MC, I go along with what dt posted. For me, the scene that really involves directorial license is the Great Massacre of 1955. For starters, how did Michael get the intelligence to know where all those important people would be, in order to whack them almost simultaneously--since a delay of even an hour between individual killings would have tipped off the survivors?

The rest of it is "artistry" rather than "reality": Rocco and a confederate using Madsden submachine guns to whack Tattaglia and his whore in bed. Fat Clemenza climbing all those stairs carring a shotgun in a box, and just happeningn to intercept the elevator carrying Stracci (and probably killing the other guy and the elevator operator in the process--shotguns have that tendency when used at close range). Neri taking out Barzini and all the others armed only with a six-shot .38 revolver (shooting Barzini at a distance, and killing him with one shot, would be a feat worthy of Annie Oakley with that weapon).