Thanks everyone for your kind remarks. TIS: I have to agree with you about your comment about being Italian to write a book like the Godfather. There are so many little subleties in the movie that only an Italian would pick up. I could name lots of them now, but then my post would be too long! Just to give you an idea, one of the scenes that touched me was the scene in GFI at Connie's wedding where Tessio is dancing with one of Sonny's little girls. She is standing on his feet while he dances along with her ontop of his feet. My uncles used to let me do that with them! It was so that I could follow their steps without tripping them up! Also, the significance of fruit inthe movie is so typical of an Italian family. My grandfather never ate sweets--or at least only rarely. He preferred fruit and he always had a huge garden--like Vito's. He would take me into his garden as a young child and pull an ear of corn off the stalk. He would pull off all the leaves and strings and then bite into it. I bit into it and made a face because as a child you just don't like stuff like that. But my grandfather did--he dressed like Don Vito did, too. When I watched Don Vito dance with his daughter at her wedding--it also reminded me of my grandfather. He was very dignified looking, and he danced like an Italian Fred Astaire! They used to call my grandfather the "Italian Stallion" in his younger years because he was so handsome.

Yes, most of the little things in that movie is lost on people unless they have an Italian background--particularly a southern Italian or Sicilian background.

I have to say, too, that of all the non-Italians in the movie, James Caan had it down pat! His hand motions, and his "slang" was so typically Italian that he must have studied a long time in some Italian home for this movie! For example: At one point Sonny was talking about someone outside of the family and he said very subtly, "That mingja..." (pronounced: MING-YA) That was a slang term my family used all the time to indicate someone who was an idiot. Sort of like the town fool. The word actually was pronounced: MING-YA-ROOLL with the "r" being rolled heavily. Sonny also used the term "strutz" which was pronounced something like "stroo-tz" again, wth the heavy "r" roll. It was another derogatory term meaning an idiot or moron. Sonny, of all the characters acted and spoke like my family members. He had the hand gestures down pat, too!...with the two hands up, fingers pressed together facing each other--that was the way my family spoke! Too funny!! Just brings me back home!

~~ Lollie