Comparing Vito and Michael Corleone

A man’s daughter suffers a great injustice. He exhausts all his legitimate avenues for justice, and finally turns to the underworld mob boss, Vito. But his request offends the boss. Why? Because he asks the Godfather to kill in vengeance? No, that’s not really the reason. It’s because this man, this undertaker by trade, did not have the personal relationship, the close familiar ties, to ask for such a thing. For truly, by the Don’s own words, 

“Had you come to me in friendship, then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And that by chance if an honest man such as yourself should make enemies, then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you.” 

 But because this man comes to the Don offering money, as a pure business proposition, this is disrespectful. By the end of the scene, the undertaker takes his cue, and kisses the Don’s hand, addressing him as “The Godfather.” Essentially, he joins “the family” and becomes a friend to Vito. Appropriately, his wish will be granted. It’s clear that the Don will wield his power to gain justice, and that those who wronged the daughter will meet their end. But, the Don is quick to add,

“We’re not murderers, despite of what this undertaker says.” 

This scene, the opening to the first film in the trilogy, is telling about Vito’s character. He has successfully melded the two often competing worlds of work and family. For Vito, there is no real struggle. He can be intense about his crime family, while also a caring, present father and husband. 

Michael, unfortunately, has developed no such skill. Perhaps because he knew he wouldn’t be able to handle it, he initially tries to stay away from his “family business,” saying

“That’s my family, that’s not me.”

But the worlds of work and love collide when he must enter into a world he knew was dangerous in order to avenge an attack on his father. He gives up his innocence and his straight and narrow ways as a sacrifice to the family. Yet in a tragically ironic turnaround, his actions threaten the very survival of that family, ruin all of his intimate relationships, and in the end create a starker, more brutal family than his father ever would have led. Michael allows his work related intensity and conflict to destroy himself, and his personal family. 

When Vito kills Fanucci, he goes directly home and kisses his infant son – both the perfect crime lord and the perfect father. Alternatively, while Michael tries to track down those who ordered a hit on him, Kay terminates her pregnancy. Where Vito retains intimacy amid his chosen path, Michael’s leads to aborted love. 

Michael rules using fear and intimidation. He is bloodthirsty, ruthless, and brutal. Vito, by contrast, controls those by use of his personality, by favors. Vito has a code, ethics. Michael has vengeance and endless war. Vito “forgoes the avenging” of his son Sonny’s death in order to bring about peace. Michael tracks down all of those who wrong him with a relentlessness that would make intimidate Captain Ahab. 

Tellingly, Michael fears losing his crime family, and asks his mother if Vito ever feared the same thing. His mother replies that “you can never lose your family.” Sadly, while for Vito this was true, for Michael, it’s prophetic of his tragic destiny. 

That Michael was different than his family was indeed true – but in a way neither he or Kay could have anticipated. Indeed, Michael would be different than his family, but in a horrific, not a comforting, sense.  Because while the Don might have threatened a band leader with death, by the end of Parts One and Two Michael would have killed a cop, a casino owner, a multitude of family bosses – even his own brother. In the case of each of these people, “the family” (that Michael was “not like”) would never have elected to kill. 

But Michael was different, and he was comfortable with the escalating violence. We get different images of the dons later in their rule. Vito is calm, at peace, playing with children under a tree of life in a garden where the birds are chirping. He is like a man who has earned a gentle retirement, and regrets none of the decisions he has made. Vito is everything that makes you want to be a Gangster. He’s classy, he’s brave, he’s rich, yet really he doesn’t seem to have to make any kind of Faustian bargain for all of these things. 

Michael, on the other hand, is alone, haunted by the memories of loved ones he has killed or shattered. He sits on a bench, estranged from his wife and children. Michael is a cautionary portrait of why you do not become a Gangster. He has gained the whole world but lost his soul. His world of work has completely demolished his world of love. 

One cannot help but wonder what would have happened if he had chosen a different world of work – if he had become a politician or a lawyer as initially planned. It makes sense, then, that Vito was always comfortable with his work. Michael, on the other hand, was always promising to “go legitimate” soon. At war even with himself, till the end. 

Vito is proof that you can never lose your family. Michael is proof that you will, if you focus too much on your work. If we jump ahead to Godfather III, Michael dies, predictably, all alone. He’s completely severed from his family. And tragically, the only reason he entered a life of crime is his love and loyalty for his family. But that sacrifice is rewarded by him losing his family all together.