But it also speaks to the handshake relationship between American government and business which, in this situation, is only different in that the business happens to be an organized crime family.īut it occurred to me. The offer of friendship is a clear signal that the Corleones have Geary cornered and he will now do their bidding. This is what Tom tells Senator Geary when he goes to Fredo's brothel to clean up after Geary has been set up to think that he killed a sex worker while blacked out. After all, this scene comes during a sequence when Michael is using his son's first communion as an excuse to hold a number of business meetings. But Michael's warning not to bring his family into the discussion is a strange claim when he, in fact, does just about everything he can to make sure the family runs like a criminal enterprise.
Spoken to Senator Pat Geary when the senator denigrates Michael's business, heritage, and family, Michael makes it clear that he believes all of American business is one big racket that both he and Geary are trying to profit off of. Senator, we’re both part of the same hypocrisy, but don’t think that it applies to my family. It's one of the two times in the film, after all, when Michael reminisces about his father. But it also illustrates Michael's commitment to viewing his family as totally entangled with his mob enterprise. It's meant as a veiled threat to Frank, who Michael suspects may have ordered the hit against him. Michael recounts to Frank Pantangeli the mob wisdom his father passed on to him in the very childhood home where the two are meeting, the one Frank now inhabits. In this room, he taught me, "Keep your friends close, but enemies closer." Michael Corleone Throughout the first two Godfather films, Fredo is depicted as a small and stupid man, and in this scene, we see just to what extent his insecurities and self-interest drive him. This is the same grudge that drove Fredo to align with Hyman Roth and inadvertently condone a hit against Michael. Fredo Corleoneįredo carries a grudge that Michael got chosen to head the Corleone family, despite the fact that Michael is younger. There was something in it for me, on my own. Hyman prioritizes business over personal relationships, that Michael should do the same if he wishes to succeed in "business." Hyman's reference to Moe Green is a signal to Michael that Hyman seeks no revenge against Michael. Moe Green, a young man Hyman mentored, was one of the people whose assassination Michael ordered at the end of The Godfather. Hyman, an older gangster, is telling Michael to stop complaining, stop asking who ordered which murder, and accept that occasional murders are a routine fact of life in the gangster business. Or maybe when he sat in front of countless media members and cameras, he froze a little or was too tired to even access the part of his brain that holds on to quotes, which is something most of us might do in that situation, even if “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” is on the tip of our tongues.I said to myself, this is the business we've chosen I didn't ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business! Hyman Roth, to Michael Corleone
Perhaps it’s on in the background with other people around, so he’s watching but not really hanging on every word.
THE GODFATHER 2 QUOTES HOW TO
There’s a plausible explanation here: Maybe he’s got something on his mind while watching, like, I don’t know, how to beat the Warriors (or whoever the opponent was at the time). Here’s a sampling of the reaction to what he said:
THE GODFATHER 2 QUOTES MOVIE
… Each movie is nine hours long, what do you want me to do? I’ll let you pick one and I’ll role with it.” “There’s too many different phrases, too many different lines in that movie to categorize one. We learned this week that LeBron James has watched The Godfather six times in the postseason and, before Game 5 of the NBA Finals, he viewed the sequel.īut when asked by a media member for his favorite quote or moment, he couldn’t come up with one: