[quote=Don Cardi] We see Vito commit cold blooded murder when he gets revenge on Don Ciccio and co. And many accept and forgive his act of murder because, after all, Don Ciccio wiped out his whole family. But bottom line is that murder is murder. Sin is sin.
Vito's killing of Don Ciccio was no more cold blooded than the government strapping someone to a chair and injecting a deadly substance into their arm. The latter only isn't "murder" because it's legal. And the prosecutors, judges, and juries who sentence people to death aren't people who were personally affected by the crime like Vito was by what Don Ciccio did. If I were Vito I'd have done the same thing.
I think that you missed the point that I was trying to make in how the director and writer are cleverly able to make some in the movie look like outright cold blooded murderers and then make Vito look justified in his acts of murder, when in truth, they are all guilty of committing cold blooded murder.
And where, in my post did I ever justify death sentences by the government or any of the other pezzanovante? Besides,what in the world does that have to do with the topic at hand?
It has to do with it because, in my experience, people who do a certain behavior who aren't pezzonovante are often condemned for it while those who are (prosecutors, governments, presidents. etc.) and do something similar are often not condemned. I don't believe moral judgments should be made based on whether someone is in a position of authority or not.
I'm sorry, but I can't let this pass. There is ZERO equivalency between Vito's murders of Don Ciccio and his henchmen and the execution of a convicted murderer by the government.
In the latter situation, our society has laws - created by elected representatives of the populace - designed to ensure the greatest possible good for the most possible people. There is a process in place, with disinterested parties making dispassionate decisions, and an appeals process designed to ensure fairness. I understand that, in practice, there are many problems with the system, but that's the theory behind it. You imply that executions should be carried out by individual members of the pezzenovante openly and with the support of society, despite the fact that this would have none of the admittedly inadequate safeguards of the current system.
Vito's murders in Sicily are pure vengeance. There is no benefit to society on any level. Even if there were, allowing individuals to make those choices with no checks or balances (other than others' individual powers) wil only serve to rend the fabric of society, whereas the legal system (in theory), solidifies it.
Incidentally, I am a strong opponent of capital punishment. But there's a huge difference between acts carried out within a well-established legal framework and vigilante actions. It's way too facile to say one is OK because it's "legal."
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, because I completely disagree with what you've said here. Yes, the killing of Don Ciccio was vengeance, but it was very arguably justified vengeance. How would you have liked having your entire family be murdered? And it's very hard to argue that capital punishment isn't just as vengeful, or that "society" derives any more benefit from the government executing people than it did (or would have, given that the Godfather movies weren't real life) from Vito killing Ciccio. As the example of Charles Manson shows, it is perfectly possible to remove a threat to society by keeping that person in prison for the rest of their life. Furthermore, it's difficult to sustain your argument that there's zero equivalency when law enforcement officials themselves state that one of the aims of the criminal justice system is "to punish" (this is what a professor of mine, who himself was a prosecutor and is now a judge, said in an introductory paralegal course)--not simply to protect society. I guess the difference between "punishment" and "vengeance" is similar to that between "freedom fighter" and "terrorist"--in either case, if one approves of the action, the first word is used to describe it, while if one doesn't, the second is used.
