In the flashack scene at the end of GF II, Michael says that he has just enlisted in the armed forces. This was depicted as Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941.

Michael and Kay attend Connie’s wedding together in the summer or fall of 1945.

Michael is shown wearing his uniform. Since the war ended a few days after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 (Germany had surrendered a few months prior), it is understandable that Mike is in uniform, since he may not have been discharged yet (although the book states otherwise).

Now, suddenly, it is December, 1945, and Michael is going to school (Dartmouth) in New Hampshire.

OK, fair enough. Let’s say he was discharged from the armed forces right around late summer or early fall of 1945, and had just enough time to enroll for the fall semester.

So where and when did he meet Kay?

In the book, however, Puzo gets it straight.

In the book, it says that Michael was 21 years old at the time of his enlistment.

The book goes on to say that he was released (after receiving a "disabling wound", later called a "slight wound") early in 1945, stayed home for three weeks, and then enrolled in Dartmouth.

So from that we may infer that he met Kay some time between his enrollment in college - Spring semester of 1945, probably – and before Connie’s wedding in the summer or fall of 1946.

And why do u want to know that?

Because I dislike like the movie and therefore derive great pleasure from pointing out its flaws.

Plaw, don' you think that Mike was just bragging with uniform and medals? That's possibly why he was wearing it in the days of victory celebration, long after being discharged. To make all girls around follow him with their eyes.

Thats right. Mike was discharged earlier in the year and was wearing his uniform to a formal occasion (which many discharged soldiers did back in the day).

Mike met Kay on Saturday, Feb 10th when he visited the same doctor that Kay was seeing for a discharge problem. So, it was their discharges that brought them together.

Sounds good to me, SC...and a great way to slam the lid on this topic (which cries out to have the lid slammed on it)!!

Seems to me that anyone who feels a need to point out 'flaws' in ANY of the Trilogy will never be lacking for examples. However, 30+ years have proven that the 'flaws' whatever they are do not take away from the overall entertainment value of the films.

At least in the case of GF and GFII .

Apple

This topic is hardly the only thing around here that cries out to have the lid slammed on it.

Well...I'm sure you are not referring to any particular member as opposed to a topic!!!

As annoying as I find certain BB-ers, I certainly would not dare to suggest they need lids slammed on them...but then again, we're all different!!



Apple

I don't care where and when. Trouble is they met.

Trouble? Disaster!

Well, just think...if Michael hadn't already known and had a relationship with Kay, to whom would he have turned to start a family once Appolonia had died?

As DC once stated quite wisely...we're not supposed to like Kay. Her presence is one of the many things that makes the story worthwhile.

Apple

I'm sure mama Corleone could have fixed him up with a nice Sicilian girl.

The known facts are that Kay lived in New Hampshire with her parents, and Michael went to Dartmouth, which is in New Hampshire. So they met in New Hampshire.
But when?
I'm guessing that Michael had enrolled in Dartmouth before Pearl Harbor. As a New York State resident, Michael would have been 17 or 18 when he graduated high school. If he was 21 when he enlisted in the Marines, what was he doing for the previous 3 or 4 years? Probably studying at Darthmouth. If so, he could have met Kay at any time during those years before Pearl Harbor.

That's what I was thinking - what was he doing in between his graduation from High School and his enllistment - except that that would have involved a separation of some 4+ years if he met Kay between 1938-1941 or so and 1945 .

Plus, I always had the impression - based on what, I'm not sure - that Mike and Kay were both students during the time of what we see of their courtship.

And.....based on their conversation at the wedding, it wouldn't appear as though Mike and Kay knew each other very long.

Yes, the war would have represented a long separation for Michael and Kay...perhaps setting the stage for the long separation when he hid out in Sicily?
As for their conversation at the wedding: I inferred that the reason Kay was asking so many basic questions about Michael and his family was that he deliberately said as little as possible about his family at that point in his life.

Kay was too young to have been enrolled in college before the war started. Plus, the book suggests that Mike first entered Dartmouth in 1945 (after spending three weeks home upon his discharge from the Marines).

The timeline fits.... Mike and Kay probably met in February '45 when Mike enrolled and knew each other about 6-7 months when they attended Connie's wedding together.

I guess, SC.....The timeline fits assuming that Michael decided to wear his uniform to the wedding after being discharged.

I just wonder why he would, though. Didn't own a tuxedo, I guess.

Proud of his medals and his heroism in the service? Sure. But everyone knew he was a war hero in the first place. Wearing that uniform and reminding everyone again of a fact that they already knew seems very un-Michael-like to me.

Mike was crying out that he wasn't under his father's thumb. He brings an "outsider" to this big family function and he sits at a corner table, far away from his family. The uniform, which Vito probably hated, was just icing on the cake.

OK, you convinced me.

But we're giving an awful lot of credit here to MP and FFC if they thought this whole "why was Mike wearing his uniform?" question through the way we all just did.

Most viewers of the film were not and are not as familiar with the details, timeline, nuances of character etc., as we here are.

To most people, you show a guy in a movie in a military uniform. it means he's in the military.

I think yet another reason for the uniform was to have Michael stand out that much more from the rest of the family and guests. Not only do he and Kay (in her bright red dress and big floppy hat) make an entrance together, they also visibly stand apart from the other Corleones...both individually and as a couple.

And of course MP and FFC deserve an aweful lot of credit for details/nuances like this one. It is one of the many intracacies that weave the story.

Apple

You are right SC, Vito did hate that uniform. Remember this part from the deleted scene, when they are going to see Genco, who was dying :

INT DAY: HOSPITAL CORRIDOR (SUMMER 1945)

A long white hospital corridor, at the end of which we can
see a grouping of FIVE WOMEN, some old and some young, but
all plump and dressed in black.

DON CORLEONE and his SONS move toward the end.

But then the DON slows, putting his hand on MICHAEL's shoulder. MICHAEL stops and turns toward his FATHER. The two looks at one another for some time. SILENCE. DON CORLEONE then lifts his hand, and slowly touches a particular medal on MICHAEL's uniform.

DON CORLEONE : "What was this for?

MICHAEL : "For bravery."

DON CORLEONE : "And this?"

MICHAEL : "For killing a man."

DON CORLEONE : "What miracles you do for strangers."


Don Cardi

Too, Too Funny Guys--- ROTFLMAO

Turnbull, you're guessing??!!! You, who have seen this movie 2,000 times (legend has it ) and know all the dialogue by heart? Can it be that you have forgotten the conversation in the GF2 flashback scene? It proves that you are correct and that you need not resort to guessing: Michael did indeed attend college after leaving high school. He must have enrolled in the fall of 1938; and we definitely know that he dropped out in December of 1941 to enlist in the Marines after the attack on Pearl Harbour, as per the following exchange with Sonny:
Well, I know Turnbull that you are only human and you're allowed to forget a line or two from GF once in a while . You need to have other things on your mind, after all. Wait -- I know what happened. When you said you were guessing, you were referring to guessing about the time line of the book, not the movie. Well anyway, you were right .

Quote

If so, he could have met Kay at any time during those years before Pearl Harbor.

Now there, I don't think you're correct.

After Michael was discharged from the Marines, I believe he returned to Dartmouth to complete his education, and I think that's when he met Kay. Like plawrence, I also got the impression that they were both students there.

On Geoff\'s main Godfather[/i] web site , the page [i]Godfather Family Portraits indicates that Kay is seven years younger than Michael (although the page Corleone Family Timeline indicates that she is only four years his junior). Either way, as SC said, she would have been too young to have been enrolled in college when Michael was attending the first time {pre-Pearl Harbour). But by the time Michael re-enrolled, she would also have been a student.

BTW, do you think Michael ever graduated from Dartmouth, or did the Sollozzo-McCluskey business mean that he had to drop out again? Does the book say anything about this? (I can't remember; it's been so long since I read it.)

He intended to return for his last semester, but after the murder had to flee to Sicily. He didn't graduate. But he was a good student - see draft screenplay to GF2 that you possess, the final dialogue with Antony.

Cristina queries... Michael earned his MBA when he killed Sollazzo and McCluskey. He Made his Bones by Assassination.

tony b.

They met at a secret New Hampshire bondage and fetish club where Kay was working as a dominatrix.

Good one, TonyB!