once Vito recovered, and made peace with the other families? Or was Michael already too involved to return to what he once was?
I think that was the plan, but everything changed when they killed his brother and his new wife, after that he became an angel of death.
shareI don't think he was thinking things through...
shareMichael thought everything thru.
At the hospital Michael decided to join the family business when he told his father "I'm with you now." Obviously. at that time he didn't know he would kill a a police captain , but he knew his old life was over, tho he probably still planned to marry Kay and go legit.
Once he decided to kill the captain, he knew he would be on the run.
Yes he did, except when he killed Solozzo and mcCluskey. I felt that was more of a reaction to getting his clock cleaned by Mccluskey.
shareYou need to rewatch the film. It is clear that is not the case.
shareI will gladly rewatch this film as many times as it takes!
shareI think I will also. I this is discussed in the scene where Mike suggests he do the murders.
shareis it this scene?
https://www.moviequotedb.com/movies/godfather-the/quote_9525.html
That's what I thought. I need to rewatch, then reevaluate my statement.
shareAfter Michael assassinated Sollozzo and McCluskey, was he planning to go back to his normal life...
Maybe hoped, but he likely knew he was in deep for some time at that point. But, I do believe he was hoping to deescalate once the main threats were disposed of. He planned to cool off in Sicily, return and, I'm guessing, ease the Corleones out of illegal activities. I don't think he was (always) lying when saying he wanted the family to go legitimate. That clearly changed for him over time, and I think he might have held onto that, lying to himself for awhile, too.
sharethe amount of times I've watched this film and I hadn't even thought about that! Someone's already mentioned Sonny's death on this thread - for me that would have changed everything in the sense that it would now be up to Michael to take over the family business, rather than how the event (and Apolonia's murder) may have changed Michael personally.
And with the don's declining health, it meant he had to take up the reigns pretty quickly after he'd settled back in America.
Had Sonny lived maybe Michael could have just come home and lay low and left the gangster stuff to him....then again it was Sonny's death that prompted the Don to call an end to the war so that Michael could come home, otherwise he's staying in Sicily for much longer!
Could Vito have made peace? Remember Michael served in the military and he gets punched down by a corrupted chief of police protecting someone who ordered a hit on his father. That's quite personal.
sharePerhaps if the Corelone family had gone to great lengths with their "in the pocket press" to finger somebody else for the Solozzo-McClusky murders, they could try to put Michael up as an "outstanding businessman" and maybe even indeed run him for office.
But it seemed like Michael's plan was simply to "join the Mafia" and try to take their businesses legit. Or as legit as casinos can be.
The real-life Mafia has a few stories of children breaking off from their Mafia parents and finding "legit" careers..or marrying into other families with legit relatives.
> After Michael assassinated Sollozzo and McCluskey, was he planning to go back to his normal life
I don't think so. In the novel, after he fled to Sicily but before he met Apollonia, he "thought of Kay, though he felt they could never again be lovers or even friends. He was, after all was said, a murderer, a mafioso who had 'made his bones.'" A mafioso. So it seems he considered killing McCluskey and Sollozzo to be tantamount to joining the Corleone Family instead of just being part of the family.
I've always felt this was something of a plot hole, the idea that he could never go back, although I suppose it's a necessary plot hole to make the story work. He could have said to Sonny and Tom, "OK, I'll kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, because I'm the only one that can get close enough to them to do it. I'll do it to save my father's life. When I've done that I'll have paid my debt to him. Then get me into hiding somewhere, do whatever you have to do to ensure I never have to worry about being charged with the murders, then get me back. After that, I've still got my own life to live."
In the novel, he was "cleared" of the murders in an interesting way. A member of another criminal family, Felix Bocchicchio, had stayed out of their crime life in the same way Michael had at first. He had become a lawyer but was struggling to make a living, so when three men approached him and asked him to help pull off a bankruptcy fraud he agreed. The fraud failed, and the other three immediately turned on Felix and basically pinned the whole thing on him. They got suspended sentences while Felix did three years in prison. After his release, Felix gunned the three men down, not even trying to conceal that he was the perpetrator. He was immediately arrested, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death. When the Bocchicchios asked Vito to intervene, after reviewing the situation he responded that there was simply nothing he could do -- the evidence against Felix was too solid and extensive, and Vito was not a magician. But then Vito came up with a brainstorm. The Corleones promised Felix that if he would confess to the murders of Sollozzo and McCluskey, his wife and children would never have to worry about money again. So Felix did that. But just to be safe, Vito waited until Felix was executed before bringing Michael home.
The Corleones promised Felix that if he would confess to the murders of Sollozzo and McCluskey, his wife and children would never have to worry about money again. So Felix did that. But just to be safe, Vito waited until Felix was executed before bringing Michael home.
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I have read a number of novels that were made into famous movies, but for the most part, I cannot remember them.
Its interesting to have this input from the novel(thank you, BullSchmidt) --I had no memory of "the Felix story" at all . Knowing about "the Felix story" is particularly interesting because, while on the one hand, it gives us a fairly detailed explanation of why certain things in the movie happen, on the other hand, it gives us a lesson in how Coppola "pared down" the novel to get the great movie we have. (And to win the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for 1972...a BIG prize.)
I'm not sure that "the Felix story" would have really mattered much in the movie as we've got it. Indeed, with Sonny dead and Don Vito wounded, MIchael pretty much had to come back and take over the reigns. In a movie pressed for time, "the Felix story" simply wouldn't be that important.
> I'm not sure that "the Felix story" would have really mattered much in the movie as we've got it.
I think that for the movie's purposes, it would have been a waste of time. In the novel, the Corleones are not only worried about the other Families revenging themselves upon Michael, but also what the police might do. And they're not worried about the real evidence implicating Michael, they can take care of that. Rather, they're worried about evidence the police might fabricate against him -- or, the possibility that after arresting him they might murder him and make it look like he committed suicide. The way they see it, they can't even risk him being arrested. The movie doesn't mention any danger from the police, instead presenting the situation that once Vito makes his speech at the conference -- "I'm a superstitious man, and if anything bad happens to Michael I would blame the ill will of some of the men here." -- and all present come to an agreement, that's it, the path for Michael's return is all clear.
In Puzo's novel, the Bocchicchios are a particularly dim-witted lot, unable to compete with the other Sicilian Families. They do have one talent they make use of -- their unmatched ferocity and zeal for vengeance. When one of their own is wronged, nothing stops them from getting revenge, even if it takes a suicide mission to do it. So, when it's necessary for hostile parties to have a "sit down," the Bocchicchios are often hired as hostages. For example, when Michael met with Sollozzo and McCluskey, Sollozzo hired a Bocchicchio hostage to be held by the Corleones. Had Michael been killed, the Corleones would have killed the hostage. Then the Bocchicchios would have blamed Sollozzo for their kinsman's death and would have killed him. (Sollozzo did not ask for and did not receive a hostage to guarantee his own safety; he knew there was no point.) Later, when Vito asked the other Dons to meet with him for a peace conference, they were suspicious -- until he said he would pay for Bocchicchio hostages to guarantee the safety of all who attended the conference.
The movie didn't use the Bocchicchios, but Mark Winegardner made use of them in his Godfather novels, The Godfather Returns and The Godfather's Revenge, authorized by Mario Puzo's estate. Fan reaction to the books was mixed. Personally I liked them, although I agree with what seems to be the consensus criticism that the two books contain about 1-1/2 books worth of good material.
Michael wasn’t stupid. He knew there was no turning back from killing McCluskey and Solozzo. He may not have been involved in the business previously but, I’m sure he saw quite a bit. With Vito’s attempted murder and Sonny’s murder, Michael knew he was in for life.
share