It's difficult for me to imagine Vito making that big of a mistake after having met Sollozzo in person, and given that Tom told the Don that the Tattaglia family were working with Sollozzo it seems like it was too big of a goof to be credible. That said, Puzo didn't make the Don infallible, and without Luca taken out of commission the story wouldn't be able to flow in the way that it did.

Luca was Corleone capable hit man and loyal soldier but he was not Superman. I'm sure Sollozzo and Tttaglia had their own killers but this scene along with the fishes made for a better story thatn just taking Luca Brasi out in a car ride or ambush.

If memory serves, the book has three guys taking Luca down: two of the guys were holding his hands down and another garotting him. That would be too much for most anyone.

You'll be surprise how much strength one can muster when someone is trying to kill you! Luca was a powerful guy, I guess the knife imbedded in his hand at the bar made it for a better and more believable movie!

I hope that I never find out!

Nevertheless, I imagine that you're right. It seems that Puzo tried to use the fact that his brain was getting no oxygen to further explain the "ease" (if we can call it that) with which Brasi was killed.

Sollozzo was all said to be good with a knife, and having a knife through the middle of your hand and being held in place would be difficult to fight against, or so I would imagine.

the movie was great. however I would have loved to have seen an initiation ceremony with the gun and knife, the burning of the saint. the making of a man who had "made his bones" also would have liked to heard the term "la cosa nostra" more authenic I think to include the name of the organization.

Binnie its not "La" cosa Nostra. Just Cosa Nostra

Binnie- Remember Joe Colombo and the civil right league, well they are the ones who didn't want the movie to be made. The word "mafia" wasn't even allowed to be used in the script.

alfonsosgirl, yes, you are quite correct in that. however the producer should have stood his ground, and not have been intimidated. in actual terms it was a feel good about the mafia movie. which delighted all made guys. scorceses movies are much more factual. showing the lcn for what it actually is.

There was no reason to "stand his ground". The word Mafia was not in the script to begin with.

Kate says this "Sicilian thing" so if it was to be in the script she would be the one to say it ?

Scratch that ---that was Godfather 2--

the point is the movie did glorify the mafia. and they were not to be glorified, they were then and are now nothing but the worst kind of evil.

I don't see how it glorified the mafia. I mean, look at Vito. He got people wanting to kill him, his eldest son is violently killed, his youngest son is forced to escape the country for his life.

Then look at Michael: his first wife is killed, he ruins the relationship with his second wife, one brother is violently killed, the other he has killed himself, his daughter gets killed and in the end, he dies completely alone.

So I think they made it clear that it sucks to be a gangster.

yeah, all true. but they wanted to show how the mobb bosses had honor. they have no honor,bonnano wrote a book talking about the commission, guliani used that in court to prove there is a commission and got convictions.thats honor?

The only mobster in the movies who had honor was Vito. And still he intimidates and extorts and kills people. So he's not the nicest person.

I don't like the fact that there are very few scenes depicting the Corleone family dealings in Las Vegas, which plays a major part in the story yet you see very little of it in the film. The only scene that actually depicts some of it, in which Neri takes over a casino from Klingman, was cut out. I also don't like the scene in which Kay tells Michael that she had an abortion, but I guess it was a necessary dramatic touch in order for Michael to ban Kay out of his life and ending up alone as shown in the end scene.