Throughout the films and in the comentary by FFC and Puzo, there is always this talk about what a good heart Fredo had. Personally I never saw it. When we first meet him his drunk at Connie's wedding making an ass of himself. He is hardly sympathetic in his inept handling of guarding his father, and he shows no heart when he challenges Michaal's authority to go after Moe Green. He bangs cocktail waitresses two at a time, and he marries Deanna and has no children. This is a guy with a good heart?
TB you may be on to something here because you could make the case that Fredo was really a two faced liar. Obviously he wanted to take sides against the family in GF I and support Moe Green, and he betrays Michael in GF II , yet when he arrives in Havana with the two million he acts like a total suck up to Michael, and when they have a drink together he fishes for complioments and tries to ingratiate himself. So maybe he is more complex after all and maybe he DID know it was going to be a hit.
I somewhat agree and think that the Fredo analysis would be the most interesting of all. He is weak and stupid, but he is still a Corleone. He has to have atleast some of his father's genes right?
So yes he was cunning, and might have used betrayal to better his standing, its the Corleone way!
Puzo clearly paints him as the more compassionate one of the brothers. Connie says to Mike "he's so sweet, and helpless w/o you." Even Mike says "he's got a good heart, but hes weak and stupid." So no I don't doubt Fredo had a good heart.
Puzo says Fredo was more of the actor type, basically anything but a mafioso. I think that had the Corleone's lived a 'normal' lifestyle that Fredo would not have necessarily been considered weak and stupid. As is, the life of La Cosa Nostra was not suited for Fredo's type, so instead of doing Shakespeare on Broadway he was banging cocktail waitresses and letting his family down at every turn.
