Godfather (1, 2, and 3) and Italian

Skippy   Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:39 am GMT
I'm watching the Godfather pt. II right now and I was just wondering what you Italian speakers out there thought of the characters' pronunciation. I'll start ya off...

Al Pacino
Robert de Niro
Marlon Brando
Bruno Kirby
James Caan
Abe Vigoda
Richard Castellano
John Cazale
Talia Shire
etc.

I can barely read Italian with any comprehension, much less judge their speaking abilities. Are they convincing as L1 speakers or no?
Guest   Sun Jul 13, 2008 1:01 am GMT
All of them spoke a mixture of Italian & Sicilian. At times, it sounded as if they were using Spanish words, but in reality those were likely Sicilian equivalents to Spanish. This is what I noticed upon viewing the three films.
Alessandro   Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:05 am GMT
I've seen the movies in original language and dubbed in Italian. Italian and Sicilian of Italo-American actors are ridiculous. But considering the story the only american actors that have to speak correctly with Italian accent are Robert de Niro and Marlon Brando.
A strange thing is that Coppola has choosen a lot of Roman actors with strong Roman accent for the part of the travel of Pacino in Sicily, and Gastone Moschin (don Fanucci) is venetian with Nothern Italian accent: Mafia is from Sicily, Naples and Calabria.
Skippy   Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:06 pm GMT
Everyone from Don Vito's generation (Clemenza, Tessio, Genco, Vito's wife, etc.) they're all supposed to be from Italy... I read that Richard Castellano had a strong Brooklyn-sounding accent when he spoke Italian.

Are they speaking Sicilian or Sicilian Italian?
Alessandro   Sun Jul 13, 2008 4:34 pm GMT
About the language is in major part Italian, with some words in Sicilian or Neapolitan.

I'm not able to understand if Castellano speaks with Brooklyn accent. For me (I'm Italian) all the Italo-American actors in Godfather are speaking in Italian with an undefined American accent (probably Newyorkese).
guest2   Sun Jul 13, 2008 5:18 pm GMT
James Caan, Abe Vigoda, and Robert Duvall are not Italian-American.
Michael Corleone   Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:36 pm GMT
Hey, does anybody out there know who killed Frank Pentangeli?
Skippy   Fri Jul 18, 2008 5:49 pm GMT
Did he get killed? In the second movie he gets strangled, but he shows up during the congressional hearing as a surprise witness and recants earlier statements he made and, as I understand it, remained under FBI protection even after the hearing.
Michael Corleone   Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:33 pm GMT
I suspect that Hyman Roth ordered his strangling.
Skippy   Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:03 am GMT
No, the guy that did it said "Michael Corleone says hello"