Which leads us to the next most confusing aspect of GF2: why did the guy doing the hit on Pentangeli say, “Michael Corleone says hello,” or words to that effect?
I mean the hit man had every intention of killing Pentangeli and the only reason he didn’t follow through was because he was interrupted when someone (a cop wasn’t it?) came into the bar in mid-strangle.
AND we’re all agreed that Roth ordered the hit and not Michael so what’s up with the line?
[spoiler]The story goes that the actor playing the hit man -a young Danny Aiello no less- took it upon himself to improvise the line on the spot. Not knowing the full context of how the story unfolds, he figured “Michael Corleone says hello” was the sort of tough-guy line that the scene called for. Coppola agreed and left it in despite the fact it had to be baffling as hell for viewers seeing the film for the first time.
Those of us who have seen the movie hundreds of times simply disregard the line all together as well as the confusion that could very easily ensue.[/spoiler]