My problem with the novel...

I realize that a lot of aspects of the Godfather are based off of real events (Havana... Prohibition... etc.) but I thought that the whole Maranzano - Al Capone stint didn't really add anything to the book.

I'm sort of a mob history buff... (Yeah, I know most of you guys could wipe the floor with me when it comes to that... but I know the basics.) anyways... it seemed weird as hell to me that Puzo made real life characters do things that never happened in order to sort of glorify the Corleone family... in a mafia sense of course.

-Lucky

A logical answer is that Puzo was trying to get a free ride on history, just like lots of other authors do. He knew something of NYC Mafia history, and so tossed in a chapter from the famous Castellemmarese War of 1930-31, but confused Salvatore Maranzano (the victor, and thus the guy that Vito was most like in the scene you cited) with Joe the Boss Masseria, who lost, and who was gunned down in a restaurant with "his mouth full of bread." Later in the book, Puzo portrays Vito as attempting to reason with another Don who was notoriously hot-headed and homicidal. Finally Vito gives up and says, "But no one can reason with him." That Don is later assassinated in a barber shop. In other words, he's Albert Anastasia, and Vito in this case is Vito Genovese. Vito is called the biggest olive oil producer in America, therefore he's Joe Profaci. He arranges for the assassination of Moe Green (who's Bugsy Siegel), therefore Vito is Lucky Luciano. And he retires after being shot by a rival, therefore he's Frank Costello. And on and on...

1. In real life... when Lucky (Vito) killed Bugsy (Green) was Meyer Lansky (Roth) pissed?

2. I understand that it was based off of those people, but most of them don't have a direct reference... like Al Capone & Maranzano did...

-Lucky

Who knows?
But...pissed or not, Roth's 'This is the business we've chosen' speech is to me a pretty good indication of how these things were looked at. It wasn't the killing of Moe Green that pissed Roth, it Michael Corleone's inquiring as to who ordered the hit on Pentangelli. The former was business; the latter was not.

As any regular on the board knows, I haven't read the novel...but it makes perfect sense that Puzo would intertwine his fictional characters with their real-life counterparts of the same era. At the same time, I feel it was wise to omit them from the film, where their presense wasn't needed.

Apple

I dunno, Apple. I always thought Roth said that for appearance's sake. I think on the surface he wanted to look like 'the noble gangster,' who "didn't ask who gave the order." But you just know that he knows Michael snuffed Moe, and perhaps the whole Moe Green speech was a subtle hint to Michael...as well as another excuse (in Roth's mind) to kill the man who whacked his friend.

Yes, bu ta Don killing Maranzano or Masseria COULD be included because that REALLy happenend, but Capone guard sgetting hacked up NEVER happened!

Maranzello and Maresia can be in GF4 (If there ever is) but Capone shouldn't be, they can refer to his charcater as "The Chicago Don".

Also, wasn't J. Edgar Hoover a privat efirend of Jack Woltz, who was a private friend of Philip Tattaglia. SO Tattaglia is being wtahce dover by Hoover, AND Bruno Tattaglia is friends with McCluskey. So Corleone has th ejudges, but Tattaglia's got the Cops, AND the FBI!

Were President Herbert Hoover and J Edgar Hoover related?

Yes, I too feel that Roth knew it was Michael who ordered the hit on Moe Green. But I never thought the 'nothing to do with business' speech was simply for appearances. He never would've admitted it was he who ordered Pentangelli's hit anyway, but Roth was right. Upsetting as Green's murder was to him, it was business, the business they had chosen. The Pentangelli 'hit' was business too, and it got Michael nowhere fast in asking Roth who ordered it. In fact, it is very unlike Michael to do something this immature, this unprofessional. Did he perhaps know what Roth's reaction would be? Was this his way of telling Roth "I know what you're up to, and you're not going to get my $2 million..." ??? Aren't we watching two brilliant men at work here, each scheming, distrusting, playing the other until the victor finally emerges? Oooohh....I LOVE watching the deadly chess game that Michael and Roth are engaged in throughout the film!!!

And to think....my brother tells me to 'get a life' every time I try to talk about the GF films!!!

Apple