when mike has the meeting with sollozzo and mccluskey at the restaurant, sollozzo and mike talks italian to each other. i alwyas wondered why they didnt put any subtitles anywhere on the bottom of the screen. does anybody know what they were saying?

According to IMDB.com, here is what was said:
"I am sorry. What happened to your father was business. I have much respect for your father, but your father... his thinking is old fashioned. You must understand why I had to do that. Now let's work through where we go from here." After Mike comes out of the restroom Sollozo speaks Italian again without subtitles this time saying, "Everything all right? I respect myself, understand? And cannot allow another man to hold me back. What happened was unavoidable. I had the unspoken support of the other Family Dons. If your father were in better health, without his eldest son running things, no disrespect intended, we wouldn't have this nonsense. We will stop fighting until your father is well and can resume bargaining. No vengeance will be taken. We will have peace, but your family should interfere no longer."

They figured maybe the sub titles would distract the audience as you can tell Michael is not listening fully to Sollozo and seems to be debating whether to go through with the hit or not. It's not important

thanks!

"Tu padre ... pensa d'antig"

Great scene!

Even if you can understand Sicilian, you have a hard time hearing what Sollozzo is saying once Michael returns from the bathroom. I agree that the oncoming train, etc. is supposed to represent Michael's state of mind at that moment. Once he Pulls that trigger, Michael knows that there's no going back.

If I remember right the VHS version did have subtitles. They removed them for some reason on the DVD. Still haven't figured that one out.

I always thought it was neat that with the dialog that was used in that conversation, you could kind of get an idea of what was being said even if you didn't have a great grasp of Italian. Without the subtitles it was a bit like really being in on the conversation. I had always assumed that this was an intended effect and that was why there were no subtitles.

One question about that conversation ... when Solozzo says "mi dispiace", I had always believed he was apologizing to Mike for resorting to Italian.
I recently saw it suggested that he was apologizing for what happened to Vito, following it with that it was just "business".
... which do we think?

Well, Tony "mi dispiace" means "I'm sorry." For some reason I always thought it referred to the injury to Michael's face because the Turk was pointing to his own face at the time. Later in the conversation he says the hit on the Godfather was "business."

Wow ... another good possibility about the damage to his face. I hadn't even thought of that.

Actually, I just took a look at the script ... I see that Mike actually told Solozzo "Lassi" (essentially to "forget about it") immediately after Solozzo says "Mi dispiace" ... and right before Solozzo says that what happened to his father was just business. So ... that would knock out the apologizing for the hit on Vito idea. So it would either be for the face ... or for resorting to Italian.

(btw: yup, familiar with "mi dispiace" ... I speak a little Italian :-)

Tony I dont think he was apologizing to Mike for speaking Italian...he may have assumed Mike spoke better Italian than he did. Sollozzo actually sort of apologized to McCluskey when he told him they were going to speak Italian, to which McCluskey said "go ahead."

SOLLOZZO (to the waiter)
Capide? [understand?]
All right.
(then, to McCluskey)
I'm gonna speak Italian to Mike.
McCLUSKEY
Go ahead...
SOLLOZZO
I'm sorry...
MICHAEL
leave it alone/forget about it
SOLLOZZO
What happened to your father was business -- I have much respect for your father -- but your father -- his thinking is old fashioned. You must understand why I had to do that
MICHAEL
I understand those things
SOLLOZZO (after the waiter brings McCluskey's veal, then exits)
Now let's work through where we go from here
MICHAEL
How do you say...? (then, in English) What I want -- what's most important to me -- is that I have a guarantee: No more attempts on my fathers life

I always wondered about that!! Even without understanding the language, it always seemed to me that Sollozzo was practically mumbling, or droning on...even if you could blockout the sound of the train and get your attention off the look on Michael's face as he prepares himself to...

Thanks SB, for confirming my suspicions!!

Apple

Not true. I first watched it at a couple friend's houses and neither of them had subtitiles (both of who owned the Godfather in VHS).

I watch all the Gfs movies with Hebrew subtitles. It never distracted me!
Anyhow it is true that there is no subtitle in that Sollonzo's speech in the DVD version but when I saw GF1 on TV two weeks ago there were subs in that scene!!
I can't really figure that one...

If they put in subtitles wouldn't McClucky then know what they were talking about?

Didn't the waiter bring that veal awfully fast? And why werent Michael and Solozzo eating something?

They were'nt really eating cos they had important business on hand i guess!
If i knew i was going to shoot somebody in the next 10 mins i might have problems eating my starter

I'm going to pretend I never read this.

My questions are: why did he speak Italian to Mike in the first place? When you translate the words, it doesn't seem like anything McClusky was too ignorant to in the first place. Secondly: how well can Mike speak Italian? In that scene, he understood Sollozzo. In Sicilian scenes, he spoke it fine. It isn't until his scene with Don Tommasino when he needs Fabrizio to translate for him. What's up with that?

McClusky's role was to protect Solozzo, not be a part of nor in on his business. Surely he knew what was going on between Solozzo & the Corleones, and even that Solozzo was behind the shooting of Vito. But to openly discuss matters with Michael in plain English in front of McClusky who was after all a police officer, in a public place with others nearby would have just been too blatant.

Anyhow...McClusky didn't seem to care nor want to understand the conversation that was going on. He was much more interested in that veal .

Apple