MovieChat Forums > The Godfather Part II (1974) Discussion > Pentangeli Assassination Question

Pentangeli Assassination Question

posted 8 years ago by firstwinsgop-1
3 replies | jump to latest

Why do the assassin's say "Michael Corleone sends his regards"? What does Roth care whether Pentangeli knows it was him that ordered the hit or not? Pentangeli is going to be dead in seconds anyway? Unless of course, Roth intended Pentangeli to survive the whole time in a bid to either cause further dissension in the Family or to push Pentangeli to turn rat. But if that were the case why does the fake cop kill one of the Assassins? Is Roth so ruthless that he planned this fake execution with some of his guys playing the role of hitmen and others the role of cops and then secretly told the cops to actually kill one of his own guys to make it look even more realistic?

[–] Hookpunch 8 years ago

You found the answer , the hit was never meant to be carried out, it was meant to turn Pentangeli against Michael.

Although I was never sure if Michael was just bluffing with Roth about taking out Pentangeli, he told Pentangeli that he knew Roth tried to assassinate him.

[–] crood 8 years ago

The scene simply doesn't make sense. The line was an ad lib from Danny Aiello that Coppola ended up liking, so he left it in. It also bumped Aiello up to a speaking part.

It couldn't have been a fake attempt given the way the scene played out. Everyone is clearly surprised by the police officer coming in and that's what stops the killing.

[–] michael-judd 8 years ago

I think it was set up to go down that way, even with the cop, but I don't think the Rosato's knew the whole plan. They were only told what they needed to know and the cop was only told what he needed to know. Roth has a lot of people in his pocket too, and I can't imagine he gives too much of a *beep* if some of his people meet a couple of bullets in the course of their afternoon.