People have made much of Vito being "weak" by 1945..or at least "slippin"....

But Michael seems to have been much weaker, slipped further, by the time of Godfather III, at roughly the same age as his father was in the first film. It's only the death of Sonny that seems to make Vito lose the heart for the business...

But even before Mary's murder, Michael doesn't seem to have any of his former strength, none of his balls...He doesn't cut a scary or intimidating figure at all anymore. Vito may have been a kinder, gentler man as he grew older...But there was still a menace to him, even as an old man weakened by bullets, at the Commission meeting. When he threatens vengeance if Michael is harmed, you can see he still has that inner fire, inner force, and means it. Michael's fire, his cruel intensity that made him an effective Don, seems all but gone by 1979.

Michael doesn't have the heart to take out Joey Zasa and nip it in the bud or even truly intercede in the dispute between Vincent and Joey....And he can't seem to decide whether he truly wants out or not. He says he wants out, but takes Vincent, who blood or no is a street guy, under his wing. I mean, taking Vincent under his wing was in essence making Joey Zasa his enemy by proxy, since Vincent and Zasa seemed to have been fighting each other for control. That's not a smart move for a guy who wants to sever all ties to crime and be legitimate.

Michael seems to have to wanted to have his cake and eat it too--be respected as a legitimate businessman and charitable guy, honored by the Pope, yet also respected as the "Supreme Court" of the Mafia and treated as Mafia royalty. Vito held no such illusions about himself. He may have wanted his children to be legitimate...But as he said, he made no apologies for his own life.

Whereas Vito at least was worried about Solozzo even if he was slipping in terms of caution, Michael totally underestimates Joey Zasa and writes him off as just being an enforcer until he's almost killed.

I just can't explain it. Where Vito seems an older, but still fierce man in the first film...Michael seems like just a nice older man who'd like to go listen to his Tony Bennett records. I mean people say his personality became like his father's but even Vito wasn't that jokey or kindly hearted in old age, he was still firm. More gentle, but still firm. Michael was a softie.

Guilt and diabetes eroded his stamina for violence.

To add to what Olli said:

By III, Michael had "sold the casinos" and was out of any day-to-day involvement his old businesses. He'd been knighted by his church and was a big-time philanthroper. It ill-suited him and his new image to show muscle or act tough. What he needed to protect at that time was his new reputation as "legitimate" and his future plans, which he believed the Vatican had blessed.

By the end, ravaged by physical and emotional devastation, especially after the death of Don Tomassino, Michael turned it over to Vincent because, as he said "I can't do it anymore." One doesn't get much weaker than that.

Michael never wanted to be a gangster. He was always more of a loner. When his father was shot he felt he needed to step in to help save the family. By the time of Godfather part III he wanted nothing to do with it. He just wanted his family back. He was remorseful for what he had done. In reality Michael actually has disdain towards gangsters and the lifestyle that comes with it. And talk about balls? He simultaneously killed the head of five families! He killed his sisters husband and he killed his brother!!!! Michael was way more ruthless than Vito. Yet as he got older he wanted nothing to do with that he repents. So no michael was not weak. Unless you think caring more about your wife and kids is not as important as being the worlds greatest and most feared criminal.

I've already expressed the following opinion about Michael in an earlier thread - and I believed that then, and I believe that now - that Michael simply didn't possess the natural "gangster temperament" of his father, due largely to the very different circumstances of their respective childhoods, and their different early, formative experiences.

My theory is that because Vito was raised in such a hostile, threatening, and insecure environment; in a fairly primal culture of "prey or be preyed upon", he soon learned the subtle dynamics of force & power, i.e. how & when to use it to get what he wanted...as well as how & when to not use it, depending on the expediencies of a given situation.

While Michael could be every bit as brutal and cunning as Vito ever was, even more so, in my opinion he never quite learned to wield the subtle dynamics of power in the way that Vito did. I attribute that largely to the fact that Michael was raised to be a "civilian", in an environment of relative security, affluence and privilege; with no expectation that he would ever need to "make his bones" in the family business. And while he was certainly exposed to gangster life from early childhood, that exposure was always at arm's length, with no direct involvement - until Michael was already well into adulthood.

That's my theory - and I'm sticking to it!

~ Q

To your point, Q:

Near the beginning of III, Michael says:

I did what I could Kay. To protect all of you, from the horrors of this world.

Pretty glib statement coming from someone who never really experienced the horrors of this world the way his father did when he was young. Vito was drawn into Donhood reluctantly, as a means of achieving security and respect. Michael leaped into it as a means of achieving global power.

The only way Mike was weak was his lack of heart. Mike was pretty much a sociopath. He and Walter White are very similar because they both claim they do it for their "family" but they really do it because they enjoy the power and money. He got what he desreved in th end you reap what you sow

All the weaknesses expressed in this thread are on the mark, but one weakness Michael had was despite his ability to remain cool most of the time, he DID have a temper much like his brother Santino, and did lash out from time to time. He routinely gave Tom hell, and his scene in Pentangeli's house (which may or may not have been staged) was an outburst, as was the scene in the Vatican when he blew up at the Immobiliare people after they and the Archbishop double crossed him. On the last count he would have been better off if he had been more Vito like, and licked his wounds and then took his revenge without announcing it in advance.

He also shared Fredo's weakness for being too grandiose. The best examples were his over the top party in Tahoe and the way he doled out all that money in the Atlantic City Casino. As for the former, Vito would have never used a First Communion as an excuse for the extravaganza Michael put on, and as for the latter, Vito would have seen to it that his "special friends" got their money in a more personal and quiet way. Zasa would have never been told there was nothing for him, he would just later learn that he had been cut out, but Vito would have been ready for the reaction.

Another big factor: Vito, unlike Michael, was not obsessed with being publicly "legitimate." Vito's legitimacy came from the respect he earned from people he helped, and from the politicians and judges he influenced. He kept an ultra-low profile; and when he acted ruthlessly, he was able to hide his hand with relative ease.

Michael's public life was something of a constraint on his more brutal actions. But the biggest constraint, when he got to III, was his fantasy that his Papal Knighthood and foundation had made him "legitimate," and that he no longer had to worry about the forces of organized crime--in America or abroad. It dulled his instincts and made him confused.

TB, I think you and DT make good points. DT cites Vito's trait of extending a personal gratuity to friends and allies while such extensions by Michael seemed impersonal. In fact, in III, Michael tells his attorney that his father hated foundations and wanted his favors to be seen as personal.

Of course, as you point out TB, Vito eschewed the limelight like a plague. The publicity surrounding Michael's actions seems to be, at the very least, odd for a Mafia don. The Justice Department would jump all over them.