Rewatching both films again over Thanksgiving it got me thinking about both “antagonists” Brazini and Roth. As we know Both create intelligent plans to destroy the Corleone Family and both nearly work only failing because a stroke of luck. I’ll start with Barzini

As we know Barzini was the mastermind of the plot to kill Vito and become the Boss of Bosses. However he used The Tattaglia Family and their narcotics man Sollozzo to execute his plan. It’s really brilliant because Vito and us as the audience think that it’s the Tattaglia Family who are the main adversary. Obviously Vito surviving was pure luck. He was also able to manipulate people with the Corleone Family like Paulie Gatto to turn on them and later use Carlo Rizzi to execute Sonny. Eventually for a time Barzini does seem to get what he wants since the Corleones have been severely weakened, they now can get into narcotics, and get some political influence from Vito. However this is where Barzini makes his mistakes. As the commission meeting he overplays his hand and Vito is able to deduce that he was the mastermind all along. You could also argue that Barzini’s biggest mistake was not finishing the Corleone family when he had the chance. Unbeknownst to him he allowed Mike and Vito to formulate a long term plan and counter attack. Even though Barzini planned to kill Mike with his classic tactics it was too late and Mike saw it coming. In the end despite the brilliant plan the Corleone Family ended up becoming as strong or even stronger than before.

Roth takes a different approach. In the beginning Mike and Roth are in the middle of a big deal. Mike sees this as top priority whereas this is just a ruse. Despite Pentangeli telling him not to trust Roth Mike is blinded by the prospects of the deal and nearly pays for. Similar to Vito he survives by pure luck. Unlike the First film Mike knows who is enemy is right away. You would think that means the plan was bad but quite the opposite. Roth had several backup plans. He had the Rosatos/Frankie beef to use to his advantage as well as the senate lawyer Questadt to bring Mike down. Even though Roth had his own luck surviving an attempt on his life in Havana he still has his plan in motion. The one mistake he made was revealing his vengeance about Moe Greene. Roth was a master at keeping his emotions in check but he slipped there. Also using Fredo turned to backfire since Fredo drunkingly said he knew both Roth and Ola. Also Fredo eventually told Mike about Questadt which ended up saving Mikes ass otherwise he would have gone to jail most likely. In the end Roth loses but I feel he caused lasting damage. Think about it in his quest to bring down Roth he lost two of his capos, his brother, his wife, etc. part of it was self inflicted but part of it was Roth too. So even though Roth lost I felt his plan was the better one since it caused long term damage unlike Barzini’s plan which despite the damage it caused to the Corleones it ended up making them stronger.


Interested to hear your thoughts!