I completely agree with you about everything in terms of real life @JCRUSHER. But it's alway interesting to see how people would portray Michael's character given the situation that he is facing.

Wouldn't you be consumed with revenge if your family members were getting killed one by one? Even though all you wanted was an innocent lifestyle?

On top of that just to make things worse, your own brother inlaw was beating on your baby sister and personaly setted up your oldest brother to be murdered by your fathers enemies?

It wouldn't be easy to "simply walk away" after all that. He had to clean up his fathers business (which took years)

Yeah but that was the life Vito chose. Sonny also chose that life but i also blame vito because his sons saw what he was doing and wnated to emualate him. But sonny was much different than mike in regards to family because he would never harm them. Mike on the other hand had no problem killing family members because he was just evil at that point

Michael does show compassion. Remember the beginning in part 2, Fredo's wife was embarassing them at the party which Fredo had to apologize for. Michael responds in a kind way ensuring Fredo that he is a brother and never has to apologize. He also promises to take care of Connie and ensures her she can have anything she wants.

I think you misinterpret those scenes. The Fredo scene was just mike talking down to fredo like he was a child. And the Connie scene seemed to be more bullying than "compassion. I mean i part 2 mike is pretty much pure evil with no soul

Michael only killed one family member - Fredo

I thought it felt more like compassion. Those scenes may just scenes but in the reality of his world, Michael did take care of the whole family no different then Vito did for his.

Telling Connie to stay with the family and gets to have anything she wants is hardly bullying lol. Michael just seemed cold at that moment cause she was making childish decisions (marrying a random dude)

He was trying to control her. it doesnt matter whether she was making childish decisions. I mean her husband even though he was a dickhead was still murdered the of their child's baptsim by her brother tahst pretty dark shit. Hey im not defending Carlo since he was a jerk but i think you are making excuses for Mike lol

True but Carlo was family by marriage but i hate carlo just as bad as mike. also killing your brother who has a good heart and taht everybody liked is kind of a big deal lol

haha ok ok..Fredo did have a good heart, maybe he was just too scared of Michael, so that could be why he didn't confess everything. But you should go easy on Michael's character. He had to handle a multi million dollar company & free himself of enemies at the same time lol

dude i hope you are kidding. I mean he is a murderer of both men and women. So im sorry if im being too hard on him

I have to support Trilogy a bit. I think the movies make a good work in showing Michael motivation for his actions.

I think Michael loved Kay and his kids more than he loved Fredo (he is so stupid that he almost got them killed so he has to go).
He loved Sonny more than he cared for Carlo or Connie's feelings (and he was also a security risk).
He loved his mother more than he wanted to destroy Fredo after what he did to Kay and the kids.
He loved his father more than he could refuse to take over the family. And he started killing to protect him and his siblings who were in immediate danger because of the policeman.
He tried to protect Fredo and Connie and Kay but he wanted to protect them with sheer power (not letting Kay go out for shopping etc).
I think the movie also shows why Michael thinks that power is the only way in life (the betrayal of his father when he tries to play nice, corrupt police, his jaw is broken, the recurring racism he is facing even when he is powerful).He tried to be a soldier to get respect, tried to go to good school but the the society is not really appreciating his efforts to fit in to say the least.
Were his actions forgivable? No and he knows that.
Could he have done differently? If he was not compassionate about his identity, father, mother, wife, kids.. maybe.
Did he completely destroy all of his human relationships while he was trying to protect them? Yes.

Yes. And the way Michael tried to pursue his "love" was violence, again and again.

I'll concede that Michael probably loved his daughter, Mary, but he never knew how to express it. To get to her he named her the head of some foundatiion he started, and even Mary questioned the legitimacy of that operation. Bottom line? He tried to buy her love.

As for this shibboleth that Fredo had a good heart, and which permeates everything about the GF Trilogy, I fail to see anything Fredo ever did that showed he had a good heart.
Examples anyone?

Yes i can give examples. First of all i never said Fredo was a saint but compared to his brothers he is probably the only one who has a chance to go to heaven lol. I mean when his father gets shot and when his mother dies he gets very emotional which shows he loved them very much even though they didnt think that much of him. Also Fredo spending time with Anthony is important. teaching him how to fish is something Mike never would do or would want to do. Heck he never even knew what his son got for Christmas.

Thanks for the support!

A chance to go to heaven? Fredo was running a brothel house, which means he was involved in the murder of that prostitute. Also he was scheming and providing intel to Michael's enemies knowing fully the risks that could happen to Michael & The Family.

Fredo was always loved by his family but his actions showed he just wasn't dependable which Fredo will never understand that. His jealousy and stupidness made him a secret threat to Michael.

And of course they would say "he has a good heart" since he is lacking muscle/intelligence to run a family.

Trilogy i know the mafia sounds cool but you cant excuse a character liek mike who killed men women and family. I mean i gotta be honest im a little surprised that you have no emotions over what mike did. yes its only a movie but people like mike exist in the world unfortunetly

No no, i'm not a fan of the mafia or anything. I just feel bad for Michael's character from where he started..to where he ended. I'm glorified of the story line/characters but nothing else that is related in real life.

I did a english project few years back on The godfather which made me think more in depth about the decisions and tranistions that were made from father to son.

If you really think about it, The Corleone family were viewed as good people.

-Vito never harmed anyone to benefit himself. He protected his community and was loved, not feared. Even though he was a "mafia" leader.
- The family activites didn't really harm inncoent ppl. They stayed away from drugs and prostitution.
-Michael fought for his country which shows he cared for inncoent

Trilogy, that is what makes the GF films a classic saga. It is a family story that ends in complete tragedy.

The reason i dont feel bad for mike is because he made those choices. I understand protecting your family but he could have easily named tessio or clemenza as boss and gotten his immediate family out of the life. Mike deserved everything he got in the end

This may seem ridiculous to you but, considering my opinion on animals' rights and what Vito had done to that horse, I wouldn't have been too displeased if somebody presented his head to the Corleone family like he did with the horse's head to Woltz (yes, I know Woltz was a pedophile, but it was him who deserved to die, not the horse).

If Michael left everything to those guys, then Michael would have absolute no power what so ever. Keep in mind Michael & Vito orchestrated the massacre so there will always be people out there hunting him. Once they find out he gave up evrything, Michael would be killed immediately.

I feel bad for the horse too. I may have exaggerated slightly then.

Anyway, I got the impression that it wasn't the film creators' intention to make us sympathize with Michael. I think the scene where he "renounces" his sins and right at the same moment his hitmen start to whack everybody he doesn't like clearly shows the hypocrisy of the mafia, whatever "noble" intentions its leader may originally have.
I agree that most of the people he killed were criminals themselves, but if somebody kills a criminal, it will be easier for him to kill an innocent later.

Wow. I mean most of us eat animals and that poor horse's head actually came from the butcher's.The rest of it was eaten by real "people in your neighborhood". you would kill off 90% of the people too because they eat cute chickens and piglets?

I am not saying I would kill them, don't mock me. The animals themselves eat one another too. But, if people can't do without meat, they could at least keep it to their needs, without butchering animals just to settle scores with each other.
It's like with hunting: I can understand if a starving peasant in Africa goes hunting to feed his family, but it's completely different if somebody rich with nothing to do goes and kills animals just to entertain himself.

Just because we never see Vito being involved in violence doesn't mean he was an angel. He ordered people to kill. What do you think how did he handle union problems? And Luca Brasi was more than just a body guard. If the band leader hadn't signed the Fontane contract Luca would have shot him.

Also, helping Luca after he burned a baby alive is infamous even compared to the actions of most other criminals.

Exactly. The first film does a great job of avoiding what it is the Corleone Organization really does. But extortion, labor racketeering, loan sharking, etc are not victimless crimes.

I didn't read the books, so I wasn't too familiar with the background stories. It was late when I wrote that last statement