sonnys death

hey, in the book werent there 2 guys in the other toll both with the tommys, but in the movie there were quite a few. And.... If sonny wanted to kill carlo that bad why did he stop at the toll both. and.... dont you think tht carlo would be a bit scared incase the family came after him. And................................................................ Thats it.

The book and movie cant be excatly alike. It was more dramatic to see more people shoot Sonny than just a couple.

As for stopping at the toll booth, what other way would you want him to go???

And Carlo was stupid and thought he could get away with it so no, he didnt think the family would come after him, but in the end, he was obviously wrong.

not stop, carry on; dont pay. He wouldnt stop for tom but would for tht old man in the booth.

In the Tool Booth there 4 guys, 3 assassins and 1 toll collector in the Novel atleast. In the Movie there were like 7 assassins, possibly more.

And i have a question about it. What was the toll booth? whats the causeway? I really have been wondering. thanks.

causeway is a highway


what do you mean what was the tollbooth?

There was a car in front of his car. He cant just smash into the back of it. Besides "the cool air calmed him down"

The novel says Sonny had actually begun to cool off as he approached the toll booth. He was thinking about not killing Carlo.

Couldn't Sonny have known it was gonna be a hit when the car in front of him stopped and didn't move any further? When he saw that, he should've backed out quickly before it was too late.

Remember when the car in front of him stopped, Sonny paused briefly, looked at that car and the tollbooth? You could tell by his face that he only knew at that second. He could do nothing but duck and try to leave the car...as unsuccessful as that was.

BTW, I never heard of a "causeway" either until this movie.


TIS

I think that years ago the term causeway was used before the term parkway was used.

Ok TIS, so howcome we PARK on a DRIVEWAY and DRIVE on a PARKWAY?


Don Cardi

In the novel the car was standing there when he approached tollbooth, its driver was sort of asking way. Sonny at first suspected nothing.

No machine guns were mentioned in this part of the novel. The novel refers simply to guns which were probably just hand guns. The use of more assassins in the novel and of machine guns in the movie was for dramatic effect. Using so many machine guns in such close quarters would have endangered all the trigger men.

A causeway is the term that applies to a roadway over a body of water as opposed to a bridge.

I allways thought that the car with Sonny's bodyguards in it should have arrived at the tollbooth alot sooner than it did. I didn't think Sonny got that much of a head start on them and that he would have outpaced them for that much distance.

I think it was perfect that they got there so late. He didn't have that much of a head start on them but it showed how PISSED he was, he was speeding, probably driving out of control just to get to that house as fast as he could. I think showing him getting to the toolbooth so fast just showed how truly pissed off he was.

And it was exactly described in the novel, that he outpaced them because of driving very fast.

What I understood from what Michael told Carlo just before he had him killed is that Michael knew that Carlo set it up. I understood Carlo provoked Sonny by beating up his wife, knowing he would come after him in a rage, making it easy for the other family to kill him.

What do you guys think would have happend if Sonny's bodyguards would have made it behind him before he was shot? Maybe they would have suffered the same fate or maybe Sonny could have been wounded but not fatally?

The whole point of that episode was to show how hot-headed and spontaneous Sonny was and it was these character traits that got him killed. His enemies knew this and used it to lure him to his own demise. The big difference between Sonny and Mike is that Sonny always acted with his temper while Mike was level-headed and deliberate. Sonny's irrational temper got him killed while Mike used patience to get his revenge and, ultimately, his power.

Nah I still think Sonny would have been killed.I hightly doubt the bodyguards carried Tommys in the car, after all it was the 40s and nobody wanted bloodshed.That many guys with that many Tommy's would have easily been about to whack Sonny and his bodyguards.

Hi there,

Does it mention in the book how Carlo was contacted by or came in contact with Barzini? The movie doesn't mention it, and I always wondered why Carlo went against the Corleone family.

Thanks!

ML

He went against them because Sonny "phantom" punched him and humiliated him. Carlo wanted revenge and knew he couldn't do it himself. enter Barzini.

Thanks DMC, that's what I thought, but Carlo must have been even dumber than people give him credit for! First he beats up his wife, who is a mob daughter...did he not expect retribution? Then he aligns himself with another family while he is married to a boss' daughter???
MAMMA MIA!

Thanks. ML

I know he beat her before Sonny got to him but he started beating her more and more to make sure that Sonny would snap and then they could set him up at the toolbooth.


As far as Barzini goes didn't Carlo answer that at the end to Mike???

Carlo went against the Corleone's because he was always left out of the "mix". He was given a living, but nothing important in the family business. You can see him getting frustrated right after he gets married. The beating by Sonny didn't help either.

FYI: There are lots of causeways in South Miami. And like another poster said, they are bridges that go over bodies of water. There were lots of them in the Miami Beach area since there were many tiny little miniature islands off the main coastland. I can't remember their names off hand now, but there were about 10 or 11 of them all throughout Dade County (which is mostly Miami). There were less of them as you went up north because the towns up north were not as big as Miami. I believe Daytona Beach had causeways and so did West, North, and South Palm Beaches. The best place to go where there were very little people and the beaches were really quite unused--clean, except for ocean stuff, and very few people, was in the areas of Vero Beach and another place like it but I can't remember the name of it now. It was very near to Vero Beach. I went there with my sister one year and there was a difference of almost 20 degrees from Vero to Ft. Lauderdale! It was actually quite nice--a nice change from the monotonous heat, sun, and humidity. But, you had to be very careful because there were no lifeguards either. I think they may have already closed those beaches now because of people being stupid and getting hurt or dying there. I remember reading in the paper that one woman wound up getting stung by a very large "man-o-war jellyfish". Nasty little creatures.... He was out of commission for almost three weeks. I stepped on a sea anemone once and had to go to the emergency room to have the bite drained. That was a real drag...

So, my memories of my life in South Florida is very, very tainted by bad memories! But, I think the mid to northern part of Florida is a tad bit better.

~~ Lolly

One thing I always wondered about that hit was what happened to the old bloke in the booth - it didn't look terribly bullet proof to me and lord knows there was plenty of lead flying about.