Daily Dialogue — September 11, 2015

The TWO MEN walk out onto the Mall, toward a car. On their way they are stopped by TWO BODYGUARDS.

BUTTON MAN: The boss says he’ll come in a separate car. He says for you two to go on ahead.
TESSIO: (frowning) Hell, he can’t do that. It screws up all my arrangements.

THREE MORE BODYGUARDS appear around him.

HAGEN: (gently) I can’t go with you either, Tessio.

He flashes at the men surrounding him; for a moment he panics, and then he accepts it.

TESSIO: (after the pause) Tell Mike it was business… I always liked him.
HAGEN:He understands that.

TESSIO looks at the men, and then pauses.

TESSIO: (softly) Tom, can you get me off the hook? For old times’ sake?
HAGEN: I can’t do it, Sally.

— The Godfather (1972), screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, novel by Mario Puzo

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Betrayal. Today’s suggestion by Rob Peterson.

Trivia: Gordon Willis insisted that every shot represent a point of view, usually setting his camera about four feet off the ground, keeping the angle flat and even. Francis Ford Coppola managed to get him to do one aerial shot in the scene when Don Vito Corleone is gunned down, telling Willis that the overhead shot represented God’s point of view.

Dialogue On Dialogue: There are several betrayals in The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, as trust and breached trust is an important theme in the movies.