#Virgil Sollozzo

[melis-writes]

THE GODFATHER (1972) dir. Francis Ford Coppola.

[drc00l4tt4]

Godfather Twitter Memes that are probably OOC but I like to have fun so I don't care <33

[ Continuation ]

[thesmokinpossum]

I still find it so funny that Sollozzo apparently knew enough about the inner dynamics of the Corleone family to know that Tom was the one person most likely to influence Sonny but apparently not enough to expect Tom to feel any type of emotion upon learning the death of the man who had raised him since the age of 10, I chose to believe that it's indicative of Sollozzo's relation with his own dad

[tilbageidanmark]

MOVIES I WATCHED THIS WEEK #201:

The best films of the week: 'A taxi driver', 'Sudden fear', 'Sharper', 'The eloquent peasant', 'Rocks in my pockets', 'If anything happens I love you', 'Windy day', 'Late autumn', 'The big wait'.

2 BY KOREAN DIRECTOR JANG HOON, BOTH WITH STAR SONG KANG-HO:

🍿 A TAXI DRIVER (2017), my first by director Jang Hoon, is one the five best Korean films I've ever seen. What style! What a balance of emotional complexity, technical proficiency and political subtext! It's based on true events which happened during a perilous time in South Korean history. Song Kang-ho (The father in 'Paradise') is a street-smart taxi driver, who takes a German journalist into Gwangju and witnesses with him the student uprising and massacre that occurred there after the 1980 Coup d'état. Maybe even better than Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver'?... 10/10.

🍿 Jang Hoon directed only 4 features, and all were huge money makers in Korea. But his 2010 SECRET REUNION disappointed me greatly. It was just a standard police action film revolving around a North Korean sleeper cell of trained assassins, and it was unremarkable. 2/10.

🍿

"Who are you? Another relative? You have broken 18 dicks! I'll kill you, all gorillas, all policemen and all the Dutch"

THE SUNDAY WOMAN is an unusual Italian comedy about a murder investigation. An eccentric architect is bashed on the head with a large stone phallus, and the clueless police force is scrambling to solve the high-society death.

It's definitely worth watching for the star power of "Commissioner" Marcello Mastroianni (with his sexy baritone voice), Jean-Louis Trintignant as a secret gay patrician and Jacqueline Bisset as the radiant, bored wife of a wealthy businessman. Also for the unmistakable score by Ennio Morricone's.

The director's ambiguous style makes the confusing 'Chinatown'-like plot even more convoluted. It's also wonderful to see the streets of Turin as they were in 1975. 7/10.

🍿

2 OF DIRECTOR DAVID MILLER'S (??) BEST FILMS:

🍿 How come I never even heard of the stylish, smashing Noir thriller SUDDEN FEAR from 1952?? Milf'ish Joan Crawford is a rich and successful San Francisco playwright, who falls for younger actor Jack Palance, while he schemes to murder her for her inheritance. He looks here like one of the greatest film villains, with his chiseled jaw and piercing eyes, and his side-lover Gloria Grahame is just gorgeous. (Interesting side note: Crawford mentions that there were 2,174,000,000 people in the world at that time. Mmmm...) 9/10.

🍿 "If it didn't take men to make babies, I wouldn't have anything to do with any of you..."

LONELY ARE THE BRAVE is a 1962 new revisionist Western with Kirk Douglas as the "last" old-fashioned cowboy, a rugged individual and independently free. He's a 'Rebel without a cause', a freewheelin' ranch hand who refuses to join the contemporary society of mortgages and driving licenses. Unfortunately, he's now roaming a modern New Mexico which is filled with highways, Jeeps and helicopters. It's obvious that it's going to end up badly. Still, I did not expect the symbolism of his horse getting hit in a rainstorm by a long-hauling truck carrying toilets. (and chauffeured by Archie Bunker!). With young wife-of-a friend Gena Rowlands.

🍿

HEAVY TRIP, (2018), a sweet comedy from Finland about 'Impaled Rektum', a Heavy Metal band from a small rural town which after 12 years of practicing, still have never played a live gig. I have absolutely zero interest in "symphonic post-apocalyptic reindeer-grinding Christ-abusing extreme war pagan fenno-scandian metal" or any other kind, but this was highly entertaining. Its mood reminded me of "Miss little sunshine", even though story wise the two had no connection whatsoever. 7/10.

🍿

THE GETAWAY, Sam Peckinpah's suspenseful action-thriller of a Texas bank heist and Lovers on the run. Starring real-life, super-cool married couple Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw. Also co-starring both "Virgil Sollozzo" and "Al Nery" (which makes sense as this too was filmed in 1972), as well as Silm Pickens.

Also with Quincy Jones' distinct jazzy score, highlighted by Toots Thielemans' mournful harmonica sound. In Peckinpah's usual misogynistic manner, there are multiple incidents of guys slapping women around, including the otherwise-loving McQueen. Also, the famous bad guy who kidnap a meek husband and his naughty wife, and then humiliates him by sleeping with the wife in front of him. I've seen a similar story multiple other times, but can't remember where. Re-watch♻️. 8/10.

RIP, Quincy Jones!

🍿

THE ELOQUENT PEASANT (1969) is the most unusual film I saw this week. It's an Egyptian morality tale based on a 4,000 year old story from the 'Middle Kingdom' of Egypt. A poor peasant is robbed by a noble man of all his possessions, and he's seeking justice from a Pharaoh, by applying flowery arguments to make his case. His language skills are so appreciated by the ruler, that he delays his verdict, just so he can hear him speak longer. It's composed in the most beautiful Technicolor brushes, and has a striking, radiant look. It was restored and preserved by Martin Scorsese's 'World Cinema Foundation' (together with the director's 'The Night of Counting the Years' which is next on my list).

🍿

ANYTHING FOR HER (2008) is a French thriller by a first time director. Diane Kruger and her husband are an ordinary couple with a kid, when she is suddenly arrested for a murder she didn't commit, but is wrongly convicted for it and is sentenced to 20 years in prison. The first two acts are okay, but unremarkable. The last suspenseful 30 minutes are dynamite!

🍿

FILMS WITH 100% SCORE ON ROTTEN TOMATOES X 2:

🍿 ROCKS IN MY POCKETS (2014), "A funny film about depression", is the most amazing adult animation feature from Latvia I've ever seen! I simply cannot understand how come there are original and amazing masterpieces like this out in the world which are completely off the radar. For. ex., it was submitted by Latvia as their official entry for the 87th Academy Award, but was not even nominated.

The trailer is all one needs to see before deciding if the movie is right for them. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes. 10/10! [*Female Director*]

🍿 Re-watch ♻️: IF ANYTHING HAPPENS I LOVE YOU won the Oscars in 2020. A married couple is wordlessly grieving the death of their 12 year old daughter [in a school shooting]. Inspired by (and reminiscent of) the Dutch 'Father and daughter' which also won the Oscars (in 2000). 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes. It's Devastatingly Sad.

🍿

Re-watch of the clever thriller SHARPER. An excellent long-com game, equal to the best of the 'Grifters' genre (in spite of the final, improbable twist). With an exceptional score that includes both Talking Heads and Cole Porter at the right moments. 9/10. ♻️.

🍿

PUT OUR MÄRTA FIRST OR AS LUCK WILL HAVE IT is a traditional Swedish comedy from 1945. I watched it only because I was led to believe that it was some "obscure science-fiction comedy about drag queens", but it wasn't. It's obscure all right. But the sci-fi element was limited to a 2006 opening scene, with an old man telling his granddaughter the story about a hero from 1945, and the rest of the movie is just a flashback. The exact cross dressing plot was later used better on 'Some like it hot': 2 unemployed musicians can only get a job with a traveling women's band, so one of them has to dress up as a woman. [it even has some important scenes on a train, just like Wilder's!]. Unsurprisingly it morphs into a straight-up feminist message film, a-la-Tootsie, with a call for equal rights and free love. But it is told in a very dated, low-brow, broad comedic style. The director, Hasse Ekman, was apparently the most acclaimed Swedish director after Sjöström and before Bergman. 2/10.

🍿  

WHO KILLED JAZZ (Documentary, 2021) is a skillfully-made and impressionistic analysis of the economics of the live jazz music scene. The genre as a whole still flourishes, but the musicians themselves cannot make a living in it. Recommended.

🍿  

ITALIAN POETIC REALIST VITTORIO DE SETA IN 1955 X 3:

🍿 ISLANDS OF FIRE, a wordless natural documentation of fishermen and villagers on the island of Stromboli during a volcanic eruption in 1954. He did 10 ethnographic shorts like this during this time.

🍿 THE AGE OF SWORDFISH, another awesome story of Sicilian fishermen spear-fishing a large swordfish, a custom that disappeared around that time. 8/10.

🍿 PEASANTS OF THE SEA is even more brutal; A fleet of boats capture a large school of Tuna, and kill them all in an orgy of blood and guts. CW. 9/10. De Seta was really talented.

🍿

“Ouch-e-megouch!"

MAGIC TOWN (1947) was the last movie I anxiously watched the night before the election, while being depressed by opposing polls predicting the winner. It was recommended because city slicker James Stewart played a public opinion pollster (for time on film) who moved into Small Town USA, believing that there he can find a perfect reflection of the country as a whole. But this Frank Capra-lite was terrible all around, with a lame-ass romance, and reactionary politics, including the outlandish proposition in one of the polls that "79% favor a woman for president" [Screenshot Above]. Ridiculous! 1/10.

🍿

A BUNCH OF SHORTS:

🍿 BORED ON EDUCATION (1936), my first 'Our gang' episode, and the only one (Out of 220) to win an Oscar. The series was notable for featuring black & white children acting as equals during the Jim Crow era. I didn't realize that the series lasted for 22 years, and employed many sets of kids replacing others who grew out of their roles.

🍿 WINDY DAY (1968) was an adorable animation about two cute little sisters who chatter over each other's as they play and playact, in the cutest, most natural voices. 9/10.

🍿 GOD OF LOVE won the Oscars in 2010. It's a quirky independent comedy in a French New Wave style. A goofy-looking, young Brooklynite lounge singer receives an anonymous box of 'Love Darts' and becomes a local Cupid. Cute. 7/10.

🍿 LATE AFTERNOON (2017) a tender Oscar-nominated Irish story about an old woman who doesn't remember much of anything anymore. 10/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿 In LUCKY FISH (2022), two Asian-American girls exchange glances across the tables at a Chinese restaurant, and then meet by the magical gold fish tank to kiss. Pretty adolescent and not very deep. [*Female Director*]

🍿 PORTRAIT OF GOD (2022), a short horror story about a religious girl who prepares a presentation about a painting of God. Everything I don't like about the Horror genre is here: The eerie soundtrack, the mystical questions that remain unanswerable, the scary jump-cuts, the implied danger, the ambiguous undertone of evil. It's all so unnecessary. 1/10.

🍿 THE BIG WAIT (2023) is a lovely Australian documentary about a couple who lives alone in the middle of nowhere, and maintains a 6-cabin B&B in pristine condition, for visitors who hardly ever come there. 8/10.

🍿 MNEMONADE, a brand-new A.I.-generated short about the Sands of Time and an old woman with dementia. It's not quiet yet there, but as I said a year ago here, I'm sure that within a year, two max, we'll start seeing 'Good' A.I. features, and that in 2025, I'll be viewing some of them. (Via).

🍿

(ALL MY FILM REVIEWS - HERE).

[asoiafandotherbooks]

The Godfather: The First 75 Pages

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

I have never watched the Godfather movies or read the books. I only know that it involves the Mafia, Michael Corleone is the main character, and just when you think you’re out, they pull you back in.

I thought about watching the movie, but I decided to read the book first. I own it as I purchased it several months ago when it was on sale for $1.99. And I’m burnt out on my normal genres, so let’s try something outside of my normal reads.

I’ve read 20% of the book as of today. Very well-written book. The plot starts slow - a combination of a family wedding and a day in the life of a mafia don.

Setting: New York City, post-World War II

The main characters are the Corleone family, which consists of:

“Don” Vito Corleone – patriarch of the Corleone clan and mafia family. Father of three sons (Sonny, Freddie, and Michael) and one daughter (Connie). Godfather of Johnny F. At this point in the book, he fits the noble demon trope – loves his family, takes care of his community but he is the head of a criminal empire.

Mama Corleone – sorry, I forgot her first name. She’s mainly in the background. The most plot relevance is that her goddaughter was assaulted by two men and the Don enacted vengeance on the men.

Sonny Corleone – The oldest son. Known for his temper, doesn’t possess his father’s intelligence. So hugely endowed that his wife is elated when he finds someone else to have sex with so she doesn’t have to endure the pain.

Freddie Corleone – Very background at this point. Seems to have less intelligence/ambition than Sonny.

Michael Corleone – Clearly the golden child and the most capable of the sons. Unfortunately for the Don, Michael doesn’t want to be part of the family business. He wants to be a mathematics professor and marry Kay, his college sweetheart.

Connie Corleone – Connie’s wedding was the main focus of the first few chapters. Not so much about her but the events that transpired during the wedding. She married a man (Henry?) who’s a loser that thinks he’s hot stuff because he married into a “royal family”. The Don does not like him and isn’t going to bring him into the family business. Loser boy has started abusing Connie which doesn’t seem like a smart idea to me. One word to her family and he’s a dead man.

Other Characters of Note:

Johhny F – The Don’s godson who went on to become a famous Hollywood actor. Left his non-celebrity wife and children to marry a famous actress -who does nothing but cheat on him. What goes around, comes around. Career is on a downturn because he slept with a powerful studio’s head’s side piece. Went home whining to the Don. The Don told him to take responsibility for his stupid decisions but forced the studio head to give Johnny the starring role in a movie.

Tom Hagen – The Don’s #2 man and personal lawyer. Raised in the Don’s household after his parents died.

Lucy M – Connie’s maid of honor who’s having an affair with Sonny.

Clemenza – A middle-level boss in the Corleone family.

Paul Gottie – A low-level boss in the Corleone family.

Luca Brassi – A hitman in the Corleone family.

Tessio – A member of the Corleone family, of “unquestioned loyalty” to the Don, stationed in Brooklyn. Just appeared in the final few pages I read.

Larry (?) Wolz – Powerful head of a movie studio, connected to the FBI and the POTUS. Hater of Johnny F.

Virgil “the Turk” Sollozzo & the Tattaglias Family – Different Mafia/criminal family. Wanted to ally with the Corleones in importing heroin to the United States. The Don declined – he doesn’t want to be involved with narcotics.

As I said earlier, Connie’s wedding and the business that the Don conducts during it occupies most of the early chapters. The Don grants several “favors” that night – the goddaughter receives vengeance for her assault, an imprisoned Italian receives citizenship, a man is given money to start his own business, etc. Sonny starts his affair with Lucy.

We see into the mind of the Don and the way he operates along with his disappointment in his sons – for either not having the ability or the desire to succeed him as head of the family. We witness how non-family views the Don. Don’s second-in-command dies from cancer that night and Tom Hagen assumes the role – despite having no Italian heritage.

The next section focuses on three plot lines:

Don orders Paul Gottie to enact vengeance on the men who assaulted his wife’s goddaughter.

Tom Hagen heads to California to negotiate Johnny’s assumption of the starring role in a movie. The “nice” approach fails so the next day the studio head wakes to the decapitated head of his $600,000 horse. Message received and Johnny is cast in the role.

Don, Tom Hagen, and Sonny meet with Virgil “the Turk” Sollozzo. Sollozzo proposes the alliance and is rejected by the Don (to the surprise of Sonny and Tom, who were pro-alliance). Don doesn’t want to be involved with narcotics as it could bring too much heat from law enforcement and he doesn’t approve of Sollozzo’s prostitution rings.

Fast-forward, three months later, near Christmas: Hagen leaves his office only to be snatched off the street!

Elsewhere, in New York City, the Don leaves his office only to be shot five times. Freddie can only look on in shock. The police arrive and whisk the Don to the hospital. Freddie is taken to the police station.

A policeman under the Corleone payroll calls Sonny and informs him of the shooting of his father.

Michael and Kay are in the city (they arrived to inform his parents of their engagement) and discovers his shooting via newspaper coverage.

Sonny has been informed that Hagen will be released and on his way with a proposal.

Sonny notes to himself that he can���t lose his temper and must make smart decisions but he has questions:

Have they been betrayed by someone within the family?

Is Clemneza the traitor? What about Paul Gottie, he’s been calling “sick” frequently.

Why can’t he get a hold of Luca Brassi?

Is Sollozzo behind this?

Two questions Sonny doesn’t have but I do: Is Connie’s loser husband involved? And what about the Wolz (the studio head) – he has connections too. If you are unfamiliar with the Golden Age of Hollywood, the studio heads were very powerful with many political and criminal connections.

More questions: Is Paul genuinely sick and the bad timing is making Sonny suspicious for no reason? Will Sonny’s paranoia cost him allies by seeing betrayal where there is none?

As for Luca Brassi? Could the lack of contact be due to lack of modern communication?  The book is set in post-World War II – there are no cell phones, the majority of household didn’t even have television! Or he could be a traitor or he could have been taken out by the mastermind behind this plot before they issued the hit on the Don.  I’d take out the opposing sides “big gun” before starting a war.

Loving the book so far. It has a slow start but is still very engaging even in the midst of a “Day In The Life” section. Then, you flip a page, and boom, the Don is shot! Can’t wait to read what comes next.

[agendaculturaldelima]

#ProyeccionDeVida

🎬 “EL PADRINO” [The Godfather]

🔎 Género: Drama / Mafia / Crimen / Años 40 y 50 / Familia / Película de Culto

⏰ Duración: 175 minutos

✍️ Guion: Francis Ford Coppola y Mario Puzo

📕 Novela: Mario Puzo

🎼 Música: Nino Rota

📷 Fotografía: Gordon Willis

🗯 Argumento: América en los años cuarenta, Don Vito Corleone es el respetado y temido jefe de una de las cinco familias de la mafia en la ciudad de Nueva York. Tiene cuatro hijos: Connie, el impulsivo Sonny, el pusilánime Fredo y Michael, que no quiere saber sobre los negocios de su padre. Cuando Vito, contrario a los consejos de Tom Hagen (Il Consigliere), se niega a participar en el negocio de las drogas, el jefe de otra banda ordena su asesinato. Así, se inicia una violenta y cruenta guerra entre las familias mafiosas.

👥 Reparto: Al Pacino (Michael Corleone), Marlon Brando (Vito Corleone), James Caan (Sonny Corleone), Diane Keaton (Kay Adams), Robert De Niro, Talia Shire (Connie Corleone), John Cazale (Fredo Corleone), Richard S. Castellano (Joven Peter Clemenza), Gianni Russo (Carlo Rizzi), Simonetta Stefanelli (Apollonia) y Al Lettieri (Virgil Sollozzo)

📢 Dirección: Francis Ford Coppola

© Productoras: Paramount Pictures & Alfran Productions

👤 Productor: Albert S. Ruddy

🌎 País: Estados Unidos

📅 Año: 1972

📽 Proyección:

📆 Martes 19 de Marzo

🕗 8:00pm.

🎦 Cine Caleta (calle Aurelio de Souza 225 - Barranco)

🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️ Ingreso libre

🙂 A tener en cuenta: Prohibido el ingreso de bebidas y comidas. 🌳💚🌻🌛

[besiegedhunter]

I keep trying to understand why they choose Saluzzo and not any other city, because this place have a literally no connections with mafia and was hardly even important for Roman Empire.

The only thing could be that it kinda was tossed between Italy and France a lot, but I highly doubt that they would connect Gaul and Siracusa through Lappland when there is a fucking PROVENCE.

But wouldn't it be interesting if they did Beast of Gevaudan thing-

So do you have any idea why it's Salluzo?

(Also happy New Year!)

Happy day of new year! And y'know what? I have been wanting to make a Provence post so I may talk a bit about the Beast of Gevaudan and Gaul but on Lappland's name.

So I don't know much about any of these topics and I don't have the confidence to say one thing or another but random bits of information I've heard while researching is like, Saluzzo apparently has things like iron, lead, silver, slate and marble in the mountains around it which, if that's substantial enough I could maybe see with Lappland's colour scheme and having oripathy.

There's also two people mentioned in the wiki for Saluzzo whose bodies of work I don't know but possibly could serve as inspiration. And having looked at other's I remember someone, I don't recall who, but they did fight the mafia iirc and die doing so.

Those are random odds and ends but two other thoughts I've had is one: Piedmont supposedly was influential in the Unification of Italy. The first King of Italy actually was from Piedmont and the Unification declare in Piedmont. There's even something known as Piedmontization which is the modernization and dominance of Piedmont following the Unification.

It's maybe possible they wanted somewhere in Piedmont and Saluzzo just was the place that they chose.

My second idea is one that I actually misunderstood at first. See I'd known her last name was Saluzzo since the CN livestream but when the event came to global I decided I'd watch the Godfather in the hours leading up to the servers opening.

I really thought that Virgil Sollozzo was Virgil Saluzzo and the inspiration for her name. Of course they're different and there's not really much you can connect between the two characters but maybe there is something there?

Like Lappland isn't a narcotics trafficker, we don't even know what the Saluzzo as a mafia do, and sure you could see the intimidation and power that he has as being somewhat reminiscent of Lappland but nothing exactly rings a bell.

But it's feasibly possible that the crucial role Virgil Sollozzo has in making Michael Corleone a ruthless mafioso could be similar to how Lappland desires to bring out the real old Texas that was ruthless. Maybe also in her role in Il Siracusano as a element from outside that comes to the city, inciting chaos and brokering deals that likely wouldn't have happened without her help.

Besides those options I have no idea.

[francis-ford-kofola]

STOP talking shit about The Godfather antagonists

Don Barzini is POWERFUL

Virgil Sollozzo is SMOOTH

Hyman Roth is SMART

Joey Zasa is FASHIONABLE

Don Tattaglia

Don Fanucci is FUNNY

[saturn-c]

*kisses sollozzo: i hate you but i love you

Omg anon you are kissing Sollozzo do you have a crush on him???

[samtrapani]

Male wife Sollozzo!

is it bad i'm imagining him in his white shirt and little apron w the whole oven gloves, "hi honey i'm glad you're home, dinner's ready" schtick >:3

[meme-streets]

one of the most annoying things about the godfather is that they feel the need to tell you that sollozzo's great with a knife and it's the source of his nickname yada yada and then he only stabs one guy in the hand and it's not even that impressive! and in the book we don't even get that! i'm calling chekhov's gun (er, knife), they should've let him stab more people

[melis-writes]

THE GODFATHER (1972) dir. Francis Ford Coppola.

[shahs1221]

Commission done for @a-gentleman-at-hart!

[verre-a-vitres]

Virgil Sollozzo, “The Godfather”, 1972. 

[pedroam-bang]

The Godfather (1972)

[aion-rsa]

Scarface’s Tony Montana vs. Michael Corleone: Which Al Pacino is the Boss of Bosses

https://ift.tt/3haJ9K7

Scarface hadn’t been made when Pete Townshend’s 1974 song “The Punk and the Godfather” came out, but The Godfather certainly had. The Who’s anthem was a musical allegory about the rock scene, but the lyrics might as well be interpreted as a conversation between Michael Corleone and Tony Montana. Possibly right before they rumble.

Al Pacino played both men in both movies, and in each film, he begins the story as a punk. But in The Godfather, at least, he grows into the establishment. Michael becomes don. Tony was a shooting star on the other hand, one on a collision course with an unyielding atmosphere. Both roles are smorgasbords of possibilities to an actor, especially one who chased Richard III to every imaginable outcome. Each are also master criminals. But which is more masterful?

The obvious answer would seem to be Michael Corleone because he turned a criminal empire into a multi-billion-dollar international business, and lived to a ripe old age to regret it. Cent’anni, Michael. Tony Montana doesn’t live to see the fruits of his labor, but his career in crime is littered with the successes of excess.

Montana is a hungry, young, loose cannon, just like real-life’s “Crazy” Joe Gallo, who went up against the Profaci family in the street fight which Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola used as inspiration on The Godfather. Gallo stand-in Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) did a lot of damage while he was trying to muscle in on Don Vito Corleone’s territory, selling white powder. Montana leaves a larger body count in the wake of his cocaine empire career. 

Scarface is Pacino’s film. The whole movie is about Tony Montana and his meteoric rise through money, power and women. The Godfather is a mob movie, crowded with top rate talent in an ensemble case, but it belongs to Marlon Brando. While Michael inherits the position by The Godfather, Part II, he shares Godfather roles with Robert De Niro there, and people come away feeling a little sorry for Fredo. Michael isn’t the focus of an entire film until The Godfather, Part III, and by then folks were only distracted by his daughter. Tony Montana owns the screen from the moment it opens until his last splash in the fountain under the “World Is Yours” sign. The picture was his.

Making Your Bones on First Kills

Pacino brings little of the wisdom of his Godfather role to Scarface’s title character. This is by design. Every crime boss has to make his bones. In mafia organizations, real and cinematic, the button men on the street are called soldiers. And every soldier has to go through basic training before they’re ready to earn their button. Michael gets assassination training from his father’s most trusted capo, Pete Clemenza (Richard S. Castellano) before he goes out to enjoy the veal.

Scarface doesn’t give us many details of the crimes Tony was involved in while still in Cuba, so he makes his cinematic bones executing General Emilio Rebenga in the American detention camp for Cuban refugees. The two scenes are polar opposites in all ways but suspense.

When Michael is sitting at the dinner table with Sollozzo and Police Captain McCluskey (Sterling Hayden), he lets Sollozzo do all the talking, easing him into comfort before pulling the trigger. Tony barely lets Rebenga get a whimper in during his first onscreen hit, which plays closer to an execution. Tony covers the sounds of his own attack with a chant he himself begins. It is a brilliant overplay, especially when compared to another scene that resembles The Godfather, with Tony killing a mid-level gangster and a crooked cop towards the end of Scarface. 

A major difference between the two roles is best summed up in a line Tony says in Scarface. He learned to speak English by watching James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. Montana comes from the Cagney tradition of broad gangster characterizations. In The Godfather, Kay Adams (Diane Keaton) asks Michael if he’d prefer Ingrid Bergman. The young soldier has to think about it. This is because Pacino is miles removed here from Bogart, who played Bergman’s lover in Casablanca. Pacino’s two gangster icons approached their criminality differently, and Pacino gets to play in both yards.

Pacino remains on an even keel in the Godfather films, but gives a tour de force of violent expression in Scarface, which burns like white heat.

The Handling of Enemies and Vices

In Scarface, Pacino gets to be almost as over the top as he is in Dick Tracy. His accent would never make it past the modern culture board at The Simpsons, but he pulls it off in 1983 because he says so. Pacino bullies the audience into believing it. It’s that exact arrogance which makes us root for Tony Montana. We don’t want to be on his bad side. But the chilled reptilian stare of Michael Corleone is a visual representation of why Sicilians prefer their revenge served cold.

Michael is diabetic, and is usually seen drinking water in The Godfather films. Sure, he has an occasional glass or red wine, and possibly some Sambuca with his espresso, but Michael always keeps a clear head. Tony, not so much. He makes drunken scenes at his favorite nightclubs, and not only gets high on his own supply, but gets so nose deep in it he develops godlike delusions of superheroic grandeur.

Montana is impulsive, instinctive, and decisive. Tony kills his best friend Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer) immediately upon finding him with his little sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). Michael waits until his sister Connie (Talia Shire) is on a plane to Tahoe before he has her husband killed in a hit years in the planning. Later Michael hangs his head silently as the shotgun blast which kills his brother, Fredo (John Cazale), echoes in the distance.

Tony, meanwhile, continues yelling at Sosa’s right-hand man long after his brains are all over the automobile’s interior.

Clothes Make the Man

Tony is written to be charismatic. Even coked out of his mind, he’d be a better fit in Vegas with Fredo’s crowd than with wet blanket Michael in Tahoe. Tony sports white suits, satin shirts, and designer sunglasses. Michael accessorizes three-piece ensembles with an ascot. This isn’t to say Michael had any issues with getting somebody’s brains splattered all over his Ivy League suit. 

Designed by Theadora Van Runkle, Michael preferred dupioni silk. That’s smart. The dark navy wool chalk-stripe suit Tony wears in his death scene was designed by Tommy Velasco and carries the class of a tuxedo. It was after 6pm. What do you think he is, a farmer?

“I’m the guy in the sky, flying high, flashing eyes. No surprise I told lies, I’m the punk from the gutter,” Roger Daltrey belts out on “The Punk and The Godfather.” This is exactly against the no-flash advice Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia) tries to impart on his young protégé in Scarface. Tony was raised not to take any advice other than his own. He also ignores his consigliere’s advice on several occasions. When Manny reminds Tony the pair of them were in a cage a year ago, the rebel gangster says he’s trying to forget that, he’s going after the boss’ girl. 

“I come from the gutter,” Montana proudly contends. “I know that. I got no education but that’s okay. I know the street, and I’m making all the right connections.” 

By contrast, Michael attended Dartmouth College and then dropped out to join the Marines after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Michael is both intelligent and well-connected, loosely modeled on Joseph Bonanno and Vito Genovese. He also accepts the wisdom of his father, who most closely resembled “The Prime Minister” of New York’s Five Families in the 1950s, mafia boss Frank Costello.

The Better Family Man

Pacino’s Don Michael Corleone has access to all his family’s connections, stretching back to the old world. He learns to expertly pull the strings of powerful men, like his father did, but as he grew, he bent. Michael is friends with senators, meets with the President of Cuba, has money in the Vatican, and confesses his sins to a Pope. Michael was insulated throughout his childhood and criminal career. If Tony gets in trouble, he has to get out of it himself, or with the help of a handful of low-level operatives.

Michael is the family rebel, risking his life and getting medals for strangers. He also gets to be both the prodigal son and the dutiful son. He gets the fatted calf and pays the piper. He even tips the baker’s helper for the effort. Michael comes back to both of his families, crime and birth, with a vengeance. He is there for his father the moment he is needed. Michael is the better family man. Tony’s mother is ashamed of him, and he completely ruins his sister’s wedding. Michael’s family means everything to him, and while he still manages to lose them, he actually maneuvers his two families well over rough waters for a very long run.  

Tony Montana is the rebel’s rebel. Even before he tosses off his bandana at the dishwasher job to make a quick score, we knew. He was born bad, in the cinematically good way. This also makes Montana a natural at crime. In The Godfather, Michael has it in his blood as a Corleone, but has his heart set on college, a straight career, and a shot to bring his whole family into the American Dream, which for Montana only exists as a wet dream.

Tony never gets past the hormonal teenage phase of his love of America. He wants to love his new country to death. He is turned on by the dream. He wants to take it. Not earn it. No foreplay necessary, as he claims his latest victim’s wife as his own.

Managerial Skills

Michael is pretty good with his underlings, when he’s not having them garroted on the way to an airport or advising them to slit their wrists in a bath. He promises Clemenza he can have his own family once the Corleones relocate to Las Vegas. He lets Joe Zaza (Joe Mantegna) get away with murder as the guy he sets up to run his old territory in The Godfather, Part III. Michael doesn’t keep turncoats like his trusted caporegime Tessio (Abe Vigoda) around for old times’ sake, and he doesn’t suffer fools at all. It may seem he cuts Tom Hayden (Robert Duvall) loose a little fast, and without warning or due cause. But if he was a wartime consigliere, he would have seen it coming.

While Tony Montana may have a competitive and fast-tracked entry program for new workers (“hey, you got a job”), he’s also the guy who shoots his right-hand man Manny for marrying his sister. Tony exacts a brutal and dangerous revenge for the death of his friend Angel Fernandez in the Miami chainsaw massacre, but doesn’t lift a finger when his cohort Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham) is hanged to death from a helicopter by drug lord Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar). Michael does have a tendency to have his soldato kiss his ring, but he’s not entirely a .95 caliber pezzonovante.

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One of the most important skills a boss must exhibit is how to delegate, and Corleone is a minor Machiavellian master at his delegation. He whispers orders from behind closed doors. Tony is more hands-on. The only reason he tells Manny to “kill that piece of shit” Frank is because he’s already humiliated his former boss into a shell of a real man.

Montana is in the trenches with his soldiers and sets standards by example. He shoots a guy on a crowded Miami street in broad daylight. Montana is a born triggerman and only reluctantly delegates the duty. He has 10 bodyguards when Sosa men raid his mansion fortress. He takes the invading force with one little friend, an M16A1 rifle with a customized grenade launcher. But it sure doesn’t help the employees getting murdered outside.

A Handle on Finances

We don’t know what kinds of criminal activities the Corleone family were involved in between 1958 and 1979. Still, Michael had proven himself a traditionalist and a bit of a prude, so he spends most of his career shaving his take from harmless vices and avoiding drugs, which he sees as a dirty business. But through whatever means, by The Godfather, Part III, Michael has earned enough capital to buy himself out of crime.

Michael gambles successfully on Wall Street, keeps the Genco olive oil company going, and invests in hotels, casinos, and movie studios. He’s got to be pulling in a billion dollars a year in legitimate business. He makes enough to pad the coffers of the Vatican, and his share of Immobiliare stocks pulls in another $1 billion.

Tony looks like he’s earning about $15 million a month. But it doesn’t look like he puts much stock in his future. He makes no investments, only purchases. His only visible holding is the salon his sister works in. But we also have to take into account that he built his empire from scratch. Michael inherited his. And while the head of the Corleone family can blackmail a U.S. senator with a tragic sex scandal, Montana fares no better than Al Capone with tax evasion.

Who Would Win in a Mob War?

Scarface is as violent as the 1932 Howard Hawk original. Blood is a big expense, and 42 people are killed in the 1985 film. It came out amid other over-the-top action blockbusters like First Blood and the contemporary reality of the South American drug trade. So, it would seem, the film has far more violence. But they are easily matched.

The Godfather has a horse’s head, Scarface has a chainsaw. Michael’s brother Sonny (James Caan) gets machine gunned to smithereens at the toll booth, Tony blows the lower limbs off his would-be assassins at a nightclub. Omar is lynched in a chopper, the upper echelon of the mob is taken out by helicopter fire in The Godfather, Part III. Tony and Michael each get to kill a cop.

Both mob figures survive assassination attempts. Michael loses his wife Apollonia in Sicily in a car bombing meant for him. He also avoids the trap Tessio sets at the meeting with Emilio Barzini (Richard Conte), on his turf, where Michael “will be safe.” Tony lives through his initial professionally ordered hit, as well as being saved by Manny from certain death by chainsaw.

While Michael Corleone is able to take care of Barzini, Victor Stracci, Carmine Cuneo, and Phillip Tattaglia – the leadership of the five families – at the end of The Godfather, Tony Montana can only put up a good fight. The Corleone family would win in a protracted war against Montana’s cartel, but there is a possibility Tony would have outlived Michael while the battles raged. Expert swordsmen aren’t afraid to duel the best in the field, but they’re scared of the worst. 

As far as crime tactics and strategic villainy, Michael Corleone plays a game of chess. Tony Montana plays hopscotch. He wins by skipping cracks in the street, but he only rises as far as the pavement.

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