Legitimate

Here's a question to pick your brains: Michael was big on making the Family legitimate. Just look at GFIII. Now, after GFIII though, do you think Michael went to a legitimate life? I remember reading in the book that he wanted to be a math professor. Or do you think he perhaps went to serve as Consigliere to Vincent, conceding that he can never truly get out, then later retiring to Sicily where he died.

My guess is that after Mary's death, Michael began a process of withdrawal. He probably maintained contact with Connie and Anthony, but any relationship with Kay ended with that gunshot blast.

I believe that he maintained a low profile, limited and eventually ended his social interaction, and lived a life of virtual solitude. He lived comfortably, but, for the most part, alone.

I think his death scene tells it all. My guess is that he sold off his properties in New York, left the family business such as it was to Vincent, and retreated to a life of relative solitude in Sicily. You are right. He never would have contact with Kay again. Maybe Connie cared for him , but if I were writing "Michael Corleone -- The Final Years," I would imagine Connie predeceasing him, and Michael living among a few trusted servants and bodyguards, never venturing far from home, taking his diabetes medicine about half the time, and just waiting to die.

More interesting is what happened to Tony's opera career?

I'm guessing that Michael packed it in almost immediately. Although a date for his final scene isn't given, he was already quite ill, and Mary's death could have aged him rapidly. I'll guess that he stayed in Sicily and didn't return to NY--may have died within a very short period after Mary's demise.

The gunshots were close enough to him to damage his eyesight. He changed his name to Andrea Bocelli, was adopted by Steve Wynn, and has made a great career of being "The Opera Singer for People Who Don't Like Opera."

TB you are too funny. Am getting Tix to see Barber of Seville at the Met on Sat Thanksgiving Weekend. Taking my kids.. hope it is an "easy" enough opera to get them into it.

The gunshots were close enough to him to damage his eyesight. He changed his name to Andrea Bocelli, was adopted by Steve Wynn, and has made a great career of being "The Opera Singer for People Who Don't Like Opera." [/QB][/QUOTE]


Or they cut off his arms and he became a German Baritone

Now just a minute.

I happen to like Andrea Bocelli.

Can't wait for him to duet with Pia Zadora.

Apple

TB, you're right an exact date isnt given in GFIII, but the DVD says he died around 1997. Interesting possibility, I kinda like your idea better, how Mary's death aged him and he died shortly thereafter.

I always figured that as a 'given'...that Mary's death aged Michael, broke his spirit and caused his withdrawal from all 'Family Business'. While it's questionable whether he physically died shortly thereafter, that final scene certainly indicates he died a lonely, broken old man.

Apple

If they cut off his legs, he could have been a German tenor--specifically, Joseph Schmidt ("Heut ist der schönste Tag in meinem Leben").

Based on what we saw in the opera scene and the final scene I'd say that Michael withdrew himself completely. His daughter was the only thing he viewed as pure and innocent and now that she was gone, Michael almost has nothing to live for.

I think a more interesting topic for consideration and speculation is what course the Corleone family went with Vincent in charge. Did he steer it back to its old ways?

Quote

Originally posted by Turnbull:
[/qb]

If they cut off his legs, he could have been a German tenor--specifically, Joseph Schmidt ("Heut ist der schönste Tag in meinem Leben"). [/QB][/QUOTE]

LOL
Not quite 5ft in height.

Killed by the Nazi's. So sad.

I'm thinkig Vicent didn't last long.He was probably shot to death later on by rivals. I mean, some years down the road, maybe. And then Connie might have gotten Alzhimers or somthing, and then finally died. I would guess that Kay and Anthony would really be the only ones left. Athony would be in the papers not going to trial, but advertising his new opera play. He'd probably write a great ballad about his sister, and dedicate it to her. Then he would marry a good wife, and have good children and vow never to be like his father was. And finally, after Kay dies, and there is no more good news stories about the mob and John Gotti, Anthony will live the rest of his life a guilt free happy soul, and his wife would bring him waffles, and the true spirit of the Corleones would lye in him and his kids. And the dog, Luca. (ha ha )

Getting back to the original question, I always found it odd that a man so smart and cunning as Michael could have been so misguided about "becoming legitimate." In GFIII, he says "All my life I kept trying to go up in society, where everything higher up was legal, straight. But the higher I go, the crookeder it becomes."

I have never understood that statement. Michael, of all people, should have known that the pezzonovante's were always for sale. After all, didn't Vito have all the judges in his backpocket? Michael had many dealings with politicians (Geary for one) and the police (McCluskey, Philips) who were on the take with the mafia.

It seemed like Michael was always reaching for legitimacy when it really never existed and was always the proverbial carrot-on-the-stick. Michael himself speaks with disdain about the pezzonovante in front of his father:

VITO: And I refused -- to be a fool -- dancing on the string, held by all those -- bigshots. I don't apologize -- that's my life -- but I thought that -- that when it was your time -- that -- that you would be the one to hold the strings. Senator - Corleone. Governor - Corleone, or something...

MICHAEL: Another pezzonovante...

In the final analysis, I think he wanted to be legitimate as a way of pleasing Kay.

Actually, I think he made up his mind that he was going to be different from his father. Michael believed he was going to change the Family into a business conglomerate. I think he saw Kay as a viable first step into this world, the nice WASPy wife. I don't think his desire for legitimacy was a way to please Kay; in fact, I think his union with Kay was, in his mind, a logical first step into that world that he knew little about.

Michael's quest for legitimacy was frustrated because hewanted to be "legitimate" on his terms, according to his definition. The most revealing scene is when he goes to New Hampshire to woo Kay. He tells her that his father is no different than any man with large responsibilities for others. She says that senators and governors don't have people killed. "Now who's being naive, Kay?" Michael replies. Right there, I think he's saying, "If senators and governors can lie, cheat, take money from the treasury, and order the use of force to put down strikes, fight wars, etc.--and be considered legitimate--why shouldn't I be considered legitimate?" It never seemed to have occurred to him that the political pezzanovanti were using the law to legitimize themselves, whereas he was flouting the law.

Turnbull you are exactly right, but there is another interesting twist to all of this. At the end of GF I Michael tells his father that if he had become "Senator Corleone, Governor Corleone," he would just be another pezzanovanti. By the time of GFIII, it is Michael's wish to actually be a member of the pezzanovanti by going "legitimate" with the Immobiliare deal and by getting the recognition he got from the Church. Of course he is foiled because the Eurpoean pezzanovanti do not want him to take over their company (and they deftly use Altobello and Zasa to thwart Michael in the US).

Michael's reaction to all this is revealed the evening of the day he made his confession to the Cardinal, when he tells Connie he has spent his entire life trying to rise up in the legitimate world, but "the higher I go the crookeder it gets." He echoes this sentiment on the day he and Dontomassino and the others hatch the plan in the Garden for Michael to visit the Cardinal. It is there when he says that the "real Mafia" are the rich European business cartels like the one he is opposing.

In other words Michael is constantly deluding himself into believing that he is somehow more worthy of legitimacy than others are, and that whatever actions he takes against his "enemies" are thus justified.

Very astute observation, dt! There he is, again--the other guys are crooks (even though they're the kinds of crooks he wants to be).
As I've mentioned before: Michael never left the Mafia in GFIII. He was still in the Commission, either the chair or high enough to block Zasa, according to Vincent. And, in AC, he presides over a Commission meeting to divvy up investments. Some "legitimate."

and it is such a cheesy commission meeting what with the passing around of hot jewels etc.

[/QUOTE]and it is such a cheesy commission meeting what with the passing around of hot jewels etc. [/QB][/QUOTE]

What is up with the jewel thing anyway? That is totally not "Godfatherish" to me. Maybe some low-budget gang-banger movie, but not the Godfather. Am I wrong?

and it is such a cheesy commission meeting what with the passing around of hot jewels etc. [/QUOTE]

What is up with the jewel thing anyway? That is totally not "Godfatherish" to me. Maybe some low-budget gang-banger movie, but not the Godfather. Am I wrong? [/QB][/QUOTE]

That scene always makes me think that once they passed the jewelry to everyone, they'll start passing out the lipstick, mascara, wigs and high heels.

I think it would be a good idea if Miky said "OK lets break out the fondu!"

That scene always makes me think that once they passed the jewelry to everyone, they'll start passing out the lipstick, mascara, wigs and high heels. [/QB][/QUOTE]


Hey its the Mafia, not Congress.