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Tom Hagen might not be Sicilian but he's fluent in the language, uses Sicilian hand gestures, has Sicilian facial expressions, even prefers the language over English at times and has married an Italian wife. Clearly he's done everything possible to absorb a language and culture that he wasn't born into to the extent that Vito even says that he made Tom a Sicilian and yet almost every character in the book spends every 5 minutes reminding him that he isn't one of them.

This scene gives me so many feelings. Sonny's words are so shockingly and incredibly cruel, especially considering how sensitive and insecure Tom already is. He wanted to hurt him here and could hardly have chosen a more effective weapon than those two sentences. Yet you can see how he much instantly regrets his words, he loves Tom so deeply that in spite of his pride, he doesn't hesitate to back down and try to make amends.

I wish that we'd been able to see Tom's expression here. He's obviously badly wounded by those words but I also get the impression that he was also angry and came very close to hitting him and probably would have if Sonny hadn't backtracked. That hand gesture Tom makes says fuck you Sonny even as he tells Sonny that it's over.

My favourite scene in The Godfather book might be when Tom is released after being abducted by Sollozzo and Michael watches Sonny literally run to embrace Tom and realises that Tom is much closer to Sonny than he'll ever be.

Reading Watership Down is so fun because I’ll be like “Get his ass, Bigwig,” and then he looks like fucking this

Tom Hagen being the one who gives Clemenza the signal(with his tie) to go ahead and garotte Carlo is one of my favourite little details from The Godfather.

I totally agree. There's a definite difference between Tom's attitude when he's sending Tessio to his death and when Carlo is about to be killed. He looks rather sad, reluctant and uncomfortable when he has to give the order to have Tessio taken away and killed.

When he joins Michael, Al and Rocco to confront Carlo, he seems almost eager. Tom's whole attitude here is much more aggressive and confrontational. The way he steps into the room and leans against the wall he's menacing here, very much the gangster. There's no reluctance or mercy in his expression. Plus he loosened his tie to give the signal immediately after Tessio is taken away. He didn't even wait to hear his confession. He wants' him dead ASAP and Tom looks at most, slightly discomfited, while watching Carlo being garrotted. He's certainly not sorry to see him die.

Usually I have a revelation during each rewatch of The Godfather. I watched part one tonight and didn’t have one up until Karl is killed and my takeaway is I think Tom was fine with him being killed because he helped Sonny’s murderers. As always I am deeply invested in the Sonny and Tom relationship.

Also, this movie and part II absolutely rules.

Godfather collection coming along nicely. 🥹❤️ Including a mini Al Pacino collection in there too, of course. 🥰 My favourite thing in the world tbh! 😍😍😍 I don’t think it’s ever gonna be finished with all the goodies and collectables I keep discovering or that keep coming out, but here it is so far in all it’s glory. 😂🤗

I like to think Sonny would have been the most fashionable if he had lived in Vegas

Well I mean… true. 🤣

The most famous orange in Hollywood 🍊

So Tom Hagen personally arranged a hit.

He(Johnny Fontane) was surprised when the executive producer came to him and told him the union rep had to be taken care of to the tune of fifty thousand dollars. There were a lot of problems dealing with overtime and hiring and the fifty thousand dollars would be well spent. Johnny debated whether the executive producer was hustling him and then said, “Send the union guy to me.”

The union guy was Billy Goff. Johnny said to him, “I thought the union stuff was fixed by my friends. I was told not to worry about it. At all. Goff said, “Who told you that?” Johnny said, “You know goddamn well who told me. I won’t say his name but if he tells me something that’s it.” Goff said, “Things have changed. Your friend is in trouble and his word don’t go this far west anymore.” Johnny shrugged. “See me in a couple of days. OK?” Goff smiled. “Sure, Johnny,” he said. “But calling in New York ain’t going to help you.”

But calling New York did help. Johnny spoke to Hagen at his office. Hagen told him bluntly not to pay. “Your Godfather will be sore as hell if you pay that bastard a dime,” he told Johnny. “It will make the Don lose respect and right now he can’t afford that.”

“Can I talk to the Don?” Johnny asked. “Will you talk to him? I gotta get the picture rolling.” “Nobody can talk to the Don right now,” Hagen said. “He’s too sick. I’ll talk to Sonny about fixing things up. But I’ll make the decision on this. Don’t pay that smart bastard a dime. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”

Annoyed, Johnny hung up. Union trouble could add a fortune to making the film and screw up the works generally. For a moment he debated slipping Goff the fifty grand on the quiet. After all, the Don telling him something and Hagen telling him something and giving him orders were two different things. But he decided to wait for a few days."

By waiting he saved fifty thousand dollars. Two nights later, Goff was found shot to death in his home in Glendale. There was no more talk of union trouble. Johnny was a little shaken by the killing. It was the first time the long arm of the Don had struck such a lethal blow so close to him.

From The Godfather novel by Mario Puzo.

So in The Godfather novel Johnny Fontane is trying to produce his own movies and a Union official, Billy Goff, who is connected to the Corleones, tries to extort 50K from him. Johnny is considering just paying up, instead turns to Tom Hagen, who has been helping him with the whole project. Tom advises him not to pay up, says he'll deal with it and a few days later Tom has the Union official shot dead in his own home.

Vito has just been shot at this point, and is too ill to be consulted so Tom says that he'll talk to Sonny about the situation but that he will be the one who makes the final decision as to what will be done about the Union official so he personally ordered him to be killed.

So apparently the first time I read The Godfather, I somehow missed the part where Tom Hagen arranges to have someone killed. WTF?

(these are the ones that my friends and I use the most)

Elia Kazan’s ON THE WATERFRONT was released in the U.S. on July 28, 1954 #OnThisDay

Alan Ladd and Brandon De Wilde in the classic western, Shane. Directed by George Stevens, 1953.

I have so many random dvds that I've still to watch and so many old favourites that I haven't seen for years. I might start another blog to encourage me to watch them, track what I'm watching and leave this for solely rambling about The Godfather.

John Cazale, Christopher Walken and Robert De Niro on the set of The Deer Hunter.(1978)

One of my favourite little details in Part 2 was that child Sonny was boxing the adults and getting overly aggressive about it. That did such a great job of showing his personality and the man that he'd become.

Also apparently the child actor who played young Fredo got lost in the vaults in that scene because he wasn't listening and that's so Fredo.

One thing that I do wish they'd included from the novel in Godfather 2 was that young Sonny followed his Father following Fanucci and witnessed his Father killing him and that's what resulted in Sonny joining the family business.

Random thoughts after finally watching The Godfather Part 2.

I finally watched part 2 last week and I really enjoyed it but ultimately I prefer the first movie. That isn't to say that I didn't love it but as a whole I feel that the first part works better for me but that 2 has so many of my favourite moments from the movies.

The casting was impeccable again and I don't think there was a single actor who felt wrong for their role but I prefer the villains in the first movie. I find Sollozzo for example, more interesting and enjoyable than Hyman Roth and Johnny Ola. That's no reflection on the actors, just a personal preference.

The scenes with young Vito were beautifully done and I love how close to the book they were. Robert de Niro was perfect in the role as were young Genco/Tessio and Clemenza. I also really enjoyed the very old school Fanucci as a villain. Overall though as much as I enjoyed them and I'm glad they were included and it was important that they were, but if I had my choice, I'd rather spend more time with the remaining Corleone siblings.

What a loss to cinema John Cazale was. He was truly incredible here and had some of the most powerful scenes.

Al Pacino was brilliant again. My favourite scene of his was when he overhears Fredo saying that he knows Johnny Ola.

Robert Duvall was excellent again. He has great chemistry with Pacino and was never less than utterly convincing as an aging and battle weary Tom who is becoming increasingly alienated from Michael and the business yet retains his loyalty in spite of his growing discomfort with Michael's ruthlessness.

I loved the ever developing relationship between Michael and Tom with all its twists and turns. It physically pains me that we didn't get to see it continue in part 3 because their relationship was such an important part of the whole story.

I loved Frank Pentangeli. What a great character he was. I enjoyed him so much that I didn't even miss Clemenza. His final scene with Tom was one of my favourite moments from either of the movies.

The flashback scene was the perfect way to end it. I have so many feelings about that scene but I'll save that for another post.

Today's book.

I've had this for years and I've read it before but all this Deer Hunter talk made me want to read it again.

Unfortunately it isn't a fully fledged novel unlike The Godfather but a novelisation, and it's under 200 pages which is very little for an adaptation of a 3 hour movie but I'm still looking forward to reading it.