I'll be the first to say that I thought Carlo was a low-life and I loved the way Sonny stood up for Connie when everyone else in the family just turned a blind eye to Carlo's behavior (the scenes of Sonny beating him up in the street and Clemenza garroting him while Michael looks on are among my favorite scenes in the movie). The thing that I found a bit ironic, though, is how strongly Sonny reacted to how Carlo treated his sister when he wasn't exactly a model husband himself to his wife. He practically ignored his wife and treated her as if she just existed to take care of his kids and keep house. I loved how Vito looked directly at Sonny when he said, "A man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man." I think it was Vito's fatherly way of telling Sonny to get his priorities in order. Aside from his lack of attention to his wife, Sonny was also cheating on her with a woman nearly half his age. While I don't think adultery is anywhere near as bad as the physical, verbal, and emotional abuse that Carlo put Connie through, I imagine it still had to be pretty humulating for Sandra--even in an era where women were considered second-class citizens and were expected to be obedient and subservient to their husbands. And I think the fact that the movie took place in the 1940s and 1950s were the reasons that Sonny was unable to acknowledge his own shortcomings as a husband and Vito refused to get involved to help his daughter. Men could treat their wives however they wanted and the wives were expected to just sit back and take it.

Just a random thought I had and thought I'd share it with the board.