Friday, June 17, 2011

Hyman Roth's speech on Moe Greene, from The Godfather, Part 2

Hyman Roth, played by Lee Strasberg, gave this speech in The Godfather 2 to Michael Corleone (who he knew had given the order to have Moe Greene killed):



Hyman Roth: "There was this kid I grew up with; he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition, we ran molasses into Canada... made a fortune, your father, too.

"As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI's on the way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Greene, and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man, a man of vision and guts. And there isn't even a plaque, or a signpost or a statue of him in that town!

"Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn't angry; I knew Moe, I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead, I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we've chosen; I didn't ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business!"

Meyer Lansky, the character upon whom Hyman Roth was modeled:

---o0o---

3 comments:

  1. If Nick could have had his way, we would have recited GF quotes to each other at our wedding in lieu of traditional vows!

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  2. Mr. G and I are totally aligned on this. The Godfather is the script of my life...

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  3. Not just you, Jack. Not even close.

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