Character Transformation - Part II

Part II:

In the second Part of The Godfather there are flashbacks to Don Vito’s younger life from Michael’s present time. This reveals the background from where the Corleone family are coming from so that we could understand their traditions, actions and what drives them.

The first scene is only seconds short but powerful.

The next scene is Vito’s father funeral and we get to know the story so far during the procession. His brother also gets killed so his mother goes to Don Ciccio to spare her younger son after killing both her husband and eldest son, but he refuses, knowing that when Vito becomes a man he would want to avenge their murder. With the help of friends he is sent to America.

Back to Michael’s time and they are celebrating his son’s First Holy Communion. Their roles are all the same as to how they ended at the end of the previous movie but when an attempt on Michael’s life in his own bedroom fails we feel that another change in Michael is about to happen. The trigger for Michael is his family. Whenever someone threatens his family they get killed and a transformation in Michael happens. So he plans to leave his home for business and temporally leaves Tom Hagen in charge of the Family business. 

The most prominent character transformation is that of Don Vito. We know how he ends up but we are going to see how he got there, and from how we see him now we want to know what triggered him for such a transformation. Growing up in America, Vito was like any other Italian immigrant who was trying to make a living for himself and his family. But when he loses his job to a Don’s nephew he does not like it but accepts it because that’s the way it always was. But from his emotion we get the impression that he is about to change these traditions. And he won’t accept charity! 

Back at Michael, and he is in Cuba meeting with other Dons for an agreement but he is having second thoughts about it because he knows that Castro’s rebels will win. He also knows that someone wants to kill him and suspects that his brother Alfredo is involved when he, unknowingly, gives himself away during a visit to a Club. We know how Michael acts and are curious now to see how he would act towards his own brother. During the New Year’s Eve celebrations when Castro’s revolution topples the Junta in Havana, he gives his brother a fierce kiss on the mouth; to show that Alfredo is a dead man to him – “I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart.”

Back to Vito, we sense that he is gaining leadership over his two friends by his way of reasoning. He knows how he should handle “business”. 

Later we find out that his way of doing business was to get rid of the problem by eliminating Don Fanucci; his first killing. In doing this, he gains the respect of all of Little Italy in New York and is the start of his empire.

Back to Michael, he returns from Cuba but we sense a change in him and even in Kay. She didn’t acknowledge his return home so he goes to see his mother and we get to know what’s bothering him. He fears that he is going to lose his family. “He was being strong… strong for his family. But by being strong for his family… could he… lose it?” “Times are changing.” Nothing is as it used to be and values were changing too.

Vito’s life has transformed from what it used to be. He has grown both in fame and status. His clothes are richer as is his house and people show him respect and going to him when they have a problem to ask for a favour. He helps them out and comes out at a profit.

 

As for Michael there is another transformation in the relationship between him and Kay. She wants to leave him and take the children with her but that he will never allow it –  “Don’t you know me? Don’t you know that that’s an impossibility?” In their argument Kay reveals that it wasn’t a miscarriage that killed the baby but an abortion because “I didn’t want your son, Michael! I wouldn’t bring another one of your sons into this world! It was an abortion, Michael. It was a son and I had it killed because this must all end! I know now that it’s over. I knew it then.” Because she knew that he would never forgive her. She wanted out and found the only way which he couldn’t change with his powers. Getting to know this transformed all the love he had for Kay to loathing her where he slaps her out of anger.

Vito goes back to Sicily to invest in an oil company for Genco. While there he finally gets his long awaited revenge on Don Ciccio and slits him open.

Michael’s mother dies and Alfredo wants to see Michael to ask for forgiveness. Here we see another character transformation, that of Connie. Although she is not seen a lot throughout these two movies we will get to see that later on she is an important figure and we get to notice that change from this point. After that she had found out that Michael had killed her husband she had rebelled against him by choosing an American boyfriend over the family. Now that their mother is dead she returns to the family and plans to stay for good. She is stronger now and wants to help Michael with his problems with Alfredo.

Michael goes out to meet Alfredo but his hug is also the order to have him killed. He had promised not to harm Alfredo while their mother was still alive but now the situation has changed. One of the major qualities he inherited from his father “I won’t forget”.

The movie ends with memories from Michael’s and his father’s past.

Character Transformation

Character Transformation in: The Godfather trilogy

Part I:

Each of the movies in this trilogy starts off with a family celebration; in the first part it’s the wedding of the Godfather’s (Vito Corleone) daughter, Connie. In these first scenes we get an idea of what the story is about, how business works, traditions, who is part of the family, the characters and their role in the family. When we first see Michael, the youngest son, we know that he is out of the “Family”. Firstly because he is wearing a soldier’s uniform and never enters his father’s office and secondly because he says it himself after he explains to Kay, his girlfriend, how the family business is run and how things work within it – “That’s my family Kay, not me”.

Michael was very close to his father and also his father’s favourite son, so when Vito is shot outside his “Genco Oil  Imports” office Michael begins to change. Vito survives but his eldest son Sunny wants to act as the Capo to fill in for his father’s absence, but he is very impulsive and predictable. On the other hand Michael listens and takes everything into consideration. He is already showing characteristics of a true Capo and we get to see the instant when this change happens. It is when he sits in his father’s chair.

It is then that he makes his first killings, that of the people responsible for ordering his father’s assassination. For his and his Family’s protection, Michael had to leave New York until the situation between the Leading Families could be solved. He is sent to Sicily under the protection of allies to the Corleone family. Here he meets Apollonia, a beautiful local girl. They eventually get married and so, builds even more allies in Sicily. Back home, in New York, Sunny falls into an ambush and is killed. Finally, Michael receives word that he can return to the States safely and prepares to leave Sicily. One of Michael’s bodyguards places a bomb in his car and Apollonia is killed instead of Michael. He returns to America and back to Kay which eventually they get married.

Michael’s position has grown also shown by the way he is dressed. No more in the military uniform, then with a normal suit, now, he’s in a three piece suit complete with a top hat and long coat as well as bodyguards driving behind as him and Kay stroll together down the road. He is now in charge and following in his father’s footsteps in the same manner he used to run the business following his father’s advice.

  

Vito Corleone dies of a heart attack while playing with young Anthony, Michael’s son, and during the funeral we understand that Michael knows who has betrayed his family and plans his next move to get even with all the Families that were trying to destroy the Corleone Family.

The plans are paid and the whole operation is run during the baptism of Connie’s son, to which he is godfather. Only killers very close to Michael are used to settle the score. One of the men who gets killed is Connie’s husband and she knows the truth behind the lie of his departure to Las Vegas. She grew up in this environment therefore knows what really goes on. On hearing these accusations, Kay is alarmed by her husband’s new position in the family business and demands to know the truth. Here we see that the relationship between Michael and Kay transform from what it was during the wedding. Back then when she pleaded to know what the family business was about he told her but now that he is a Don he won’t. Instead he tricks her and makes her believe that he has told her the truth for “this one time”. The end scene is very powerful in capturing his position in the family and how Kay is cut out of it.