Movie Discussion: The Godfather

[Sweet Rabbit]

The HBO cut is the best version

 

[MeatHookGekko]

I know that this forum was started by somebody else, but as a long-time fan of the original film who just re-watched it, I'd like to get an answer from other fans regarding a loose end in Part 1: How is that, towards the end of the movie, Michael and Kay all of a sudden have a three-year old son? Time seems to pass by in the film with no coherence and no regard to the viewer. I just watched part of "The Complete Epic" again on VHS to see if I could find some explanation, but I couldn't. I'm okay with the rest of the movie, but the sudden appearance of the kid just seems to make no sense to me. Also, he's three at the time of Connie and Carlo's son's baptism, so obviously, Kay must've had him while Michael was away in Italy (because Connie's still pregnant at that time), but absolutely no mention is made of this in the movie. Kay finally sees Michael again after more than two years and he talks to her about getting married and starting a family, but I can't figure out why this is when the son had probably already been born. I just wish someone would explain it to me. It's probably all detailed in the book, but in the movie it comes across as a loose end. By the way, Michael and Kay's son is named Anthony, but I'd sure like to know why no mention was made as to when he was born (and, most likely, there would've been a big baptism ceremony as well). Thanks in advance for your response.

It's been a while since I read the book. I high suggest reading the book for anyone who is a Godfather fan and has not yet. Also pick up The Sicilian and skip to the parts with Michael and Clemenza and you can ignore the rest.

In the novel, Michael is the defacto Don after Don Vito agrees to the terms with the other Five Families to enter the drug business. Tom Hagen is out as consigliere and Don Vito acts as Michael's consigliere instead. Because the other Five Families still fear Vito's influence in the legitimate world, they just sort of bide their time.

So in the novel, there is a two to three year period after Michael returns where he is the Don before he has the baptism and all Five Families are hit. This is where his son was born, when he reunited with Kay upon Don Vito making the deal for his safe return.

The film compresses the timeline because it's already a long enough movie. In the film, Kay is not pregnant when Michael leaves for Sicily to run after shooting Sollozo and Captain McCluskey.

The novel discusses that after Sonny died, Carlo cleaned up his act. And was a valuable contributing member of the Corleone Family and thought he was going to be Michael's new consigliere when they moved their operations to Vegas. This is why in the film, Connie is screaming about Michael pretending to befriend him before having him killed. The book does a better job of explaining the Sonny/Carlo/Connie dynamic. Sonny and Carlo were once friends and Sonny introduced Carlo to Connie ( shown briefly in the last scene in GF2) Carlo thought he was going to immediately be made and get a lead role in the family ( hence the dinner scene where Carlo says he can do more but then Sonny tells him to never tell Connie to shut up again) In the book, Carlo is given a low level book making outfit for gambling, and one of his lieutenants is a double agent for the Tattaglia family. And it's implied that Carlo beat Connie because that's who is in terms of character, then Sonny beat him senseless after finding out but could not kill him because Don Vito wouldn't allow it. Carlo got enraged at the humiliation and beat Connie again, but only after making a deal with Tattaglia and Barzini ( not revealed in the novel until the end) Knowing Connie would call Sonny, and that Sonny would irrationally use the causeway, where he was ambushed and killed.

The movie doesn't cover as well as the book that Sonny just started killing everyone after Michael goes to Sicily. He wasn't going to negotiate with other Five Families, he would kill anyone he could find and kill. This is where the major conflict with Tom and Sonny arises. Sonny can't replace anyone, since only Don Vito can do that but he's old and sick, but he has a consigliere who is loyal and smart about money and politics, but not about street warfare, and he has two aging capos, Clemenza and Tessio, who are long in the tooth and not ruthless enough to be useful in a street war. Hagen wants only surgical practical kills with a purpose, Sonny declares he doesn't care about losing business or power or influence, he just wants revenge. To the other Five Families, the key to getting Don Vito to capitulate to a drug deal and end the war is to kill Sonny.

So all this makes the Carlo situation more complex by the end. Michael understands if he kills Carlo too soon, he tips his hand to Barzini, and he doesn't want to show strength, he was to appear weak so the Five Families let down their guard. Also Michael knows if he kills Carlo while Don Vito is still alive, that she might blame their father instead. He didn't want Vito to live with that. It's the same theme as to why he let his mother die first before handling Fredo in GF2. He didn't want her to live long enough to watch another son die.

Really a key element in the book that didn't make the original film but made one of the deleted scenes, was Tom Hagen calling Carlo right after Sonny was killed, and told him he had to be a perfect husband or else. This indicates that clearly something is wrong beyond Carlo just being an abusive husband. Also the book covers that Connie is essentially unattractive and everyone knows it, and Carlo only married her to marry into a powerful family in hopes of a power position and a "soft life" Coppola cast his sister, so he refused to highlight that issue.

A larger Carlo arc would have cleaned up some of the timeline issues for you, but his storyline was seen as inconsequential.

Again, I'd suggest reading the book. Something movies do all the time to show advanced age in a character, to show passage of time, is give them some facial hair or simulate weight gain. I think a huge problem was Pacino was a good bit shorter than Diane Keaton, even when she wore flats. And adding weight to him only made him look even smaller. The story behind the making of this movie is more interesting than the actual film sometimes. Don Vito is loosely based on Carlo Gambino, and if you dig deeper into Gambino and Albert Anastasia, it kind of explains more about why Vito's character construction happens the way it does.

It's unclear to me if The Complete Epic has the same deleted scenes as The Godfather Saga ( that was 1 and 2 edited together with reworked in deleted scenes) which was produced before GF3 was ever filmed.