Analyzing Evil: Michael Corleone From The Godfather

Welcome everyone to the forty-fifth episode of Analyzing Evil! Our feature villain for this video is Michael Corleone from The Godfather. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for watching. If you have any feedback or questions feel free to let me know below!

The song in this video, Tana Slip Into The Abyss, was provided by CO.AG Music. You can find more of their work here:

#TheGodfather #MichaelCorleone #AlPacino

[osama_bin_mladen]

What I always have found interesting is that Michael was a war hero. He received a medal for his bravery in WW2. But when he comes home they treat him as a young innocent sibling who isn't ready for tough lifestyle. Even when he is the one who survived hell of war and received a medal for it.

[humanbeing]

19:55 Hyman Roth was NEVER "sick and dying", it was all act to make him appear less threatening than he actually was. Hyman's whole MO was to put his enemies at ease by feigning illness to make his enemies think that he about to die of natural causes. If people thought he was dying of natural causes, what would be the need to plot an assassination on him? Even Michael picks up this tactic by Hyman where he's says something along this lines of "he's being dying of the same heart attack for 20 years".

[StephenSchaal]

I always thought the most important moment in the first movie is when Michael and the baker scare off the men coming for his dad. When the baker goes to light his cigarette and his hands is shaking, Michael's hand was steady. It's hard to say what exactly Michael is thinking, but that moment is when he really seems to change.

[yr]

It's crazy how the studio didn't want pacino to the role, his performance is one of the best has ever seen in cinema history.

[qjames]

Godfather I: Michael is too cheesey to be a gangsta
Godfather II: Michael's too brutal to lead the family
Godfather III: *JUST WHEN I THINK I'M OUT THEY PULL ME BACK IN*

[sotiriospeithis]

I love Michael's death scene because it is the mirror opposite of his father Vito's. Both die in a countryside garden house, but whereas Vito passes away playing and laughing with his grandson, the future if a family he has managed to keep close despite his lifestyle, Michael dies broken and alone

[brilsraist]

I heard this analogy that I think sums up the mafia very well: The Godfather is how they wanted to be seen, gentleman criminals with a code of ethics they hold to, and Goodfellas is how they actually were, a bunch of goons hopped up on their own hype

[davidpaz]

Michael at his most calm and ruthless is when he tells Carlo that he had to answer for Sonny.

*"Don't be afraid, Carlo. Come on. Do you think I'd make my sister a widow?"*

[Britton_Thompson]

The only shortcoming the film has in regards to the original novel is author Mario Puzo's emphasis that the reason Vito Corleone— a dangerous mob boss —was treated with an unrealistic reverence by everyone was because he was such an outlier. He was a genuinely compassionate benefactor to honest, working class Italians, who didn't prey on his community and his own kind the way all the other New York crime families did.

The #1 criticism of the Godfather's detractors has always been that it presents an overly glorified, unrealistic depiction of a mob boss. That it gives a false impression of the mafia being an enterprise with a certain amount of innate nobility. The novel points out that nothing could be further from the truth, and that this is why Vito is the protagonist. This is why he cultivated such an inflated reverence. His story is interesting simply because his personality is so out of place in the underworld. Puzo makes it clear that Vito is an anomaly, and that this is why he fostered such loyalty and respect among everyone who knew him.

The other NYC crime families were every bit as authentically predatory and morally corrupt as their real life counterparts. But not Vito. No, Vito truly was unique amongst his contemporaries, and this is why the Corleones had such an unnatural air of majesty by everyone else around them.

[Blitzo]

One of the best character arcs ever put to cinema

[zickykane]

When Michael took the life of his Brother Fredo, he was never the same. One of his most dark acts.

[Immy_Islam]

How did Pacino not win the Oscar for part 2? The emotions he makes with his face alone should have given him that award.

[amandawallace]

I think it's also worth mentioning that Michael waited until their mother passed before he enacted his revenge on his brother. Even though it was a compromise between the director and the writer based on the writers unhappiness at the director's idea to have Michael order Fredo's death, to me really says something. He sat there with all that anger and resentment, and waited patiently. It was not a crime of passion or impulsive anger. It was a decision that he made, waited to enact, and stuck to when the time came. And I think that makes it even more impactful

[CallForGrandPappy]

Watching Godfather 1 and 2, and then Scarface, really shows how flexible and talented of an actor Pacino is

[naimaismail]

Michael's evolution into the heartless Don is one of the most interesting things in cinematic history. He was a very calculated man, with a cool head for the most part. He was a man that was so broken, but knew he chose the life. Killing Fredo solidifies that he's evil imo even if he regretted it later. I do think he was naturally a good hearted family man but the mafia life corrupted his soul.

[Ilija]

Analyzing Evil is such a unique and interesting series...thanks for the videos

[joem]

The problem with Fredo is this wasn't the first time. In the first movie he had made a similar deal with Moe Green against the family. He was given a second chance then. The life he chose rarely has second chances and never a third. Would it really have been wise for Michael to even just exile him? Besides the fact that he would very likely make the same mistake a third time, as he had already shown he wasn't likely to learn, but letting him live past the death of his mother would have been seen as weakness by the other families.

No, Michael's mistake wasn't in having Fredo killed then, at that point it was unavoidable. No, Michael's mistake was in letting Fredo have any ability to make such a mistake after Moe Green. Fredo should have had zero power and always had someone with him to make sure he didn't make this kind of mistake. Fredo's downfall was his brother loved him too much to sideline him completely.

[Ironheart]

I never saw Michael as evil. He is just a tragic hero. He lost his soul trying to protect his family, and still ended up dying alone.

[siegfriedo]

Michael Corleone and Scarface are two characters, that absolutely immortalized Al Pacino in the movie world.

[kimmolaine]

Michael Corleone is one of the most cold and calculating characters ever put in cinema.. I only cried for him when he screamed for Fredo during his insulin shock.