I think some of Michael's actions, his emotional deadness, his mistrust of EVERYONE--Including Tom, who had NEVER given Michael any reason to distrust him--Shows a Don who wasn't operating with his right mind.

Consider Vito's reaction to Sonny being killed, which is much more emotionally traumatizing than what Michael went through in Part II: He doesn't become an emotional shell or lose his humanity, he reasonably arranges a peace summit, figures out just who his enemy is, and then begins quietly formulating vengeance with Michael. And he is just as warm as before, and dies happily and at peace, playing with his grandson--Perhaps happier and freer than he ever was.

Michael on the other hand treats Kay like a non-person, a persona non grata, when she reveals she had the abortion. Even before this, he's become so detached from his (blood) family that he has Tom buy Anthony Christmas presents--Like any cold corporate executive, he isn't even buying his children their Christmas presents but is pretending to; He plans to have his own brother killed; He humiliates Tom publicly and distrusts him without reason, even though Tom did his job and kept everyone safe while Michael was in Cuba; He has Pentangelli killed despite Pentangelli being just as manipulated as he was by Roth's machinations; He basically takes Kay's children away from her and has her sent away like an old shoe; He has Rocco, his top Capo, sent on a mission which both know is really a suicide mission simply for revenge, which isn't even worth it--Roth has lost and is sickly and will probably die soon anyway.

He just seems too overruled by his emotions, by the end making him a worse Don than Sonny I'd argue. Too ruled by his emotions to make any rational judgments. Even Tom notes this. Sonny was set up and his temper was used against him. He was unlucky where Michael was in surviving an attempted hit. But neither Vito nor Sonny lost their souls. Both ordered murder and committed it, but they never became monsters, feared and loathed even by their blood.

I truly believe that after Fredo's treachery combined with Kay's abortion, Michael had a nervous breakdown. Or some sort of major psychological collapse, which turns him into an emotionally numb, paranoid, merciless, uncaring machine of a man. He has become "comfortably numb."

And I think the last scene, where his mind goes back to that fateful day in December 1941 when he joined the Marines, while both the blood and crime family were whole and at peace, reflects that even he knows this: He's lost himself. He's lost his family. He's lost his soul. He won the battle against Roth, but lost the war for his own goodness. And with the publicity of the Senate hearings, he's lost any hope of ever being a legitimate man.

That flashback has a certain poignant eeriness to it. Four of the people at that dinner table are dead: Sonny, Tessio, Fredo, and Carlo. Three of them are dead by Michael's orders. And Vito, just off screen, is dead--His life and legacy hanging like a heavy shadow behind Michael throughout the whole film, contrasting the beloved, kindly and respected Vito with the empty, bitter, feared Michael.

And the saddest moment of all: Fredo is the only one to encourage Michael to go his own way, and in the end, Michael has Fredo murdered with a bullet in the back of his head and his body thrown into a lake.

In Michael's obsessive quest for legitimacy, he lost everything.

You just described The Godfather Part II's theme. This is what it was all about. And it's also what it makes such a great film. It's a tragedy.

Yes. Ironically, had Michael simply been a gangster he might've had a much happier life. When you think about it, it was his quest for legitimacy that caused most of his problems. He was brought into dealings with Roth due to a desire to eventually be legitimate. He didn't whack Roth after Lake Tahoe because of his intense desire for Roth's casinos, to be legitimate--Causing him immense personal and professional grief.

He would've been a great Mafia boss, after consolidating the Corleone Family's power with the Massacre of '55. Or, had he never entered the Mafia, he probably could've been an excellent politician or a great corporate executive. Michael wanted to use one to be the other, or to be both at once--To live in both worlds. And you can't.

If we take III into the equation, ALL of the problems that happen to him in that film stem from his refusal to let his fellow Mafia bosses share in Immobiliare, in order to be legitimate. Had he cut them in and worked as a gangster, no assassination attempt, no war, no dead daughter.

Vito said often (in the novel), "A man has but one destiny." Perhaps Michael's tragedies came as a result of trying to ALTER his own pre-set destiny. Perhaps his destiny was to be a man like his father: A Mafia chieftin. In trying to change his destiny, he caused himself and his family only grief.

Sort of like trying to defy the Metaphorical Fates.

I dont see mike as a tragic character i see him as a person who just made bad choices and had to live with them. Mike had the best oppurtunity to finish college and live a straight life but he chose not to. Sure he claims it was to protect his family but mike wanted to be wealthy and powerful. I mean if he really wanted to be legit mike could have let others be the don and just lived a straight lifesyle but deep down he was greedy as anybody. also mike state of mind deteriorated once he killed people in cold blood. Some people feel regret and someone people become more cold blooded which is what happened to mike

I think he was torn...He DID want to be a normal guy. But he loved his father. He loved his family. He couldn't just sit back and let men come and kill his father. So, he set down on his path.

He was naive, though. He thought he could somehow worm his way out and become a Rockefeller or JP Morgan. But he couldn't. Vito was smart enough to know that you only have one path. He himself was content in his life, no regrets about being a Mafia Don. He made no apologies for how he lived his life. He wanted Michael to be legitimate, but had no problems with Sonny (had he lived and proven to be a good Don) continuing the criminal empire. He was against drugs, but only because of long term business concerns.

Michael never embraced his destiny, of being a Don, fully...And thus he wasn't as good in his role as his father was.

Michael's story is a tragedy, especially "The Godfather", which is in fact not Vito's story, but Michael's.
Here#s a guy who doesn't want to have anything to do with the crime family. He knows the Luca/Fontane story.
But when his father is shot down he finds, he's the only one who's not only willing but able to rescue him by planning and executing a bold move against Sollozzo. (Of course, we see already then that he's not free from anger and personal motifs.) Things get worse: His father lures him into the crime business when Michael comes back. At that time Michael is already weak, because he seeks for revenge for the death of Appollonia. Vito successfully makes Michael believe that "the family" and the crime organisation are just the same.
So Michael thinks the more he does for "business" the better it is for the family, which is a common gender conflict in modern life.
In GF2 he's asking his mother: "But by being strong for his family could he (i.e. Vito) lose it?" (Vito never faced the problems of a treachery brother, a wife to whom abortion was an option.)
So, it's a classical tragedy like Oedipus. The more the protagonist struggles against his destiny, the less he can escape.

what i love about the godfather films is that there are so many complex characters that people relate to and even sympathize with. I love the character of mike because it is a well written character. however morally I dont feel bad for mike because he does some really disgusting things.

That's debatable at best. If he had brought other (rival) mobsters like Don Altobello or Joey Zasa in on the Immobiliare deal they would have become more powerful and therefore a much bigger threat. He would also instantly ruined his change of ever becoming legitimate. I think Michael made the right choice to keep them out of it.

I don't think Michael cracked up in II. The most wrenching emotional event in his life was Apollonia's murder. Before that he was still capable of love, of passion--even of playfulness, as we saw. But when Apollonia was killed, Michael was hit with the worst tragedy of his life. He was also saddled with the knowledge that the long arm of Mafia treachery extended right into Don Tomassino's supposedly secure compound--and that his wife was blown to bits by a bomb that was intended for him. After that, Michael was an emotional zombie. Sure, he had two bad shocks in II--Fredo's betrayal and Kay's estrangement and abortion. But by that time, he was too cold and self-centered to have been pushed over the edge. That happened in Sicily, years earlier.

Michael's life is a tragedy. The tragedy is in his choosing a life of crime when he had alternatives at every step in his descent. It's ther stuff of opera--which the Trilogy is in more ways than one.

TB, you're right about Michael's life being a tragedy and the reasons for it. The path he followed was his choice. However, power is intoxicating. Is anyone on this Board familiar with the life of a Mafia Don? I'd say no. Who knows what they think and feel. Does power go to their heads? How different is hteir decision-making different from ours. Many of us think we know what they think and feel and that is the standard against which we in these posts judge Michael's behavior. Of course, he was human; he made choices. His choices were probably made for the same reason that we all make choices; they are based on a combination of emotion and/or objectives. Murdering Fredo was an emotional decision; murdering Sollozzo was pursuant to a practical objective.

You make fair points. However I could never bring myself to harm somebody even for millions of dollars and I couldnt steal either. I think most people feel the same. The reasons i dont feel bad for mike is because he had every oppurtunity to live a straight life but he was greedy. i mean the immediate corleone family could have left the crime family to somebody else and just lived a normal life but they didnt

Actually, the most most wrenching emotional event was the murder of Mary.

Until that point, he was healing. The coldness is thawing. You even begin to see the playfulness return in GFIII. After that, there is no hope for Michael ever finding any sort of peace.

Beyond being a terrible personal tragedy, the murder of Mary demonstrates Michael's hypocrisy and ultimate failure. He justifies everything by saying he needed to protect his family. But he's lost almost everyone and, in the process of trying to get them back, loses his most beloved family member forever.

This is a perfect description.

It was put perfectly, and pithily at the beginning of III. Michael shouts at Kay, "I protected my family from the horrors of this world." And she replies, mildly but firmly, "But you became my horror."

Which is another reason why I didn't like GF3 that much. It spells everything out. Everything we know already. We know already by the end of GF that Kay understood that Michael has become the head of a crime organization. And in GF2 we see that he's losing his family by the way he is trying to protect them.
The scene where Michael is on his knees at the coffin of Don Tomassino is great acting, but in terms of storytelling - what do we get that we don't know already?

Michael was a sociopath but I concur about his alienation at the end of II. He's lost or alienated everyone he loves by his own hand.

I never thought about the fact that Fredo is the only person to encourage Michael. That is kind of ironic: Michael DID go his own way, like Fredo advised him.. and that way ultimately led to Fredo's death at Michael's order.

Micheal never wanted to be a gangster much less the boss of the family, this is made him so cut throat and cunning.
He has the attitude that if he has to be a gangster and a boss he is going to take a business attitude towards it and be the best he can be. This is what made him a good boss(if you can put good any a sentence with mob boss) the fact that if didnt even want to be one.