While Vito wanted his FAMILY to someday be legitimate, he knew that was a path he himself could never walk. He made no apologies for his life and didn't pretend to be anything other than what he was. He was simple in that way, genuine. Don Corleone--no more, no less. He hid behind no church and made no apologies for how he made his living, no apologies for who he was, and recognized the cost. He knew his criminal empire would continue after his death, even if he didn't want to. Sonny got caught up in it and it was his nature, it would continue...Fredo, well.....Fredo was, eh.

But in Michael, who before killing the Turk was clean, Vito saw hope. Not for himself or his own salvation but for that of his family, and it was selfless in that way. Vito didn't want himself to be redeemed, but for at least a part of his family overcome it's origins in blood...That Michael might go on to redeem the family and become a truly important, good, clean man. Not a gangster or a crime lord, but a politician. His eyes welled up with tears when Michael told him he was with him now, because he knew his dreams of his son being legitimate had died in that instant...

But Michael seems to have never realized that--that the moment he decided to be "with" his father, there was no going back, there was no getting out. Did he not realize he himself could never be legitimate, never be clean, never be a truly good man again?

He, in some ways, was much more morally corrupt than his father. His father was a gangster, but never deluded himself or attempted to delude others that he was anything more. Michael bought "salvation" from the Church, and while saying he wanted to be legitimate, he also wanted his son to join him, knowing it'd mean his son would become embroiled in illegalities. He used his own daughter as a front to cleanse his own tainted spirit--tainting her in the process.

Vito never did any of this. Sonny wanted in the Mafia, Vito let him because Sonny had seen him commit a murder and viewed as destiny. Fredo was not accorded any real responsibilities; he wasn't truly a mobster....And Michael, at least in Vito's mind, seemed to be the only one who possessed free will, a choice in the matter.

I just think Michael's whole dream of legitimacy was a massive sham and an act of self delusion...and a farce really. He used his own children to clear his name. Basically tying them to blood money not really for them, but to ease his conscience and make him feel like a good man, blessed and knighted by the Church....

But his campaign for legitimacy was founded upon money earned through muscle, murder, drug dealing and racketeering. He was in essence trying to get innocence out of evil.

I just find his whole quest for legitimacy, especially in Pt. III, to be sort of disgraceful and pitiful, really. Instead of letting his children free to be who they want, which would make them truly legitimate, he tries to get Anthony to join his world. He invites Vincent into the highest levels of the Mafia. He uses Mary as a front to purge himself of sin, and thus puts the sin on her in the process....

I just find him an utterly horrible man, even in III. His motives were self serving to the end. He was better when he was just a common Mafia hood. At least Vito didn't pretend to be otherwise.