[quote=LittleMan]I wonder what Vito's reaction would have been if some punks did the same thing to Connie?
Sonny gave him one strike, and there is no telling what he had in mind when he raced out of the Mall. Whatever it was, however was probably not what Vito would have done.[/quote
Just for the sake of speculation,if Sonny would have made it to Carlo,I wonder if he would have been enraged enough to get carried away and beat him to death in public. Presumably the guys following in the car might have stopped him,but what if Sonny got convicted on a homicide charge and was locked up. He wasn't packing heat as far as I can tell from watching the Tollbooth scene,so instead of a quick shot to the head it would have been a jacked up version of the first Carlo beatdown with hands,feet and whatever else,giving Sonny's guys enough time to stop it from getting out of hand. Maybe his bodyguards would have just grabbed Carlo and put him in the car to be disappeared at a later date. I just think that it would have been ironic for Sonny to be neutralized by a prison term instead of a machine gun.
If that played out Sonny would have beaten the rap and not done time.
Agreed, if the Corleones had the pull to get Michael off the hook for killing a police captain in a crowded resuarant, they could get Sonny off for beating a second-rate bookie (which Carlo essentially was) to death.
And Sonny pretty much did the opposite of what the Vito would have done, it also shows the differences (in Puzo's mind) about the differences between the generations. Vito was old school Sicilian, if a man beat his then that was own his business since men ruled their own house in the old country.
But to the more Americanized Sonny this was an affront to him, his sister and his family that a loser like Carlo would lay a hand on his sister, if he did not intervene then it would make it worse.
