I watched GII again last night on A&E. There is one scene about the movie that I never quite got. During the hearing, Frank's brother shows up and he suddenly recants his earlier testimony about Michael. I always wondered if he did that because his brother had something on him or if he was always afraid of his brother. There is that scene towards the end of the movie before Frank kills himself where he talks to Tom and he tells Tom, "My brother is a lot tougher than I am."

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Many people have many different theories relating to the appearance of his brother at the Senate hearings. I think it was Michael Corleone's way of showing the dishonor that would be brought upon his family if he testified against him. Tom stated that the man was from Italy and that his reputation was impeccable on "the other side." If Frankie was to testify that reputation would go down the drain. It was a way to show Pentangeli that he must not break omerta and keep his family's honor.

I agree with dt--that Frankie's brother's presence shamed Frankie into realizing that family honor would be destroyed if he testified against Michael. After Frankie recants, Tom tells his brother (in Sicilian): "The honor of the family is intact."

But, as dt said, there are other opinions. One is that Michael was holding threats against Frankie and his brother. Some people here infer that when Frankie told Tom (re. the Romans), "...an' their families were taken care of," that Frankie had family in Sicily who were at risk if he didn't kill himself. Others believe that his brother might have been whacked by Michael.

There were two threats. One was to Frankie's brother about family honor. The other was to Frankie about his brother's life. Frankie might have been concerned about disappointing his brother, but the more realistic and present concern would have been Frankie's about his brother being murdered.

That's a good point about Frank fearing that his brother would be murdered. Kay did mention to Michael that she wasn't aware that Frank had a brother, so I'm assuming that his brother must have been under the radar. Frank probably thought that if Michael was able to find his brother and if stuck by his original testimony, Michael would kill his brother in retatliation.

For years, I thought that Michael was threatening Vincenzo Pentangeli's life. That by bringing his brother to the hearings, Michael was telling Frank that, even if he was impossible to get to, they would just kill his brother instead, unless he recanted.

However, after listening to Tom's statement to Vincenzo that his family's honor "sta posto", or "as it should be". Michael's statement to Kay that it was "between the brothers" made more sense then, too.

I always thought that there were implied threats to Frank about his brother and that his brother was used to shame him.

So if Frank testified he would be greatly shamed in front of his brother and his brother would lose face back home in Sicily. There also could have been the unstated threat from Michael that "if we can't get to you we can always get to your brother".

Of course Tom and Michael wouldn't have openly threatened Frank's brother, otherwise why would he have shown up? They probably told him that your brother's in a bit of a bind and he needs you for support...

Think about it. Mike's facing prison. Do you really think he's going to rely on someone's sense of honor to keep him out of jail. This is a guy who had his brother murdered.

And SC, this is also the guy who lied to his wife about having his brother in law murdered and God knows what else.

I used to think the brother was a threat until I read an article (wikipedia I know its not always relible) which said early scrips said he was a mafia chief in Sicily.

That could be true. His brother didn't speak English, so he didn't know what was going on in the hearing. I wonder if Michael or Tom brought up Vito's death to Frank's brother. They could have told him that Vito would have been very disappointed if he knew that an old friend of the Corleones was betraying the family. And since other people here have mentioned that the brother felt a strong sense of honor, his presence at the hearing was probably the main factor that led to Frank changing his story. He didn't want to look like a traitor.