Michael - A tragic family hero or a villain

Please share your thoughts. Many people who have seen the movie viewed Michael as one of the most evil characters that survived.

Everyone loves Vito, but is Vito any different than Michael? Vito killed in clod blood, he was mastermind who successfully orchestrated all the family deaths, and he groomed Michael into the man he was. Actually, if Vito were alive to see Michael's supremacy, I would say Vito would be quite proud.

I always said everything Micheal did was for the sake of his family and their future, but no one seems to agrees with me, so is Michael a truly evil person? Even though he was cold to his family members, but anyone would act like that if they had an empire to run & a family to protect.

To me, the question is something of a false dichotomy. One of the fundamentally fascinating aspects of the entire Godfather saga is its moral complexity, how it juxtaposes the demands of environment and circumstance vs. personal character, and how it challenges the reader and/or viewer to put himself in the place of any of the characters, then answer truthfully: "How would I have behaved had it been me in that character's place?"

One of the most illustrative examples is the case of young Vito, growing up as he did in the Mafia-infested culture of late 19th Century Sicily, having experienced the trauma of the murder of his entire family at the hands of the local don, only to be whisked away across the ocean to a new land where he would quickly need to fend for himself.

Even as an honest young man in New York, his fate and his fortune were still being constrained and co-opted by the Black Hand. He finally began to thrive only once he took matters into his own hands, and began to play rough himself.

Vito's entire life up until that point had been one in which might makes right, only the predatory survive, and whatever you want in life, you must be prepared to take it away from whoever is keeping it from you. He never knew any other kind of life. Is it really any wonder that he became the person he ultimately became?

U both make good point ,but one forget Vito did what he did to survive Michael did not have to do it the family was well off by the time the family was under attack.To me he is both a hero and villain.

If Michael didn't continue his strength, someone else would be gunning for his empire,someone like Roth.

If I was in Michael's situation, I don't know if I would handle it any different than he had. Michael built his empire into the billions, making Vito's fortune look small during his time. Michael created a skill to balance both his worlds of legitimate & illegitimate enterprises under one umbrella while still managing to fly underneath the radar and triumphing over the senate and authorities.

I don't believe Michael was ever a villain, he believed in family and loyalty, never mistreated Kay or cheated her & gave everything to his family. A hero for-sure.

I never viewed Michael as evil, and if he was, it was 'necessary evil' only. I do believe Michael truly wanted to protect his family, but he somehow didn't see that his actions were also driving his family apart. I agree with you on Vito.

There are a couple things that set Michael apart from Vito. If I HAD to choose one to be "more evil" than the other it would have to be Michael. Here is why:
Michael CHOSE to serve in the war and not go straight to college. Besides the one murder we saw Vito commit (the one where he slit the throat of the Don who killed his parents in Sicily in GFII) Vito did not seek out violence and vengeance, he merely provided structure and backbone/support for those Italians in New York who were being bullied by the blackhand. Michael wanted to fight in the war, meaning he had a subconscious or conscious lust to learn how to kill. Vito wanted to pull strings to keep all his sons out of the draft and Michael willingly challenged that.
Second thing that made Michael more likely to be a villain/more ruthless would be losing his first wife. It shows in a deleted scene he sought vengeance in her death, he had his body guard who planted the bomb in Sicily murdered the second he found him working at a pizza place in the states... so he was one to seek revenge, similar to how planned and executed the hits on the The Turk and the police Captain. I still think Michael took the punch in the face a little personal. Also it seems like he may have handled the casino licensing issue with the senator a bit TOO harshly.. meaning he didn't necessarily have to pay the high price the senator demanded, but Michael didn't even want to pay the 20,000 standard fee AND he had the prostitute killed to make the senator even more desperate and compliant to Michael's every say. So it seems to be that perhaps Michael craved an Empire and power more than he craved financial stability and safety for Kay and his kids. However, I do think the death of his first wife is something that changed him, if she would have never been killed and they would have returned to the states together, safely, I think Michael would have chosen a different life path.. one that was more family and work oriented.

I hate both Vito and Michael, and I think I'm supposed to, it's not like they tried to portray them as "sympathetic". For example, the scene where Michael "renounces his sins" and right at the same moment his hitmen start whacking everybody clearly shows the extreme hypocrisy of the mafia mentality (a really powerful scene in my opinion). As for Vito, I think the fact alone that he helped Luca Brasi to get off the hook after he burned a baby alive is enough to be upset that he died too late and a natural death.

I dont have one bit of sympathy for Mike. The character is extremely well written and Pacino did a great job but he is a a villain. I dont buy that he was a tragic figure who did what he did for his family. Mike is very similar to Walter White in breaking bad. Throught the show Walt says he did it for his family UNTIL the final episode where he finally admits taht he did it for himself. Mike really cared about power and greed. He had choices to stay out of the mob but he chose to be a don. He murdered a ton of people, many were bad but some didnt deserve to die. In teh end of Godfather 3 Mike got exactly what he deserved, you reap what you sow

I don't hate Vito or Michael. And I don't condemn them as purely evil, despite the evil things each of them had done. I even have a certain degree of sympathy for them, as I would for anyone caught up in such a life as that - notwithstanding their own choices, and their own complicity in their suffering, and the suffering of those around them.

I don't think that being a tragic figure and being a villain are necessarily mutually exclusive states. On the contrary, as it is the wicked who ultimately suffer the most, it could be argued that a life of villainy is the ultimate tragedy.

The entire Godfather story bears this out in vivid detail, as we see - bit by bit - the ways in which maintaining, protecting & expanding a criminal enterprise eats away at all that is good and wholesome, i.e. love, trust, innocence, compassion, forgiveness...even one's very family and all whom one holds dear. We see the specific ways in which such criminal activities are basically incompatible with those good things - and how, if persistently pursued, they will ultimately consume them and destroy them.

Kay got it right during the D.C. hotel scene, when she stated: "Oh, Michael! You are blind!" Because Michael had become blind. And desensitized. And cold. And hateful. And what is that, if not tragic?

One thing that I noticed -- the counterpointing in The Godfather: Part II makes it evident -- separates Vito from Michael.

At least twice in GF-II we see someone acting on behalf of Michael shot and killed when things don't quite work.

Yet, when one of Vito's men is injured in the raid on Don Ciccio's villa, they hold up their escape to rescue him from further harm.

It left me with the impression that the father showed more concern for his soldiers, and thus was more deserving of their loyalties.

Very True Mike didnt give a damn about his soldiers/capos. remember when he basically ordered Rocco to go on a suicide mission to kill Roth. He didnt seem to care that his loyal capo was gonna die

EDITED OUT SPAM - SC