The restaurant scene in The Godfather where Michael Corleone avenges his father’s attempted murder & decides to leave a clean life for a life of crime. The minute he walks into the restaurant & sits down after being frisked to the moment he drops the gun & walks out is one of the most suspenseful scenes in movie history.
If you’ve never seen the movie you wonder will he have the nerve to go ahead & do it? And if he does will something go wrong? Will he walk out of the restaurant alive? Is he being set up also? This scene was a masterpiece in Pacino’s very young acting career at the time. The facial expressions, his eyes, the anxiety, the nervousness…what is he thinking? Does he realize that the next moments will decide his destiny…that his life will likely change forever? And if it goes south it likely means that this is very possibly the end of the Corleone empire? What a great, great scene…and a masterpiece in cinema making!