"Let's face it, Tom, and all due respect, the Don, rest in peace, was -- slippin'. Ten years ago could I have gotten to him?"

Could I have gotten to him? To me, this is one of the more enigmatic lines in the movie. Is Sollozzo simply referring to the actual hit? Implying that the Don was "slippin'" because he was less conscious about his personal safety and the hit was so easy?

Or was he referring to the Don's willingness to meet with Sollozzo face-to-face even though it appeared that (in both the novel and the movie) the Don had already decided to say no to the proposition? Could I have gotten to him? Could a Virgil Sollozzo even get a meeting with a Don Corleone ten years ago? Perhaps Sollozzo was implying that a younger, more perceptive Don Vito might have even found a way to prevent Sollozzo from rising up as high as he had in the rackets as a result of his successful drug business.

I'm fairly certain it refers to the first...that a younger Don Corleone might not have engaged in the simple pleasure of shopping for produce; that a younger Don Corleone might have a small entourage and not just a one-man security detail; that a younger Don Corleone would not have taken the peace, and his own personal safety, for granted. None-the-less, every time I hear Sollozzo say those words -- Could I have gotten to him? -- I wonder if it had more than one implication.

tony b.