Luca Brasi is Don Vito Corleone's personal enforcer, and the only man Vito himself fears.
Because Vito had become too good at his craft; he had tamed a human lion in Luca when no one else could; and the rest of the underworld had accepted they could never turn Luca. They just never told Vito that.
Luca Brasi : Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your daughter... 's wedding... on the day of your daughter's wedding. And I hope their first child be a masculine child. I pledge my ever-ending loyalty.
Brasi supposedly killed two of Al Capone's henchmen who were hired to assassinate Don Corleone. In typical Brasi fashion, he beat those guys up, bound and gagged them with towels, and dismembered one with an ax while the other henchmen choked to death on the towel.
Don Corleone orders Luca Brasi, one of his most trusted muscle men, to infiltrate the ranks of a rival family and gain their trust and information. The opposing family would have surely known about Luca, and his strong affiliation with the Corleone's.
While Luca is often labelled as an enforcer, the novel describes that he has more power and respect than the average enforcer. In the novel both he and Al Neri are labelled as "special" and that they are the most trusted, most loyal, deadliest and the most feared members of the family.
Due all the horrendous crimes he has committed, including killing his father and his own son, Luca Brasi is considered one of the most evil and dangerous antagonists of The Godfather franchise, despite his supposed loyalty to Vito Corleone.
Due all the horrendous crimes he has committed, including killing his father and his own son, Luca Brasi is considered one of the most evil and dangerous antagonists of The Godfather franchise, despite his supposed loyalty to Vito Corleone.
Lenny Montana (born Leonardo Passafaro; March 13, 1926 – May 12, 1992) was an American actor who played the role of feared hitman Luca Brasi in The Godfather.
In the book, Vito had smallpox, and the illness damaged his throat, making him forever speak more quietly and scratchily than would otherwise be the norm.
Salvatore "Sal" Tessio is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather, as well as two of the films based on it: The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974).
“Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me.” – Don Vito Corleone.
Don Corleone : We have known each other many years, but this is the first time you've come to me for counsel or for help. I can't remember the last time you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother to your only child. But let's be frank here. You never wanted my friendship.
In reference to Fredo Corleone being the weaker and less intelligent of his brothers, the term "Fredo" has come to refer to a weak member of a group, especially one of a number of siblings in a family, regardless of ethnicity.
Described as the child Italian parents prayed to the saints for, Fredo was the weakest and least intelligent of the Corleone brothers; his own brother, Michael, dismissed him as weak and stupid.
Two fish wrapped in a bullet-proof vest. No, it's not a delivery intended for the sushi restaurant next door. As Clemenza explains, "It's a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes." In other words, he's been dumped in the ocean for a deep, deep sleep.
From the previous scene, we already know that Luca is to prepare the bait, to feign discontent with the Corleone family, and to ultimately test the waters for this newly emerging character, Sollozzo. Luca's loyalty is executed in the form of a betrayal—one that is acted, of course.
Lucca wanted to express his thanks and gratitude to Don Corleone for inviting him to the wedding. Tom tells Vito this because Lucca was waiting on line to thank him and just wanted a minute to do so. Lucca was a soldier, not a captain in the regime, so he would not expect to be invited to such an important event.
In the first Godfather film, when the message “Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes” is sent to the Corleone family by Virgil Solozzo, we are certain that the hitherto “very scary man”, just murdered, shall have an ominous afterlife.
This cold intelligence and calculating ruthlessness would be inherited by Vito's youngest and favorite son, Michael, who would be the one to take vengeance for his older brother's murder.
1. "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." This famous phrase was actually spoken more than once.
Orson Welles - Don Vito Corleone, The Godfather (1972)
Marlon Brando was always Francis Ford Coppola's first choice for the role of Don Vito Corleone.
While Tom Hagen initially suspected Clemenza of being the one who would betray Michael to Don Emilio Barzini's alliance, Michael reasoned that the more cunning Tessio was the culprit. Clemenza's strongest attribute to the Corleones was his stubborn loyalty, not his intelligence.
Perhaps none had a bigger impact (in the literal and figurative sense) than Lenny Montana as the feared enforcer Luca Brasi. Montana, a 6 ft. 6 in., 320-lb. professional wrestler, was working as a bodyguard for real-life mobster Joe Colombo, who had come to the set.
Paulie has seemingly betrayed Vito—and thus the family—by selling him out. In The Godfather, this kind of betrayal is the worst of all sins. We see the matter discussed, in the Corleone family office, just before the viewer spends time in front of Clemenza's cozy abode.