OK, help me out with a scene from Godfather II. It’s always confused me…
A young Vito is approched by Don Fanucci. Saying he wants a piece of the action. $200 each from Vito, Tessio and Fat Clemenza. Vito says to the boys, don’t worry, I’ll get him to take less. An offer he can’t refuse.
Vito meets Fanucci in the cafe and gives him 100 bucks instead of the full six. Vito says she’s “short of money now” because he’s been “out of work”. The Don laughs, says Vito has balls and he’ll get him some good work. An hour or so later, Vito shoots and kills Fanucci.
Up to Fanucci’s killing, it makes sort of sense to me. This underpayment is Vito’s angle to get better work, better money and to get his foot in the door with the big shots. But then he goes and kills his ticket.
And him killing Fanucci by itself makes sense. That’s how Vito makes his bones. Besides, the guy’s a prick. Bullying around fellow Italians, including the man who was a father to Vito. Plus a deleted scene indicates that the guy’s an easy target. So why didn’t Vito just skip the chatter, camp out by Fanucci’s door and kill him?
What’s the point of the meeting at all? And why doesn’t this Maranzalla guy come after Vito? Was the whole thing just a dramatic device to show the charisma of Vito? Does it exist just to have a gratuitous use of the “offer he can’t refuse” gem?
I understand keeping your friends close and your enemies closer, but why get close to your enemies if you’re gonna kill them before dinner time anyway?
As in all the Godfather movies, Corleone is lulling his intended target into a false sense of security by pretending to resolve an issue, even though he secretly plans to take violent action later. (Coppola, of course, is doing the same thing to the audience.
It’s completely in Vito’s character to be melodramatic. He’s that kind of guy.
Plus he might have been testing Fanucci’s resolve. Maybe he didn’t set out to kill him, only to see if he could be bullied. Fanucci’s actions might have sealed his own fate.
I never did understand that part of the movie. seems that he lost a $100. or did he get it off the body? he ambushed the guy going home so its not that he had to be worried about him. and what was the “offer that he couldn’t refuse”? either $100 or nothing? later the “offer that he couldn’t refuse” meant that either do it or you will be sorry because I am powerful. this time is seems do it because I am so weak.
Maranzalla doesn’t come after Vito, because he doesn’t know who Fannucci is. Fannucci has been shaking down the neighborhood by claiming that he works for Maranzalla, but Vito realizes he doesn’t really…he’s just making it up. This is clearer in the book, where Vito finds out that Fannucci ratted out somebody who wouldn’t pay him to the cops, and figures that, if Fannucci was really part of a crime network, he’d never go to the cops. He’d have handled it himself. The movie just makes reference to some Greeks who don’t pay him.
After Vito shoots Fannucci, he does take his wallet. As to why the meeting at all…before the meeting, Clemenza had $50 and Tessio had $50, which they gave to Vito to give to Fannucci. After Vito shoots Fannucci, Vito’s the one with the $100. The movie doesn’t say he ever gave the money back, after all…
Like father, like son . . . Michael did the same thing with Carlo, Connie’s husband. Went to see him, told him he had to answer for Sonny’s death, convinced him that his punishment was being out of the family business, then had Clemenza garrote him to death in the car.
Ahhhh… That makes sense. In fact, even in the movie Fanucci demands Vito’s repect otherwise “the cops will come to your house and your family will be ruined.”
Alphagene, I must agree with Captain Amazing, the book explains this whole situation much better than the movie ever could!
In the book, Vito gets more than $50 each from Clemenza & Tessio, gives it to Fanucci along with his own money, then whacks him. He feels safe doing this because anybody who would go to the cops isn’t involved with the Black Hand at all. Vito gets Fanucci’s wallet after he kills him, which contains maybe $6 more than what Vito just gave him (except for a lucky gold piece, which Vito leaves on the body), telling us that Fanucci is not the big shot that he wants people to think he is. Not only that, but Clemenza & Tessio aren’t stupid, and figure out right away that Vito did it, and kept their money. But they know a future Don when they see one, apparently (though Tessio has a lapse of good sense later) and just let it go with a laugh and a shrug.
I think I memorized that book in junior high, it is one I can always pick up again and enjoy.
It makes sence to me even if we stick to just the film and leave the book out of it.
Vito makes himself friendly with his enemy. He then follows Fanucci, which may have been the point of meeting him in the first place, to know where he is and know he’ll be alone at the time of the hit. By the chit-chat earlier, when Fanucci sees Vito in the hallway, he’s not alarmed by Vito’s presence, making it that much easier to get the first shot off.
Also in the film when they give Vito the money, Vito tells them to remember he did them a favor. They probably figure the $50 to Vito is much better than the $200 to Fanucci, especially since Vitio got Fanucci off their asses for good.
Thanks Cap.