Early on, Vito tell Sonny “ never tell anyone outside the family what you’re thinking” But it seems to me in the meeting with the five families he tells them a great deal about his thinking.
At the wedding, I sensed some antipathy for Tom from Michael. "He’s not Sicilian but he’s a good lawyer” is kind of cold. Later they do have conflicts. Am I imagining this early antipathy or is there something to it?
Early on, Vito tell Sonny “ never tell anyone outside the family what you’re thinking” But it seems to me in the meeting with the five families he tells them a great deal about his thinking.
At the wedding, I sensed some antipathy for Tom from Michael. "He’s not Sicilian but he’s a good lawyer” is kind of cold. Later they do have conflicts. Am I imagining this early antipathy or is there something to it?
OP is referring to the meeting with the five families, but your point applies there too - Vito tells people what they need to hear to further his interests, but doesn’t reveal what he’s thinking. What he’s thinking is what he later reveals in the car - that he has worked out who was behind everything - Barzini.
shareThanks. It makes sense. As I recall there also may have been some slight distance because he had discussed Michael's future with his father before Michael joined the army and Michael was not thrilled about that.
shareAbout the Hagen question - I don’t think the line “He’s not Sicilian” was meant to be an insult or anything. Michael and Hagen were all right at this point
They do have conflicts later, but Michael has conflicts with basically everyone in Part 2, as he becomes a ruthless and stone-hearted don. He ends that movie basically sitting by himself after he lost everyone he loved
Only commenting on the first point here - it's not so much that Sonny revealed what he was thinking, it's more that he indicated an interest in the deal after Vito had made clear to Solozzo that he wasn't interested, that it would be bad for business etc
The family needed to present a united front here and Sonny's question about the Tattaglias guaranteeing security ruined it all, and, as others on this thread have already said, it proved to be a very bad move on Sonny's part because Solozzo's knowledge that Sonny was "hot for" the deal led to the attempt on Vito and the subsequent warring between the families.
There's a similar situation much later when Fredo fails to show solidarity with the new Don's stance against Moe Greene. Michael is a lot more direct and clear in his wording here though, so there's no confusion.
Put it another way - if Sonny had expressed a personal opinion against Solozzo - if he'd said something like "we dont give a rat's ass who's guaranteeing what, we're not interested", i doubt Vito would have minded