Daily Dialogue — October 24, 2012
Moe Greene: The Corleone Family wants to buy me out? No, I buy you out, you don’t buy me out.
Michael: Your casino loses money, maybe we can do better.
Moe Greene: You think I’m skimmin off the top, Mike?
Michael: [Michael shakes his head] You’re unlucky.
Moe Greene: You goddamn guineas you really make me laugh. I do you a favor and take Freddie in when you’re having a bad time, and now you’re gonna try and push me out!
Michael: You took Freddie in because the Corleone Family bankrolled your casino, and the Molinari Family on the Coast guaranteed his safety. Now we’re talking business, let’s talk business.
Moe Greene: Yeah, let’s talk business, Mike. First of all, you’re all done. The Corleone Family don’t even have that kind of muscle anymore. The Godfather’s sick, right? You’re getting chased out of New York by Barzini and the other Families. What do you think is going on here? You think you can come to my hotel and take over? I talked to Barzini — I can make a deal with him, and still keep my hotel!
Michael: Is that why you slapped my brother around in public?
Fredo: Aw, now that, that was nothin’, Mike. Moe didn’t mean nothin’ by that. Yeah, sure he flies off the handle every once in a while, but me and him, we’re good friends, right Moe?
Moe Greene: I got a business to run. I gotta kick asses sometimes to make it run right. We had a little argument, Freddy and me, so I had to straighten him out.
Michael: You straightened my brother out?
Moe Greene: He was banging cocktail waitresses two at a time! Players couldn’t get a drink at the table! What’s the matter with you?
Michael: I leave for New York tomorrow, think about a price.
Moe Greene: Sonofabitch! Do you know who I am? I’m Moe Greene! I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders!
Fredo: Wait a minute, Moe, Moe, I got an idea. Tom, you’re the Consiglieri and you can talk to the Don, you can explain…
Tom Hagen: Now hold it right there. The Don is semi-retired and Mike is in charge of the Family business now. If you have anything to say, say it to Michael.
Fredo: [Moe Greene leaves] Mike! You do not come to Las Vegas and talk to a man like Moe Greene like that!
Michael: Fredo, you’re my older brother, and I love you. But don’t ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever.
— Michael (Al Pacino), Fredo (John Cazale), Tom Hagen (Robert Duval), Moe Greene (Alex Rocco), The Godfather (1972), screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, novel by Mario Puzo
http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=YT3yd
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is sibling rivalry, suggested by Traci Nell Peterson. Today’s suggestion by DJ Holloway.
Trivia: Francis Ford Coppola insisted on the film being called “Mario Puzo’s The Godfather” rather than just The Godfather, because his original draft of the screenplay was so faithful to Puzo’s novel he thought Puzo deserved the credit for it.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary from DJ: There is obviously about a zillion things to say about what we can learn from the Godfather. For this particular scene, I love that Michael is simultaneously protective and threatening to his brother. Also, the way that Fredo sees Michael as the “younger brother” even though Michael is clearly more capable and powerful than him. The rivalry between them is clear based on how they perceive and respond to each moment in the scene. The conflict isn’t stated or talked out in melodramatic “brother to brother” moments. Instead, the script allows them to merely inhabit truthful roles, with histories of their own, that sets up and builds tension far beyond the explicit language of the scene, giving us great subtext and characterization to digest as the plot moves forward.
And of course, it’s all just a tragic foreshadowing to this:
Michael Corleone: I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!
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