
Lenny Montana was a professional wrestler before he was an actor. He stood six foot six and weighed 320 pounds, and his hands were so large that the props team reportedly had trouble finding gloves that fit. Francis Ford Coppola cast him as Luca Brasi, the Corleone family's personal enforcer, and the anxiety Montana felt about acting opposite Marlon Brando became the character's nervousness rehearsing his speech before the wedding. Coppola kept the footage. Luca Brasi's halting, memorized tribute to the Don is one of the most human moments in a film about power, and Montana wasn't acting. He was terrified.
A watch is visible on Montana's enormous wrist, but the brand and model haven't been identified. Luca Brasi doesn't survive the first act. He's garroted by Sollozzo's men at a meeting intended as a peace negotiation. The Corleones find out when a fish wrapped in Brasi's bulletproof vest arrives at the compound. "It's a Sicilian message," Clemenza explains. "It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes." The watch, like Brasi himself, exists in the film just long enough to establish presence before being erased.
Evidence
1 frame on file
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