InThe Godfather, there is an important scene in an Italian Restaurant with dialogue between Michael Corleone and Virgil Sollozzo. There is dialogue spoken in Sicilian (according to the script) that does not have English subtitles.
SOLLOZZO now begins in rapid Sicilian. MICHAEL listening carefully and nodding every so often. Then MICHAEL answers in Sicilian, and SOLLOZZO goes on. The WAITER occasionally brings food; and they hesitate while he is there; then go on. Then MICHAEL, having difficulty expressing himself in Italian, accidentally lapses into English.
The Godfather is an American film and the dialogue is in English with the exception of this dialogue between Sollozzo and Michael. (Perhaps there is some non-English dialogue while Michael courts Apollonia, but I cannot remember)
My question is, Why wasn't there English subtitles provided for this scene? The film is an American film with English dialogue. This scene appeared to be an important plot to the film. Is there an explanation from filmmakers on why there were no English subtitles provided for this particular scene?
Firstly, Coppola states somewhere in the DVD commentary that the actors spoke too quickly for the subtitles to be read properly and that was a distraction for the audience, so he let the scene play out visually instead.
The whole restaurant scene has very little to do the the negotiations but rather the killing of Sollozzo and McCluskey. This is the pivotal point where Michael makes his bones and sets off on the path of becoming the Godfather.
It doesn't really matter what Sollozo says, Michael is bound and determined to kill him (and McCluskey)...it all plays out in Pacino's expression and eyes...so, ultimately, the dialogue isn't relevant.
MIRKO LAUER: He had corrupted almost all of the Peruvian army, almost all of the Peruvian politicians, most of his relatives, the governing party definitely, a few diplomats. This man had, as a sideline, the sale of privileged information and the peddling of political influence. This is where I would think that Newmont comes into the picture.
LOWELL BERGMAN: And in this, the most revealing of all the videotapes related to the case, Montesinos meets with the supreme court justice who will cast the deciding vote. He explains that Peru needs U.S. support in a border dispute with Ecuador.
PETER ROMERO: They thought that I was an activist individual that could help them, particularly as it relates to community-based programs and that sort of thing. And I worked for them as a consultant for about 18 months.
RONALD GAMARRA: [subtitles] My theory is that both sides were trying to get a favorable decision by any means necessary, but only one side got to Montesinos, and that is the side that won. Montesinos has never worked for free, not even when doing political favors. He always made money.
LOWELL BERGMAN: Gamarra says that he collected evidence that indicates that both sides corrupted the courts, but each insists that the evidence against them was either unreliable or forged. Ronald Gamarra says he was taken off the case by the Peruvian attorney general before he was able to complete his investigation.
RONALD GAMARRA: [subtitles] It did not benefit either side to investigate the matter. I am sure that in a few year, the truth will come out. It will be known for certain that crimes were committed. I am sure bribes were paid.
Near the central plaza there is a museum, a reconstruction of the room where the conquistadors held Atahualpa for ransom. To win his freedom, Atahualpa promised his captors to fill the room with gold, as high as he could reach. But the Spanish betrayed him. They kept the gold and they killed him anyway.
LOWELL BERGMAN: Trust between the campesinos and the mine really broke down here, on these perilous mountain roads. In June of 2000, a truck contracted to carry mercury from the mine accidentally spilled 330 pounds of its toxic cargo over a 25-mile stretch of road, most of it in and around this tiny village of Choropampa. The mercury, which is a toxic by-product of gold mining, was picked up by the villagers. Many thought the metal had gold in it and took it home.
YANINA: [subtitles] It was beautiful. We got some and put it in our house. No one told us it was mercury. After eight days, I started to get rashes all over my skin. I felt dizzy, nauseous, high fever, headache, all of that.
LOWELL BERGMAN: Many of the villagers ended up in hospitals. More than 1,000 people are now suing in a U.S. federal court, some alleging that they still suffer serious health problems. Afterwards, the villagers took to the streets, demanding health care and reparations.
ROQUE BENAVIDES, President, Minas Buenaventura: Nobody was dead. Nobody was dead. Mercury never got to the waters. And certainly, there have been some complaints. We had an insurance policy for the whole population for five years. This will continue for another five years. So it was not all that bad.
LOWELL BERGMAN: [voice-over] After the mercury spill, Newmont decided to investigate what was going on at the mine, and they sent Larry Kurlander back to Peru to conduct an environmental audit.
LOWELL BERGMAN: We obtained a copy of the audit that Kurlander and his team produced, an audit which found 20 high-priority problems at the mine. Many of the findings confirmed the complaints of the villagers that their water was contaminated and fish were disappearing. The audit also found that waste rock at the mine had turned acidic and was generating acid run-off.
LOWELL BERGMAN: Brant Hinze, the mine manager, says he recognizes the importance of working with and helping the community. Before we left, he took us on a tour of projects funded by the mine and to a lunch hosted by a community leader who supports the company.
Newmont provides 2,200 full-time jobs in the region, allowing many to buy a home and car for the first time. The hosts presented Hinze with a gift, a statue of Atahualpa, the Inca emperor whose gold was stolen by the Spanish.
BRANT HINZE: I would hope that we can continue to build and develop on the trust within the communities, so that as a mining company, we continue to have opportunities here to continue to expand and be a neighbor here for a very long time.
LOWELL BERGMAN: [voice-over] In their latest report to investors, Newmont revealed that its production of gold at Yanacocha is expected to dramatically decline, in part because its expansion plans are now in jeopardy. The company wanted to start digging at this mountain, called Cerro Quilish, which they believe contains more than a billion dollars worth of gold.
LOWELL BERGMAN: Last fall, thousands of Peruvians filled the town square of Cajamarca. It was the largest protest ever against the Yanacocha mine. Blocking roads, the protesters succeeded in shutting down mine operations and forced the company to stop its expansion plans.
At the center was Viktor Yushchenko, who became a folk hero in Ukraine after surviving a poisoning by his political opponents. His badly scarred and pock-marked face would become the defiant face of the revolution.
BRIAN KNAPPENBERGER: In an early news conference, the new president pledged to end decades of corruption. He also vowed to solve the mysterious murder of a journalist that has haunted Ukraine for years.
Georgy had become a major opposition figure in Ukraine. A year earlier, on national TV, he dared to confront then president Kuchma for failing to investigate an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate.
YURI LUTZENKO: [subtitles] They got a shovel and drove him out to the forest. They poured gasoline on him and burned and buried him. The officer in charge finished killing Georgy by strangling him with his belt. He was already unconscious. Georgy was already half-dead from the beating in the car.
SAVANISLAV PISKUN: [subtitles] In the university, there is a display showing people who committed suicide. I saw the skull of the person who hammered a nail into his head and survived. Then he hammered another nail.
BRIAN KNAPPENBERGER: Peter Byrne of The Kyiv Post has studied the tapes released so far. He says they may hold the key not only to the Gongadze case, but to many other unsolved crimes and secrets of the Ukrainian government.
This is the office of Ukrainska Pravda, the Internet newspaper that Georgy helped found in the months before his death. Here a new generation of reporters is taking up where Georgy left off. Journalists in Ukraine no longer have to fear the government they report on, says editor Olena Prytula.
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