The Godfather, Part II

First off, I wasn't a big fan of these flashbacks--they were really dated and fake looking.

Michael's commitment to his family is remarkable--"She may be beautiful for you. For me, there is only my wife and my son." He is a loyal man--he also shows his loyalty when he joins the army, a move his family cannot understand. He has certain ethical values, although the rest of ethics is all mixed up and doesn't at all correspond to the law (which is also sometimes corrupt), but rather to what he can get away with. The political relationships among the crime families are some alternative society they've founded. The leaders of the families make decisions based on what will work (the pragmatism is evident when the Godfather forgoes vengeance for Sonny's death in order to restore peace and stability). When Michael kills the cop, however, he revises the order among the families (previously the families might bribe the cops, but that they would not harm them).

Ethics get all mixed up again when Kay aborts their child and tells Michael that she's going to divorce him. Kay maintains that the reason is the immorality of the family business, into which she refuses to bring another child. As always, Michael maintains that he is involved in crime for the sake of his family. But because of the crime, he begins to lose them.

At the end of the second Godfather, we see that Michael no longer upholds the all-about-family ethic of his father (he has his uncle and brother killed--his brother is killed while he is saying a Hail Mary in a shot that powerfully juxtaposes violence and religion).

It was very interesting to me that Michael was hesitant about his involvement in Cuba, given the political oppression. He had great insight into politics--if the rebel would rather commit suicide than be taken in by the police, then the situation was clearly problematic. Here, we see that his crimes depended on a somewhat stable political system that enforced the rule of law.


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