I think I should open this thread alongside the wisest decision thread...for parallel's sake

What do you think was Michael's Worst decision?

Marrying Kay


His father was always about "Blood Family" and Kay took that away from him and tore his family apart. Whether he was pissed off at Kay or not it still had an effect on him since he was "out of his element" without all of his family around.

His biggest mistake was his carrying on in Frank Pentangeli's living room about the abortive hit. It was pure theatrics to fool whomever might be listening, and perhaps to make Pentangeli nervous as well. Of course thereafter Mike confides in Pentangeli that he knows it is Roth who is out to get him. It is also in this scene where Mike tells Pentangeli to keep his friends close and his enemies closer. I think this left a doubt in Pentangeli's mind about where Michael was coming from and it led to the whole COngressional investigation.

DonMichael, I have to disagree with you a little on this one because the Don sometimes saw value in trusting people who were not blood. The best example was Tom Hagen, who he trusted more than his own son. After Sonny dies, the Don even said to Tom "I never thought you were a bad Consiglieri, I though Santino, rest in peace, was a bad Don."

To teach Apollonia drive!

I didn't mean trusting people who were not blood I meant a "close family" I said blood to distinguish the Corleone Family from the Corleone Crime Family

His biggest mistake was volunteering to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, which set him on the wrong path for life. As I posted previously: the very same suggestion he made for dealing with the aftermath of McCluskey's killing--feeding newspaper people on the family payroll stories about McCluskey's corruption--could have been used before the shooting, and would have thwarted McCluskey and Sollozzo without the need for bloodshed. (But then we wouldn't have had a GF Trilogy.)

While I would agree with Turnbull that the decision to kill Sollozzo & McCluskey starting everything else in motion, I would add that killing Fredo was Michael's biggest mistake.

It's a fine line because Fredo betrayed Michael and almost got Michael killed. From a business standpoint, Fredo had to go - no question. But when it's your own brother, sometimes you have to look the other way. I think killing Fredo sucked all the humanity out of Michael and he never fully recovered from it. As he asked Don Tommasino's corpse, If it wasn't Michael's biggest mistake, I would certainly think it was the action Michael regretted the most.

I go with DMC here - KAY was the worst decision of Michael.

I think that one as well.

I think Michael's worst decision was to get involved with Cuba and Hyman Roth. I still don't understand why he decided to do this.

~~ Lollie

Killing Fredo for sure. Nothing he ever did topped how awful that was.

Killing Fredo. It was what seemed to haunt Michael the most in his later years...therefore it was his worst decision. Michael may have been a business man, but his heart had always been set on putting his family first. That was the Corleone way. He made a lot of other business-related mistakes too, I admit, but family was most important to him. It was what he lived for. For the entire trilogy, he is trying to balance what he had to do (take over as Don) and what he had to protect and keep (his family). Killing his own blood was one of the ways he failed in doing the latter, IMO.

Attending his son's opera debut
or
Eating oranges

LOL.

To kill Fredo. He is so haunted by it that when he is having that seizure he is screaming "Fredo, Fredo!"

Indeed, killing Fredo. everytime i see the movie i think "For gods sake Mike! He's your BROTHER!"

Yeah...and that's what I think toward Fredo when it's clear he betrayed Mike & the Family.

Mike's worst decision: Going into business with Hyman Roth. He should've listened to Frankie.

Apple

I think he made two bad decisions; both involved underestimating the ruthlessness and reach of "this thing of ours." The first time cost Appolonia V. Corleone her life and the next cost Mary Corleone hers.

kill fredo!from then on he lost his family!
and the family is the most important thing for him.and so did vito!

I would have to agree with DMC on this one. Marrying Kay was Micheals worse decision.

after all,Kay is not a Siccilian.She cant understand it.

Having Vincent take over the family, what with the thing between Vincent and Mary ... maybe not his worst decision, but pretty poor.

And apparently not the most important thing for Fredo (TRAITOR).

Apple

Assuming that after he abandoned his position as Godfather everything would be allright. If he wouldn't have assumed this then maybe he would've been better protected at The Opera and that would've prevented his daughter's Death

Marying Kay,and killing Fredo