After the attempt on Michael's life in Tahoe he talks to Tom alone and tells him that eventhough it upset Tom, he has kept him out of the family business and because of that Tom was only one in the family that he can truly trust. My question is if Tom was upset at Michael for keeping him out of the family business, doesnt that make him a prime suspect in the shooting? Hes being kept out of the loop and he could have been approached by Roth just like Fredo was. We know that he knew Johnny Ola "from the old days" so they did have a connection, plus Tom probably still had connections back in New York. Granted Tom was never on the muscle end of the family business, but he knew enough to know how to get a hit done.

I don't think Michael's being completely honest with Tom in this scene. What he's doing is touching on Tom's vulnerabilities to feel him out just like he does later with Roth and then Pentangelli. He's probably certain almost immediately that Tom had nothing at all to do with the shooting...but must perform this little schmoozfest in order to have Tom completely comfortable when he's put in charge of not only the Corleone Family, but Mike's wife & children as well.

AppleOnYa

I think that the one thing that Michael could count on, always, was Tom's loyalty. Tom had an orphan's devotion to the family that took him off the streets and saved his life. He adored Vito, and would never, ever have gone against the Corleone Family.

The conversation that Michael has with Tom after the shooting, is one of total manipulation. Tom was far closer to Sonny, and for him to be told that he had Michael's love, that Michael thought of him as a brother, you can see the gratitude in Tom's eyes. Michael played him like a cheap banjo, to make sure that Tom would follow orders after Michael leaves for his trip.

You have to remember that Mike knows that Tom thinks of him as a brother, so he knows that Tom would never...

Ah, never mind.

Marco, you raise a fair question: Wouldn't Tom's being left out of things give him a motivation for betraying Michael?
But, as Apple, SB and moustachepete said, Tom's loyalty was never, ever in question. Michael was telling the literal truth when he said (after the Tahoe shooting), "Right now, you're the only one I can completely trust." Yes, indeed. And he proceeded to play Tom like a violin. Tom practically breaks down and cries when Michael says he's always loved him as a brother. But, after Michael settles things in his favor in Cuba, he's back to mistreating Tom.

Except for later on when Tom dared to confront Michael on the need to have Roth's plane 'met'.

Before that even....since we know Michael had to have been spying on Tom to know he'd been offered that 'other' position.

Of course by that time, Michael had been betrayed by just about everyone close to him including Kay...so it's almost understandable that he would feel a need to trail Tom as well.

Apple

Good points, Apple. I'm not disagreeing, but:
Michael, champion manipulator, had an objective in mind in that scene in the boathouse: to get someone to volunteer for your basic suicide mission. Tom was a prop. By humiliating Tom ("Y'know, Tom, you surprise me...") Mike the Manipulator wasn't so much questioning his loyalty as forcing Rocco and Neri to consider how they might avoid his disapproval. But Michael made the choice when he said, "Rocco?" He didn't say, "Al?" because he needed Neri at that point, but Rocco had become expendible.

The bit about the "house and hotels" offer that Tom got was Neri's attempt to deposition Tom. IMO, Michael hit Tom with that not because he questioned his loyalty (Michael already would have known that Tom turned the offer down). It was intended to put Tom at a disadvantage--to further denigrate the value of his opinion that an attempt shouldn't be made on Roth's life, the better to induce Rocco to agree to take on the suicide mission.

IMO, Michael's treatment of his "brother" Tom was shameful. To be fair to Michael: Tom was Sonny's choice as a brother, and Vito's as consigliere--not Michael's And, Tom, although 100 percent loyal, let the side down more than once.

Proving yet again (once to Sonny, then to Vito and now to Michael) that Tom was simply NOT a 'wartime consiglieri'.

Apple

It's always seemed to me that the boathouse scene is really about Fredo. The reason why Michael has to kill Roth, and all his enemies, is that if he lets any of them off, then he certainly has to let his brother off.

For me, the emotion of the dialogue between Tom and Michael comes from Michael insisting on a reaffirmation of Tom's total loyalty, "in these things I have to do", which is really Michael's code for killing Fredo.

The scene has nothing at all to do with Fredo, aside from the fact that throughout the meeting we can see him fishing at the lake with Anthony. This 'vision' is merely a setup for the audience for what is to come. Fredo's fate had been sealed far earlier, and that plan had most likely already been set in motion by Neri.

This scene was about Michael and Tom. Even Roth, Neri & Rocco played a somewhat secondary role to the dynamics going on between the 'brothers'.

Apple

Also, I think that Tom would have to have been a total idiot not to have figured out, well before that scene, that Fredo was a dead man. He surely would have sussed out that Michael's "reconciliation" with Fredo at Mama's wake was a trap--just as Michael's assurance to Carlo that he'd be "my right-hand man in Nevada" was a trap.

You have to wonder what Tom must have felt with that knowledge--and the implication that if Michael would kill Fredo, he wouldn't hesitate to kill Tom. What a chill must have run through Tom when Michael said that if he didn't go along with him, "you can take your wife, your family and your mistress and move to Vegas..." Fat chance!

Well, much as I hate to hold up the book to the film(s)...there is that statement Tom makes to Kay near the end of the novel that she is the only one who is completely safe from being murdered on Michael's order.

While that exchange is not recreated on film, it can be assumed that Mr. Duvall carried over that knowledge into his portrayal of Tom.

Apple

As long as Tom never betrayed Michael, he wouldn't have anything to worry about.

Agreed. In the book, Kay thinks that one thing that really distinguishes Michael is that he's always fair.

Yes, and he's really 'fair' to Tom in GFII.

Apple

Back to the topic at hand, Tom was definitely being manipulated by Michael. Sonny and Michael both realized that Tom was not a wartime consigliere, and that he was more of a negotiator....Sonny tells Tom no more patching things up, that he wants Sollozzo, and later "Pop had Genco, look what I've got" and then Michael in GF I challenging Tom's advice to sonny saying "We can't wait ...that they will "kill Pop' and later ... "You're not a wartime consigliere....and "Are you going to come along with me in these things I've gotta do?"