The film then cuts to a straight-angle shot of the two men sitting at the table. They are both faced away from the camera, which placed near the entrance to the bathroom, so that they are unaware of the danger that is growing in that direction. After a moment, however, the captain glances toward the camera, reminding the audience that they will quickly grow suspicious if Michael does not return.
The shot then returns to the bathroom, where Michael is searching more frantically for the gun with his back to the camera. He stops, and slowly brings the gun down in front of him. It then cuts back to the shot of the men at the table. The captain looks over again, but the faint sound of a toilet flushing is heard, and he quickly returns to his meal, apparently unconcerned.
The scene returns to the bathroom, where the camera shifts back to the left to follow Michael’s exit from the stall. His face is briefly glimpsed again before he stops in the area between the two swinging doors. He pauses in this in-between area, facing away from the camera. More than half the frame is obstructed by the door and wall, leaving only the back of his head visible in the upper portion of the frame.
This is a deliberate shot, containing a great deal of visual information. He is between the doors, as he is between his old life as a devoted lover and war hero, and the criminal future he is doomed to by killing the men. He is also confined within the frame. Most of it is blocked, suggesting the lack of options he has at this point. He has come too far to back out; he could not return to his family with the job undone. But he knows that after he leaves the bathroom, he will be forced to flee the country to avoid arrest or murder in retaliation. This is communicated in the brief moment where he hesitates and raises his hands to his head and reinforced by the growing sound of an approaching train, mirroring Michael’s own increasingly turbulent train-of-thought. After a few seconds, he walks through the second door and re-enters the restaurant.
At this point, the film cuts back to the entrance of the bathroom and Michael crosses the frame from left to right. He stands in the right side of the frame, back again to the camera, with only his shoulder and neck visible. His profile is a menacing presence to the seated figures at the table, who turn to look at him, still appearing relatively at ease.
The sound of the train can still be heard during a brief, chest-up shot of Michael from the front. It quickly cuts back to the previous angle, and he crosses back to the right of the frame as he approaches the table. Tattaglia watches him, but the captain has already returned to his food. The camera switches to a closer shot overlooking Tattaglia’s shoulder in the right side of the frame.
Michael sits down, and Tattaglia resumes speaking to him in Italian. No subtitles are provided, suggesting that Michael is not really listening to what he is saying. This is reinforced as the camera slowly zooms past Tattaglia’s shoulder, focusing on Michael’s face. His eyes move around constantly, but never make contact with either man, and the sound of the train grows even higher as it squeals to a stop. Michael begins to draw his gun and stand up.
The camera cuts to a position directly behind Michael, and as he moves to the right, Tattaglia’s head comes into view. Michael shoots him in the forehead, and a red mist of blood flies out behind him. The view then switches to the captain, a bite of veal halfway to his mouth, then briefly to Michael holding the gun, and then to a side view as Michael shoots him in the throat. There is a brief cut back to him holding the gun, and then to the captain clutching his throat as he is shot again, dead-center in the forehead. And with that, Michael Corleone the war-hero becomes Michael Corleone the gangster.
