Great point about the disarray of the four families. In Cosa Nostra you would always have someone who moves up to the top spot. The issue is are they as good as the one who was taken out? In 86 after the Commission trial a lot of the bosses and other leaders went to prison. The guys who replaced them were not of the same caliber.
The book explains that each of Vito's sons were dominated by one of his aspects. Sonny had the ferocity, Fredo had the sentimental streak, and Michael had the cunning.
I should say Puzo to im talking movie Francis based it on, also Puzo and Coppola did rewriting everyday they worked very close together on film. Which is kinda rare and should be done more with adapting books
@jpssteveshanahan like everything there’s exceptions to the rule.Kubrick had 200iq . I appreciate your comment I laughed cause you’re right. He tortured Shelly duval. Seriously she could be jack Torrance in real live. She’s nuts now poor lady.
@jpssteveshanahan I don’t think Robert is related to Shelly. Genius is very hard to work with u know saying fine line between madness and genius. I didn’t know scatman was treated so horrible either thanks for info. Kubrick never lost at chess. Wonder if he played Bobby fisher? Same city and time period
People forget...Sonny was once again winning the 5 families war...they had to turn to trickery to finally get Sonny. Once Michael cleaned clock after he took out the two key heads and others through stunning surprise, and feigned weakness, the families just didn't want to keep an ongoing war that they knew they very well may lose. Business was paramount so they fell in line. Also Michael was college educated and Military trained in war, even though the heads thought Michael was a mediocre replacement they had underestimated him, Michael was in fact supremely formally trained for his new role as Don Corleone.
Absolutely right. Sonny was a good acting Don and placeholder. He did a respectable job and fought them to a standstill. They needed Michael or Vito's brilliance to win though. There is a difference between him being a poor Don and not being as brilliant as Vito or Michael
@@zamiel3 Michael's lack of fear of war, being trained in it and fighting in it, matched with high intelligence and academic training, showed him to be most formidable. His mind was trained, that was his most deadly weapon.
Remember how Hagen speaking about how half of the Corleone's strength will be gone if Don Vito dies? Other families may be similar in terms of how crippling the head of the families would be in terms of damage. How Michael killed all the other four families solidify the fear/respect that the families have for Michael. Most of the other members would likely either run for cover or sue for peace and switched sides.
It is the family and it is "the family". The blood relatives in the family and the non-related members of the crime family as in caporegimes and "soldiers". The latter is like Michael says in part 2, just buisinessmen. As Tessio said himself "it was only business". I guess the non-relatives of the families have loyalty to the paycheck and nothing else which makes this "business" extremely dangerous and a daily threat to ones own life. Althoug, as with Fredo, one can not completely trust their own blood relatives either.
Yes, good point. The other heads probably followed Vito's principle of keep your enemies closer than your friends. That was their insurance that their own caporegimes didn't try to knock them off and take over.
Michael was very intelligent but that kind of led to his downfall in a way. He became overly paranoid especially after the assassination attempt. If his own brother could betray him then anybody could and he started to surround himself with yes people and alienated those closest to him especially if they disagreed with him in any way on anything. He let his mafia life dominate his life and spent very little time with his family alienating them in the process. Vito struck a much better balance and was more sentimental and forgiving than Michael about his family. But he came up in different times than Michael did.
"Santino, come here, what's the matter with you? I think your brain is going soft with that comedy you're playing with that young girl. Never tell anybody outside the family what your thinking again! Go on"
In the novel, mario puzo says the capo's of the barzini and tattaglia family switch camp and join the corleone family. Infact he says this is what completes michael's victory.
What you have to remember also is, when Michael settled all family business, he became the Boss of Bosses. He was pretty much untouchable after that. There was no one powerful enough left to challenge Michael. It was in all of the families' best interest to get back to business. The beef Michael had was with the bosses, not the underlings. The beef was settled on that day.
Huh? He didn't have a beef with his underlings? Seriously? You don't think Tessio plotting to have Michael assassinated would make for just a little problem?
Yeah but... the Godfather loosely follows the historical track of the real Cosa Nostra in America. In the third movie there is a commission meeting in Atlantic City... assuming that there are other families operating at the same level the Corleones are. And the fact that Joey Zaza felt he had a chance to dethrone the Corleones obviously means there are peer rivals to deal with. It's never mentioned or even alluded to that Michael is Capo di Tutti Capi. There hasn't been one singular head of Italian American organized crime since the death of Salvatore Maranzano in the early 30's on the orders of Lucciano with the strict intention of ending the position of boss of all bosses..... I assume this was carried through to the Godfather universe.
Not a lot of people know, Fabrizio (one of Michaels bodyguards in Italy) who set the bomb in Michaels car, killing his then wife, was killed in the very beginning of Godfather 2..Michael found out Fabrizio was working at a pizza shop in NY and had him killed...that was supposed to be at the very beginning of part 2 (I have the box set and that scene is on a bonus disc with cut scenes)
I'm a fan of your power move theory. I think most middle- management and soldier level gangsters want the money flowing more than loyalty based revenge. They would have recognized a masterful play and opted to fall into line rather than die for their previous bosses. As seen so often- the honor code of their thing runs only as deep as the money.
Exactly Terence and since Michael moved the family out of NY all the remaining families would try and cozy up to him to try and get all those judges and politicians he left behind. So taking out Michael would hurt the remaining families instead of help them. Would they rather be fat rich and happy with more territory or dead? Easy choice to make. many of the younger Don's probably wanted to implement their own ideas different from the way the old men were running it. Profit is the bottom line not loyalty.
I think Don Corleone called the meeting to : Ensure Michael's safety back home Ascertain the main culprit behind the hits and killing of his son - Santino And to put everyone on a wild goose chase to plot his own strategy. Don Corleone is one of the smartest underworld Boss . Simply legendary
Bringing Michael back was much more difficult as outlined in the book. The movie glosses over the complexity. They had to offer up a patsy to take the McCluskey murder rap to exonerate Michael.
he also invited Dons from outside New York to flex some muscle, since they universally all liked him. He personally spoke to Don Zalccuchi of Detroit and Anthony Molinari of San Francisco, who was protecting Fredo in Vegas. It's shown that pretty much everyone other than the NY dons respected him and bore witness to what he said in the meeting, so they wouldn't wonder what would happen next. This also isolates Barzini, who now only has Tattaglia for support.
He’s one of the smartest because of plot armor? Vito got gunned down and survived out of sheer plot armor. “Luck”. Not intelligence. Same way it was “luck” aka plot armor that the baptism of fire went off perfectly with no one surviving like Vito did.
Everybody knew, but nobody knew for sure. Hyman Roth said he never asked who gave the order to kill Moe Green, implying he knew Michael had done it, but Michael had hidden his hand enough that there was plausible deniability.
I think too many people including Santino, underplay michaels experiences of WWII. Michael has the experience to think like a true soldier. Being a marine, it is most likely he served in the Pacific (not 100%, but likely), where some of the most brutal of the fighting occurred. Often times ending up in close proximity with you enemy, on many of those islands the Japanese set up on, there were sophisticated tunnel set ups that the allies had to go through one by one clearing out the Japanese because they were so loyal and refused to surrender. They make a joke about him shooting a mile away, but Michael has most likely experienced being shot at for weeks at a time, as opposed to one time pop offs like in mafia battles. It creates a harder and craftier soldier than they can imagine. I think it really ended up being an advantage to the Corleone’s family, Michael being equipped with the knowledge of large scale battle, but also, how to handle small skirmishes, and with the help of the knowledge of his father Vito, the ability to understand what his enemies in this particular fight are thinking and will stoop to. Either way, war is war and is always about tricking the other side into a trap to get the upper hand. I dunno, just don’t underestimate a WWII vet with his own personal army is the point lol
I've always had the same opinion. He was a decorated Marine officer with practical warfighting experience against a foe that was much fiercer than the Italian mobsters. No way it didn't give him an edge.
Yeah, lots of hand to hand fighting in the Pacific and Sonny, probably jealous, patronizes Michaels exploits in WWII also. As far as we know, Michael probably did have someones brains cover his so-called 'Ivy League suit' (-a ref to his college education.) while in combat. He probably shot guys face to face too. Hence why he had no problem suggesting the killing of Sollozo and the Police Captain and doing it himself. Don Vito, in the longer version of the movie (televised version) also ridicules Michaels ribbons calling them 'Christmas ribbons'. This theme is so correct. The Italian/Sicilian thing where familiy comes first is really a thing. The fact that Michael went to fight a war that they didn't think was anything to do them and risk his life for people he didn't know angered Vito and Sonny, but in a way, Vito was proud, even in the basement in shooting practice with Clemenza, he said to Michael how proud Vito was of him, Vito just never said it to Michael. There was a kind of sadness that Michael was going down the dirty road they had well trodden and they really didn't want it for Michael
I think there is another thing too: After Michael joined the family business and Vito acted as his consultant, they did work to legitimise the business, namely moving on to gambling instead of illegal activities. On the other hand, the four other families went the complete opposite way and dabbled in drug trade, which would have landed them in a lot of heat once the leadership was assassinated. This is one of the reason why Vito is different from the other mob bosses: his motivation is ultimately family rather than wealth and glory. By choosing to leave New York and into another haven, they ensured the safety of their family in the subsequent avenge plot. By not grooming Michael into succeeding him and separating him from the family business, even though he knows Sonny and Fredo would make bad dons, Vito probably never wanted his family to do crimes forever. The symbolic of this wish is reflected in his death scene: he died playing with his grandson Anthony, who went on to break away from the mafia business altogether and live his own life free of sins.
Once you kill off the head you create a power vacuum, they had no time fighting the other families when they were so busy fighting one another, underbosses, consiglieri's, hell made men were probably gunning for each other to try to become the head of their respective families. I doubt most of them had named successors, so odds are Micheal created an imbalance that consumed the underworld.
The book makes it clear how the regimes of Clemenza and Rocco went after the bookmakers and shylocks of the other families and how some switched sides. Its sort of the same thing that happened to the people who were loyal to Mariposa. Its the same thing that Barzini had planned against the Corleone family, first with the failed Sollozzo plot and again with the failed Tessio plot.
And after a year, Michael was the most powerful boss in the nation. Neri b.t.w. took over the reconstituted Santino regime, but it's not clear who took over Tessios', or was it absorbed into Clemenza's?
I think it’s important to point out too that when the bosses were each killed, I’m sure there were a lot of guys in those families who wanted the power for themselves more so than they wanted revenge against the Corleone’s. Tho they would never admit it, secretly Michael was probably doing a lot of them a favor.
I liked 'The Godfather Returns' as a novel. It filled in a lot of missing details that were in the movie and the original novel. It also revealed that Michael had covertly involved the Corleone Family in drug trafficking after his father's death. That's how they managed to recover so quickly from the war with the other families.
When they accept the provision of Dealing Drugs.... They become Drug dealer's THIS constantly goes over everyone's head Read the book And they are using Heroin for a WarChest to use ... The movie only shows the two key line's on the Return from the Big Sit Down Meeting. . """"""Do we need to check if these drug dealers have Records?????"”""""" Tom Hagen asks???? Alas ... VITO CORLEONE'S REPLY....""""" I NEVER KNEW UNTIL TODAY..... IT WAS BARZINI ALL ALONG"""".... """"YOU MEANT TATTAGLIA????? NO.,,, TATTAGLIA IS A PIMP!!!!!!!!!... ONLY BARZINI COULD HAVE PUT THIS TOGETHER..... The Corleone's ARE DEALING Drugs and they did it better than the other families
@@bretlanier2304 That's not exactly how it works. You can say it's "your" canon, but doesn't make it any more connected to the source than my foot is connected to yours.
With Clemenza and Rocco on the offensive and Micheal leaving, it could appear, at 1st, that Micheal was simply sent off. In time though, it would become clear he was behind it all, but too late to do anything. Tessio and Carlo being taken out would add to the confusion, appearing that every family got hit.
@@markinman8156 I don't think Tessio switched sides as much as he was trying to maneuver control of the Corleone family after the death of Vito by reaching out to Barzini. If Barzini had spoken with the other Dons he would probably have relayed to them that Tessio was the likely successor as even Michael said that Tessio was always smarter than Clemenza. And, by all rights of the power structure that the families operated under Sonny (underboss) was dead and when Vito died either Tessio or Clemenza would have been up for Boss or Underboss. Though you may have a point if Tessio was denied the underboss position when Sonny died and he felt wronged but I still think Tessio wanted to be the head of the Corleone family.
@@markinman8156 only Barzani's Consigliere and maybe a few other high ranking members would be aware of this as well as Carlo's involvement against Sonny, but with everything going on, at 1st, could they put it all together? In the books, Michael is look upon as a figurehead leader, only appointed because he's Don Vito's son, it's only after the smoke clears is his masterstroke recognized.
8:01 When you consider the type of medals that Michael was awarded in the Pacific theater of all places it's almost comical for Sonny to talk down to Michael in this way. As Michael almost certainly has killed more people than Sonny and a mere mob war would pale in comparison to the sheer carnage unleashed in WW2.
^^This. The movie implies that Michael hasn't killed anyone up close, but in reality there was at least some hand to hand fighting in all the campaigns the Marines fought against the Japanese. US bomber crews that were captured were sometimes vivisected (surgery/experimentation while still alive) or used to test chemical/biological weapon effects (Unit 731). Overall about 40% of Americans taken as POWs by the Japanese died. The actions that earn a Navy Cross are similar to actions that earn a Medal of Honor. The Godfather is fiction, but as a marine in the pacific Michael likely saw/heard about shit that rivaled anything the mobsters, including Luca Brasi, did.
One’s state of mind in war is very different from when they are conducting business. It took the near assassination of his father to drive Michael to finally accept the fact that they were similar. Michael spends the bill of the first act of the film separating himself from his family’s business and clearly does not see it as heroic, the way he viewed war. I don’t think Sonny was wrong at all. It is very different. Sonny just hadn’t taken to account how much his little brother grew up overnight at that hospital.
I would believe that Michael would say it's some external force. He can point out that his long-time family capo and even his own brother-in-law were killed in the attacks.... that Michael and the rest of the Corleone were lucky to not suffer anymore casualties.
The other families ,that were conspiring against the Corleone’s, could only make a move against them if they worked together. Having removed the top dons from these families created chaos enough so that retaliation together was unattainable. It was, after all, the heads of the families that would have made this deal, not the underlings. There may have been dissension within these families already as well as between these families. Perhaps, within these rival families, there were men who were next in line, that didn’t like the way their don’s were handling business and were relieved that they were gone. Michael surely would have sensed or even known of this dissension and possibly reached out before hand to strike a deal with them allowing them to retain their territory in a peace agreement. I can only imagine that if this were so, part of that agreement was that Michael would launder their money through his casinos which would have been a very attractive offer for the other families. Also, the Corleone family still had a good part of the politicians, judges and police in his pocket which the other families needed. I’m so glad you brought this topic up as there was a huge gap in the story between parts on and two. I’m not going to bring up the third Godfather as it is an absolute mess.
I agree it does seem like a mess but Michael also coordinated 5 hits one day like clockwork. I don't think he could have pulled that off without having someone higher up on the inside in each and every single family. I would love to see a movie on how Michael pulled it off. It could close up this plot hole.
@@kennethrodriguez8606 Iirc in the novel 'The Godfather ' it is briefly mentioned (sort of summarized) why Michael didn't actually fear retaliation, for (some of the) reasons that you and the thread started have noted. Being a flick, 'The Godfather ' movie had to leave a lot of things out; not to mention that in the novel the story of the Coreleone Family is told from a different narrative or perspective.
Tessio was also murdered, so they could say they were victims too. Also the next top guys of the other families are to concerned to become the next boss against the rivales in the own family
“It was just business.” To everyone but Michael. That’s what made him great. He knew that each family would have a Consilyari saying what Tom Hayden told Sonny “, if the old man dies, we’ll have to accept it and make a deal.
The reason they didn't go after him is cuz he worked out a deal with the remaining members of the 4 family's to cut them in on ownership of multiple casinos in vegas and thats why he gave all the heads of the commission envelopes of cash in part 3 as a return on their original investment and as he told tom in part 2 loyalties are based on money.
The book makes it clear that capos from Barzini's family switched sides, and took a full year of maneuvering on Michael's part to get everything settled.
I’d thought someone would switch sides within all family’s having a power struggle knowing that Michael was the Boss the longest out of the new generation of Dons he had an upper hand
The book goes into much more detail. The major capos from the other families joined the Corleone borgata. Michael was terrifying and made it clear he was not to be messed with. Why retaliate and keep going with a costly war when you can join them and enjoy peace and wealth
But how were they convinced to swich sides? As far as the story goes, Michael was the weakest horse in the eyes of the Cosa Nostra. Even his own capo, the clever Tessio believed that Corleone family is the losing side and betrayed Michael with Barzini. At that point, Barzini was winning.
@@fridakahlo4225 they switched after the day of reckoning. At that point Corleone didn't look so weak anymore. Tessio, Barzini, Tatalia, etc, all dead. Michael wasn't looking so weak anymore. I assume you've seen 2, Frank Pentangeli was originally with Barzini, he was one of the defectors. If you're a big godfather fan i strongly suggest The Family Corleone. The audiobook is free on TH-cam and goes into a lot of detail on all of this.
@@fridakahlo4225 as far as the story goes Michaels weakness was a well placed missdirection from Corleone. After the big hit this should have been obvious to the other families when the former secret caporegimes were visible and Corleone showed his real power. At that point Michael had Tessio Clemenza and Roccos Capoporegimes , knew the other families weaknesses and had the most political power
@@saulwalle I thought the murder of the five carried out by the help of the other families switched capos. And at that point, Michael looked weak and even his own capo Tessio did not wanted to take sides with him. This was why I was confused.
@@fridakahlo4225 Michael and Tom are two very convincing people, and the secret regime Rocco put together was strong enough to convince Barzini's other capos to switch sides, by hook or by crook. Michael's power is also financial and political, so blackmailing some of these guys with jail and other issues. The Barzini involvement with drugs would be an easy blackmail tool to get them to switch. Tom is a lawyer and Mike was studying to be a lawyer, so they have knowledge on what their enemies could be in for.
Great topic! My two cents: Look at the real-life situation where Gotti took out Castellano. Vincent "The Chin" Gigante greatly suspected that Gotti had taken out a Boss without The Commission's authorization and was vehement that Gotti himself be taken out for this transgression but he had no proof. He even went so far as to try to blow up Gotti with a car bomb but, obviously, failed. With the advent of the government's focus on Gotti, the feud died down. Similarly, while the other Families of New York in The Godfather might have assumed that Michael carried out the murders they had no direct proof. Now, Hyman Roth, a non-Italian, may have been more than just suspicious and this suspicion more than likely acted as the catalyst for his plot to kill Michael in The Godfather II. The evidence for Hyman Roth's being more than just suspicious may have come from possible conversations with Moe Greene before he was killed as alluded to by Hyman in his conversation with Michael in Cuba when he says "...I knew he was headstrong, talking loud, saying stupid things..." whereby Moe probably mentioned to Hyman that he told Michael that the Corleones were being chased out of New York.
They didn't have to assume he did it, they would have known he did it as Michael Corleone was the only don who didn't die or had an attempt on his life ergo the Corleones were responsible. I don't think proving it would be so important since unlike the Gotti situation all four families would be of the same mind that the Corleones were responsible. There have been instances when the mafia have taken out people that have been accused of being rats without any proof that they actually were, to insinuate that the mafia has this sacred virtue about proof is outright wrong.
Adding to the "non-retaliation" was the fact that Michael took off and went to Las Vegas at the end thereby removing himself from the locality. Clemenza took over but we later learn he was possibly poisoned (that made it look like a heart attack). Who knows who did that? Was it a revenge from the hits (actually, I do believe it was Michael's sister getting payback for him killing her husband... a tactic of hers that resurfaces later in GF III when she poisons the Don with a canole). Anyways... as you stated from the book. Only two were killed. Well... since they were killed in different ways... could it be that BOTH of those families suspected the other? Philip was killed first... maybe making it seem that Bargzini hit him. Then Bargzini was killed... making his family blame Phillip's? Possibly those two families waged war afterwards.
Which one was killed in the revolving door that was suddenly locked? Who did Clemenza BLAST with a shot gun because the Pimp was shot with a machine gun along with a young hookerI think you need to count again....
It's worth noting Michael was a marine who fought in the Pacific Theater against the Japanese who were just as ferocious and cunning as any New York crime boss not to mention they were driven by fanatical loyalty to the Emperor and the Bushido Code(the Samurai's code of honor) that practically forbade retreat or surrender as that was shameful in their eyes, they also reveled in getting up close and personal with the enemy by charging in with sword and bayonet.
I think the historical precedent of Augustus Caesar in collusion with Leopodis and Mark Antony killing the heads of the other Roman powerful families was the inspiration for the five family. Hit.
The same thing happened over and over throughout history, so examples abound. Whenever someone rises to absolute power in a state with competing dynasties and clans, everyone of stature who isn't considered solidly loyal gets wiped out.
The BBC TV drama "I Claudius" featured the actor Brian Blessed who played Augustus Caesar. He said he just couldn't get a handle on the character until the Director said "Think Mafia" - and then it all became clear to him.
I feel the other mobsters do suspect Michal Corleone to be the one that sent out the hit, but it's a combination of plausible deniability, the sudden inaccessibility to the Don (him leaving for Havana) and the fear from the man who had the audacity to execute such a move against ALL four other crime families AT THE SAME TIME. These are family-head he took out, these are the most untouchable people of their family and they were taken out all at the same time, they would have viewed the new Corleone boss as a person of immense balls and regardless whether he did this or not, avenging their fallen boss is not really something mobsters do if they are busy elevating themselves to a better position in the family. The Godfather painted a romanticized picture of the mob, but since we are talking realistically here... if the Corleone family didn't move in to take out a vast amount of territory from the other families, the new heads would have just turned a blind eye and continued their own business. Just cash, no drama.
I'm sitting here conteplating reading The Godfather novel again, which was years ago right before the movie came out. Your videos are like reading the novel with audio. You bring back so many memories of the book that I had literally forgotten . Just found your channel and can't stop watching the videos. As for no retaliation from the families, they were afraid of Michael. If he could be so brazen to take out the head of their families, that put fear in them. So informative are your videos, that I have to make myself an offer I can't refuse..read the novel again. Ty, great channel .
I read the Godfather on a 14 hour flight to SE Asia, many years ago. Needed something to get my mind off staring at skies and a seat. Even the guy beside me asked me when we were crossing the Pacific halfway asked "what's the difference between the movie and the book?" He was blown away by my summary and said those should have been in the movie.
I always figured that once the Enemy Leadership had been properly dispatched, Vito's plan (not Michael's, correct?) included the preposition that those left standing could 'now get back to the business of making money' and all they need do is accept a different (and smarter) Boss. The fact that he wouldn't even be in New York showed Him not to be a 'micromanager' anyway; so hat did they have to lose at that point.... better than more war.
In chapter 31, the Baptism of Fire chapter, there is a big clue as to why the other families did not retaliate. "With this one savage attack, Michael Corleone made his reputation and restored the Corleone Family to its primary place in the New York Families. He was respected not only for his tactical brilliance but because some some of the most important caporegimes in both the Barzini and Tataglia Families immediately went over to his side." The next chapter begins "The bloody victory of the Corleone Family was not complete until a year of delicate political maneuvering established Michael Corleone as the most powerful Family chief in the United States." In the short term, Michael divided his enemies' forces and coopted some of them, rendering them too weak to fight back. In tje ling term, he made the deals necessary to stay on top. Michael was simply our of reach and too strong for the other Families after taking out the rival bosses.
Different situation. Ernie was one man with a gun pointed at him so he had no choice really. The 4 families that had their boss's killed would have had a leadership structure that would take control of the family and plan a counter attack. Plus all 4 families together would be stronger than Corleone family.
The mentioning of internal fighting reminds me of a line Roland Ho said in Sleeping Dogs: "Hierarchy is the only thing people care about. Always have, always will." Internal threats cause as much damage to organized crime groups as law enforcement.
The novel's series of events make more sense. Michael only took out Barzini and Tattaglia, both of whom were known to be conspiring against the Corleones. Michael got the ultimate win when he killed the two bosses. The other families likely wouldn't want to retaliate after that point, with the possibility of dragging out another war. And yes, it's true that Sonny's plan was to wipe out all of the heads, but it was deemed impossible because the bosses all changed their routines and went into hiding. Also, Michael didn't leave the compound immediately for Nevada after the executions. It took him some time to organize his leave.
According to the audio and the medal rack, he was awarded the Navy Cross, Silver Star and the Purple Heart which means he saw significant combat action. Hardly the soft college boy.
I think this an important point. Sonny tells Michael the killing is not long distance but had to be done up close. But Sonny's experience of death is of hits in restaurants, strangulation in the back of car or bomb explosions. Unlike Michael Sonny had never experienced what it was like to fight a man who was equally intent on killing him....
In the book, the Don reads newspaper stories of Michael receiving another medal for bravery, and laments, "But he performs these miracles, for strangers!"
THE OTHER FAMILIES DIDN'T WANT ANOTHER WAR. MICHAEL SHOWED THEM ALL HIS POWER AND THAT HE COULD ELIMINATE EVERYBODY HE WANTED. ALSO, PROBABLY THE UNDERBOSSES OF THE FAMILIES TOOK THE GOOD OF THIS MASSACRE, THAT THEY BECAME BOSSES. SO, THEY MADE PEACE WITH THE BIG DON, MICHAEL CORLEONE AND CONTINIUED THEIR BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have always thought that when Michael goes to the hospital, after Vito has been shot, that this is the moment of Michael’s turn into a mobster. He says to his father “I’m here… I’ll take care of you now. I’m with you now. I’m with you.” This is him saying that he is with his father as a true member of the family.
And when he had to light Enzo's cigarette because his hands were shaking so bad, Michael's hands were steady as a rock. He realized he could move in this world.
This is answered in the book. It says outright that the Corleone victory was complete. They seized the reins of power with a totality that precluded any retaliation.
They did touch on this in the book according to my recollection. The book started that after the baptism of fire some of the capo regimes of the rival families automatically switched sides to the Corrleone family. Sure some remaining rival factions probably had no respect for " that kid" as I'm sure they viewed him. But after what he accomplished and with rival capo regimes already in flight along with the infrastructure the Corrleone family had in place. It would have been a longshot to take Michael on. Not to mention after all he was Vito's son. This being a case of the apple not falling to far from the tree. As far as The Godfather Returns it's not cannon. Got through the first few chapters but found it totally contrived
It wouldn't be difficult to figure out that Michael was behind it all as he was the only boss who survived and there would be people who knew that the two casualties from the Corleone family were traitors.
I agree. It would have been as obvious to anyone that Don Michael was behind the hits on the heads of the five families, as it had been to Don Vito that Don Barzini had been the brain behind the hits on himself and Santino. What had happened was SOP when a father passed. The son then would settle any debts that the father hadn't been able to for one reason or another. That's what happened at the death of King David as well.
I have been having the same question when Michael's daughter is killed at the end of GF3. Why didn't Michael go to war on those who put a contract out on him and killed his daughter. He went to war when his father was attacked, why not when his daughter was killed?
It is addressed in the book. It clearly states that after the Assassination. Lampone took over Tessios regime. It also states that there were intense negotiations over a long period of time. With capos of the other families. Michael with his fathers help had negotiated and secured the agreement of the capos ahead of the hits to accept Michael taking over. They also were complicit in the hits helping Mike track their bosses setting them up for the hit. Giving them more autonomy and bigger percentages than they were getting before. The few capos that could not be reasoned with were eliminated by Lampones people. Making his victory complete. Hagen was kept out of all of it to be able to take over and negotiate a ceasefire and surrender allowing the civilian members of the family to live n relative comfort and peace. In case mikes plan went somehow terribly wrong
@@jackbits6397 It's in the extended version on DVD also in the televised series. But by God the scene where Apollonia gets killed is so horrific I cant watch it now. You can even see her leg out the door! it's not just all a ball of flames and smoke. Damn brutal.
Michael Corleone was the first Godfather of the next generation of all crime families after killing all the bosses leaving them with power struggle and only the Corleone’s winning the war.... some of Barzini capos switched to Corleone if someone wanted Michael killed someone could tell Michael out of fear and it would’ve also made a lot of underbosses the heads of the other families which might make them happy
I'll Never Forgive Coppola for Punking Michael Out, He Fought in the Pacific for Christ's Sake! 60 Year Old Devil Dog Here, Michael was No Stranger to Killing!
Highly entertaining and logical theories. Well done. This subject, as well as the flawed logic behind the hit on Vito Corleone, have always haunted and amused me
@@smartncrafty5598 I never said I didn't understand. I said it was flawed logic. And I read the book and it was as poorly a thought out motivation as in the movie. It's funny you bring up the book, though, because few people mention anymore that the book was terrible. It was basically a beach vacation read like a Jacqueline Susann or Danielle Steele novel. If the movie hadn't been such a masterpiece the book would have been remembered as much as, well, Puzo's other novels
The MISTAKE was in how Vito handled the Turk. He literally gave him the brush off when it would have been PRUDENT to have said to him that while it was TRUE there was a LOT of money in that white powder so much that the OTHER families will want a piece of it too. Then he should have called for the meeting that he called for AFTER Sonny was killed. In FACT BEFORE setting the meeting with the Turk Vito should have CONSULTED with Barzini to "feel" him out as soon as Hagen told him exactly what business he was in. At such a meeting Vito would have REALIZED the true power behind the Turk. Then maybe he doesn't give the Turk the brush off so quickly...Vito WAS SLIPPING.....
Normally when a boss of a family gets clipped (killed) everyone knows who did it... like John Gotti and Paul Castellano... Gotti would say we are going to find out who Did this... everyone knew it was him... in The Godfather everyone knew it was Michael but didn’t really want to be taken out they all just wanted to earn and move on
Also I think it’s bc the bosses had something against them and when they were all killed it may of made some underbosses that got pushed up to the Don spot happy they got something out of it or if they didn’t like their boss, also we all know only the head of a family can give you a greenlight for a hit someone probably with the leadership problems after losing their boss some may of went and warned the Corleones of their plans since he reminded everybody they were the most dominant crime family in New York
Possible: after the heads of the other 4 families are killed, it sends their families into chaos and in that time, the Corleone's regain neighborhoods and businesses that give them too much strength to be attacked. It would have taken a long time for those families to get back on their feet. Look how long it took Michael to get up to speed, and he had the tutillage of his great father.
The most likely reason there wasn't immediate retaliation against the Corleone family: The killing of the four family heads and others created a power vacuum at the top. There was probably no one in any of the four families ready to take immediate control, let alone plot revenge against the Corleones. Plus, who among the survivors in those families is willing to risk becoming a potential target for the Corleones while said family is in disarray? Forget about help from any other family. They're in the same state of discombobulation. Michael's master stroke sent a clear message: The attempted dismantling of the Corleone has FAILED! We're back on top and WOE ONTO ANYONE who stands against us!
Love your videos! I remember reading the books and have seen the films many times, and still I get the best insights here. I had no clue that Sonny set the hits of the family bosses in motion-or I’d forgotten. Keep making these analyses!
Outstanding Video!! I always wondered, why there was no retaliation, after Michael's revenge. It all makes sense. Michael was just brilliant (And probably smarter then even Barzini.) And we can't forget, that Michael's plan was to make the Corleone Family "legitimate" in the future. By the time the other families got back on their feet, Michael was long gone and many steps ahead of the other families!!
vito, mike, rocco, and a few others planned this out for a long time. vito played weak, mike play like a college kid, and the other families underestimated him. Once he took out top managmetn, the underlings went on retreat, and the carleones constantly pushed forward. It was like the last episodes of the sopranos.
What I remember from documentaries about the mob, there are always several people who wants to take over when the boss dies. So I never wondered what happened next, they were busy with a succession battle. Also the maffia was very authoritarian and hierarchical. So people on sub boss level are not exactly trained to think for themselves.
The mafia's control of the casinos in Las Vegas was arguably the biggest money maker in the entire history of the real world mafia! So the idea of a mafia don from New York moving out west to Nevada really isn't too far fetched. It makes sense to have a mafia don live within relatively close proximity to the biggest cash cow for the mafia.
To me this is where the planning must have come in. It wouldn’t have taken 10 yrs to hatch a plan to take them out. It would take 10 yrs to do it and not have it backfire on you. I imagine he waited until each family was in a position in which they couldn’t recover from such a blow.
The Five Families were intimidated by the simultaneous murder of the other Dons. This is why Michael is still alive in 1979 and is effectively the most powerful voice in the Commission even though he is largely retired from criminal enterprises. In 1959/60 Corleone associate Hyman Roth attempts to overthrow Corleone but Michael dispenses with that threat.
Maybe Roth never met him face to face or only met him once or twice, he probably had his Sicilian messenger boy Johnny Ola handle the in person logistics for the hit.
I always thought that the “difficult but not impossible” hit on Roth was flawed. Why would Rocco have practically sacrificed himself in such a clumsy and ill thought out way? A long shot with a rifle, anything...would have made more sense for a top Corleone family associate.
@@rickvitoguitar Some people speculate that Rocco was the traitor (not Fredo), and that Michael found that out, and more or less forced Rocco to do a suicide hit on Roth.
The best model for the Baptism of Fire and it's aftermath would be how Carlo Gambino rose to power. That is how Puzo wrote: fictionalize real events. Michael undoubtedly would have cultivated high-ranking traitors within at least two of the other families before launching his wave of assassinations, then sponsored them as the new bosses. This would have meant 1) he wouldn't have fought a war alone; 2) one or more families would fight back as a faction of said family, not as a unified whole. 'Nuff said.
The other four families didn't retaliate because there was a dramatic and sudden power shift which put them in their place. The Corleone's looked down and out but came out the other side having squared the ledger with all their adversaries and this proved they are a force to be reckoned with and should not be underestimated. Michael was similar to Tywin Lannister in game of thrones in that he could probably persuade anyone to come on side with them for an extra bit of power. He could also gain leverage on anyone if he was willing to bide his time and be patient. He also had a knack of identifying the winning side as he did in Cuba and was able to play the game like a chess master
I think this issue is where the movie and the book departs the farthest away from the reality of the real world mafia. In the real world mafia as soon as a boss dies, then you've got 20 different people jockeying for the position of being the boss.
That gave me food for thought I didn't even know I needed. Great big heaping bowls of pasta style food for thought. With a jug of wine casually tossed in.
The great thing about the Godfather movies is they used history and were prescient. The alliance between Barzini and Tattallia mimicked the real life treacherous alliance of Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino as they eliminated Albert Anastasia (which led to the Gambino family) and attempted (and failed) to kill Frank Costello, who's retirement turned that borgata over to Genovese. Those were internal disputes that apparently didn't raise the ire of The Commission, but "The Godfather" almost presaged the takeover of the later Gambino family that was led by Paul Castellano. There was a great deal of confusion after Castellano was killed (partially out of the fear of John Gotti and his crew being killed for dealing with drugs), and with the other bosses, except for Chin Gigante (the man who tried to kill Costello on Genovese's orders), being on trial, plus the Bonnanos being non-grata and off The Commission, there was too much disarray for them to mount a combined effort, which the Gotti plotters actually thought could happen. In the real life power vacuum after the Castellano hit, several capos were also killed, and planned to be killed. The captains who did survive realized where they stood and went with the regime change. Eventually, Gigante and Gaspipe Casso, who led the Luccheses, did try to bring Cosa Nostra justice to Gotti, et al, but they wound up killing a plotter who wasn't Gotti. When they tried again, the FBI had it on tape and warned Gotti. It always has to be remembered that the Godfather movies bring a lot of drama that supplants reality and realism. Michael Corleone became the Boss of All Bosses whom another family would have been foolish to go against. In real life, in the 1980s, there were probably no more than 700 - 800 actual members of Cosa Nostra, and the toughest family might have two or three dozen ferocious buttons capable of being leaders and shooters in an all-out war. Kill the right number of them, and others will capitulate.
The successors lower down in the chain would likely be grateful that they now have moved up, and didn't have to do anything. They could owe thier income and power to the Corleones.
Michael is proved not only ruthless but also very strategic and tactical calculating leader that managed to do the unthinkable baptism of fire when nobody expected and so powerful all enemies gone down for good....As listened the hit was against not only the bosses but everyone could possibly took over... So he managed to be not only the undeniable boss of the underworld but he also had the time to go even stronger without any serious threats at least for some years....
Yamamoto represented the hopes of many Japanese Imperial principals of arriving at a strategic accommodation with their principal rival in the Pacific (the United States). Prime Minister Hideki Tojo (the Shogun, or premier military commander) was by no means the sole director of national policy in Japan.
If Intelligence is the trump-card in this 21st-Century, the elimination of Osama bin Laden, Qusam Soleimani, and Ayman al Zawahiri should demonstrate the collaborative capacity of Western Nations to prevail kinetically if not culturally/philosophically.
Michael gave Clemenza leave to start his own "family". Tessio's men and territory were absorbed by Clemenza and Rocco Lampone, using that extra manpower to seize far more territory and "business" from other families who were in disarray. Without serious income, the other families couldn't maintain the loyalties of the men. Most of these low-level guys jumped ship to either join the Clemenza and Lampone or ally so closely with them that no practical distinction existed. So Michael's masterstroke wasn't just killing the leadership of the two biggest families, he also took their income streams and their "armies". The remaining middle-management of the Barzini and Tattaglia families would be scrambling for survival as the other families likely moved in to wipe them out. But these other families would be well aware that if they went against Clemenza (now beefed up by extra manpower and money), they'd also be fighting Lampone. Go against, Lampone and they'd also be going against Clemenza. They'd be fighting a two-front war with bigger armies and their likelihood of survival would be nonexistent. Better to just accept the new normal.
I always had a problem with Michael being the innocent one, whilst being a Marine Officer in one of the most nasty wars of WW2. If you have seen The Pacific HBO series you will get an idea of how bad the Pacific war was. It looks like he had a Silver Star as well, you don’t get that for signing chits
He was not the “innocent one.” The war changed him. That was what was shown in the last scene of Godfather II. Michael quit college to enlist after the Pearl Harbor attack. There is an outtake that should have been left in, where Don Vito showed his disappointment in Michael as they went to visit the dying Consigliere Genco Abbandando. The Don says, “What is with all the ‘Christmas Ribbons’? I had big plans for you,”referring to Michael’s ribbon bars on his uniform. Michael never went back to college. At the beginning of the film, Michael has no desire to get into the “family business”. But once his father was gunned down, he wanted to retaliate; remember the war changed him. In another scene, he stays even when Santino tells him he should leave because he doesn’t want anything to do with the family business. He proposes that he will kill Sollozzo and the Police Captain, who broke his jaw. Sonny, doesn’t believe him saying, “What are you gonna do, college boy; you gonna go up to a a guy, put a gun to his head, and bada bing, blow his brains out all over your nice uniform?” To Sonny’s surprise, Michael says that he will do exactly that. What he saw in the war, the killing he did, the Marine basic training that breaks you down and rebuilds you as a killing machine; all that gave Michael the stones to do what had never been done before, gun down a NYPD Police Captain along with Sollozzo. He still never intended to do more than that in the family business. But then Sonny was killed and Fredo was weak, so he comes back and steps up to the plate because his father is old and weak. His father realizes that Michael is more like him than he previously thought, cunning, levelheaded, and strong. Yes, Don Vito was disappointed that Michael would never be a legitimate “pezzonovante” (big shot, literally .90 caliber), but he had no choice with Sonny dead and Fredo weak.
The point wasn't Michael was weak, it was he was considered a clean cut college boy by his family, Tom in particular see's what Michael is capable of. Michael was clearly an efficient combat leader by the start of the film as a decorated infantry Marine Officer in WW2. They wanted him to be a Senator in the respectable world, he wasn''t one of them, a street guy. The point is his moral downfall, as he seeks to protect his family he essentially destroys it. I personally feel there are notions that this was always his true nature in the film.
I remember back in the mid 80’s while in high school I had a guy trying to bully me cause he had 3 friends behind him. When he found himself on the gym floor with a swollen face he noticed his 3 friends were still behind him…on the other side of the gym. Not one of them wanted to challenge me.
Possible but doubtful. It was Sonny’s speaking out of turn in the Solozzo meeting that sealed the decision. If Solozzo & Barzini felt the Corleones were all against the drug trade, it wouldn’t make sense to kill Vito and trigger an all-out war.
I agree with you. The target was on Vito's back as soon as he turned down the offer. Even if Vito accepted the Turks deal the hit may have still happened. Sonny speaking out of turn was irrelevant to the events that happened afterwards.
@@mahmoudibnemir8704 think about it, had sonny kept his mouth shut while Vito turned down the offer, do you think that would have changed anything? The turk had the backing of the other families and barzini so when Vito said no, the hit was in full motion. The only reason the turk said sonny was hot for the deal was to get tom to convince sonny it's a good business deal and it's strictly business, and more importantly to avoid an all out war. With Vito shot and Luca Brasi dead the turk didn't think sonny would still go to war with all the families
Occam's razor. In a real world LCN scenario, especially with only two of the four families affected, Michael would have offered peace, allowing whoever emerged as leaders of the Barzini & Tattaglia families to continue operations as before and retain their commission seats. Wanting to avoid a long war, the rest of the commission would have been in favor of it.
At the time (the 1950's), 63 was considered pretty old, especially since the life expectancy of a member of the mob was around 45 years at the most!!!!!
They weren't packing up and moving the same day as the baptism. When Connie runs in she says "Read the papers". Also, she is dressed all in black, meaning she was in a period of mourning. Carlo was already buried, and funerals happen a week or so after a death. I do agree, they still moved to NV so quickly, the other families didn't have time to react. Enjoy watching your breakdowns!
The 5 families didn't retaliate after their leaders were killed, because Michael destroyed their network between the communications between the leaders themselves. Vito's style of leadership was also superior compared the other bosses and thus loyalty of the other 5 families were weaker. If you can kill all the five family leaders, that would be too much chaos to sort through and organize.
One other interesting point. Remember when Willie Cici says about Clemenza's death "that was no heart attack"? I've always wanted to know more about that.
In real life, in the early 1960s, a Don suddenly died, and poison was suspected (because there was internal strife in that family). So, they borrowed that story line from real life. The Rosato brothers' rebellion also was borrowed from real-life events.
While GF2 was a great movie, and one of the few sequels in film history truly outstanding, it did suck that Clemenza was to be in the "modern" segment and betray Michael, but because he demanded higher salary or something, they had to replace him with this Pentangeli character who came out of nowhere and treated as if had always been around the Corleones(eh, no). That was actually Clemenza but replaced and the whole Pentangeli plot was supoposed to be about him which would have give the movie much more strengt as we see even him turning against Michael. Such a shame he was left out of the film and we were stuck with the Pentangeli guy whome we had never even herad of. Just not the same. And it would have been great with the switches with the early 19th century New York scene where we saw the young Clemenza as well.
To quote Machiavelli the goal of war is to leave the enemy so badly beat they won't want to wage war with you again. All the heads if the families were killed in less than a day, which itself was a huge flex to show off the power and influence the Corleone's have. The options are then to fight back against such a force where victory is very uncertain, or cooperate and get something in return. It's better to cooperate and get something in return because who wants to fight something like that.
I don't think the movies made as much of Michael's time in the Marines as they should have. He was a Pacific veteran and those island hopping campaigns were very "up close and personal". After facing uncounted enemies who would rather die than surrender, taking on New York mobsters would seem almost tame in comparison. No wonder his hand did not shake outside the hospital with Enzo and the lighter, nor did he hardly blink when dispatching Sollozo and McCloskey. Sonny minimized Michael's service ("shoot 'em from a mile away") but he did not approve of Michael's enlistment in the first place. Michael lived with death for months, probably from mid-1942 to summer 1945 (although given the time of the wedding he must have been home on leave when the Emperor threw in the towel August 15, 1945). Whatever he might have wished for his post-war life, he lived with death until his own.
the whole idea was that Michael's service in the Marines was alien to the mafia, no matter what he did in uniform. He made it to Captain, earned a Silver Star and came back relatively unharmed. Sonny even gets the service branch wrong (he says Army), which demonstrates his ignorance, but notes that Michael has probably never just walked up to someone in a restaurant and blown his head off, which even some Marines would balk at. Mike is also a returnee from the war, many of whom likely never wanted to kill again and switch off from the military training they had. As an officer Michael would have also had less to do with the nitty gritty of the island hopping than the ordinary grunt as well- a Captain is normally in charge of a company or platoon, hence paperwork. Doesn't mean he didn't see combat, but he did have some privileges of rank. In the mafia his rank gives him more problems, not less.
Godfather 3 answers this with the meetings of the Don's - where Joey Zasa exacts his revenge, also strongly supported by an unknown mafia boss - Lucchesi. I'd recommend revisiting Godfather 3, that meeting discusses how all the families ended patching things over with Michael.
If the Under Bosses and top advisor were taken out there would have been too much infighting in the various families over who would assume the title of family Boss. The family boss is a powerful and very wealthy man and like in the modern day mafia, the street soldiers are scraping by most of the times, the Capo's are well off, but nothing like the Boss. Michael and the New York Corleone family would have had plenty of time to expand and consolidate from the total disarray the other families were now in.
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You should do a movie review on #TheEmperorNewGroove. 😎
Great channel this 😃
this time do a video of what Michael has been doing in between GF2 and GF3??
@#EBK Don Corleone Because I think it would be interesting. 😎
Great point about the disarray of the four families. In Cosa Nostra you would always have someone who moves up to the top spot. The issue is are they as good as the one who was taken out? In 86 after the Commission trial a lot of the bosses and other leaders went to prison. The guys who replaced them were not of the same caliber.
The book explains that each of Vito's sons were dominated by one of his aspects. Sonny had the ferocity, Fredo had the sentimental streak, and Michael had the cunning.
And Francis based the 3 sons on a king with three princes
He had Sonny in him too -- murdering a cop and a capo and all that.
I should say Puzo to im talking movie Francis based it on, also Puzo and Coppola did rewriting everyday they worked very close together on film. Which is kinda rare and should be done more with adapting books
@jpssteveshanahan like everything there’s exceptions to the rule.Kubrick had 200iq . I appreciate your comment I laughed cause you’re right. He tortured Shelly duval. Seriously she could be jack Torrance in real live. She’s nuts now poor lady.
@jpssteveshanahan I don’t think Robert is related to Shelly. Genius is very hard to work with u know saying fine line between madness and genius. I didn’t know scatman was treated so horrible either thanks for info. Kubrick never lost at chess. Wonder if he played Bobby fisher? Same city and time period
People forget...Sonny was once again winning the 5 families war...they had to turn to trickery to finally get Sonny. Once Michael cleaned clock after he took out the two key heads and others through stunning surprise, and feigned weakness, the families just didn't want to keep an ongoing war that they knew they very well may lose. Business was paramount so they fell in line. Also Michael was college educated and Military trained in war, even though the heads thought Michael was a mediocre replacement they had underestimated him, Michael was in fact supremely formally trained for his new role as Don Corleone.
Absolutely Right! 👍👍
that is exactly what bothered me about this video, he was Millitary trained DURING WW2 as a Marine, Give it a break, he was an Expert in War
@@deathsee Being a veteran does NOT make one an "expert" in war.
Absolutely right. Sonny was a good acting Don and placeholder. He did a respectable job and fought them to a standstill. They needed Michael or Vito's brilliance to win though. There is a difference between him being a poor Don and not being as brilliant as Vito or Michael
@@zamiel3 Michael's lack of fear of war, being trained in it and fighting in it, matched with high intelligence and academic training, showed him to be most formidable. His mind was trained, that was his most deadly weapon.
Remember how Hagen speaking about how half of the Corleone's strength will be gone if Don Vito dies? Other families may be similar in terms of how crippling the head of the families would be in terms of damage. How Michael killed all the other four families solidify the fear/respect that the families have for Michael. Most of the other members would likely either run for cover or sue for peace and switched sides.
It is the family and it is "the family". The blood relatives in the family and the non-related members of the crime family as in caporegimes and "soldiers". The latter is like Michael says in part 2, just buisinessmen. As Tessio said himself "it was only business". I guess the non-relatives of the families have loyalty to the paycheck and nothing else which makes this "business" extremely dangerous and a daily threat to ones own life. Althoug, as with Fredo, one can not completely trust their own blood relatives either.
Aha!
Yes, good point. The other heads probably followed Vito's principle of keep your enemies closer than your friends. That was their insurance that their own caporegimes didn't try to knock them off and take over.
@@urkersen5246
"There is Nothing More Personal Than Business" - Don Vito Corleone
Good point
Tom: "You want to wipe everyone out?"
Michael: "No, just my enemies"
I believe the full line is: “no I don’t feel the need to wipe everyone out…… only my enemies” I just watched it the other day 😅🔥
@@Onlyusemesuede☝️🤓
@@Onlyusemesuede Trouble is with Michael, anyone who side eyed him was his enemy, hence why he died lonely lol
@@adityajoglekar7873 damn you 🤣
Michael was very intelligent but that kind of led to his downfall in a way. He became overly paranoid especially after the assassination attempt. If his own brother could betray him then anybody could and he started to surround himself with yes people and alienated those closest to him especially if they disagreed with him in any way on anything.
He let his mafia life dominate his life and spent very little time with his family alienating them in the process. Vito struck a much better balance and was more sentimental and forgiving than Michael about his family. But he came up in different times than Michael did.
"Santino, come here, what's the matter with you? I think your brain is going soft with that comedy you're playing with that young girl. Never tell anybody outside the family what your thinking again! Go on"
Sonny is the reason why there was a hit on Vito. This is one of the reasons why Vito probably didn't consider him to be a worthy successor.
With that "young" girl
I didn’t no he said he said “ comedy “ .
I thought he said cunnylingus
Never tell anybody outside the family what you're thinking."
In the novel, mario puzo says the capo's of the barzini and tattaglia family switch camp and join the corleone family. Infact he says this is what completes michael's victory.
Money talks, profits are better than war costs.
@@eastlynburkholder3559 I like this quote so much I'm going to steal it for later.
What you have to remember also is, when Michael settled all family business, he became the Boss of Bosses. He was pretty much untouchable after that. There was no one powerful enough left to challenge Michael. It was in all of the families' best interest to get back to business. The beef Michael had was with the bosses, not the underlings. The beef was settled on that day.
Huh? He didn't have a beef with his underlings? Seriously? You don't think Tessio plotting to have Michael assassinated would make for just a little problem?
Highly unrealistic
@@b2kzangelalwayznot really look at john gotti
@@donarthiazi2443i think he meant the other bosses' underlings ..
Yeah but... the Godfather loosely follows the historical track of the real Cosa Nostra in America. In the third movie there is a commission meeting in Atlantic City... assuming that there are other families operating at the same level the Corleones are. And the fact that Joey Zaza felt he had a chance to dethrone the Corleones obviously means there are peer rivals to deal with.
It's never mentioned or even alluded to that Michael is Capo di Tutti Capi.
There hasn't been one singular head of Italian American organized crime since the death of Salvatore Maranzano in the early 30's on the orders of Lucciano with the strict intention of ending the position of boss of all bosses..... I assume this was carried through to the Godfather universe.
Not a lot of people know, Fabrizio (one of Michaels bodyguards in Italy) who set the bomb in Michaels car, killing his then wife, was killed in the very beginning of Godfather 2..Michael found out Fabrizio was working at a pizza shop in NY and had him killed...that was supposed to be at the very beginning of part 2 (I have the box set and that scene is on a bonus disc with cut scenes)
In the collector’s edition with extended cut I have, this is shown
Pretty dumb of Fabrizio to be living in the USA, let alone NYC.
Didn't Barzini bring Fabrizio to the USA? I forget if that was mentioned in the movie or the book.
@@dmmchugh3714 I do believe he was working for Barzini
@@williamfoy599 I think Fabrizio had his pizza shop in Buffalo, NY. Argentina would have bern safer for him.
I'm a fan of your power move theory. I think most middle- management and soldier level gangsters want the money flowing more than loyalty based revenge. They would have recognized a masterful play and opted to fall into line rather than die for their previous bosses.
As seen so often- the honor code of their thing runs only as deep as the money.
Exactly Terence and since Michael moved the family out of NY all the remaining families would try and cozy up to him to try and get all those judges and politicians he left behind. So taking out Michael would hurt the remaining families instead of help them. Would they rather be fat rich and happy with more territory or dead? Easy choice to make. many of the younger Don's probably wanted to implement their own ideas different from the way the old men were running it. Profit is the bottom line not loyalty.
Business was paramount..Michael even said in GF2..."you see Tom, all our people are businessmen, their loyalty is based on that".
I think Don Corleone called the meeting to :
Ensure Michael's safety back home
Ascertain the main culprit behind the hits and killing of his son - Santino
And to put everyone on a wild goose chase to plot his own strategy.
Don Corleone is one of the smartest underworld Boss . Simply legendary
The grammar police are at it again.
They misspelled Cuneo, they spelled it Cueno.
I disagree! He sent luca brazi to get killed. Was bad move sending him alone!
Bringing Michael back was much more difficult as outlined in the book. The movie glosses over the complexity. They had to offer up a patsy to take the McCluskey murder rap to exonerate Michael.
he also invited Dons from outside New York to flex some muscle, since they universally all liked him. He personally spoke to Don Zalccuchi of Detroit and Anthony Molinari of San Francisco, who was protecting Fredo in Vegas. It's shown that pretty much everyone other than the NY dons respected him and bore witness to what he said in the meeting, so they wouldn't wonder what would happen next. This also isolates Barzini, who now only has Tattaglia for support.
He’s one of the smartest because of plot armor? Vito got gunned down and survived out of sheer plot armor. “Luck”. Not intelligence. Same way it was “luck” aka plot armor that the baptism of fire went off perfectly with no one surviving like Vito did.
Everybody knew, but nobody knew for sure. Hyman Roth said he never asked who gave the order to kill Moe Green, implying he knew Michael had done it, but Michael had hidden his hand enough that there was plausible deniability.
I think too many people including Santino, underplay michaels experiences of WWII. Michael has the experience to think like a true soldier. Being a marine, it is most likely he served in the Pacific (not 100%, but likely), where some of the most brutal of the fighting occurred. Often times ending up in close proximity with you enemy, on many of those islands the Japanese set up on, there were sophisticated tunnel set ups that the allies had to go through one by one clearing out the Japanese because they were so loyal and refused to surrender. They make a joke about him shooting a mile away, but Michael has most likely experienced being shot at for weeks at a time, as opposed to one time pop offs like in mafia battles. It creates a harder and craftier soldier than they can imagine. I think it really ended up being an advantage to the Corleone’s family, Michael being equipped with the knowledge of large scale battle, but also, how to handle small skirmishes, and with the help of the knowledge of his father Vito, the ability to understand what his enemies in this particular fight are thinking and will stoop to. Either way, war is war and is always about tricking the other side into a trap to get the upper hand. I dunno, just don’t underestimate a WWII vet with his own personal army is the point lol
I've always had the same opinion. He was a decorated Marine officer with practical warfighting experience against a foe that was much fiercer than the Italian mobsters. No way it didn't give him an edge.
Yeah, lots of hand to hand fighting in the Pacific and Sonny, probably jealous, patronizes Michaels exploits in WWII also. As far as we know, Michael probably did have someones brains cover his so-called 'Ivy League suit' (-a ref to his college education.) while in combat. He probably shot guys face to face too. Hence why he had no problem suggesting the killing of Sollozo and the Police Captain and doing it himself.
Don Vito, in the longer version of the movie (televised version) also ridicules Michaels ribbons calling them 'Christmas ribbons'.
This theme is so correct. The Italian/Sicilian thing where familiy comes first is really a thing. The fact that Michael went to fight a war that they didn't think was anything to do them and risk his life for people he didn't know angered Vito and Sonny, but in a way, Vito was proud, even in the basement in shooting practice with Clemenza, he said to Michael how proud Vito was of him, Vito just never said it to Michael. There was a kind of sadness that Michael was going down the dirty road they had well trodden and they really didn't want it for Michael
Brilliant response, he was awarded the Silver Star for bravery
Indeed. WWII's Pacific theatre puts 'going to the mattresses' in perspective.
The next best thing to watching the Godfather is speculating and talking about it.
Great Video.
Great Channel!
Ha ha isn’t that the truth. Best movie ever
Yeap, I like that little community we have here 😊😊
Deputy T Justice From Smokey And The Bandit What's Going On 😅
I think there is another thing too: After Michael joined the family business and Vito acted as his consultant, they did work to legitimise the business, namely moving on to gambling instead of illegal activities. On the other hand, the four other families went the complete opposite way and dabbled in drug trade, which would have landed them in a lot of heat once the leadership was assassinated. This is one of the reason why Vito is different from the other mob bosses: his motivation is ultimately family rather than wealth and glory. By choosing to leave New York and into another haven, they ensured the safety of their family in the subsequent avenge plot. By not grooming Michael into succeeding him and separating him from the family business, even though he knows Sonny and Fredo would make bad dons, Vito probably never wanted his family to do crimes forever. The symbolic of this wish is reflected in his death scene: he died playing with his grandson Anthony, who went on to break away from the mafia business altogether and live his own life free of sins.
WoW. What an imagination you have. It's like a fever dream. take some aspirin.
Even further still, Anthony, being a finocchio (finook/fanook/fanoik), ultimately landed just about as far away as a man can from being a mafioso.
Once you kill off the head you create a power vacuum, they had no time fighting the other families when they were so busy fighting one another, underbosses, consiglieri's, hell made men were probably gunning for each other to try to become the head of their respective families. I doubt most of them had named successors, so odds are Micheal created an imbalance that consumed the underworld.
Now, This does make sense.
Thanks, I changed my mind of watching the video.
This is true. For a real-life example, look at the chaos in the Philly mob after Angelo Bruno was murdered.
The book makes it clear how the regimes of Clemenza and Rocco went after the bookmakers and shylocks of the other families and how some switched sides. Its sort of the same thing that happened to the people who were loyal to Mariposa. Its the same thing that Barzini had planned against the Corleone family, first with the failed Sollozzo plot and again with the failed Tessio plot.
And after a year, Michael was the most powerful boss in the nation. Neri b.t.w. took over the reconstituted Santino regime, but it's not clear who took over Tessios', or was it absorbed into Clemenza's?
@@bruceking2068 Perhaps Rocco took over that
@@richardalex4516 Makes sense.
@@bruceking2068 The book says Tessio`men were absorbed by Rocco Lampone`s Regime.
Little Italy
I think it’s important to point out too that when the bosses were each killed, I’m sure there were a lot of guys in those families who wanted the power for themselves more so than they wanted revenge against the Corleone’s. Tho they would never admit it, secretly Michael was probably doing a lot of them a favor.
Excellent point.
@@andrewmartin7697 yea he created a giant power vacuum in each of those families which worked to his advantage
Very good point. Never though of this. Nice!
That is very truth.
@@BostonsF1nest Yepppp. No need for a 20 minute video explanation if you take a second to think about it.
I liked 'The Godfather Returns' as a novel. It filled in a lot of missing details that were in the movie and the original novel. It also revealed that Michael had covertly involved the Corleone Family in drug trafficking after his father's death. That's how they managed to recover so quickly from the war with the other families.
its non canon tho
When they accept the provision of Dealing Drugs.... They become Drug dealer's
THIS constantly goes over everyone's head
Read the book
And they are using Heroin for a WarChest to use ...
The movie only shows the two key line's on the Return from the Big Sit Down Meeting. .
""""""Do we need to check if these drug dealers have Records?????"”"""""
Tom Hagen asks????
Alas ...
VITO CORLEONE'S REPLY...."""""
I NEVER KNEW UNTIL TODAY.....
IT WAS BARZINI ALL ALONG""""....
""""YOU MEANT TATTAGLIA?????
NO.,,, TATTAGLIA IS A PIMP!!!!!!!!!...
ONLY BARZINI COULD HAVE PUT THIS TOGETHER.....
The Corleone's ARE DEALING Drugs and they did it better than the other families
@@drsoe08 who cares? It can fit perfectly into the canon if anyone wants it to be.
@@jaswerner419 Can you explain, lol
@@bretlanier2304 That's not exactly how it works. You can say it's "your" canon, but doesn't make it any more connected to the source than my foot is connected to yours.
With Clemenza and Rocco on the offensive and Micheal leaving, it could appear, at 1st, that Micheal was simply sent off. In time though, it would become clear he was behind it all, but too late to do anything. Tessio and Carlo being taken out would add to the confusion, appearing that every family got hit.
Good point. The other families would have assumed that Tessio was acting boss and got his as well.
@@mahmoudibnemir8704 Do not buy it, it would have been known that Tessio had switched sides. Carlo's killing was a non vent as he was a known nobody.
@@markinman8156 I don't think Tessio switched sides as much as he was trying to maneuver control of the Corleone family after the death of Vito by reaching out to Barzini. If Barzini had spoken with the other Dons he would probably have relayed to them that Tessio was the likely successor as even Michael said that Tessio was always smarter than Clemenza. And, by all rights of the power structure that the families operated under Sonny (underboss) was dead and when Vito died either Tessio or Clemenza would have been up for Boss or Underboss. Though you may have a point if Tessio was denied the underboss position when Sonny died and he felt wronged but I still think Tessio wanted to be the head of the Corleone family.
@@markinman8156 only Barzani's Consigliere and maybe a few other high ranking members would be aware of this as well as Carlo's involvement against Sonny, but with everything going on, at 1st, could they put it all together? In the books, Michael is look upon as a figurehead leader, only appointed because he's Don Vito's son, it's only after the smoke clears is his masterstroke recognized.
8:01 When you consider the type of medals that Michael was awarded in the Pacific theater of all places it's almost comical for Sonny to talk down to Michael in this way. As Michael almost certainly has killed more people than Sonny and a mere mob war would pale in comparison to the sheer carnage unleashed in WW2.
^^This. The movie implies that Michael hasn't killed anyone up close, but in reality there was at least some hand to hand fighting in all the campaigns the Marines fought against the Japanese.
US bomber crews that were captured were sometimes vivisected (surgery/experimentation while still alive) or used to test chemical/biological weapon effects (Unit 731). Overall about 40% of Americans taken as POWs by the Japanese died.
The actions that earn a Navy Cross are similar to actions that earn a Medal of Honor.
The Godfather is fiction, but as a marine in the pacific Michael likely saw/heard about shit that rivaled anything the mobsters, including Luca Brasi, did.
Micheal was a low ranking officer, not an NCO grunt. So most likely he wasn’t exactly on the frontlines.
@@unclephilly2127
Low ranking officers are on the front lines.
One’s state of mind in war is very different from when they are conducting business. It took the near assassination of his father to drive Michael to finally accept the fact that they were similar. Michael spends the bill of the first act of the film separating himself from his family’s business and clearly does not see it as heroic, the way he viewed war. I don’t think Sonny was wrong at all. It is very different. Sonny just hadn’t taken to account how much his little brother grew up overnight at that hospital.
@@unclephilly2127 He had a Silver Star. They don't hand those out like candy.
I would believe that Michael would say it's some external force. He can point out that his long-time family capo and even his own brother-in-law were killed in the attacks.... that Michael and the rest of the Corleone were lucky to not suffer anymore casualties.
The other families ,that were conspiring against the Corleone’s, could only make a move against them if they worked together. Having removed the top dons from these families created chaos enough so that retaliation together was unattainable. It was, after all, the heads of the families that would have made this deal, not the underlings. There may have been dissension within these families already as well as between these families. Perhaps, within these rival families, there were men who were next in line, that didn’t like the way their don’s were handling business and were relieved that they were gone. Michael surely would have sensed or even known of this dissension and possibly reached out before hand to strike a deal with them allowing them to retain their territory in a peace agreement. I can only imagine that if this were so, part of that agreement was that Michael would launder their money through his casinos which would have been a very attractive offer for the other families. Also, the Corleone family still had a good part of the politicians, judges and police in his pocket which the other families needed. I’m so glad you brought this topic up as there was a huge gap in the story between parts on and two. I’m not going to bring up the third Godfather as it is an absolute mess.
I agree it does seem like a mess but Michael also coordinated 5 hits one day like clockwork. I don't think he could have pulled that off without having someone higher up on the inside in each and every single family. I would love to see a movie on how Michael pulled it off. It could close up this plot hole.
@@kennethrodriguez8606 Iirc in the novel 'The Godfather ' it is briefly mentioned (sort of summarized) why Michael didn't actually fear retaliation, for (some of the) reasons that you and the thread started have noted.
Being a flick, 'The Godfather ' movie had to leave a lot of things out; not to mention that in the novel the story of the Coreleone Family is told from a different narrative or perspective.
Tessio was also murdered, so they could say they were victims too. Also the next top guys of the other families are to concerned to become the next boss against the rivales in the own family
Someone took over in each of the other families and would be eager to prove himself by killing Mike.
@@leewood331 comes with the territory. When your a gangster, everybody is gunning for you.
“It was just business.” To everyone but Michael. That’s what made him great. He knew that each family would have a Consilyari saying what Tom Hayden told Sonny “, if the old man dies, we’ll have to accept it and make a deal.
The reason they didn't go after him is cuz he worked out a deal with the remaining members of the 4 family's to cut them in on ownership of multiple casinos in vegas and thats why he gave all the heads of the commission envelopes of cash in part 3 as a return on their original investment and as he told tom in part 2 loyalties are based on money.
The book makes it clear that capos from Barzini's family switched sides, and took a full year of maneuvering on Michael's part to get everything settled.
I’d thought someone would switch sides within all family’s having a power struggle knowing that Michael was the Boss the longest out of the new generation of Dons he had an upper hand
Thank u
As Hannibal Lecter
Tells Clarice
Starling...."""
It's a shame young people don't read that much""...
Yeah, the movie makes it seem there was one day of carnage and that was it.
The book goes into much more detail. The major capos from the other families joined the Corleone borgata. Michael was terrifying and made it clear he was not to be messed with. Why retaliate and keep going with a costly war when you can join them and enjoy peace and wealth
But how were they convinced to swich sides? As far as the story goes, Michael was the weakest horse in the eyes of the Cosa Nostra. Even his own capo, the clever Tessio believed that Corleone family is the losing side and betrayed Michael with Barzini. At that point, Barzini was winning.
@@fridakahlo4225 they switched after the day of reckoning. At that point Corleone didn't look so weak anymore. Tessio, Barzini, Tatalia, etc, all dead. Michael wasn't looking so weak anymore. I assume you've seen 2, Frank Pentangeli was originally with Barzini, he was one of the defectors. If you're a big godfather fan i strongly suggest The Family Corleone. The audiobook is free on TH-cam and goes into a lot of detail on all of this.
@@fridakahlo4225 as far as the story goes Michaels weakness was a well placed missdirection from Corleone. After the big hit this should have been obvious to the other families when the former secret caporegimes were visible and Corleone showed his real power. At that point Michael had Tessio Clemenza and Roccos Capoporegimes , knew the other families weaknesses and had the most political power
@@saulwalle I thought the murder of the five carried out by the help of the other families switched capos. And at that point, Michael looked weak and even his own capo Tessio did not wanted to take sides with him. This was why I was confused.
@@fridakahlo4225 Michael and Tom are two very convincing people, and the secret regime Rocco put together was strong enough to convince Barzini's other capos to switch sides, by hook or by crook. Michael's power is also financial and political, so blackmailing some of these guys with jail and other issues. The Barzini involvement with drugs would be an easy blackmail tool to get them to switch. Tom is a lawyer and Mike was studying to be a lawyer, so they have knowledge on what their enemies could be in for.
Great topic! My two cents: Look at the real-life situation where Gotti took out Castellano. Vincent "The Chin" Gigante greatly suspected that Gotti had taken out a Boss without The Commission's authorization and was vehement that Gotti himself be taken out for this transgression but he had no proof. He even went so far as to try to blow up Gotti with a car bomb but, obviously, failed. With the advent of the government's focus on Gotti, the feud died down. Similarly, while the other Families of New York in The Godfather might have assumed that Michael carried out the murders they had no direct proof. Now, Hyman Roth, a non-Italian, may have been more than just suspicious and this suspicion more than likely acted as the catalyst for his plot to kill Michael in The Godfather II. The evidence for Hyman Roth's being more than just suspicious may have come from possible conversations with Moe Greene before he was killed as alluded to by Hyman in his conversation with Michael in Cuba when he says "...I knew he was headstrong, talking loud, saying stupid things..." whereby Moe probably mentioned to Hyman that he told Michael that the Corleones were being chased out of New York.
They didn't have to assume he did it, they would have known he did it as Michael Corleone was the only don who didn't die or had an attempt on his life ergo the Corleones were responsible. I don't think proving it would be so important since unlike the Gotti situation all four families would be of the same mind that the Corleones were responsible. There have been instances when the mafia have taken out people that have been accused of being rats without any proof that they actually were, to insinuate that the mafia has this sacred virtue about proof is outright wrong.
@@Bobsend Gotti's killing of Big Paul was unapproved by the Commission , but in Michael's case, he literally killed the Commission.
Adding to the "non-retaliation" was the fact that Michael took off and went to Las Vegas at the end thereby removing himself from the locality.
Clemenza took over but we later learn he was possibly poisoned (that made it look like a heart attack). Who knows who did that? Was it a revenge from the hits (actually, I do believe it was Michael's sister getting payback for him killing her husband... a tactic of hers that resurfaces later in GF III when she poisons the Don with a canole).
Anyways... as you stated from the book. Only two were killed.
Well... since they were killed in different ways... could it be that BOTH of those families suspected the other?
Philip was killed first... maybe making it seem that Bargzini hit him.
Then Bargzini was killed... making his family blame Phillip's?
Possibly those two families waged war afterwards.
Which one was killed in the revolving door that was suddenly locked? Who did Clemenza BLAST with a shot gun because the Pimp was shot with a machine gun along with a young hookerI think you need to count again....
It's worth noting Michael was a marine who fought in the Pacific Theater against the Japanese who were just as ferocious and cunning as any New York crime boss not to mention they were driven by fanatical loyalty to the Emperor and the Bushido Code(the Samurai's code of honor) that practically forbade retreat or surrender as that was shameful in their eyes, they also reveled in getting up close and personal with the enemy by charging in with sword and bayonet.
I think the historical precedent of Augustus Caesar in collusion with Leopodis and Mark Antony killing the heads of the other Roman powerful families was the inspiration for the five family. Hit.
it was inspired by the Castallamerese war and then the killings of Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano in the 1920s--30s
The same thing happened over and over throughout history, so examples abound. Whenever someone rises to absolute power in a state with competing dynasties and clans, everyone of stature who isn't considered solidly loyal gets wiped out.
“What is past , is prologue “….
Look to power struggles in Roman history
The BBC TV drama "I Claudius" featured the actor Brian Blessed who played Augustus Caesar. He said he just couldn't get a handle on the character until the Director said "Think Mafia" - and then it all became clear to him.
That wasn't new though. Sulla used it too
I feel the other mobsters do suspect Michal Corleone to be the one that sent out the hit, but it's a combination of plausible deniability, the sudden inaccessibility to the Don (him leaving for Havana) and the fear from the man who had the audacity to execute such a move against ALL four other crime families AT THE SAME TIME. These are family-head he took out, these are the most untouchable people of their family and they were taken out all at the same time, they would have viewed the new Corleone boss as a person of immense balls and regardless whether he did this or not, avenging their fallen boss is not really something mobsters do if they are busy elevating themselves to a better position in the family. The Godfather painted a romanticized picture of the mob, but since we are talking realistically here... if the Corleone family didn't move in to take out a vast amount of territory from the other families, the new heads would have just turned a blind eye and continued their own business. Just cash, no drama.
I'm sitting here conteplating reading The Godfather novel again, which was years ago right before the movie came out. Your videos are like reading the novel with audio. You bring back so many memories of the book that I had literally forgotten . Just found your channel and can't stop watching the videos. As for no retaliation from the families, they were afraid of Michael. If he could be so brazen to take out the head of their families, that put fear in them. So informative are your videos, that I have to make myself an offer I can't refuse..read the novel again. Ty, great channel .
I read the Godfather on a 14 hour flight to SE Asia, many years ago. Needed something to get my mind off staring at skies and a seat. Even the guy beside me asked me when we were crossing the Pacific halfway asked "what's the difference between the movie and the book?" He was blown away by my summary and said those should have been in the movie.
I always figured that once the Enemy Leadership had been properly dispatched,
Vito's plan (not Michael's, correct?) included the preposition that those left standing
could 'now get back to the business of making money' and all they need do is
accept a different (and smarter) Boss. The fact that he wouldn't even be in New York
showed Him not to be a 'micromanager' anyway; so hat did they have to lose at that
point.... better than more war.
In chapter 31, the Baptism of Fire chapter, there is a big clue as to why the other families did not retaliate. "With this one savage attack, Michael Corleone made his reputation and restored the Corleone Family to its primary place in the New York Families. He was respected not only for his tactical brilliance but because some some of the most important caporegimes in both the Barzini and Tataglia Families immediately went over to his side." The next chapter begins "The bloody victory of the Corleone Family was not complete until a year of delicate political maneuvering established Michael Corleone as the most powerful Family chief in the United States." In the short term, Michael divided his enemies' forces and coopted some of them, rendering them too weak to fight back. In tje ling term, he made the deals necessary to stay on top. Michael was simply our of reach and too strong for the other Families after taking out the rival bosses.
Think about Scarface. When Tony kills Frank, Ernie doesn't want revenge. He wants to live, then he wants a job.
Different situation. Ernie was one man with a gun pointed at him so he had no choice really.
The 4 families that had their boss's killed would have had a leadership structure that would take control of the family and plan a counter attack. Plus all 4 families together would be stronger than Corleone family.
@@TWH442 It's the same general idea, create a power vacuum and fill it.
@@TWH442 in the book many capos from the other families switched allegiance to the Corleone Family so they might not be as powerful as u would think.
"Hey, Ernie! You got a job!"
@@starguy2718 Glug, glug, glug with the Jack Daniels, 😄😄
The mentioning of internal fighting reminds me of a line Roland Ho said in Sleeping Dogs: "Hierarchy is the only thing people care about. Always have, always will." Internal threats cause as much damage to organized crime groups as law enforcement.
The novel's series of events make more sense. Michael only took out Barzini and Tattaglia, both of whom were known to be conspiring against the Corleones. Michael got the ultimate win when he killed the two bosses. The other families likely wouldn't want to retaliate after that point, with the possibility of dragging out another war. And yes, it's true that Sonny's plan was to wipe out all of the heads, but it was deemed impossible because the bosses all changed their routines and went into hiding. Also, Michael didn't leave the compound immediately for Nevada after the executions. It took him some time to organize his leave.
According to the audio and the medal rack, he was awarded the Navy Cross, Silver Star and the Purple Heart which means he saw significant combat action. Hardly the soft college boy.
I think this an important point. Sonny tells Michael the killing is not long distance but had to be done up close. But Sonny's experience of death is of hits in restaurants, strangulation in the back of car or bomb explosions. Unlike Michael Sonny had never experienced what it was like to fight a man who was equally intent on killing him....
Yep, Don Vito look at them called them 'Christmas ribbons' Michael retorts "they are for bravery"
In the book, the Don reads newspaper stories of Michael receiving another medal for bravery, and laments, "But he performs these miracles, for strangers!"
Michael did go back to NY. He visited Pentangilli at the old Corleone family home after the attempt on his life in Nevada.
THE OTHER FAMILIES DIDN'T WANT ANOTHER WAR. MICHAEL SHOWED THEM ALL HIS POWER AND THAT HE COULD ELIMINATE EVERYBODY HE WANTED. ALSO, PROBABLY THE UNDERBOSSES OF THE FAMILIES TOOK THE GOOD OF THIS MASSACRE, THAT THEY BECAME BOSSES. SO, THEY MADE PEACE WITH THE BIG DON, MICHAEL CORLEONE AND CONTINIUED THEIR BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe they didn't retaliate because he wrote in all caps
@@StephenSchaal 🤣🤣🤣🤣!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@StephenSchaal
Show some respect, you're speaking to an all-capsoregime
@@StephenSchaal He wrote in capo lol
I have always thought that when Michael goes to the hospital, after Vito has been shot, that this is the moment of Michael’s turn into a mobster. He says to his father “I’m here… I’ll take care of you now. I’m with you now. I’m with you.” This is him saying that he is with his father as a true member of the family.
Completely agree. I have felt this way for years. If Vito had never been shot, I think Michael stays straight.
And when he had to light Enzo's cigarette because his hands were shaking so bad, Michael's hands were steady as a rock. He realized he could move in this world.
Yes
@@droopmountain6510or when he whacked the police captain
This is answered in the book. It says outright that the Corleone victory was complete. They seized the reins of power with a totality that precluded any retaliation.
They did touch on this in the book according to my recollection. The book started that after the baptism of fire some of the capo regimes of the rival families automatically switched sides to the Corrleone family. Sure some remaining rival factions probably had no respect for " that kid" as I'm sure they viewed him. But after what he accomplished and with rival capo regimes already in flight along with the infrastructure the Corrleone family had in place. It would have been a longshot to take Michael on. Not to mention after all he was Vito's son. This being a case of the apple not falling to far from the tree. As far as The Godfather Returns it's not cannon. Got through the first few chapters but found it totally contrived
The new opening to your videos is SO much better.
It wouldn't be difficult to figure out that Michael was behind it all as he was the only boss who survived and there would be people who knew that the two casualties from the Corleone family were traitors.
It would also depend on how many people knew they were traitors. Either way, I think all signs pointed to Michael.
Michael took out the people who knew his two casualties were traitors.
I agree. It would have been as obvious to anyone that Don Michael was behind the hits on the heads of the five families, as it had been to Don Vito that Don Barzini had been the brain behind the hits on himself and Santino.
What had happened was SOP when a father passed. The son then would settle any debts that the father hadn't been able to for one reason or another. That's what happened at the death of King David as well.
I enjoyed this video a lot and it's a pleasure to listen to a foreigner who speaks better English than most of my fellow Americans!
I have been having the same question when Michael's daughter is killed at the end of GF3. Why didn't Michael go to war on those who put a contract out on him and killed his daughter. He went to war when his father was attacked, why not when his daughter was killed?
He was tired broken and defeated with losing his own daughter this was the finale of life for him.
But he had. He killed them all, the pedo Archbishop, the sleazy banker, Lucchesi, Altobello. Just not in time to cancel the hitmen.
Shhh... Do you want a fourth one of these things to sit through?
@@drlarrymitchell lmao
It is addressed in the book. It clearly states that after the Assassination. Lampone took over Tessios regime. It also states that there were intense negotiations over a long period of time. With capos of the other families. Michael with his fathers help had negotiated and secured the agreement of the capos ahead of the hits to accept Michael taking over. They also were complicit in the hits helping Mike track their bosses setting them up for the hit. Giving them more autonomy and bigger percentages than they were getting before. The few capos that could not be reasoned with were eliminated by Lampones people. Making his victory complete. Hagen was kept out of all of it to be able to take over and negotiate a ceasefire and surrender allowing the civilian members of the family to live n relative comfort and peace. In case mikes plan went somehow terribly wrong
He even got revenge for Appolonia! By Fabrizio!
I wish they would have showed that in the film.
@@jackbits6397 They showed it in the deleted scenes. It's also in the book
@@lovelygivan1442 Yes I remember it in the book.
Not the same as not having her die 😔 I still feel bad for Michael (a fictional character) because of that.
@@jackbits6397 It's in the extended version on DVD also in the televised series.
But by God the scene where Apollonia gets killed is so horrific I cant watch it now. You can even see her leg out the door! it's not just all a ball of flames and smoke. Damn brutal.
Michael Corleone was the first Godfather of the next generation of all crime families after killing all the bosses leaving them with power struggle and only the Corleone’s winning the war.... some of Barzini capos switched to Corleone if someone wanted Michael killed someone could tell Michael out of fear and it would’ve also made a lot of underbosses the heads of the other families which might make them happy
I'll Never Forgive Coppola for Punking Michael Out, He Fought in the Pacific for Christ's Sake! 60 Year Old Devil Dog Here, Michael was No Stranger to Killing!
Highly entertaining and logical theories. Well done. This subject, as well as the flawed logic behind the hit on Vito Corleone, have always haunted and amused me
Just read the book and you will understand
@@smartncrafty5598 I never said I didn't understand. I said it was flawed logic. And I read the book and it was as poorly a thought out motivation as in the movie. It's funny you bring up the book, though, because few people mention anymore that the book was terrible. It was basically a beach vacation read like a Jacqueline Susann or Danielle Steele novel. If the movie hadn't been such a masterpiece the book would have been remembered as much as, well, Puzo's other novels
@@tedsperos1620 Agreed. The book is very basic and don't understand the praise for it.
The MISTAKE was in how Vito handled the Turk. He literally gave him the brush off when it would have been PRUDENT to have said to him that while it was TRUE there was a LOT of money in that white powder so much that the OTHER families will want a piece of it too. Then he should have called for the meeting that he called for AFTER Sonny was killed. In FACT BEFORE setting the meeting with the Turk Vito should have CONSULTED with Barzini to "feel" him out as soon as Hagen told him exactly what business he was in. At such a meeting Vito would have REALIZED the true power behind the Turk. Then maybe he doesn't give the Turk the brush off so quickly...Vito WAS SLIPPING.....
Normally when a boss of a family gets clipped (killed) everyone knows who did it... like John Gotti and Paul Castellano... Gotti would say we are going to find out who Did this... everyone knew it was him... in The Godfather everyone knew it was Michael but didn’t really want to be taken out they all just wanted to earn and move on
Also I think it’s bc the bosses had something against them and when they were all killed it may of made some underbosses that got pushed up to the Don spot happy they got something out of it or if they didn’t like their boss, also we all know only the head of a family can give you a greenlight for a hit someone probably with the leadership problems after losing their boss some may of went and warned the Corleones of their plans since he reminded everybody they were the most dominant crime family in New York
Possible: after the heads of the other 4 families are killed, it sends their families into chaos and in that time, the Corleone's regain neighborhoods and businesses that give them too much strength to be attacked. It would have taken a long time for those families to get back on their feet. Look how long it took Michael to get up to speed, and he had the tutillage of his great father.
The most likely reason there wasn't immediate retaliation against the Corleone family: The killing of the four family heads and others created a power vacuum at the top.
There was probably no one in any of the four families ready to take immediate control, let alone plot revenge against the Corleones. Plus, who among the survivors in those families is willing to risk becoming a potential target for the Corleones while said family is in disarray? Forget about help from any other family. They're in the same state of discombobulation.
Michael's master stroke sent a clear message: The attempted dismantling of the Corleone has FAILED! We're back on top and WOE ONTO ANYONE who stands against us!
My absolute favorite scene is the one line after this scene “ it’s time to answer for Santino! Carlo”
Love your videos! I remember reading the books and have seen the films many times, and still I get the best insights here. I had no clue that Sonny set the hits of the family bosses in motion-or I’d forgotten. Keep making these analyses!
Next video about solozo working with barzini to set up the Don to take the deal.
Outstanding Video!! I always wondered, why there was no retaliation, after Michael's revenge. It all makes sense. Michael was just brilliant (And probably smarter then even Barzini.) And we can't forget, that Michael's plan was to make the Corleone Family "legitimate" in the future. By the time the other families got back on their feet, Michael was long gone and many steps ahead of the other families!!
vito, mike, rocco, and a few others planned this out for a long time. vito played weak, mike play like a college kid, and the other families underestimated him. Once he took out top managmetn, the underlings went on retreat, and the carleones constantly pushed forward. It was like the last episodes of the sopranos.
What I remember from documentaries about the mob, there are always several people who wants to take over when the boss dies.
So I never wondered what happened next, they were busy with a succession battle.
Also the maffia was very authoritarian and hierarchical. So people on sub boss level are not exactly trained to think for themselves.
Yes, retaliation against someone like Michael requires organization and coordination, which in turn requires leadership.
I like your channel's content, looking forward to this video.
Hello from Ireland 🇮🇪
Charles Schwab ova’ here.
The mafia's control of the casinos in Las Vegas was arguably the biggest money maker in the entire history of the real world mafia! So the idea of a mafia don from New York moving out west to Nevada really isn't too far fetched. It makes sense to have a mafia don live within relatively close proximity to the biggest cash cow for the mafia.
To me this is where the planning must have come in. It wouldn’t have taken 10 yrs to hatch a plan to take them out. It would take 10 yrs to do it and not have it backfire on you.
I imagine he waited until each family was in a position in which they couldn’t recover from such a blow.
"Tattaglia is a pimp". Don Vito said it not me.
The Five Families were intimidated by the simultaneous murder of the other Dons.
This is why Michael is still alive in 1979 and is effectively the most powerful voice in the Commission even though he is largely retired from criminal enterprises.
In 1959/60 Corleone associate Hyman Roth attempts to overthrow Corleone but Michael dispenses with that threat.
This is GREAT! Totally made me think of plausible things that happened right after GF1 that I have ever even thought of!!! You guys are great!! 👍
Here's a question i have wondered: How did Hyman Roth not recognize Rocco at the airport? He was standing right in front of him.
Maybe Roth never met him face to face or only met him once or twice, he probably had his Sicilian messenger boy Johnny Ola handle the in person logistics for the hit.
I always thought that the “difficult but not impossible” hit on Roth was flawed. Why would Rocco have practically sacrificed himself in such a clumsy and ill thought out way? A long shot with a rifle, anything...would have made more sense for a top Corleone family associate.
Rocco was new to the Corleone family in GF 1, Roth would not recognize anyone younger than the Corleones and the elder capos.
@@rickvitoguitar Some people speculate that Rocco was the traitor (not Fredo), and that Michael found that out, and more or less forced Rocco to do a suicide hit on Roth.
@@basilmarasco1975 then why kill Fredo? And, how does that square with Fredo's claim to not know Johnny Ola, revealed to be a lie at the Cuban club?
The best model for the Baptism of Fire and it's aftermath would be how Carlo Gambino rose to power. That is how Puzo wrote: fictionalize real events.
Michael undoubtedly would have cultivated high-ranking traitors within at least two of the other families before launching his wave of assassinations, then sponsored them as the new bosses. This would have meant 1) he wouldn't have fought a war alone; 2) one or more families would fight back as a faction of said family, not as a unified whole.
'Nuff said.
Just when I think I understand, you pull me back in 😁
The other four families didn't retaliate because there was a dramatic and sudden power shift which put them in their place. The Corleone's looked down and out but came out the other side having squared the ledger with all their adversaries and this proved they are a force to be reckoned with and should not be underestimated. Michael was similar to Tywin Lannister in game of thrones in that he could probably persuade anyone to come on side with them for an extra bit of power. He could also gain leverage on anyone if he was willing to bide his time and be patient. He also had a knack of identifying the winning side as he did in Cuba and was able to play the game like a chess master
When Vito was shot, they had too weed out Paulie. The other families might believe (rightfully so) that they had betrayers to weed out first
I think this issue is where the movie and the book departs the farthest away from the reality of the real world mafia. In the real world mafia as soon as a boss dies, then you've got 20 different people jockeying for the position of being the boss.
That gave me food for thought I didn't even know I needed. Great big heaping bowls of pasta style food for thought. With a jug of wine casually tossed in.
Don’t forget the bread to sop up the gravy….
The great thing about the Godfather movies is they used history and were prescient. The alliance between Barzini and Tattallia mimicked the real life treacherous alliance of Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino as they eliminated Albert Anastasia (which led to the Gambino family) and attempted (and failed) to kill Frank Costello, who's retirement turned that borgata over to Genovese. Those were internal disputes that apparently didn't raise the ire of The Commission, but "The Godfather" almost presaged the takeover of the later Gambino family that was led by Paul Castellano. There was a great deal of confusion after Castellano was killed (partially out of the fear of John Gotti and his crew being killed for dealing with drugs), and with the other bosses, except for Chin Gigante (the man who tried to kill Costello on Genovese's orders), being on trial, plus the Bonnanos being non-grata and off The Commission, there was too much disarray for them to mount a combined effort, which the Gotti plotters actually thought could happen.
In the real life power vacuum after the Castellano hit, several capos were also killed, and planned to be killed. The captains who did survive realized where they stood and went with the regime change. Eventually, Gigante and Gaspipe Casso, who led the Luccheses, did try to bring Cosa Nostra justice to Gotti, et al, but they wound up killing a plotter who wasn't Gotti. When they tried again, the FBI had it on tape and warned Gotti.
It always has to be remembered that the Godfather movies bring a lot of drama that supplants reality and realism. Michael Corleone became the Boss of All Bosses whom another family would have been foolish to go against. In real life, in the 1980s, there were probably no more than 700 - 800 actual members of Cosa Nostra, and the toughest family might have two or three dozen ferocious buttons capable of being leaders and shooters in an all-out war. Kill the right number of them, and others will capitulate.
The successors lower down in the chain would likely be grateful that they now have moved up, and didn't have to do anything. They could owe thier income and power to the Corleones.
Michael is proved not only ruthless but also very strategic and tactical calculating leader that managed to do the unthinkable baptism of fire when nobody expected and so powerful all enemies gone down for good....As listened the hit was against not only the bosses but everyone could possibly took over... So he managed to be not only the undeniable boss of the underworld but he also had the time to go even stronger without any serious threats at least for some years....
Bada-bing in a German accent, priceless.
The elimination of Yamamoto on April 18, 1943 was strategically significant. Much doubt and confusion ensued among Japanese Imperial principals.
Yamamoto represented the hopes of many Japanese Imperial principals of arriving at a strategic accommodation with their principal rival in the Pacific (the United States). Prime Minister Hideki Tojo (the Shogun, or premier military commander) was by no means the sole director of national policy in Japan.
If Intelligence is the trump-card in this 21st-Century, the elimination of Osama bin Laden, Qusam Soleimani, and Ayman al Zawahiri should demonstrate the collaborative capacity of Western Nations to prevail kinetically if not culturally/philosophically.
Mo Green would make a great rapper name
Magic Johnson would be a great pornstar name
Michael gave Clemenza leave to start his own "family". Tessio's men and territory were absorbed by Clemenza and Rocco Lampone, using that extra manpower to seize far more territory and "business" from other families who were in disarray. Without serious income, the other families couldn't maintain the loyalties of the men. Most of these low-level guys jumped ship to either join the Clemenza and Lampone or ally so closely with them that no practical distinction existed. So Michael's masterstroke wasn't just killing the leadership of the two biggest families, he also took their income streams and their "armies". The remaining middle-management of the Barzini and Tattaglia families would be scrambling for survival as the other families likely moved in to wipe them out. But these other families would be well aware that if they went against Clemenza (now beefed up by extra manpower and money), they'd also be fighting Lampone. Go against, Lampone and they'd also be going against Clemenza. They'd be fighting a two-front war with bigger armies and their likelihood of survival would be nonexistent. Better to just accept the new normal.
I always had a problem with Michael being the innocent one, whilst being a Marine Officer in one of the most nasty wars of WW2. If you have seen The Pacific HBO series you will get an idea of how bad the Pacific war was. It looks like he had a Silver Star as well, you don’t get that for signing chits
He was not the “innocent one.” The war changed him. That was what was shown in the last scene of Godfather II. Michael quit college to enlist after the Pearl Harbor attack. There is an outtake that should have been left in, where Don Vito showed his disappointment in Michael as they went to visit the dying Consigliere Genco Abbandando. The Don says, “What is with all the ‘Christmas Ribbons’? I had big plans for you,”referring to Michael’s ribbon bars on his uniform. Michael never went back to college. At the beginning of the film, Michael has no desire to get into the “family business”. But once his father was gunned down, he wanted to retaliate; remember the war changed him. In another scene, he stays even when Santino tells him he should leave because he doesn’t want anything to do with the family business. He proposes that he will kill Sollozzo and the Police Captain, who broke his jaw. Sonny, doesn’t believe him saying, “What are you gonna do, college boy; you gonna go up to a a guy, put a gun to his head, and bada bing, blow his brains out all over your nice uniform?” To Sonny’s surprise, Michael says that he will do exactly that. What he saw in the war, the killing he did, the Marine basic training that breaks you down and rebuilds you as a killing machine; all that gave Michael the stones to do what had never been done before, gun down a NYPD Police Captain along with Sollozzo. He still never intended to do more than that in the family business. But then Sonny was killed and Fredo was weak, so he comes back and steps up to the plate because his father is old and weak. His father realizes that Michael is more like him than he previously thought, cunning, levelheaded, and strong. Yes, Don Vito was disappointed that Michael would never be a legitimate “pezzonovante” (big shot, literally .90 caliber), but he had no choice with Sonny dead and Fredo weak.
The point wasn't Michael was weak, it was he was considered a clean cut college boy by his family, Tom in particular see's what Michael is capable of. Michael was clearly an efficient combat leader by the start of the film as a decorated infantry Marine Officer in WW2. They wanted him to be a Senator in the respectable world, he wasn''t one of them, a street guy. The point is his moral downfall, as he seeks to protect his family he essentially destroys it. I personally feel there are notions that this was always his true nature in the film.
I remember back in the mid 80’s while in high school I had a guy trying to bully me cause he had 3 friends behind him. When he found himself on the gym floor with a swollen face he noticed his 3 friends were still behind him…on the other side of the gym. Not one of them wanted to challenge me.
I always thought the Turks deal was a set up and Vito didn’t fall for it. But I haven’t heard anybody’s theory on that
I kind of thought that too.
Possible but doubtful. It was Sonny’s speaking out of turn in the Solozzo meeting that sealed the decision.
If Solozzo & Barzini felt the Corleones were all against the drug trade, it wouldn’t make sense to kill Vito and trigger an all-out war.
I agree with you. The target was on Vito's back as soon as he turned down the offer. Even if Vito accepted the Turks deal the hit may have still happened. Sonny speaking out of turn was irrelevant to the events that happened afterwards.
@@robshastri1346 Good observation as mentioned when Solozzo says to Tom Hagen "...Sonny was hot for my idea..."
@@mahmoudibnemir8704 think about it, had sonny kept his mouth shut while Vito turned down the offer, do you think that would have changed anything? The turk had the backing of the other families and barzini so when Vito said no, the hit was in full motion. The only reason the turk said sonny was hot for the deal was to get tom to convince sonny it's a good business deal and it's strictly business, and more importantly to avoid an all out war. With Vito shot and Luca Brasi dead the turk didn't think sonny would still go to war with all the families
The head of family knocks off the " under Boss"step up as Head boss, so in short, the under boss win
Awesome video. One request: Record at a higher volume. I have to blast my speakers just to hear still at a lowish volume. Thanks for your art!
Headphones.
Occam's razor. In a real world LCN scenario, especially with only two of the four families affected, Michael would have offered peace, allowing whoever emerged as leaders of the Barzini & Tattaglia families to continue operations as before and retain their commission seats. Wanting to avoid a long war, the rest of the commission would have been in favor of it.
I keep hearing “aging Don.” He died pretty young at about 63.
At the time (the 1950's), 63 was considered pretty old, especially since the life expectancy of a member of the mob was around 45 years at the most!!!!!
63 year old Italian in the mid 20th century, in organized crime. He's an ancient.
@@LedosKell Exactly. 63 is old for a criminal. There's no AARP for thugs and criminals.
He died with Appolonia did you know?
@@juliusrevillosa1795 You mean Michael right? Because if you mean Michael I completely agree!!!!!
They weren't packing up and moving the same day as the baptism. When Connie runs in she says "Read the papers". Also, she is dressed all in black, meaning she was in a period of mourning. Carlo was already buried, and funerals happen a week or so after a death. I do agree, they still moved to NV so quickly, the other families didn't have time to react. Enjoy watching your breakdowns!
About 99% of this went over my head in the movie
Excellent!! This was your best!
The 5 families didn't retaliate after their leaders were killed, because Michael destroyed their network between the communications between the leaders themselves. Vito's style of leadership was also superior compared the other bosses and thus loyalty of the other 5 families were weaker. If you can kill all the five family leaders, that would be too much chaos to sort through and organize.
If you read the Godfather Returns it states that Michael put allies as bosses of the other families.
One other interesting point.
Remember when Willie Cici says about Clemenza's death "that was no heart attack"?
I've always wanted to know more about that.
it was partly because the actor who played him didn't want to return.
In real life, in the early 1960s, a Don suddenly died, and poison was suspected (because there was internal strife in that family). So, they borrowed that story line from real life. The Rosato brothers' rebellion also was borrowed from real-life events.
I have a video about this coming out soon. Stay tuned...
@@CineRanter I hope you get it right.
While GF2 was a great movie, and one of the few sequels in film history truly outstanding, it did suck that Clemenza was to be in the "modern" segment and betray Michael, but because he demanded higher salary or something, they had to replace him with this Pentangeli character who came out of nowhere and treated as if had always been around the Corleones(eh, no). That was actually Clemenza but replaced and the whole Pentangeli plot was supoposed to be about him which would have give the movie much more strengt as we see even him turning against Michael. Such a shame he was left out of the film and we were stuck with the Pentangeli guy whome we had never even herad of. Just not the same. And it would have been great with the switches with the early 19th century New York scene where we saw the young Clemenza as well.
To quote Machiavelli the goal of war is to leave the enemy so badly beat they won't want to wage war with you again. All the heads if the families were killed in less than a day, which itself was a huge flex to show off the power and influence the Corleone's have. The options are then to fight back against such a force where victory is very uncertain, or cooperate and get something in return. It's better to cooperate and get something in return because who wants to fight something like that.
I don't think the movies made as much of Michael's time in the Marines as they should have. He was a Pacific veteran and those island hopping campaigns were very "up close and personal". After facing uncounted enemies who would rather die than surrender, taking on New York mobsters would seem almost tame in comparison. No wonder his hand did not shake outside the hospital with Enzo and the lighter, nor did he hardly blink when dispatching Sollozo and McCloskey. Sonny minimized Michael's service ("shoot 'em from a mile away") but he did not approve of Michael's enlistment in the first place. Michael lived with death for months, probably from mid-1942 to summer 1945 (although given the time of the wedding he must have been home on leave when the Emperor threw in the towel August 15, 1945). Whatever he might have wished for his post-war life, he lived with death until his own.
the whole idea was that Michael's service in the Marines was alien to the mafia, no matter what he did in uniform. He made it to Captain, earned a Silver Star and came back relatively unharmed. Sonny even gets the service branch wrong (he says Army), which demonstrates his ignorance, but notes that Michael has probably never just walked up to someone in a restaurant and blown his head off, which even some Marines would balk at. Mike is also a returnee from the war, many of whom likely never wanted to kill again and switch off from the military training they had.
As an officer Michael would have also had less to do with the nitty gritty of the island hopping than the ordinary grunt as well- a Captain is normally in charge of a company or platoon, hence paperwork. Doesn't mean he didn't see combat, but he did have some privileges of rank. In the mafia his rank gives him more problems, not less.
Godfather 3 answers this with the meetings of the Don's - where Joey Zasa exacts his revenge, also strongly supported by an unknown mafia boss - Lucchesi. I'd recommend revisiting Godfather 3, that meeting discusses how all the families ended patching things over with Michael.
If the Under Bosses and top advisor were taken out there would have been too much infighting in the various families over who would assume the title of family Boss. The family boss is a powerful and very wealthy man and like in the modern day mafia, the street soldiers are scraping by most of the times, the Capo's are well off, but nothing like the Boss. Michael and the New York Corleone family would have had plenty of time to expand and consolidate from the total disarray the other families were now in.
Strong capo could be wealthier the even the boss in some cases.