Outstanding synopsis Don T!
It is a great piece if acting BTW by Lee Strassberg (who in real life was one of Pacino's mentors).
A little bit of trivia about that. Lee Strasberg was, as you said, a mentor to Pacino. I believe that Pacino attended Strasberg's school of acting which is now known as The Actor's Studio.
When Pacino agreed to make GFII, he supposedly was the one who felt that Strasberg would be the perfect one to play Hyman Roth. At that time Strasberg was not very fond of doing movies and favored teaching, writing and the live stage instead. I think that it was something like ten years that Strasberg had not made a movie before doing GFII. It was Pacino who finally talked Strasberg into taking the part of Roth, and from there Strasberg wound up doing several movies over the next few years. Strasberg also went on to act with Pacino once again in And Justice For All. I believe he played the part of Pacino's grandfather.
I've always found it pretty ironic that the student wound up being the one to talk the mentor into taking a role in a movie.
