MovieChat Forums > The Godfather Part II (1974) Discussion > Two things that never made sense...

Two things that never made sense...

posted 3 years ago by Information-Police (4889)
7 replies | jump to latest

I've watched this film countless times and there are two things that never made sense.

1. During the attempted assassination of Frankie Pentangeli, the assassin said, "Michael Corleone says hello."

Frankie survived and remembered hearing that and turns on Michael because of it. But why would the assassin say that? He intended to kill Pentangeli, after all. Why did it matter what a dead man heard? Was it just in case Frankie survived (as he did).

2. Michael tells Tom that he's going to be the Don. Makes a dramatic speech about why he had been left out of things and how he was the only one Michael could trust and Tom was going to be responsible for the safety of his family.

And then it's totally forgotten about. Never comes into play. We don't see Tom acting like he's the Don. It doesn't seem like anybody ever heard that Tom would be the Don. Tom is then seen acting as Michael's lawyer, not as the Don. Was this a subplot that got dropped?

Maybe this was put back into the "Saga", I don't remember.

[–] millsey72 (10284) 3 years ago

Just a couple of plot holes. No biggie

[–] daveyh (625) 3 years ago

(1) I think it was like you said, just in case Frankie survived. Given that they must have figured the odds were heavily in their favour for the attempt being successful, you'd think, if they were going to say anything, they'd want Frankie to know who was having him killed so that that would be his last thought.
While it's not quite a plot hole, it's very convenient that the one time they show an assassin saying something to mislead the target, it's also the one time the target survived.

(2) I can only think it was to show that Michael and Tom were on very good terms at the start of this story, to contrast it with Michael's coldness towards Tom at the end.

Everything about the attempt on Michael made no sense to me, but there's enough threads about that already.

[–] Information-Police (4889) 3 years ago

Fredo's role in the attempt on Michael's life was a 3rd, but as you said, there are other threads on that.

[–] MichaelJPollock (731) 3 years ago

1) I understand it to be a fake attempt on Pantangeli's life organized by Hyman Roth, with the intent of making it look like Michael gave the order (over Michael and Pantangeli's recent disagreement about the Lazarro brothers and their treatment of Pantangeli's crew). The idea is for Pantangeli to survive, turn State and testify against Michael.

2) I understand Michael leaves Tom to supervise his affairs and look after his family only while he's in Miami dealing with Roth. He's a "temp Don" only.

[–] redban (6194) 2 months ago

1). There is a line where Hagen remarks, "Roth played this one beautifully." There is a suggestion that Roth intended for Pentangeli to survive and believe that Michael was behind the attempt. The police officer conveniently shows up at the door at that time. Roth might've arranged for the cop to be there at that time via an anonymous tip or something

2). Tom was acting Don when Michael went away. We see Tom give instructions for Kay not to leave the compound, for example. The presumption is that Tom was running business for a little bit

[–] Information-Police (4889) 2 months ago

1) There is that possibility. There is what I think a more likely possibility that Roth's play began AFTER the assassination attempt on Pentangeli in which he may have used his influence to get him in front of the Senate committee, through his agent, Questadt, who was a lawyer for the committee. Both are valid possibilities. I don't know if this was in the novel or not.

2) I see what you say and that seems to be the case. But that does make Michael's statement to Tom, "You are going to be the Don", to be pretty melodramatic. Although, I guess it was a big vote of confidence from Mike to leave Tom in charge, instead of - well, who else was there? I don't think it is clear who Michael's underbosses were at that time. I think Al Neri was, after he killed Freddo. I'm not sure about Rocco Lampone. Certainly not Freddo! Who else was there? I honestly don't know.

[–] yodavid (78) a month ago

1) the funny thing is that, according to IMDB, Danny Aiello ad libbed that line

2) That's subtle. Few minutes after that, we see Tom giving Rocco an order "get rid of the bodies" and then Rocco answers "where's Michael?", like he only answers to Michael and doesn't know yet who's the new boss. Tom then swiftly says "Rocco!". So this is, to some degree, that thing "in play" here. But most importantly, i think the film wants us to see that 1) Michael wants to use the eagerness of Tom to be seen as a brother. He knows that that will make Tom never betray the family, because it will hit his guts. (By the way that contrasts with what Michael says just earlier "all our men are business men, their loyalty is based on that") 2) Even though Tom is the don and we have to assume all the capos learn that at some point, we still see some hesitancy in them to follow Tom's commands. Rocco's example i just mentioned is just one. The other one is on the motel's room when he signals with his head for Al to leave the place, and Al takes quite a moment longer to actually do it. All that reinforces the idea that this Tom as a don thing is just a play by Michael.

It's funny that intentionally or not, the movie tries to show us that the most fit person to be don was Tom all along. Dude was balanced, wise, brave, loyal as fuck ("can't do that, Sally"). He just wasn't sicilian.