Isn't that what Vito said when he asked the mortician to use all his skill and powers to make Sonny's corpse look good for the funeral? I thought that it was a little ironic that a master of violence was seemingly shocked at the shape his Sonny was in, as a result of mob violence. Although he had no problem lifting the blanket and looking at the hole-filled corpse again.

Was that scene designed to be ironic?

Actually, Vito said "Look how they mascared my boy".

Offcourse Vito was shocked at how Sonny looked, it's his own son. I think he wanted to give Sonny an open funeral (although we never see the funeral) and an honorouble goodbye, but then Bonasera had to do his job first.

Thanks for the correction. I'm not referring to the shock of his Son dying, which is natural, but his reaction to the way he was killed (massacred). Definite irony.

Even tho Vito was a crime boss, and killed and had people killed, the story also showed he was a family man ("a man who doesn't spend time with his family, isn't really a man."; "are you happy with your family?"). He did love his family.

Seeing someone you love full of holes is quite different than ordering a "hit" on someone you want dead. I think the "second look", as you say, was probably out of shock/disbelief.

Actually, I think GFII confirms this. Young Vito, made us more in tune to his nature and gives us proof of his good side, more than GF. We found Vito likeable. I wonder if most would feel Vito "as" likeable, hadn't there been a GFII. Maybe that's part of the reason why I like the chronological version of GF.

TIS

I agree, Vito is likeable in GFII, likeable but ruthless. He had to be to emerge as a crime boss. His killing of his father and mother's murderer was completely justified, but the way he poked him in the belly and then ripped the blade up to his neck was gruesome.

I doubt it was intended to be ironic, though you're absolutely entitled to draw that inference. I think FFC wanted to reinforce Vito's humanity by showing that, in the world of violence that he inhabited, he could still feel horror for his own loss.
Then again, neither GF or II showed how Vito unleashed Luca Brasi to massacre Al Capone's gunmen in a way far more horrible than the way Sonny was massacred. That's confined to the novel.

Yea, it sure was gruesome. It's funny, because knowing Vito's personality, soft spokeness, and calm manner, even during that scene, it seems he calmly slices the enemy up. We see Michael raging mad, and even tho Vito might have been raging mad, he doesn't show it. I'm sure this is why, or at least part of why, Vito was a more likeable character than the one Michael had become. People who knew Vito may have feared him, but most respected him, whereas Michael was only feared.

TIS

PS, Which, by the way, that would be a good TB question if not already discussed. Who was the most likeable real life Don, if any. Wasn't the Teflon Don known as charming and likeable????

Gotti was the most popular of the modern Dons, but his manner with his own people was coarse and snarling. Frank Costello was known to be suave. Carlo Gambino was always soft-spoken, and his wife was gracious, charming and welcoming.

Vito was a loveable, nice, family guy who happened to kill people. It doesn't matter what he did or how he did it. It is all different when your first son dies, and dies so violently. I don't care who you are, when you see your son in that manner, you turn humble and vulnerable no matter what you do. Especially when you consider how close Vito was to Sonny.

True, Vito could be a ruthless man, but when he needed to be. His son died, and he reacted in the very way Vito would react, calm and still respectable but even a little wimper when he saw how they "massacred his boy".

The dapper don (Gotti) was probably the most likeable.

I'm really not quite sure how someone could draw irony out of that scene. I mean, c'mon, his son just had a whole buncha gangsters go all "Bonnie & Clyde" on him. Like someone above said, I don't care how ruthless you are, if you see your first son (or second or third or fourth for that matter), in the state Santino was in (dead, full of holes, no less), you're gonna be in shock, and really upset. But in my opinion, Vito did a fantastic job keeping his true feelings in check, and maintaining his composure. Although in the book, it says that at one point, Vito grabbed hold of Bonasera's shoulder to keep himself from falling, which is a sure sign that he was distraught.

It's interesting how people on this board are not just interested in the GF, but are really in love with the characters. You guys have taken a defensive tone about this, as if I have insulted you by suggesting that this was an ironic scene.

The fact that Sonny died at the hands of gangsters is not ironic. The fact that the Don, an architect of mob violence, was so affected by the nature of the killing, was.

For Sonny, it was a heroic death, kind of like a Viking dying in battle.

I understand what your saying, as Don Corleone would order hits sometimes as if he was just ordering a meal in a resturant. For once we see Don Corleone's usual calm expression break down.

Did they have you over?

That's it! Thanks for putting it in simpler terms.

At face value you could see the irony in Vito's statement about massacring his boy. You live by the sword, you die by the sword. More expected than ironic. But Vito exposes his fatherly love before the scene in Bonesara's funeral home. After Tom tells him Sonny is dead Vito says, this war stops now. Kind of ironic that it takes the death of his own son to stop the war.

What I would add beyond TB's comments re: Gotti. He was derrogatorily referred to as "John Paul Gotti" by some members of the Gambino family. Gotti felt that his whims must be catered to at all times. Gotti was a man who could fly into a rage one minute and then be a complete gentleman the next. I would guess that a lot of his arrogance stemmed from the fact that he walked away from three trials, even though he cheated each time!

I think Gotti was simply more accessible to the press than the usual, tight-lipped mafia chiefs before him. He followed his own press and was as concerned about his public image as any politician.