Question: At the meeting in Atlantic City, what's with the dons passing around and taking from the platter of jewelry?
Question: What is the plot of this movie exactly? Sorry, but once they discussed Immobliare, I was confused as to what the movie was about.
Answer: Michael is trying to divest the family of all ties to organized crime. Internazionale Immobiliare is an international real estate concern and owning it would legitimize the family. Michael is attempting to buy out the Vatican's 25% of the shares in it to gain controlling interest, but the other families either want in on the deal or want to steal it out from under him, forcing him back into his old criminal ways.
Question: Who organized and ordered the killing of all the dons at the meeting where only a few come out unharmed. And why?
Question: In the kitchen scene just before Michael has his diabetic stroke, his sister moves to sit down at a table with a refrigerator behind her. There appears to be a water and/or ice dispenser in the door of the fridge. Were these made at the time?
Answer: Frigidaire introduced the feature in 1965. They would have been commonplace by the late 70s. A wealthy family like the Corleones would certainly have one.
Question: Near the end of the film, why did Vincent arrange to murder Archbishop Gilday?
Chosen answer: He'd been stealing from the Family.
Question: Archbishop Gilday is smoking in multiple scenes - was this meant to be a hint of his corruption/less-than-pious nature?
Answer: It was to show that no-one is infallible. Everyone has a secret vice.
Question: How come Connie knew Michael killed Carlo, but she believed Fredo drowned?
Answer: When Connie says the part about "Poor Fredo, drowned, but it was God's will...Michael, I love you. I'll always help you," she is really telling Michael that she knows he had Fredo killed, but she forgives him.
Answer: Fredo lived for a long time after his betrayal of the family, plus when their Mother died Michael hugged Fredo in front of everyone after Connie talked to him about forgiving Fredo. I believe that Connie believed that Michael had forgiven Fredo that day and it was an accident. Anthony was supposed to go with them that day and she is the one that stopped Anthony from going, so I also think that plays into why Connie believes it was an accident as well.
Answer: It's less that she believes it than that she chooses to believe it. In the first film, she's naive about Michael, her father, etc., and so doesn't understand the realpolitik behind Michael's killing of Carlo. By the third film she's become much more inured to the family business (as well as more cynical and world weary), and so accepts the "official" explanation for Fredo's death even though she knows, deep down, it isn't true.
I'd add that by the time of Fredo's death, Connie knew Michael had grown more powerful and was becoming more dehumanized. She feared him enough to know to never confront him directly. After her husband's execution, she knew that any disloyalty to the family would be severely punished. She was also totally dependent on him for money and would not risk losing that.
Answer: It shows you how greedy they are even as they've made it to the zenith of their criminal careers. That's why you see Michael pass it on disgustedly and stare blankly into the ether. Michael's goal was never to be the boss or capo di tutti capi, he only did it to protect his father and then his family, his main goal. And at that moment he realises he's never getting out. He's a business man in a world of criminals (which he is himself).