One thing that always made me wonder...in the film, young Vito is given the last name Corleone by the Ellis Island guy. In the novel, Vito takes the name Corleone himself as an homage to his hometown. It's described in the novel as one of the few "sentimental" acts of Vito...wonder why FFC would change that.

Could have been one of FFC's many attempts at authenticity. Immigration officers often arbitrarily assigned names to immigrants who couldn't speak English, sometimes in exactly the way shown. In my family's case, our last name had multiple syllables, but the immigration officer only heard the first syllable of my grandfather's last name, so that's what stuck.

my last name was shortened to sound more Irish because Italians couldn't get jobs when they first came over.

I liked the way they did it though.

From a cinematographical point of view, FFC's choice is definitely more effective, IMO.

I think that it was also FFC's way of showing how "Americans" treated Italians, just like the Senator saying Veye-toe Corleon. I think it was supposed to be a bit of a dig at what my grandfather called the "Merde-cane" (dog poop).

I agree with you on that Lavinia.