Best monologue in The Godfather?

Jack Woltz's monologue to Tom Hagen at the dinner table...

John Marley delivered those lines superbly...his "cement mixer" voice, and brash demeanor came across all too effectively...He defied the role of the rich, cocky, millionare... every line in that monologue was delivered with pure contempt and effectiveness...

He got in to character so well that you can't imagine him acting much differently in real life...The tale of betrayal he talks about appears to have truly effected and angered him...he makes his disdain of Johnny Fontane all too believable...

"I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on her, I was gonna make her a big STARR!! and let me be even MORE frank..."

Incredible

My personal favorite is the speech given by Don Vito at the meeting of the 5 familys. Brandos delivery, emotions, hand motions etc, are perfect.

Ola,
That has to be my favorite too! "and if a bolt of lightning.....I will blame some of the people in this room." Superb, convinving and Powerful delivery by Brando!

Don Cardi

Are we talking GFI or are we talking about all three? Because to me, the best one of the bunch is the "this is the business we've chosen" speech by Roth.

Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone giving the speech to the five families and other heads of the other mafia families throughout the country. Great acting and dialogue.

Cannoli, agreed with the Roth monologue...

"I didn't ASK...who gave the order!"

excellent delivery as well...

Hmm...besides the ones already mentioned, the short monologue about Apollonia in GF III by Michael is touching, if nothing else.

I, too, am going to go with Brando's speech at the five families meeting; but also Brando's "I never wanted this for you" speech to Michael in the garden. Awesomely executed and superbly dished out. What a delivery.

Though, the best acting in the entire trilogy, AND that I've ever seen on camera in any movie is most definately Fredo's "I'm smart" scene in The Godfather, Part II. His facial expression, the way he's shaking, his motions, his voice. You can feel his pain, his hurt... How he feels he was betrayed. You can feel how he just wanted to get some credit and recognition, but most of all you feel his remorse and regret. Powerful, emotional, and captivating. I can't help but get teary eyed and choked up everytime I see it.

Anthony, I agree with your observations about John Cazale's acting in II. It was great. And that scene in particular. The most brilliant part of ALL of it is that after he'd vented to Michael, and after Michael disowns him (so to speak), he sighs and calls out, "Mikey." And it is just so SAD.

Fredo just didn't get it.

Yep, Fredos scene was great also. To me the capper was when he was all done complaining, was how calmy Mike just dismissed him

"Fredo you are nothing to me......."

The talks between Michael and Vito in the Garden. If you have "The Godfather Legacy" the script of that part is in it. It's lovely.

Yes. Vito's garden talk about universal aspirations that a man has for his son.

That was a good monologue, although delivered very laid back and calmly by Brando, which obvioulsy fits the Godfather's character. I would choose Marley's monologue over it though, because of the precise and agressive delivery...It was more emphatic...

I'll agree with those who've mentioned Vito's 'I never wanted this for you...' to Michael.

Laid back? Yeah...sure. But like you say in keeping with the character but oh, so much more than that. It WAS brilliantly delivered by Brando, and you felt every word of it as if it were your own family he was talking about.

Marley as Woltz was fine. But loud...as well as 'precise and aggressive'...doesn't necessarily equal brilliance.

Or even approach it.

Apple

Fredos interrogation by Michael in part 2. Hands down my favorite.

"I'm smart!"
"Your not a brother, your not a friend."

I think Marley as Woltz, in his brief scenes, gave a good indication of the character of Woltz, with his performance. He went from insulting Hagen, to welcoming him to his home for dinner, with a tour of the grounds, to erupting at him and throwing him out before dessert

I have no problem with the portrayal of Woltz by Mr. Marley. Nor with his final monologue before throwing Tom out of the house. Both are excellent.

However the subject line...in the form of a question by the way...was as to the best monologue in the movie. (The Godfather to be exact, not GFII or GFIII)

And I still agree that for depth, poignancy and sheer acting genius...none matches that last one of Vito's to Michael in the garden.

Apple

Apple, I hope I didn't give the impression that I thought Woltz's monologue, before he threw out Hagen was the best. I was merely trying to say, that taken as a whole, Marley gave a convincing portrayl of a dubious Hollywood producer, or was he a director ?

He was a producer of films and also head of Woltz International Pictures, a well respected movie studio in Hollywood that has legions of stars under contracts and a pick of scripts usually first hand. Jack Woltz also served on the Presidents Advisory Council for motion picture proganda.

I look at it like this...

As far as meaningful and deep content goes, Woltz's monolgue did not have any...He did not say anything profound, its more about WHAT he said and HOW he said it accompanied with his facial and body mannerisms....It was very well acted...It was more along the lines of one of those memorable movie scenes that stands out considering following that speech of his was perhaps one of the most famous movie scenes of all time...That monologue was in its own right, very defining of what kind of man Jack Woltz was and the way he sort of takes out his disdain for Fontaine on Hagen was evident...I can't argue that this was the greatest monologue because it is open for speculation...I am stating why I think it was a great one...Wether or not it was the greatest, I don't think it can be argued that it was the most emphatic monologue in The Godfather...

No one has mentioned Bonasera's monologue! That ruled!

one of the best monologues for me was when michael is talking to carlo : " Ahhh that little farce you played with my sister you think that could fool a Corleone? "

oh well i guess thats not the only one, but thats my fav. for now.

My favorite is in the very beginning of G1,
when the Don chides the undertaker for asking for a favor, without showing respect or friendship in the past. "bona sera, bona sera, what have I done
that you should treat me so disrespectful?", etc, etc. Brando's just great here.

yeah i agree with u on this one, its 2 one of my favorites.

The scene in GFI where Michael proposes to Sonny, Hagen, Clelenza, and Tessio that he be the one to go to the Sollozzo meeting and kill both him and McCluskey.

"...if Clemenza ...can find a way to plant a weapon...then I'll kill them both."

I would vote for Vito's "I'm a superstitous man" speech at the sitdown from GFI and the Roth "this is the business we've chosen" scolding to Michael from GFII.

I don't know that there is one standout scene from GFIII. But if pressed for a vote, I would go with the dialogue after the Commission is wiped out at the hotel: "Everytime I think I'm out, they pull me back in."

This is really tough! So many to chose from. All those mentioned are so good....OK if I had to come down with just one favourite, I'd have to say it was the Vito speech to the heads of the 5 families, very closely followed by senator Gearys lambasting of Michael in the boathouse. You just knew he was going to live to regret that

FH

I love the speech at the Commission meeting by Vito, though its not my favorite. I would have to say the one that ment the most to me was by Robert DeNiro when hes in his apartment with Tessio and Clemenza and explains how Fanucci had come to him asking for money. This is where he in my mind he starts to become the Godfather. Before he would listen to Clemenza and Tessio but here he takes over. Very much like how Michael gives that speech in the first one about killing Sollozzo and McClusky. These two scenes are great and are the stepping stones into why these two were such great Dons.

my favorite is Vito's speech in the meeting of all the families after Sonny's murder in GF1.
I just love this speech, the way the Don tells everyone about how he feels about Mike's comeback.
"...and if he's struck by a bolt of lightning, then I would blame some of the people in this room"

Quoting Anthony Lombardi

"Though, the best acting in the entire trilogy, AND that I've ever seen on camera in any movie is most definately Fredo's "I'm smart" scene in The Godfather, Part II. His facial expression, the way he's shaking, his motions, his voice. You can feel his pain, his hurt... How he feels he was betrayed. You can feel how he just wanted to get some credit and recognition, but most of all you feel his remorse and regret. Powerful, emotional, and captivating. I can't help but get teary eyed and choked up everytime I see it."

You might be interested to know that the bouncy chair that Cazale was sitting in had an important role to play in the brilliance of that scene. In the GFII DVD FFC says that the chair helped a lot with how he wanted Cazale to act that scene out.

--------------------------------------------------
"....never take sides with anyone against the family again..ever"

Just like to congratulate Anthony Lombardi on his exellent desciption of Cazale's astounding acting in this scene - it truly was awesome, what a legend.

A great monolgue for me is the 'roman empire' discussion with Hagen and Pentangeli in which Hagen tells him in code that he must kill himself with Pentangeli agreeing with the condition his family would be looked after

Hagen - That was a good break

Hagen - Everythings gonna be ok frankie five angels

Great acting made that scene one of the greats

This is definitely not the best monologue, but one that I think is pretty amusing is Paulie's little aside at the wedding, "20 - 30 grand... in small bills cash..." I just like the way he says it. Plus, it foreshadows Paulie's future betrayal of the family.

Yeah i liked that bit too, i love all those wedding scenes. An ironic moment for me is in the deleted scene when Tessio refers to Paulie as a 'little punk' which in light of his later betrayal seems a bit hypocritical

I am going to have to go with Mike/Fredo in Part II.

As for Fredo's "I'm smart" scene, I found that scene to be a little extreme...The acting itself by Cazale was excellent yes, but I believe he overdid it with his shaking hands...He looked like he had cerebal palsy, it was a little too much....Minus the overdone shaking and his scene may have been more authentic...

Paulie Gatto's lil monologue is kinda funny...We say that all the time here at work..."Marone, if this was somebody else's wedding, sweet tonata!"

But Woltz's monologue remains my favorite...not the deepest, not profound...but it was very Broadway...very purist, it was authentic acting...not to mention almost every other thing he said was a memorable quote...

"and if that Goomba tries any rough stuff, you tell him, I AINT NO BAND LEADER....yeeeah...I heard that story....

The hand thing bothered me a little the first time I saw it.I still to this day cant figure out what it adds to the character(maybe he's signing that he knew he would be killed on the lake,hows that for rediculous? )Still ,its one of my favorite scenes in the whole trilogy.

BTW-Thanks for stealing my avatar.It was the only way I could quickly find my posts.

I have to say the scene between Michael and Fredo is the best and both give great monlogues in it.

I really dont think he overdid it either DonSonny. I mean Fredo had been a part of the family business a lot longer than Michael (even tho he never really did anything important) so it had to have angered him how Mike was able to just come in out of nowhere and become the new Don Corleone. Like he said, he was "passed over" and had never vented out his anger to anyone. He's suppose to look like he has a cerebral pulsy cuz he has no control of his emotions in that scene. It was a great acting job by Cazale.

damn right, well said busta

He was shaking because he was scared, its a natural reaction, Fredo is an absolute nervous wreck - the shaking only added to Cazale's supreme delivery! I loved it, just can't believe anyone could criticize it, overdone? never.

I am not criticizing the scene, critiquing it, yes...Cazale acted that scene very well, I am not saying he didnt...His delivery, his passion, his facial expression was all genuine...BUT...

Like I said, I felt he overdid the hand quivering effect just a little bit...It looked as if one of his hands had died and he was shaking it to bring it back to life...Nervous wreck is one thing...but Cazale had his wrist completely limp as he shook his arm frantically...

Everything in that scene was well done, but he could have toned down his hand chattering...I felt it took away from the scene just a little bit...

Ok, I understand what you mean stylistic, I just think it was jus showing he had no control over his body which is why it may have looked weird and overdone. I get what you're saying tho.

You are entitled to your opinion, but i beleive the shaking was spot on, it was one of the first things i marvelled at when i first watched it.

Sorry i thought it was absolutely great and in NO WAY overdone

I in no way think its overdone.He's nervous, but he's also frusterated for all the reasons we've said. he was in the business since,we'll assume here, since he graduated, and mike didnt even want to take that path.He was passed over and only wanted some respect.

Thanks Style

Had to change my avatar for you Sonny...Your the Don Sonny, you should be entitled to your Santino avatar

Sonny is GOD isnt he, James Caan's performance is of F ucking brilliant its untrue, i dont think the film would have been the same without him

Nothing like the ass whopping Sonny gives Carlo...perhaps one of the most memorable scenese ever...Anyone seen that episode of The Simpsons which parodied that scene? Marge beating up a mugger...classic...everything was to the tee, including the open fire hydrant and gargage can...

...andthe way Flanders pulls his kids back The Simpsons does a lot of GF spoofs.

apart from the missed punch, which we can put down to over anger, it is possible to miss a punch, it was one of the greatest scenes in film history, Caan put his heart and soul into it, what a legend, Sonny gave Carlo a beating a beating he would never forget, YOU JUST DONT MESS WITH SONNY, especially with his broom handle