re: Does anyone else find Godfather II just a little hard to follow?

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The Rosatto Brothers (with the backing of Hyman Roth) had no intention of killing Pentangeli. They needed him alive for Michael's hearing. They had to make it LOOK like they are trying to kill on Michael's orders, hence the reason why one of them yelled out "Michael says hello". At that moment, Pentageli believed it was Mike.

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The Senate hearing wasn't a consideration that early on in the story. And your interpretation doesn't jive with the fact that the hit was interrupted by a cop, resulting in a body count. Was that orchestrated too?

My conclusion is that the hit was meant to be real - Roth consented to allow the Rosato Brothers to get Frank out of their hair (he in essence admits to this in the famous "I didn't ask who gave the order" scene). That Roth was able to use Frank's survival - and his belief that Michael was responsible - to his advantage later on, doesn't validate the idea that it was some ultra complicated pool shot he plotted from the start.

The problem is that "Michael Corleone says hello!" line. It apparently wasn't in the script, but an improvised line by the actor, which Coppola liked. The flaw of the scene is that it makes the audience wonder whether or not the hit was real, and I don't think that ambiguity was intentional, and it's certainly not welcome in a movie with 15 running plot threads.