Michael's Soft Spot?

There's a pretty solid consensus here that Michael was a cold calculating S.O.B. who manipulated just about everyone, and who bonded with no one. How then is his apparent soft spot for Vincent explained? Vincent just shows up uninvited to his apartment, bites Zasa's ear, and Michael decides to take him in and become his mentor. When Vincent kills Zasa without Michael's ok, he doesn't punish him, but instead he tells him how much he loved his father, Sonny. When Vincent defies him by continuing to "see" Mary Michael promotes him to be his number two man, and takes him to Sicily to meet with Don Tomassino, and then he elevates him to be his successor. Admittedly he does manipulate Vincent into breaking it off with Mary but giving up being Don to someone who was a street thug just a few months before isn't exactly how he manipulated Tom Hagen.

No fair anyone saying this seeming contradiction is the result of GF III being a bad movie!

GF3

Michael is a different person in Part 3.

I think he summed it up best "because I cant do it anymore". I think he also meant that he doesn't want to do it anymore.

He was a finished man. All things had taken a toll. He was trying to leave a legit empire for his kids.

Not to be.


Personally, I didnt care for the whole redeption and "Death" of Michael Corleone.

IMO, the whole premise of GF3 is that Michael is a much different person that in GF1 and GF2. Still every bit as powerful, maybe even more so. Vincent is a rough thug, and handles things terribly at first, for sure, but his conflicts with Zasa are not so reprehensible to Michael, as Michael can't stand Joey himself. Michael was able to recognize that, although Vincent possessed the temper that was his father's downfall, he also possessed the qualities needed for taking over as the Don, with some refinement over time. Michael had just been told unequivocally that his son Tony would have nothing to do with his "business," so Michael's priority was to find and mentor someone to be the next Don, as he knew in his heart of hearts that he would not be able to carry the sceptre much longer. Who better to mentor that his nephew, who now had made himself available to Michael?

Yes, Michael is a different person - to a point. But his instincts are still pretty much intact. Vinnie is blood amidst a sea of flesh. Only Connie and Neri are are there from the old days. Like so many of us, Michael is a fatalist and does realize that he is vulnerable. If Connie saw Vinnie's strength as reflective of her father, than certainly Michael does also.

I don't think Michael had a soft spot for Vincent. He used and manipulated him, just as he did everyone else in his life:

Vincent's warning to Michael about Zasa, and Connie's complaint, shook Michael out of his Papal Knight reverie and made him aware that he still needed muscle after all. But first Michael tests Vincent: Michael throws him to the wolf (Zasa) by telling Zasa he has no quarrel with him and that Vincent is his to deal with; chiding Vincent in front of Zasa, then demanding that Vincent make his peace with Zasa. IMO, he was pushing Vincent to his limits, to see how willing Vincent was to be in Michael's service. When Vincent bites Zasa's ear, making the much more powerful Zasa his mortal enemy, Michael has Vincent where he wants him.

Vincent spends the rest of the film as Michael's ever-willing hachet man. With Immobiliare in his grasp, Michael anoints Vincen,then commands him to do the dirty work. The condition to be the new Don Corleone: he has to say goodbye to Mary.

I believe that if Michael had had his way, he'd have been "legitimate" as the head of Immobiliare, which he'd use to launder money. Mary would marry a respectable, truly legit, guy. Vincent would be his pit bull, scaring off would-be competitors and encroachers. Use, use, use.

Easy.

It was written into an already inferior story, thereby making the story even worse. Obviously, this seeming contradiction is the result of GF III being a bad movie!

To be fair though, also written in was Auntie Connie's prodding that Michael pay attention to Vincent, as she apparently saw him as the second coming of her father.

Apple

One other point about Michael using Vincent:

In the novel, Michael asks Vito why he needed Luca Brasi--"an animal like that?" Vito replies that there are men in the world with violent tempers "demanding to be killed...they shoult 'kill me, kill me'...a Brasi is a powerful weapon to be used. The trick is that since he does not fear death and indeed looks for it, then the trick is to make yourself the only man in the world he desires not to kill him."

It strikes me that Vincent fits that description broadly. He comes charging into the party, scuffles with security, tells Michael that Zasa is his sworn enemy, says he'll kill the infinitely more powerful Zasa, then insults Zasa and bites his ear--the classic invitation to mortal combat. In effect, he's shouting, "kill me, kill me." Michael cannot have failed to notice that. Perhaps he was thinking of his father's advice about using "a powerful tool."

Good point TB. But keep in mind that many if not most people evolve a demeanor,a way of thinking that can be quite a departure from how they previously acted and thought. I think that Vincent, once operating in the "constellations of power" adapted his behavior and thought to accomodate that operating environment. I think that is shown when he interacts with Lucchese et al and gives up Mary.

The way Vincent intereacts with Lucchesi is a striking illustration of how Vincent has learned the cooler, more calculated ways of dealing with your enemies. Certainly, Vincent takes care of business near the end of GF3 much in the same fashion as Michael does at the end of GF1, but is still capable of reverting to his former, more volatile ways at any given moment. One of the things I really enjoy about GF3 is seeing the transformation of Vincent from the beginning to the end. I mean, look at how suave he is when Michael makes him Don and compare that to the ass that he was when he comes into Michael's apartment. Garcia was excellent, IMO.

I thought the transition was too quick and not that believable.
I think Garcia did well enough with the script he had.

Point taken, Olivant. I did say Vincent "broadly" fit the description. However, it seemed (never convincingly to me) that Luca had a "cool" side--as when Vito said, "Go to the Tattaglias, make them think you're not to happy with our family...find out what he's got under his fingernails.

For me, I liked Vincent's character. I just wasnt believing him. Brando and Pacino had a screen presence so powerful that I didnt think they were acting. I believed what I was seeing.

With Garcia, I saw a guy who was acting and not so believable. I wanted to believe it just didnt work for me.




Agreed.

I think he was fair at best.

Keep in mind that he had to pretend he was in love with Sofia Coppola. Now THAT'S ACTING!

That is so funny because THOSE parts of the movie were the MOST believable when it came to his character.

Seriously.

LMAO...no doubt!

True enough. But, I think that the difference between Luca and Vinincent is that Luca never had an imperative to develop a cooler side (outside of his instructions from Vito) such as Vincent had. Luca was task oriented. Vinnie was capable of that and much more. Even Connie recognized that he was the only one left who had her father's strength. Of course, Vito's strength lay in knowing when to use violence and knowing when use persuasion.

Agreed.

Also Vincent could deliver his lines.