But the marvel--the genius--of that scene is that it shows us two powerful men digging in at the last minute for what they want: Michael for more time to find the traitor, Roth for his $2 million. It's also a terrific little throwback to a key scene in GF: When Roth tells Michael that Moe Green's murder "had nothing to do with business," do you believe him any more than when Michael told Sonny that his plan to whack Sollozzo and McCluskey was "business, not personal"? Crime titans that they are, Michael and Roth are still people with emotions.
As always, TB, great observation. The "it's business not personal" mantra is some kind of way these characters use to justify their murderous ways. In GF III Kay calls Michael out on this by telling him that his big thing is "reason" and then adds "backed up by murder." Still Sollozzo's attempt on Vito was definitely business, and Michael's hit on Green was also strictly business. As for Michael's sudden change of heart to get into the family business "I'm with you now, Pop" Sonny had it right...nice college kid gets slapped around and now he wants to gun down a New York Police Captain...it WAS personal for Mike, but then he does a brilliant job of convincing everyone in the room that Sonny's instinct is right ... no meetings no more Sollozzo tricks...by selling Tom on the non sequitur that this murder was strictly business because they had people on the payroll at newspapers who could print that McCloskey was a crooked cop who got mixed up with the rackets and got what was coming to him.
