The Corleone Family

 

The Corleone family is the strongest of the five families at the time of the movie.  The Barzini family is probably second.  

 

As I said before, VIto Coreone has two families.  His blood family and his “Family”.  His blood family is comprised of:

Vito Clorleone: The Patriarch of the family.  HIs original name was Vito Andolini.  When entering the country as a child at Ellis Island, the American screener changed his name after the town he was from.  He is the pioneer who removed his family from poverty. 

Carmela Corleone: The wife of Vito Coreone.  She is the mother of his four children.

Santino “Sonny” Corleone: The first born of the Coreone family.  He’s known for being a handsome and brave young man.  He’s being trained as the successor of the family “business”.  He has two weakiness-women and he has a terrible temper.  Because of the family he belongs to, his good looks and his charm he has access to alot of women and he doesn’t turn down anything even though he’s married.  His father often “disciplines” him for these two weaknesses.  As violent as he can be, he will not hurt women, children and people who can’t protect themselves.  

Tom Hagen: Tom is the adopted son of the God Father.  Sonny brought him home one day and they kept him and raised him as their own een though he’s not Italian.  He’s of German and Irish descent.  

Fredo Corleone: Fredo is the second biological son of Vito and Carmela.  He’s a good guy, but to be honest, he’s just mediocre.  Maybe a little slow.  And he’s not brave like the oldest son.  

Michael Corleone:  Michael is the rebel of the family.  Once he realized that his father participated in illegal activities, he attempted to distance himself from his family…and his father.  His goal was to become fully American and distance himself from his family and probably even his culture.  Deciding to do the opposite of his father, he dropped out of college and joined the Marine Corps to fight in world War 2.  He even was dating a WASP and had plans to marry her to further himself from his culture.  He was injured in the war and came home early…the summer of 1945.  

Constanza Connie Coeleone:  Connie is the last child of the family and the only daughter of the family.  The movie starts with the wedding reception of her marriage to her new husband Carlo Rizzi.

Johnny Fontane:  The Godfather’s godson.  In my opinion, his character is taken from the great singer Tony Bennet.  He’s a singer and an actor that was breaking into Hollywood.  But just like Sonny, he’s a skirt chaser.  And this gets him into trouble because he’s taking some the women of one of the directors.  

Kay Adams: The girlfriend and future wife of Michael Corleone.  She was a WASP from a proper middle-class family.  Not an Italian.

 

His Mafia family is comprised of the following people:

Don Vito Corleone: The Don (or Godfather ) of the Corleone Family.

Peter Clemenza: He’s one of the close friend and Caporegime of Don Clemenza.  He’s an obese man so he’s also know as Fat Clemenza.  He’s known for having a keen eye to spot talent.  He’s also the Godfather of Sonny Corleone.  And when Sonny came into the life, he was trained by Clamenza.  

Tessio: Tessio is also one of the Don’s closest friends.  He’s also a CapoRegime.  

Tom Hagen: Tom Hagen is being groomed to become the counsligerie. Genco Abbandando was his original Consigliere but he was dying of cancer. Tom being placed in this post was a little problem because he wasn’t Italian.  But it was the Don’s “Family” and he could do what he wanted.  But in the real world, this would have never happened.  Furthermore, by education, Tom was a lawyer.    

Sonny Corleone: Is being groomed to take over.  During the time of the movie, Sonny is also the Underboss of the family.

Luca Brasi: Luca Brasi was the Don’s personal weapon.  Extremely brave and strong, he was feared throughout the underworld.  In the book, the last time that the Don was shot, Brasi brutally killed a lot of men from Capone’s regime.  He was not a man to be played with.  And he was absolutely loyal to the Don.

 

The Story

The movie’s time period is 1945. Because no one are wearing jackets, it’s probably still summer time.  Because it’s the summertime of 1945, we are still in world war 2.  World war 2 would end September of 1945.

 

The movie begins with Vito Corleone’s last child-his daughter Connie Coreone getting married.  All of his children are in attendance and some members of the other mafia families in Newyork.  Apparently as is customary, if you ask the Don a favor on his children’s wedding day, he cannot refuse.  So as the reception was going on in the courtyard, the don was in his office handling business.  

 

An Offer You Can’t Refuse…

Of the issues brought to the Godfather, we see him deal with the issue concerning his God Son Johnny.  As is customary, the Godfather will ask you nicely to do the favor for him and een offer his services.  Then, if you deny him then he’ll “aggressively” ask you.  This led to a film producer’s million-dollar horse’s head in his bed.  

 

The Turks Offer…

After Tom Hagen comes back from California after dealing with Johnny’s “problem”, He has a meeting with the Don and Sonny.  He lets Don and Sonny know that a meeting has to be scheduled to talk to this man because he has a proposition.  This man’s name was Virgil “the Turk” Sallozzo.  Tom told them that he was a tops narcotics guy who was being backed by the Tattaglia family. Apparently, he had access to the poppy fields in Turkey and he processed the drugs in Sicily.  

 

After Tom gave all the stats of the Turk, the Don wanted the opinions of Tom and Sonny.  Tom realized that the drug game would eclipse their gambling businesses and other businesses in the future if they didn’t get involved.  When asked what he thought, the only thing Sonny could say was, “I heard there’s a lot of money in that stuff’.  Manifesting a lack of analytical and methodical thinking.  Thus…signs of a bad leader.  The Don never told them what he thought.

 

At the meeting, the Turk laid out his proposition. He explained to the Don that he needed access to the politicians that he had influence over.  This is why he came to him.  He came with a large offer of money to the Don,  a yearly income.  When he tried to guarantee it, Sonny then made the biggest mistake.  He showed interest.  

 

The Don turned down the Turk and told him why.  He believed that Drugs was a dirty business that his political friends would have to address.  They viewed gambling and prostitution as harmless vices.  But drugs destroy families and neighborhoods.  So he turned down Sollozo.  The Don wished him well, especially if Sollozzo’s business did not conflict with his.  That was a veiled threat!

 

After Sollozzo left, the first thing that the Don did was discipline Sonny for talking too much and revealing his thoughts outside the family.  Then he called in Luca Brazzi.

 

He wanted Luca to find out what was under Sollozzo’s “fingernails”.  He felt that something was coming.  He wanted Luca to go around the Tattaglia family’s establishments (clubs and prostitution establishments) and start voicing his displeasures about the Corleone Family.  And through them attempting to woo him into their family, find out what’s going on with this Sollozzo guy.

 

The Attack On The Family…

After the meeting, Fredo is told to get the driver.  He tells his father that the driver called off because he was sick.  The Don seemed surprised because the driver had called off several times previously.  Fredo told his father that the driver was a good guy, and that he’d drive him himself.  

 

While his father stopped by the markets to get some fruit, he was shot up.  Because Fredo was not a real soldier, he wasn’t on his post and even froze.  Simultaneously, Sollozzo and one of the Tattaglia’s brutally killed Luca Brazi.  Furthermore, they kidnapped Tom Hagen.  

 

Under the assumption that the Don was dead, Sollozzo told Tom, that he kidnapped him to only give a message to Sonny.  He told Tom that the Don was dead.  He told Tom that the Don was slipping…and asked him if it was a decade ago could he have gotten to him so easy?  He then asked acknowledged to Tom, that Sonny was interested in the idea.  Tom was given the message and set free.  And then, as he was setting Tom free, he found out that the Don was still alive.  

 

As this is happening, Michael is in his own world with his WASP girlfriend.  He only finds out that his father had been shot because of the newspapers.  He calls his brother and is given the gist of what was going on.  He then tells his girlfriend that he has to go and see his father and doesn’t know when they’ll see each other again.  

 

When he goes to see his father, he realizes that there’s no security.  He finds out from the nurse that the police removed his father’s security.  He then realizes that they are about to kill his father again.  He calls his brother, Sonny to tell him what’s going on at the hospital. After hanging up the phone, he tells his father who is awake, “…I am with you now.”  We would not know what he possibly means by this until later.

 

Being a Marine Corps officer, he makes a plan and saves his father’s life as Sonny and Tom race to bring more security.  The police chief comes and eventually breaks Michael’s jaw for challenging him by confronting him about his payoff to kill his father.  

 

No Turning Back…

Michael and the Caporegime make it all back to the Corleone compound back in Long Island.  Eventually, Tom makes it back with the message also.  After Sonny gives orders to wipe out the driver that set his father up to be killed, they begin to discuss how to go to war and kill Sollozzo and the others who conspired to kill the Don and wipe out the family.  

 

For the first time, Micahel sits in on one of the meetings.  After the back and forth, Micahel comes forth and gives a plan that ends with him killing these men.  All of the men were shocked.  Here’s the square who never wanted to get mixed up in the family business now making plans and wanting to kill people.  But they forgot he had just come back from world war 2, killing Germans!  Anyway, he kills Sollozzo and the dirty cop and goes into hiding!.

 

A deathblow…

Sonny was a brilliant and ruthless general.  He struck fear in the other families.  But the families knew Sonny’s strengths and weaknesses.  Being that he was the head of the family and that it was wartime, he did not leave the compound.  So they had to find a way to make him leave the compound.  They eventually found a crack in the family…the son-in-law-Carlo.  

 

Carlo, beat Connie Corleone badly with a belt while she was very pregnant (6 plus months).  Sonny beat him up in the middle of the street the last time Carlo did this.  He also warned Carlo that the next time that he did this, he’d kill him.  This was the next time.  

 

When Connie told Sonny, he was so enraged, that he ran out of the house and jumped into his car to go and kill Carlo with his bare hands!  On his way there, killers were waiting for Sonny.  They gunned him down at the toll booth.  The heir apparent was dead.

 

Once the Don heard the news, he had to get out of his bed, and broker peace with the other families.  

 

Peace…

At the Commission meeting, the Don said that he’d concede to peace.  He even said that he’d give them the support they’d need for the new drug trade.  But he let them know, that if anything else happen to his lounge son, he’d blame the people in that room.  

 

He swore on the life of his children, that he would never break the peace between himself and the men in that room.  Being a man of his word historically, all of the other Dons accepted this offer.

 

After this meeting, he finally came to the realization that the person pulling the strings was actually Barzini all along.  

 

Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold…

When Michael came back to the U.S., he began his apprentice training under his father.  The book also explained that Tom and others had to teach him about all of the intricate pieces of the business.  

 

Michael was considered weak by outside families because he was never in the life.  And because of the peace treaty, other families started encroaching on Corleone territory.  Tessio and Clemenza began to complain about this.  They even asked the Don could they bring on more men to their teams.  VIto would not allow it.  He told them that he didn’t want the other families to think that he was going back on his word.  

 

It even got so bad, that Clemenza reminded the Don that he said that one day he and Clemenza could  go off on their own…he’d never thought about it till today…could they leave the family.  The Don told asked them, did they trust him.  They both replied. “Yes”.  And then he told them to trust Michael.  

 

What they didn’t know, was that Micahel didn’t forget what they did to his family.  

  • They attempted to kill his father
  • They Killed his brother Sonny
  • They attempted to kill him but killed his bride and baby
  • They tried to destroy the family

 

He would not forget.  And, he and the Don knew that as son as Don Corleone passed, they would try to finish off Michael because they didn’t fear or respect him as they did Sonny.  

 

He told his father that he (Vito) gave his word to keep the peace.  That he didn’t give it.  He would honor the peace after he passed.  Vito accepted this and helped him prepare for this.  

 

After Vito Corleone passed, Michael got his revenge.  He killed all of the heads of the five families that conspired against all of this violence against his family.  He also killed the last traitors in his family. And he now got the respect he deserved from the men in his “Family” and the made men in the other families.  

 

He was now Don Michael Corleone.  The movie ends with Clemenza and others kissing his strong hand and calling him Don Corleone.  

 

The end.  

 

Conclusion

This is the basic storyline of the first Godfather movie.  We can now begin to study different aspects of this movie trilogy and books.  

 

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And remember…BE A MAN…