best decision: Getting rid of Fredo

worst decision: Marrying Kay


Agree or disagree?

Disagree if killing your bother who was non violent is your best decision than you are a true psychopath. marrying Kay was a bad decision because she wasnt the type of woman who wanted that type of life so he should have married an itlain woman like his mother was

Disagree.

Do you really think, out of everyhing Michael did, getting rid of Fredo was his best decision? Seriously?!

Best Decision: Moving the Family to Nevada

Worst Decision: Tie. All the heartless, humiliating actions that drove away Tom, Kay, etc. and isolated Michael.

Keeping Fredo alive any longer would end The Corleone family. Fredo isn't dumb, he's a conniving jealous brother. How can a Corleone son be that dumb for that long and not know who can be trusted? Exiling Fredo; he'd just end up going to the feds and ratting everything out.

I can't blame Michael for being heartless. After having your wife blown up and your oldest loving brother murdered at the same time can be quite mind blowing. Not to mention all the traitors he has to deal with in the Family. I would've isolated Tom and the others as well. There are traitors everywhere.

Whoops! I thought you were going after the infamous ascot again!

Micheal married Key because she was the only thing left of his old life, the life he wanted, and also he knew it would help him in his quest to legitimize his family. Fredo was weak and could never take over the family, he also would never go to the feds, cause why didnt he? He had all the time in the world to do it before he was killed.

Worst: Leaving Kay at the hotel to go join his brothers in the war room.

Best: Bringing Frank's brother to the Senate Committee Hearing.

This is pretty much the definition of paranoia.

Welcome to the boards.

Marrying Kay wasn't a bad decision at the time because she was his college sweetheart. Killing Fredo was a bad decision because there was nothing more to gain by that time. It was a silly revenge on a vulnerable guy who had overplayed his hand.

But, I think real-life mafiosi like we know them to be would have also killed their own brother in the same circumstances. I wouldn't be suprised that some have killed their own kin for less.

Best decision: Joining the Marines and staying out of the family business.

Worst decision: Joining the family business.

haha that is actually the best/smartest answer.

Anyways, I really look up to you guys. I've been looking for awhile to discuss The Godfather in depth with other people. I thought I was good at figuring out the whole movie but you guys pointed out so many different theories that i've never thought of =)

There are some amazingly deep discussions here, with reasonable defenses for widely varying points of view. A few hours here will inspire you to watch the films all over again.

Glad you're having a good time here, Trilogy and Professor.

I joined for the exact same reason, its awesome!

Best decision: Killing Sollozo and McCluskey thus making himself the heir apparent regardless of what happened to Sonny.

Worst: Wearing that scarf around his neck in III.

Worst decision: changing his hair cut in Part III.

FFC says he purposely did that to make Mike look less attractive in contrast to parts 1&2. He wanted Mike to pay for his past in Pt III and making him look physically unappealing was part of it. This probably turned off a lot of fans though.

So this is what you would have done?

Like others, I also had difficulty with accepting his new hair cut, but after a while I got used to it and while it didn't look bad on Al Pacino, it did look a little odd on Michael Corleone. But I obviously exaggerated by stating it was his worst decision, because that was trusting Hyman Roth.

When do you believe he trusted Roth? Before the attempted hit?

I don't know that Michael ever really trusted Roth. I think he was so hot for taking over Roth's Cuban gaming empire that he believed all of Roth's BS about making him his hier and treating him like a son. As long as Roth strung him along (for example, by not objecting to Michael pushing out Klingman), it blinded him to obvious signs that Roth couldn't be trusted.

One of his big mistakes was not to inform Fredo about his plans with Moe Greene. That's what triggered Fredo's feelings of being stepped over.


No. That was his biggest mistake ever. With this step he opened Pandora's box. That's when he became a gangster, and he chose his fate.

I mean i know without it happening the movies are no where near the same, but killing two men is never a good decision.

Best: not ordering the veal
Worst: teaching Appalonia to drive.

I would say:

Best: Killing Sollozzo and McClusky. Yes, it set him down on the path to being a gangster, but at this point he would have been a great Don.

Worst: Killing Fredo. This is where he went from being a calculating, ruthless Mafia Don to being a paranoid psychopath.

Best: taking a cooking lesson from Clemenza.
Worst:lying to Kay about killing Carlo.