Don Michael Corleone - Irresistible, Ruthless yet Emotional

Movie - The God Father Series

Actor- Al Pacino (Michael Corleone), Marlon Brando (Don Vito Corleone)

Awards - 3 Oscars & More.

Director - Francis Ford Coppola

A best seller novel or three all time great movies... where will you put the persona magna of the character who is nothing less than a cult maker—the Don Michael Corleone. The one time Navy Cross awardee transforming into a dreaded mafia big shot and dying a lone man in a deserted park--- from New York to Nevada to Sicily… a long distance indeed… but Michael Corleone aka Al Pacino lets no stones unturned to make this memoirs ( of that of the Don) immortal in years to come.

Let’s have glimpse of the various facets of Michael Coreleone. “The Godfather” reveals that Vito Corelone (Michael’s father) never wanted Michael to be a part of mafia family and so did Michael himself. The pursuit of great American dream has inspired him to be a Marine to fight in the Pacific wars in WW2. But Michael understands that he is running after an illusion and he acknowledges this fact throughout his life. He knows being a member of Corleone family he can never be a legitimate person in the society but he runs after it through out his life—be it giving up his gambling interests to all other Mafioso or founding a charity (in the third sequel to the movie). There may be two reasons why Michael did so—first may be his personal conviction of a “American-life” or because his father wanted him to do so. He was inadvertently dragged into crime. He wanted to shed his established life as a socially respectful person only to take revenge on the assaulter of his father. It is his love for the family that he gives up his own dream and wields a gun. In the process he puts his love interest/marriage into danger too. With the assassination of his brother Sonny he becomes directly involved in mafia activity because he understands that without Sonny his father will be a lone man. The passive and calm Michael shows the dangerous persona of his with the death of his father. As a leader he was ruthless. He was as ruthless when he asks his father’s long time consigliere as he was when he orders the murder of his own Capo regime who planned a coup against him. The first sequel portrays Michael as a deadly young Mafia boss.

By the second sequel to the movie Michael tries to shake off the Mafia roots of his family. But this story has glimpses of Michael’s own personal downfall though Corelone family is elevated to the top spot. First, his father’s old associate betrayed him and no wonder had to face Michael’s wrath. Secondly, his tryst of going legal proved unsuccessful. His wife aborted his child because she never wanted to give birth to another Corelone and gets separated from Michael. And finally his older brother becomes a party to assassinate Michael. Michael clears all the problems to his life and to his family and kills his brother—a decision he regrets throughout his life.

Third sequel shows Michael’s downfall. He takes great steps to make family legitimate, patches up with his wife, adopts Sonny’s illegitimate son etc. But he finds himself always dragged into crime syndicate. At the end, with the death of his beloved daughter he retires from the Mafioso life and leads a life of seclusion repenting on what he did in his life. In Sicily he dies a lone man. The world has come round for Michael.

The journey of Michael may not be the one which can or should inspire a person, because after all he is a socially illegitimate person. But one should try to see through his heart, what hardship he has gone through. He dedicates his everything for the family which he loves so much yet hates it because of its criminal interests. He walks a life on the razor blade, but after all being Michael Corleone is not so easy. And despite all this the attitude he shows towards every body and the attitude that he feigns towards himself is worth a standing ovation. Hats off to a lonely soul, who had everything (man, money, mansion, Mercedes) and yet nothing!!

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