While Vito wanted his FAMILY to someday be legitimate, he knew that was a path he himself could never walk. He made no apologies for his life and didn't pretend to be anything other than what he was. He was simple in that way, genuine. Don Corleone--no more, no less. He hid behind no church and made no apologies for how he made his living, no apologies for who he was, and recognized the cost. He knew his criminal empire would continue after his death, even if he didn't want to. Sonny got caught up in it and it was his nature, it would continue...Fredo, well.....Fredo was, eh.

But in Michael, who before killing the Turk was clean, Vito saw hope. Not for himself or his own salvation but for that of his family, and it was selfless in that way. Vito didn't want himself to be redeemed, but for at least a part of his family overcome it's origins in blood...That Michael might go on to redeem the family and become a truly important, good, clean man. Not a gangster or a crime lord, but a politician. His eyes welled up with tears when Michael told him he was with him now, because he knew his dreams of his son being legitimate had died in that instant...

But Michael seems to have never realized that--that the moment he decided to be "with" his father, there was no going back, there was no getting out. Did he not realize he himself could never be legitimate, never be clean, never be a truly good man again?

He, in some ways, was much more morally corrupt than his father. His father was a gangster, but never deluded himself or attempted to delude others that he was anything more. Michael bought "salvation" from the Church, and while saying he wanted to be legitimate, he also wanted his son to join him, knowing it'd mean his son would become embroiled in illegalities. He used his own daughter as a front to cleanse his own tainted spirit--tainting her in the process.

Vito never did any of this. Sonny wanted in the Mafia, Vito let him because Sonny had seen him commit a murder and viewed as destiny. Fredo was not accorded any real responsibilities; he wasn't truly a mobster....And Michael, at least in Vito's mind, seemed to be the only one who possessed free will, a choice in the matter.

I just think Michael's whole dream of legitimacy was a massive sham and an act of self delusion...and a farce really. He used his own children to clear his name. Basically tying them to blood money not really for them, but to ease his conscience and make him feel like a good man, blessed and knighted by the Church....

But his campaign for legitimacy was founded upon money earned through muscle, murder, drug dealing and racketeering. He was in essence trying to get innocence out of evil.

I just find his whole quest for legitimacy, especially in Pt. III, to be sort of disgraceful and pitiful, really. Instead of letting his children free to be who they want, which would make them truly legitimate, he tries to get Anthony to join his world. He invites Vincent into the highest levels of the Mafia. He uses Mary as a front to purge himself of sin, and thus puts the sin on her in the process....

I just find him an utterly horrible man, even in III. His motives were self serving to the end. He was better when he was just a common Mafia hood. At least Vito didn't pretend to be otherwise.

Michael is a tragic figure in many ways. But nearly all of his tragedy was self-inflicted. He had choices at every stage of his adult life, and he made the wrong ones nearly every time.

Michael real problem was that no matter now big you get, how much power you have or how much money you have someone is always trying to take what you have or replace you from where you are.

There was never a resting place for Michael and the family. No matter how many plans and how good his intentions were.

Even in the world of the church.

It is so easy to blame Michael and twist the thoughts that he is a evil prick, but then again he was always fighting off others while trying to keep his family safe. And what is so wrong with wanting to be on top for crying out loud.

It's not "wanting to be on top" that was Michael's failing.
It was his wanting to have his cake and eat it too. Wanting to be a legitimate man and be knighted by the Church...While also wanting to the prestige, fear and respect accorded to a Mafia Boss.

Wanting to make his family go "legitimate"....By using his daughter as a front to cleanse his own soul.

I agree that Michael is tragic in many ways.

1) Initially, he never wanted to be apart of the family business. So we know his heart wasn't born into greed or cruelty.

2) He lived a life where his family was constantly in danger.

3) Once his father passed, No one else is capable of protecting the family.

Hard to complete his quest for legitimacy when there is too much unfinished business. Walking way would be difficult too, once you give up all your power..his enemies would still seek him out and wipe out the family just to be sure they don't ever rise again.

To be honest i really dont see Mike as tragic. like someone said before Mike had a choice in every situation and he always picked the wrong path. Once he got involved in the crime family he was seduced by power. H even killed family members just to try and preserve taht power over people. In teh end Mike got whta he deserved. You reap what you sow

I am not buying the argument that Vito was also not somewhat deluded. True he understood what he was, but he also thought he was doing good and helping others, and excused his crimes as a means to an end.
This is why he doesn't even think about committing violence against the scum who ruined Bonasera's daughter until he goes on and on about how he needed to come to him as a friend, someone who would invite his wife over for a cup of coffee and the rest. Same thing with Johnny Fontaine.

Vito wanted Michael to work for him, probably in some partnership with Tom Hagen -- i.e. not on the muscle end of the family. I think he thought he could use his political influence and his connections with labor to get michael into political office, which in turn he could use to strengthen the family. At first Michael wanted no part of it, but when he got in he got in all the way, and he could never get out, much as he wanted to.

If you look at the young, idealistic Michael, signing up after Pearl Harbor, getting a collegeeducation, wanting to teach, wanting to marrry Kay and live in New England or someplace far from the rackets and compare him to the self loathing monster he was at the end of GF II and the shell of a man he was at the end of III, he was indeed a tragic figure.

IMO that's one of the best parts about the ending flashback in Part II; not only is everyone alive and relatively happy (notwithstanding Sonny's outburst over Michael enlisting) but it highlights how Michael never wanted anything to do with it. The way he looks at Tom and says "You and my father talked about MY future?" like it was some grave insult is contradicted brilliantly with the notion that the path Vito wanted for him ultimately was the path he would have preferred and, instead, because he was so adamant about making his own path he strayed down the same path that Vito took.

Francis Ford Coppola in an 1970s interview compared Don Corleone with Europe and Michael Coreleone with the New World. The new world looks at the old world and thinks, I am better than that and will not engage in the old violent ways of thinking and acting I will do better, but in the end, the new world is actually more violent and more blood thirsty than the old world

In my view, one of the things about the Michael Corleone character that makes him so fascinating is his complexity and his contradictions.

In some ways, having been groomed for an entirely different type of life prior to his ascendance to the donship, actually made Michael more effective than he might have been, had he been raised to succeed Don Vito, as Santino had been. He was more sophisticated, more cosmopolitan, and certainly more educated than the typical Mafia don. That allowed him to think outside of the box, be more creative & entrepreneurial, and ultimately to act on new opportunities for the benefit of the family business that might never have occurred to the old-school mobsters.

By the same token, it was this very same lack of early preparation for the Mafia life that made it more difficult for Michael to adjust to it from an emotional & temperamental standpoint, once the time came. Since he hadn't developed the crucial internal sense of balance & discipline that a mob leader needs in order to know when to cut some slack and when to bring the hammer down, Michael increasingly found himself overcompensating in an effort to get his internal bearings - with each new act of ruthlessness requiring even more ruthlessness later, in order to maintain the sense of consistency & order that Michael needed to feel that the family had been protected and was safe.

Because Michael had been raised with the expectation that he would lead a law-abiding, respectable life, this expectation became a core part of his being - from a much younger age than he was when he became the new Don Corleone. Through all the changes of the ensuing years, it remained one of his few remaining links to the person he once was. The fact that he continued to cling to it ever more compulsively - even as the circumstances of his life dragged him ever farther & farther away from it - explains much of the psychological basis for Michael's growing sense of desperation to become "legitimate". Ultimately, I believe he would have done almost anything to "rescue" that good-natured, idealistic boy who was still (barely) alive deep within him - and save him from being snuffed out entirely.

Very interesting analysis, Q.

In a deleted scene from GF, following Connie's wedding, Vito et al are preparing to visit Genco on his deathbed. Michael is very cold with Vito. When he tells his father that he's going to finish college, Vito says he approves of it. Vito also asks him to come to him as a son should. And, in the flashback scene at the end of II, Michael bridles when Tom tells him that he (Tom) and Vito have made plans for him. Michael seems like the classic rebellious son.

But when Michael woos Kay in New Hampshire, he tells her that his father is "like any other powerful man with responsibility for others," and implies that senators and governors have people killed. So, he seems to have adopted the idea that if they can be considered legitimate, so should Vito--and he.

To your analysis: was Michael's perennial quest for legitimacy a rationale for his behavior? Or, was it his way of trying to live up to his father's expectations for him that had been dashed when he killed Sol and Mac?

N.B.:
In the novel, Vito says that "a man has but one destiny." He was referring to Sonny's decision not to go to law school, but to follow him in the olive oil business. Did Michael have "but one destiny"?

If memory serves, the actual reference was to senators and presidents. But I take your point nonetheless.

By this time, Michael was already well into his apprenticeship with Vito, so he had already turned the corner, so to speak, with regard to the process of self-justification that would have allowed him to find a sense of moral equilibrium with the things he was doing - and was about to do. So it's not surprising that he would use such an argument as this - particularly to assuage the apprehensions of the "civilian" woman he was about to marry. Whether Michael really believed deep down that a Mafia don was morally equivalent to a president or to a U.S. senator is quite another matter. But it's doubtful, I would say.



Well, it was certainly a motive for his behavior, I would say. Whether he was motivated chiefly by the need to keep some sense of peace with his own soul, or to live up to his father's discarded expectations for him - or some combination of the two - it's clear that the conflict between Michael's longing for legitimacy, and the Machiavellian demands of his actual life, defined the unresolved turmoil that raged within him for the rest of his life.

For that reason, I'm unable to view Michael as entirely evil - despite the many evil things that he did. I view him as a desperate prisoner of circumstance, with a crushing weight of responsibility from which he could never escape. In many ways, Michael must have been profoundly lonely. After Vito died, there wasn't a single person to whom he could ever turn, who was capable of comprehending what it felt like to be in his shoes - not Kay, not Mama, not Fredo, not even Tom.



Vito might have thought so. I'm not convinced. I believe that one creates his/her own destiny, through one's own desires & choices.

But even if it is true that one has but a single destiny, one always has the choice of whether to pursue it - or not. One always has control over one's own choices & behavior - even if one seldom has control over the consequences of those choices or behaviors.

Yes. To reinforce that, I'm re-posting something I put up a long time ago re. several scenarios where Michael could have made different choices:

First: He was right to think Sollozzo would try to kill his father after the failed hospital attempt. He was wrong to believe that only he could save his father, and by killing Sollozzo and McCluskey. Ironically, an idea that Michael himself had suggested could have been modified to solve the problem bloodlessly. The Corleones could have fed the newspapermen on their payroll the story about McCluskey being a dishonest cop mixed up in drugs and murder before, not after, Michael killed them. McCluskey was on the take all his life, and the Corleones had all the details because they paid him. The newspapers would have given that story such headlines that the Police Commissioner would have been shamed into providing Vito with an army to protect him, to save further embarrassment. McCluskey and Sollozzo would have been neutralized without any bloodshed. At minimum, McCluskey would have been transferred or suspended pending investigation. With pressure from the Corleone judges, he’d have been indicted for taking bribes. Sollozzo would have been hunted down by the police, and probably killed "trying to escape," to keep him from possibly blabbing about McCluskey. With McCluskey alive, the cops would have had no reason to crack down on all Mob activities. There would have been no Five Families War of 1946, leaving it a contest between the Corleones and the Tattaglias—and as we know, Tattaglia was a pimp, alone he could never have outfought Santino. Michael could have married Kay and gone back to college (and we would have had no Godfather Trilogy!).

Instead, Michael chose to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, setting in motion his abandonment of Kay, his Sicilian exile, the Five Families War, Carlo’s betrayal, Sonny’s murder, Apollonia’s murder. Sonny and Tom were complicit in Michael’s decision. But, if he didn’t volunteer to do the killings, some other scenario might have been possible.

Second: He could have resumed the legitimate life after returning from Sicily. He could have said to Vito: “Pop, I was wrong to distance myself from you. But I atoned: I saved your life. And I paid a heavy price: two murders, abandoned my beloved fiancée, lost months out of my life in Sicily, lost my beloved bride to a bomb intended for me. We’re quits. Now you run the family…Oh, not feeling well enough to take the reins? Fredo not equal to the task? Sorry, Pop, that’s not my problem. Besides, you always said you didn’t want this for me—you wanted me to be a pezzanovante. Well, I can’t be Senator Corleone or Governor Corleone if I’m Don Corleone. Bye-bye.”

Instead, Michael chooses to become the Don, setting in motion Tessio’s betrayal, the Great Massacre of 1955, Connie’s widowhood and breakdown, and the beginning of Kay’s disillusionment with him.

Third: After moving to Tahoe, Michael could have retired behind the walls of his compound and invested his wealth legitimately—even putting money up-front in the legal casinos of Nevada.

Instead, he chose to hide his ownership or controlling interest in three hotels; muscle Klingman out of his interest in a fourth hotel; dominate the New York mob scene through Frankie Pentangeli; undercut Pentangeli through his support of the Rosato Brothers and their drug-dealing, and plan for a huge international expansion of his gambling empire through his deal with Roth. Results: Fredo’s betrayal; the machinegun attack that nearly killed Kay in her bed and scared the bejesus out of his kids; Kay’s estrangement, abortion and divorce; Anthony’s estrangement; Fredo’s murder (and a host of other killings).

Fourth: he was “legitimate” in GFIII—but was he? He whines, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” But he was never out. He was still a member of the Commission and influential enough to keep Zasa from rising (so Vincent tells us). He laundered his Mob cronies’ money through his “legitimate” businesses (maybe through his foundations) and cut Zasa out of his share.

Result: the machinegun attack in Atlantic City that killed all his pals and precipitated his diabetic stroke. It wasn’t enough that he became a Papal Knight: he had to dominate International Immobiliare by bribing crooked-as-a-corkscrew Archbishop Gilday, setting in motion Altobello’s betrayal and putting him against Don Lucchese, who was far more powerful in Europe. And, in an act of supreme irresponsibility and egotism: told that Sicily’s top assassin—“a man who never fails”—has targeted him, Michael gathers his entire family around him in Sicily, making them all sitting ducks. Surprise, surprise: his beloved Mary gets killed and his budding reconciliation with Kay is nipped in the bud, leading to his own, lonely death, attended by a little dog.

Michael succeeded--in turning everything he touched into death, including his own.

Just my opinion,but I have always felt that in the early stages of Mike's involvement,he really believed that what he was doing was necessary to protect his loved ones. But as time went on,he began to like it. As he became more powerful,the sickness inside him began to show itself.
In my view,it was there the whole time. Michael became a modern day embodiment of one of the decadent Roman Emperors,a man with absolute power over life and death,a man who had a paranoid streak,and a man with delusions that told him,as Hagen said ,that he had to wipe everybody out.

Very compelling viewpoints from both TB & LP...

I do agree that Michael was seduced by the life - although it was a slippery slope, one that quickly became ever steeper & slipperier with each new step. For that reason I feel that, although Michael in theory could have walked away at almost any time, in practical application the real costs in doing so became greater, at nearly an exponential rate, with each new event that transpired. After Vito's passing, that potential cost included the complete annihilation of the entire Corleone family - a fate that, of course, would have been utterly unthinkable to Michael.

Looking back on it now, I gather that it was never completely realistic for Michael to live at the Mall as a civilian, knowing what his father & his brothers were up to on a regular basis, and yet expect to never get wrapped up in it, regardless of events. Sooner or later, something was bound to happen that would blur the lines between the business & the personal in a way that would likely pull Michael over the line - unless he had wisely anticipated it, and was very well prepared to take effective counter-measures against it when it finally did occur. And yet there is little in the GF I movie, at least, to suggest that such preparation ever seriously took place.

For Michael, the seeds of transition from civilian to Mafia don began on the night he learned of the attempt on Vito's life. His anguish was palpable - so much that it seems to have already begun to drive a wedge between Michael & Kay, as evidenced by Michael's aloofness toward Kay during dinner at her hotel room soon afterward.

But the real turning point for Michael was the second attempted hit on Vito at the hospital later that night. Something about that experience changed him. By the time of the subsequent meeting with Sonny & Tom about "the Sollozzo question", Michael volunteered to hit both Sollozzo & McCluskey - as Turnbull has rightly pointed out - not because it was the only possible option to ensure Vito's security, but because deep down, Michael wanted to do it - thereby turning one of the most famous lines in the entire film: "It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business." into one of its most poignant & powerful ironies.

All very good points.. One thing none of you guys mentioned... something I believe triggered something in Michael.. something even Sonny mentioned, was the fact McCluskey hit him. I truly think if that night at the hospital McCluskey would have simply told Michael to leave or had him arrested, then Michael would not have suggested/executed the hit on McCluskey and Sollozzo. It was that utter disrespect to both Michael and The Don that helped decide Michael's fate... if he would have done nothing about it.. he would have been treated and looked down on, like Fredo was...

Good call.If Mike hadn't gotten his jaw broken,I think he would have still made the suggestion to Tom and Sonny that Sol needed to go so as to prevent any further attempts on Vito's life. His argument concerning McCluskey's being a crooked cop would still have been accepted,and perhaps a different murder scenario would have been put into motion.
Mike's main argument was that he was the only one who could get close to Sol and Mac because of his known civilian status,but I agree with you that it may well have been a smokescreen so that he could avenge his public humiliation.

I think Mikey had it planned the moment he realized McCluskey was bought and paid for by the Turk. He realized then that if they didn't do anything about it Vito would die for sure.

The novel is on your side, papri and Lou--it says he felt a "delicious coldness" or some such personal feeling. We've had many discussions in this forum about "business" or "personal," and the majority think it was "personal."

TB, in the novel Michael confesses that it's all personal. In the scene just before he leaves for the Sollozzo meeting he tells Tom: "It's all personal, every bit of business."

You're right, Oli. And, he never says, "It's business, not personal" in the novel--that's just in the film. He does say, in the novel, "It's the only way" [to make sure Sol doesn't get another crack at Vito].

The "its not personal its business" is really an urban legend that has grown up around The Godfather. The closest we come to it are the scenes where Tom tells Sonny that Sol's attempt on Vito wasn't personal, and Michael telling Sonny and everyone that his plan to kill Sol and McCluskey wasn't personal.

Don't forget that Michael was also a USMC combat vet. As such, he would have seen death and destruction on a scale his LCN family back home would never have experienced. That coupled with Michael's innate shrewdness really made him, by far, a better choice to succeed Vito than Sonny.

A very fair point. Of Michael's battle-hardened toughness, I have no doubt. But I guess my point speaks mostly to Michael's ability to manifest "the Don's touch", for want of a better term.

Consider that Vito was a master of intrigue & nuance. He had an uncanny sixth sense about when trouble was afoot, its nature & source, and what to do about it - all brought about by many years of experience, plus a good bit of natural talent. Because of that, Vito knew when a light touch would accomplish more than a heavy hand, though he was perfectly willing to play rough when he thought it expedient.

I'm not convinced that Michael possessed that "Don's touch". If anything, his instincts seemed to tell him to play rough by default. And his combat experience would only reinforce that tendency.

It's perfectly understandable, after all. Michael was never groomed for LCN life, as Sonny & Tom were. He had a knack for it, for sure. But as I say, I think he had to compensate for his lack of specific training...and he generally overdid it.

You're quite correct. Michael was a cold, calculating manipulator with zero personal charisma, whereas as Vito drew people to his side via the strength of his character. Michael was only able to accomplish this same feat through fear and intimidation. Not to say that Vito didn't use these same tactics when necessary, but with him it sort of seemed like a last resort, whereas for Michael it was his one and only tactic. Of course that was Michael's training via the battlefield where it's as black and white regarding friend and foe as you can get. With Vito it was always shades of grey.

The Michael of GF III is a much different man, and one clearly in the mold of the Vito of old.

I agree that Michael's personality left a lot to be desired, but it seems a stretch to attribute it to a lack of grooming or training for a Donship. It's just who Michael was. After all, Sonny was groomed for Donship and he seemed to have even less of the "Don's touch" than Michael.

If you judge him strictly on business, Michael was a hugely successful Don. His Family became rich and powerful on a scale unimaginable at the time he took over. He just failed to protect his family, which was his stated motivation all along.

Good analysis Woltz.

One of Michael's failings was that he was a control freak and somewhat paranoid. As a result I don't think he got as much as he could from his own people. For example Vito would have never dressed down anyone the way Michael spoke to Tom.

Basically Michael, Sonny and even Tom were all trained by Vito, but at their core they were very diferent. Tom learned how to be deliberate and how to deal one on one with potential enemits. His line to Woltz about enjoying his pictures right after threatening him was vintage Vito. Sonny had Vito's brutality but lacked his temperament, and Michael just could not let go. I leave Fredo out of this cause he was a traitorous moron.

I thought in the book that Tom was much more ruthless compared to his mild manners in the movie. I thought the movie tried to make him seem like he was legit and never got his hands dirty, but it seemed he was the main force behind setting Geary up in the novel. I think other than Michael, he would have been the best choice for Don even though he was not Sicilian.

Michael's fault was always revenge. Take for instance Rocco, that was a straight suicide mission and Tom was right in that they should have just let him be since the Feds were hot on his tail. I think after Tom went and suggested suicide to Frankie at the federal lockup that if that didn't work Michael would have assassinated him somehow which would have been crazy as well.

Geary wasn't in the novel.

It was a one-way mission and I think Michael manipulated Rocco into accepting it by first humiliating Tom, then challenging Rocco. IMO, Rocco was Clemenza's man, Neri was Michael's. Rocco had become expendable by that point.

One point that has always stood out: The Feds knew Rocco was part of Michael's Family--he was way up there on the chart shown at the Senate hearing. Dead or alive, they would have had a direct link between Rocco, Roth and Michael.