Hi everyone i was just wondering was the corleone family involved in drugs directly when mike was boss and when vinny took over?Just wondeing i mean they hinted it but they never directly mentiond it just aT THE meeting vincent and mike and every one had in sicily.Thanks in advance

Hello Pinch-

Vito made the deal to get involved in the drug trade because it was part of the plan to get Michael back home and end the war. He basically had no choice after Sonny was killed and Mike was still in exile.

But FFC and Puzo were slick in their writing and directing. Fully knowing that the average viewer would take a liking to this Corleone family, they at first made us see that Vito was a man with morals. A man that would not get into the drug trade because it was a "dirty business." A decision that would sit well with the viewer and make the viewer like and respect this family.

So FFC and Puzo give us this scenario where the Family and it's characters that we have grown to like are put into a position where they have no choice but to agree to getting involved so that they can save one of the characters who has become a fan favorite during this movie. Wouldn't you do the same thing if you were "forced" into a postion where you had to agree to something like that to save your son?

But lo and behold this Mafia Don, this Don that the viewer has taken sides with, this Don with basic morals has a plan. His son will eradicate all these enemies, these bad guys who've also become our enemies, who've "forced" our beloved characters into getting into that "dirty business" of drugs against their will!

And when we see this plan unfold right before our eyes, and the enemy who has now become the viewer's enemy, we cheer deep down inside because this family that we've sort of bonded with over the last few hours of watching this movie has made a step back in the direction of morality. They've taken out all those bad guys who dealt in that "dirty business" of drugs. Those bad guys who "forced" them into the drug trade.

Now with those enemies gone what does FFC and Puzo imply to us? They imply that Michael and the Corleone family can now make a clean break from the drug trade, a business that his father never wanted to get into. By Michael selling everything in New York and moving out west to get into the Casino business, it is implied to the viewer, never actually said, but implied that Michael and The Corleones could start with a clean slate now, and get away from that "dirty business" of drugs.

But don't you believe for one minute that Michael abandoned the business of dealing in drugs. He just knew how to distance himself from it, but at the same time reap the benefits of being involved in it. Because there was a "lot of money in that white powder," and he knew it.

After that meeting with the Commission where Vito agrees to the deal, I don't believe that we ever see or hear about the Corleone's being involved in the drug business for the rest of the movie. FFC and Puzo were smart enough to imply, as I have explained above, that The Corleone's were getting away from the drugs. And by not mentioning the drug business again for the rest of the movie, and making the clean start implication, they knew that they would keep the viewer loving, respecting and on the side of the characters that they created for us to like; Michael and his family.


Don Cardi

Excellent post DC. For all the reasons you stated above, that's why I have always thought it was a stroke of genius for FFC to have Michael kill Fredo in GF II. Like you said, the Corleone family becomes the "good guys" in the first movie, even though they truly are criminals and murderers. The viewer is openly rooting for these criminals to succeed, so when he or she begins watching GF II, they are also looking upon the family as the heroes yet again. The killing of Fredo, at least for me as a viewer, makes you re-think that idea and you get a completely different feel about the family. Just as FFC and Puzo brilliantly make you subconsciously sympathize with the Corleones and the way they were, they pull you back in the opposite direction and make you realize that these people truly are criminals who are capable of killing their own family for their own personal gain.

Just for a while against Barzini and Tataglia, it was part of the plan, in THE GF 3 Michael asked Joey Zasa what he would do if he knew someone is dealing with drugs, and Zasa said he cannot guarantee there is not anyone who do that, but he can kill him. But in GF4 Vincent will get into drug bussines and the Corleone family´s regin will be over.

I believe that after Micheal "finish all family business" I think they stopped dealing in drugs, after all it was Barzini and Tattaglia that wanted to deal in the first place, so I think they stopped if temporaily dealing in narcotics, but I also think that as time went on it became inevitable expecially with Don Vito gone that the family got back into it, one for the profits and two because all the other families were going to get involved also



Joe Batters

Maybe not. In GF2 Pentangelli complains about the Rosato Brothers selling in their own neighborhood and their choice of associates in that business. He denounces that their entire focus is on dope, but he doesn't really condemn the trade in dope outright. Of course, an old timer like him probably wouldn't be involved in dope. Maybe the Corleones assigned that busines to a limited number of people.

It seems that in reality once a family or borgata gets into drugs they don't get out of it, and it usually leads to their destruction.

Yer i agree with the post up above

Of course, Vito had no "moral" objections to the drugs business. He said his friends in politics wouldn't be friendly very long because they believed that "drugs is a dirty business." What did Vito think? As he told Sollozzo, "Understand...it makes no difference to me how a man earns his living. But your business is a little too risky." Right, Vito: your objection to drugs isn't moral--it's because drugs are a threat to your regular businesses of gambling and unions.
But don't you believe for one minute that Michael abandoned the business of dealing in drugs. He just knew how to distance himself from it, but at the same time reap the benefits of being involved in it. Because there was a "lot of money in that white powder," and he knew it.

Don Cardi [/QUOTE]
Exactly! I'm sure that, like Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano and other Dons who were "against" drug trafficking, Michael didn't look too closely at the sources of the money that was kicked upstairs to him.