When the Don and Tom come back after making peace at the meeting with the 5 families, he tells Tom to keep an eye on rocco, he's worth something better. And, as always he was right. But what did he see in rocco, he drove them and did what was expected of him. What was it that caught the ever-alert eye of Don Vito?
Reviving this old thread, I was leafing through the other day, and this (after Bonasera was ushered out) caught my eye:
He noted that his first-born, masculine son was gazing through the window at the garden party. It was hopeless, Don Corleone thought. If he refused to be instructed, Santino could never run the family business, could never become a Don. He would have to find somebody else. And soon. After all, he was not immortal.
Obviously, by the time Vito tells Tom to keep an eye on Rocco, everything has been turned upside down and Michael must become the new Don. It's possible, though, that this curious remark from Vito arises from conversations with his personnel manager Clemenza (who valued Rocco's "good judgment") about young men outside of the inner circle who could be groomed for leadership in the next generation. Clemenza himself need not have been told that head of the Family was among the positions that Vito was trying to fill.
