Even if Don Corleone died, what did he think would happen? Sonny would just say, “oh well.”
I guess I should say, “I think it was a stupid plan”. I know he counted on Tom to reign Sonny in, and Tom even tells Sonny to make peace if Pops dies. But how can Sollazo expect to live longer than five more years even if Don Corleone dies and Sonny makes peace?
From Sollazo’s POV it seems dumb. Hell, down the line the other families could knock him off just as a favor to the Corleones or use his location as a bargaining chip.
To state something you are possibly assuming is clear: He saw that Sonny was interested in the narcotics deal at the meeting, and therefore wants to kill don Corleone so that he can deal with Sonny instead.
Tom Hagen evaluates that he can talk sense into Sonny, but not to Luca Brasi. We are supposed to believe this assesment was correct. Solozzo takes care of Luca. If it turns out to not work out with Sonny at all, they could kill Sonny too and go to the next son.
Also note that that he was backed by the powerful Barzinis, something which only becomes clear later.
Plus, remember what’s clear already: he’s backed by the police captain. What, you’re just going to pull out a gun and shoot both of them? That’s just crazy talk.
It may not have been entirely Sollozzo’s plan. He was being backed by the Barzinis and they may have pushed him into taking more risks than he wanted.
The Barzinis may have figured that if Sollozzo’s plan worked, it would both provide them with a new source of income and reduce the Corleones’ power - a win/win for the Barzinis. And if it didn’t work, Sollozzo and the Tattaglias would be the fall guys. So the Barzinis probably told Sollozzo he didn’t have a choice - he had to attack the Corleones or they would kill him for his failure to make the deal work. Sollozzo was just playing out the hand he was dealt and hoping it would work out.
A lot of people miss this. When Sollozzo says the Tataglia’s will guarantee their money and Sonny suddenly speaks out of turn, he’s admonished by the Don (Brando). Even though it seems subtle Vito was seriously pissed at Sonny for doing that. You can see Clamenza’a reaction because he knows this too. And the Don was right. That little slip by Sonny set the whole attempted murder of Vito into motion. Vito dies, Sonny is now in charge, so the deal eventually goes thru. The other families were not on Sonny’s side, they wanted the Sollozzo deal to go thru, the Corleones were the only stumbling block.
And as an aside, the scene where Michael has the long soliloquy announcing that they have to get rid of Sollozzo and he will do it, this is the core of the whole saga. It’s essentially where Michael ‘gives in to the dark side…’ and there’s no going back for him.
And yeah, it was all just business (except to Luca, which is why he had to be preemptively eliminated)…
All true… but it’s worth noting that, while Sonny scoffs at the idea of Mike pulling off an assassination in the movie, he has the OPPOSITE reaction in Mario Puzo’s book.
In the book, when Mike offers to kill Sollozzo, Sonny is delighted. He says something like, “I’ve been waiting for this side of you to come out again. You were always the toughest one in the family. You were always the bravest one. You were always the only one with the balls to stand up to Pop. Nice to see THAT Mike coming back to the fore.”
I like in the movie how Tom is the only one who doesn’t think its funny.
Back to Sollozzo, I suppose it’s possible he also thought Sonny might be happy to be the head of the family. Perhaps the other four families have a history of patricide.
I don’t think this is accurate. In the book, as in the movie, he first laughs along with everyone except Tom. Then when he realizes Michael is serious he changes around and says the thing you quoted.
In the book, it’s gone into a little more detail that a great deal of the Corleone Family’s power is the personal power that Vito has built up over the years with his “friendships” among politicians, judges, etc. In fact, Sonny explains Sollozzo’s thought process like this:
However, Sonny also claims that he would not have gone along with the deal even if Vito had died, so it probably wasn’t that great of a plan.
Notice in that scene at first Sonny and Tom pay no mind to Michael. Treat him like a potted plant. But when he starts talking all the other guys in the room look at Michael in silence and listen intently. I always loved the camera work there, too. Camera slowly moves toward the seated Michael as he explains.
As someone else pointed out it’s the point which Michael becomes an insider. But also, it’s the point at which all the other top C. Family guys learn that this Michael guy is a leader and one to be respected.
Marlon Brando was about to die anyway real soon. So he just should have waited a couple of year for Brando to die and then he could have been blame free in the death.
Another thing I like about that scene where Michael outlines his plan:
I don’t know whether it was intentional on the part of the filmmakers or not, but because of Michael’s recent jaw injury, he has a slight speech impediment that makes him sound somewhat like his father. A very nice foreshadowing that Michael does, indeed, have his father’s ruthlessness in him, and will take his place.
This is an interesting twist I’d never realized before. As I recall, Brando decided to pad his cheeks for his screen test… Coppola wanted Brando, but the studio didn’t think he was trustworthy, so Brand made himself indistinguishable for his scren test.
I wonder how it went down in direction, did Coppola tell Pachino: “Al, can you make it sound like you’re really Marlon’s son?” And Pachino clenches his teen goes, “Yeah. Icandothat.” Makes me wonder if there was ever any “Making of The Godfather” footage made. Like there was for Apocalypse Now.