In the opening scene, the undertaker asks Don Corleone to exact “justice” on the man (men?) who raped his daughter. He apparently asks Don Corleone to have him (them?) killed, to which the Don replies (something to the effect of): “But that would not be justice, because your daughter is still alive.” This makes me think the Don’s first inclination is not to honor the request to have the guy(s) whacked.
But then “I’ll grant you this request, in honor of my daughter’s wedding day.” The undertaker leaves the room and the Don says to Tom(?) (again, something to the effect of): “Give this to __________. We want good people, someone we can trust not to get carried away. After all, we’re not murderers here.”
I don’t get it. Is Don Corleone having the guy(s) killed, or not? Is he ordering just a severe beating (“…trust not to get carried away… we’re not murderers…”)?
Or is he ordering that they be quickly and discretely disposed of (“…not to get carried away…”), while rationalizing the action as “justice” (i.e. “…we’re not murderers…”)?
I always assumed that a few of the henchmen - Luca Brazzi types - would find these scumbags and ballbat them sunsabitches till you can’t recognize 'em anymore. I thought that they would thrash them within inches of their lives.
Then, when Sonny is gunned down, he (the undertaker) is repaying the favor.
“Someday - and that day may never come - I will ask you to repay this favor”
I don’t remember for the film, but in the book the men are beaten by IIRC Pauli and Neri under Clemenza’s direction. They are not killed. The favour is later returned when the undertaker takes care of Sonny’s body for the Don.
I’m pretty sure that in the book that the rapists are not killed. But I don’t think they will be posing for photos professionally for the rest of their lives.
The Corleones do keep their promises. Sort of like Fabrizzio, the turncoat guard in Sicily. In some versions of “Godfather II”, you see him getting blown up after Michael Corleone learns that he has moved to the U.S.
Correct. They’re beaten pretty badly in the book. The movie only has a slight hint of this (something to the effect of, “if you had come to me first, these scum would suffer like your daughter suffers”) meaning that Don Corleone is a firm believer in a eye for an eye.
It’s kind of unclear wether the daughter was actually raped or not. The undertaker says that she resisted and “kept her honor”, so the boys “beat her like an animal”. So it’s a question of if “keeping her honor” means actually avoiding being violated or just putting up a good fight against it.
In the book, the undertaker’s obligation to the family is fulfilled after taking care of Salvatore (Sonny) and Vito, (but not Carmella “Mama” Coreleone?). Only then does Tom tell him that his obligation to his Don is over. In the book the undertaker frets a lot about his obligation including secretly disposing of bodies. There is one scene in the GF Saga which shows the undertaker discussing this with his wife.
All in all, even in the movie, it’s quite clear that the undertaker owes the Don a service.
IMDB gives the undertaker’s name as “Bonasera”. Ooookkaay.
Rarity in Hollywood dept.: The undertaker’s speech in GF1 appears to be word for word from the book. GF 1 follows the book quite well, but with a lot of the Tony and Lucy’s (Sonny’s mistress) story line left out.
In early versions of the script, there was a scene where the rapists where beat up (but not killed) by two of Corleone’s men. Coppola decided to cut the scene from the actual movie.
I don’t have the text at hand, but in the book, the job is given to two low-level thugs who are boxers or ex-boxers, and there is some luscious descriptive prose about the professional attitude exhibiited during the beating – ‘…if they get out of the hospital in less than a week…’, the thugs will not have done their job properly.
I’ll have to check my DVD but I believe there was a scene in which Paulie shows the thugs where to go and reitterates that they are not to kill the rapists.
It was supposed to give Paulie one more scene before he is shown to be a traitor.
They are beaten up and The Undertaker owes for that.
To re-answer the OP, the boys got the living crap beat out of them, not killed.
Also, they did not rape the daughter - the “kept her honor” phrase indicates that. I don’t think that one of the retaliators was Al Neri, as Neri (an ex-cop) did not come into the Family until Michael was back from Sicily, which was over 3 years after Connie’s wedding. Rather the two retaliators were low-level hoods who were repaying a favor. Paulie Gatto was, however, in charge of the operation and was there when the beatings occurred.
They “tried to take advantage of her.” I don’t think they actually succeeded in raping her.
The undertaker’s name is Amerigo Bonasera. “I believe in America…America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion…”
This is perhaps the only case where I liked the movie better than the book – I didn’t really care too much for the Johnny Fontane and Lucy Macini subplots, but it helped explain some things the film left out.
To re-answer the OP, the boys got the living crap beat out of them, not killed.
Also, they did not rape the daughter - the “kept her honor” phrase indicates that. I don’t think that one of the retaliators was Al Neri, as Neri (an ex-cop) did not come into the Family until Michael was back from Sicily, which was over 3 years after Connie’s wedding. Rather the two retaliators were low-level hoods who were repaying a favor. Paulie Gatto was, however, in charge of the operation and was there when the beatings occurred.
To re-answer the OP, the boys got the living crap beat out of them, not killed.
Also, they did not rape the daughter - the “kept her honor” phrase indicates that. I don’t think that one of the retaliators was Al Neri, as Neri (an ex-cop) did not come into the Family until Michael was back from Sicily, which was over 3 years after Connie’s wedding. Rather the two retaliators were low-level hoods who were repaying a favor. Paulie Gatto was, however, in charge of the operation and was there when the beatings occurred.
3 posts, but I got two “Page not found” messages when I tried to send the first two posts and only succeeded getting through to the thread on the third try.