In The Godfather, while Clemenza is teaching Michael how to use the gun he’ll kill Sollozzo with, he tells him that the murder will probably start a war. “These gotta happen every five years or so. Ten years… been ten years since the last one.” However, the film never explains what that previous war was or why it took place. But Mario Puzo’s original novel does - in great detail. And it’s essentially the missing chapter explaining how Vito Corleone went from being the neighbourhood Don of Little Italy to one of the most powerful Mafia bosses in all of America. By the end of Part II, Vito is a “man of respect” in his neighbourhood, and he leverages that reputation to further grow his olive oil business. He uses his “formidable powers of persuasion” to buy out his competitors and establish a monopoly on the olive oil business in New York City. He has warehouses, trucks, and a highly efficient distribution network. When Prohibition comes into law, Vito repurposes many of these assets into an incredibly lucrative bootlegging operation. During this period he restructures his organization into a formal crime family, with Genco as his consigliere, Clemenza as caporegime of the Bronx, Tessio controlling Brooklyn, and the men working under them as soldiers. He also builds an invaluable network of police and political contacts, which would serve him for years to come. However, when Prohibition comes to an end, Vito needs to pivot to another criminal enterprise to keep his organization afloat. He reaches out to Salvatore Maranzano, who controlled all gambling activity in Manhattan. Maranzano was based on the real mafia boss of the same name, one of the most powerful crime figures in New York City’s history. Vito proposes a partnership. He would offer his political connections to protect Maranzano’s businesses and help him expand into Brooklyn and the Bronx; in exchange, Vito would receive a share of the gambling profits. Maranzano “spurned the Corleone offer with contempt...” He took it as an insult, and Vito as a threat that needed to be stamped out. Maranzano had a much bigger, more powerful organization built through union-busting and extortion rackets, and strong ties to the most infamous gangster in the country, Al Capone in Chicago. “Maranzano’s refusal touched off the great war of 1933 which was to change the whole structure of the underworld in New York City.” (1/2)

In Scarface, when Sosa’s enforcer recognizes Omar as an informant, Sosa decides to have him killed. But that’s not the only reason he wants him dead. In fact, Omar might not have even been an informant at all. Oliver Stone’s original screenplay reveals that there is much more going on in this scene than the finished film suggests. To understand why Sosa was so eager to have Omar removed, you first have to understand the precarious situation he is in before Tony and Omar ever arrive in Bolivia. Sosa has invested heavily in an enormous cocaine operation, with multiple refining facilities capable of producing hundreds of kilos of cocaine every month. But that scale creates problems of its own. His workers, security, coca suppliers and political protection all have to be paid for, whether the cocaine sells or not. And Sosa has “no steady market.” Traffickers are buying smaller, irregular quantities, leaving him unable to move his product consistently. As he says in the original screenplay: “Nobody can run a business that way.” What Sosa needs is a regular buyer, and he’s offering a great price: 200 kilos at $7,000 per kilo. To put that into perspective, in early 1980s Miami, a kilo of pure cocaine could sell wholesale for at least $30,000. A deal like that could gross around $15 million per month in today’s dollars. And potentially much more once the cocaine is broken down and sold off in smaller quantities. So the question is: if Sosa’s cocaine is so profitable, why doesn’t he have traffickers from all over the United States lining up to buy from him on a regular basis? The answer is simple, but it’s not really spelled out in the finished film… (1/3)