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While watching the Godfather movie I came across the following phrase:

Hagen: They shot Sonny on the causeway, he's dead.

Don: I want no inquiries made

The first though that popped into my head was that has something to do with vengeance, but actually it means something similar to investigation. What did the Don mean? He didn't want any investigation about the death of his son be performed? So, to him it didn't matter who killed Sonny, right?

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Yes, you are right. He didn't want anybody to ask any questions or do any investigation about Sonny's death. I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know whether the Don didn't care who did it, or whether he knew who did it and who ordered the "hit" but didn't want anyone to find out.

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  • I totally agree with Brian, and just want to add a little background of this movie. Don does not want any inquiries since he knows that investigation will result in vengeance, and avenging Sonny may very well lead to the assassination of Michael. He would like to have Michael come back safely from Sicily. He must stop the feud before Michael's arrival.
    – Zack
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 22:36
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"to want sth done" is a verb construction where you have two parts after the verb, a noun and a past participle as in

  • I want the fight stopped.

The construction derives from I want the fight to be stopped or I want that the fight be* stopped (be* = present tense subjunctive).

This verb construction is possible after verbs as

  • to get have hear keep leave need order see want and some others (+ someone/something done). ("done" stands for any past participle.)
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