One thing that I don't get in Godfather 2 is at the very end of the movie (where after the seen of the Family uniting for Vito's surpise birthday), the flim then quickly shows the seen of the Young Vito with the young Michael,(a small child) on a train waving good-bye. I don't get this small clip. Why does Coppola feel that he needs to include this small clip?? What is its signifance? Also, where are Vito and Michael leaving and where are they going?? I know somebody's got an answer to this...

The clip is from an earlier flashback scene when young Vito and his family are heading home from their trip to Italy. Vito is holding Michael at the window and helping him to wave goodbye.

If I recall it's shown either over or just before we see that closing shot of Michael sitting by himself.

The purpose is probably similar to that of showing the birthday party scene with all his brothers. It's a nostalgic but tragic moment, meant to further instill in the audience the sense of isolation and loss between Michael Corleone then and now.

I think.



Apple

I agree. I believe that it was inserted to show the way that Michael's life turned out, which was so different from the one he had envisioned. He is longing for the way his family used to be when his father was still alive and in charge. Realize the amount of loss he has experienced: his parents, his two brothers and his wife. Granted, some of them were very much his own doing, but that last shot of him is so very sad; he is so alone.

i agree with the above 2 posts thats ffc shows how much micheal regreats his actions and what could have been.

Well....let me pull back a bit & say that at that point when he's sittin there alone I don't get a sense of 'longing' or 'regret' from Michael.

I think what he is is just plain numb. If anything, he may have been thinking..."What the hell happened...??"

The longing and regret is more visible in the much older Michael in GFIII.

Apple

What we're seeing is the last vestiges of Michael's "innocense" fading away following his ordering of his brother's murder.

I feel that Michael is at his boiling point. His mind has been hardened, but he's beared all he can. It's seems that he's at the height of his cruelty, but just inches away from throwing in the towel at the same time.

This last part was probably my favorite grouping of scenes in the trilogy.

The innocence and naivete of his youth. A longing for the day when his future was still ahead of him. The path he chose contrary to the wishes of his family by enlisting in the marines. The path he chose at the hospital when he says to his dad, "I'm with you now" followed by his decision to personally cap Sollazzo. The emerging realization that his father carried the same burdens because "I never wanted this for you."

tony b.

Actually Apple, FFC WAS looking to convey to the audience Michael's feeling of lonliness, his regrets for some of the things that he had done, and his realization that in his attempt to save his father's family he actually lost it. FFC has said himself in many interviews that GFII was supposed to be it, the finish, the end of The Corleone Saga. There never was any inkling that a GFIII was going to be made. So that is why if you actually look closely at Michael in that ending scene of GFII he is made to look old, regretful and desolate. When GFIII was made years later, FFC labored within himself over having to write another ending, feeling that he had already written the proper ending in GFII. He then realized that he had to again, show a desolate, regretful and lonely Michael all over again as he did at the end of GFII.


Don Cardi