Years After Discovering The Trilogy : Eclipse

Composure or chaos in crisis? Choose!

Think in your own reality, outside someone else’s story and time. If you’ve ever tried to improve but ended up pulled into something you couldn’t escape. Often, it takes A LOT of slow burning, hardly moving, active energy to really get that. Something with its own Earth under it. This is it. Most expect things that can’t be delivered on their timeline. And when you are on the go, you just want to hear nothing and stay in the present. Some back and forth or more journalling than creation is a pet peeve. Responsive space is different from a reflective space.

I woke up today feeling a kind of disaster like never before. “I want the opposite” and tears started falling slow and soft, as I stood on the edge of waking into this cold, gloomy morning. Was it a dream? Some subconscious creation? All I care is how I felt in those moments before and after I embraced the loss for what it is. Haven’t watched films in forever. One being a trilogy worth discussing.

Mama: “You can never lose your family.”

Michael: “Times are changing.”

One hour passed. I wondered what was going on in Michael’s mind? Was he intending to legitimize the family or becoming just another non-legitimized figure trying to get out? Temporary. Latter is ok. Permanent? Who knows. Machiavellian brilliance, sure. But the reality is, sometimes it works. Sometimes. Or when it doesn’t work, it fails miserably.

It’s 2022.

I still full well remember “We’ll get there, pops. We’ll get there.” And sure, we can laugh and recall “Hey, whataya gonna do, nice college boy……You gotta get up close like this bada‑bing! you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit,” back when he wasn’t yet swallowed by the family business. Correction : an empire.

We’ve probably seen enough of films that either makes us yawn at it or see glorification but let’s stand in between for once. I struggle to find ‘glory’. Gloom and doom will be found easily though. The film doesn’t warrant us to judge if he succeeded or failed. Rewatching the film would be worth it to take another look, independent of our times and minds. It's about seeing everyone – the family, the insiders, the outsiders, the victims, and the enablers. The costs of maintaining power. This film makes you wonder why you haven’t stopped finding her a “hero” and focus on every cast and crew present.

Don Vito Corleone was in decline when the story begins. Virgil Sollozzo says as much, that the Don isn’t what he used to be, and it’s hard to argue with him. Vito is shot in broad daylight. Fredo fumbles his weapon and collapses. Any competent hitman could have finished the job and taken out Fredo too. In that moment, the family looked weak, at one of its weakest stages. And it isn’t the Don who starts putting things back together. With no position in the family business and no experience in its violence, Michael’s the one who acts faster and more decisively than anyone expects. Sollozzo and McCluskey are gone. These weren’t moves advised by Vito. It was Michael taking the initiative and the beginning of stepping into power. That suggests the transition.

Later, Sonny is murdered in a brutal ambush. Vito, older and more tired, was done with the war. The force was fading, although his mind was as sharp as ever. The conversation between him and Michael said more than words ever could. Again, it’s Michael who takes the lead. He becomes the protector of the family in the way he knows how, i.e. complete elimination of threats. He wipes out the four rival family heads in one coordinated blow, along with Moe Greene. He is colder, more frightening, and ruthless in a way we haven’t seen from Vito. And he gets the job done. He serves to protect this way. That’s the price of power in a world like that. Think about what happens to a person trying to carry that much weight, control and power by himself. Anything. His “ruthless” decisions weren’t about some liberating choice. If there was freedom in them, it came with a big price to pay. Analytical and unreachable. This felt magnified. After Sicily, part of his mind probably just “shut” down, given everything that spiraled around him from Apollonia, Sonny to the attacks and betrayals.

"A man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man." 

Beautiful boundary. However, Vito and Michael were fundamentally different. Both endured hardship, but on very different terms. One moved from darkness to light. The other, from light into shadow. A bit about Vito. His life started with tears and trauma. At nine, young Vito lost his father, brother and mother to Don Ciccio in Sicily. He was sent to America, an orphan with nothing. In his twenties, Vito took control of his neighborhood, wiped out Fanucci, and by middle age the Corleone empire was built. A very familiar arc. Now think about Michael. Sonny’s death, his marriages, the baptism sequence, Fredo’s death, Mary’s death, followed by his own lonely death. Right? These events can’t be understood in isolation. Ask all the good, bad and ugly people around him. They trace the making and unmaking of a man caught between the demands of power and the remnants of a personal moral code.

The idea that Michael could have gone legit without addressing the murder of his brother and the attempt on his father’s life negates the psychological burden of enduring those losses and the fear of consequences in the Sicilian world he inherited. With greater power came more dangerous and complex enemies. Expanding into new sectors exposed the family to risks Vito never had to face in quite the same form or on the same scale. No one can ever be fully “prepared” for this. Michael learned the basics of Vito’s world fast. The newer, more nuanced threats Michael encountered went way beyond rival mob families. He had to face unstable business alliances, corrupted political systems, backroom deals, corporate boardrooms, and betrayals from insiders. Worse still, he found himself dealing with institutions that were, in many ways more corrupt and morally compromised than the world he came from. This frustrated a young me. So much is excused in the name of “legitimacy”! These weren’t any cleaner than the mob. Just worse. Wore better suits and pretended extremely well. Far more dangerous, and to be precise, pure evil.

Vito Corleone’s world operated on old-school values, such as respect, loyalty, codes of conduct, and personal relationships. Vito knew how to survive the streets by offering favors to his community. He built power like that. Michael had to deal with the old threats his father managed for decades, along with enemies operating on a wider scale, through global business, finance and politics. The old codes meant less in those arenas. What used to work couldn’t guarantee survival. On top of that, Michael faced betrayal from within his own bloodline. The rot was inside and outside his world. In a more erratic and far less stable time, Michael had to operate through the transition and sustain the rest of it. Power grew, yes. Vulnerability? Absolutely yes. “Times are changing” is the number one truth I’ve come to understand. A simple question. You might be upright, but have you ever stopped to consider what or who you’re dealing with? That changes everything, including you. Even if the change is on the outside to keep it moving, not the inside, this is the hardest part to explain and make sense of. This is where you become even more vulnerable. Also, we don’t need to go, “Oh, he revealed himself?!?!”. It’s not always about intentionally hiding some shady true self.

Michael Corleone served as a decorated U.S. Marine in the Pacific during World War II. In the films, his uniform carries the Silver Star and Purple Heart, and in Part II he names the Navy Cross. The book names the Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart. Brave and rewarded. More effortlessly calm, composed, and eerily rational even in violence. Far more “contained” instead of being “settled.” He was too uncommon, but an ideal mob boss. The book goes even further. So before the war, Vito saw Michael as his chosen heir. After the war, Michael wanted civilian life and college, away from the Corleone business. But once Vito was attacked, everything started to change. Sonny’s murder pushed it further. Better Godfather among the next-gen lot, but he was pulled into a crisis filled with long-standing enemies, grudges, and fragile truces. He too changed. The words “duty” and “necessity” take a whole other meaning. A soldier goes to the greatest lengths to protect and pursues duty as a necessity.

If he didn’t react, he risked leaving his family open to death, chaos, and control by their enemies. Walking away was psychologically possible, but the deeper he went, the more disastrous that option became. Protection. Revenge and legacy follow as he understood them.

Michael wasn’t exactly a “lesser” Don than his father. He took it to another level. Corleone influence wasn’t limited to the traditional spheres anymore. Michael, the “outsider” / “civilian,” turned into an insider harder than anyone expected. That shook just about everyone. It’s hard to imagine the older Don moving like this. His move into the family business started off as a response to crisis and went on taking from him until he died. You might be quarrelling about the “choices” he had. Talk about the “choice” first, cause the sequence will follow. A single pull is enough force to never let you go back. Sounds absolute, but oh well.

A best example is Mary’s murder after the opera. Michael started reconciling with his family. He made peace with Kay, and his relationship with his children was healing. Anthony was on that stage with Michael there watching him. Mary was with him. What do we call this? Cycle. Miserable fate.

Transition of power is only half the story. Vito prepared Michael to take over, but the family Michael inherited was under serious strain. Barzini was moving against them. Tessio was ready to betray Michael. Carlo helped orchestrate Sonny’s murder. The internal succession was planned. The world waiting for Michael was anything but peaceful. He didn’t inherit a secure throne. Its more like inheriting what he immediately had to defend.

Once Vito Corleone was gone, Michael was alone. Tom Hagen, with his classic clarity and steady loyalty, was much needed. A rational consigliere who tried to steady Michael and interpret the motives of both family and enemies. Trust and loyalty lived in that relationship more than anywhere else. He understood who was present in any situation, why they were there, what their motives were, how they operated, and what had to be done. One example of this is around the Sollozzo meeting, when Sonny’s temper and impulsive reactions were troublesome. Ironically, Sonny found the drug business that Sollozzo wanted Vito to accept tempting. It was clear what Sonny was capable of. After Sollozzo left, Vito nudged Sonny to realize that exposing weakness and acting too eager in such matters could be used against them, which was a reminder to never let anyone outside the family know what he was thinking.

Fredo was under some serious influence from people who either openly disrespected him or intended to use him. Fredo publicly disrespected Michael, going to the extent of taking Moe Greene’s side against him. Oh well. Though hurt and pissed, Michael managed to warn him. No aggression, only ice-cold restraint. Fredo had to realize that taking sides is expensive. His willingness to secretly assist Roth and Ola made him a liability, as much as Sonny’s hot head made him one in a different way.

At Vito’s funeral, Michael and Tom both showed what made them different, efficient and proficient. Both observed, processed, and analyzed everything with absolute awareness. Those wicked smiles, thinking the Corleones were done. Michael noticed Barzini’s new standing. Here comes Tessio. Both understood it. Michael’s expression at the funeral was an unreadable, composed way to fathom the depth of treachery. Game starts now. The burden passed, and there’s no turning back.

Michael succeeded too well. He went “legit” as far as he could. Yes. But the meaning changed. The world changed. It wasn’t the states anymore. The tragedy was that he did what he thought was necessary and effective, and it destroyed him anyway, in the worst possible way, just like the world he lived in and his own wild flair. In this world, no one escapes without paying a price. No matter how fairer the intention, misdeeds bring consequences.

This is the brilliance of the characters. Every character acted true to their core traits, their roles, their destinies. Michael operated at full capacity within the world full of treachery, evil, and collapsing alliances.

Why did Carlo beat his pregnant wife in The Godfather?

Exactly when? That would be a good question. His intentions around the Corleone family were never innocent. But the day Sonny drove out to confront him, it was part of the setup to get Sonny there. Carlo didn’t give a damn about the unborn child.

The book makes the ugly bit explicit. Carlo expected marriage into the Corleones to bring him a house, status, money, and a place inside the family business. Vito never trusted him enough for that and kept him on the fringe. Plan failed! Carlo took his resentment out on Connie. The abuse gave him the feeling that he had power over a Corleone. He wasn’t going to get anything tangible by abusing her but was stupid enough to take it out on her. Well Carlo, proximity ≠ inheritance/influence.

The final beating was different. One of the darkest and most cowardly acts in the story was the setup to kill Sonny. Vito’s grief when he saw his son’s body was pure pain and he consoled Tom, which is not a gesture most might think to make in such a moment. Barzini wanted to take out the aggressive Corleone who was already running the family in Vito’s absence and was the obvious heir to his throne. Barzini’s people knew how easily Connie being hurt will enrage Sonny. Carlo beat her again. Connie called home, Sonny found out and took the bait. He drove out before his protection caught up. They ambushed him at the tollbooth. Maybe they expected Sonny’s death to push the Corleones toward peace. In one sense, yeah. Vito called an end to the war. But what the Corleone enemies unleashed was something far more dangerous. They thought they were taking out the obvious successor. They..… underestimated Michael. The plus point of being an underdog.

I wish we got to see Connie reckon with the fact that her husband was part of a cunning setup to eliminate the brother who went out there for her. Michael tells Carlo he “fingered Sonny for the Barzini people” through the farce with Connie. The presence of the (un)born child runs through both brothers’ instances. Sonny drives off in rage after Connie calls, pregnant with Carlo’s child. Before that, he joked that he wasn’t going to make her child an orphan before he was born. Years later, Michael stands as godfather to Connie and Carlo’s son during the baptism sequence, before settling the account with Carlo.

Carlo’s death vs. Sonny’s death reactions, in and out of the film, weren’t surprising. Sonny was someone’s family too. What seems excessive to a third person can be fatal in leadership when betrayal comes from within. Michael didn’t act on impulse. He knew Carlo was involved and made him admit who was behind it. From a character arc POV, it was a symbolic move. Sonny’s death hurt, but Carlo’s execution shook people and perceptions because it offered a glimpse into who Michael had become and what he was capable of.

And how could we forget Fredo? If Michael didn’t keep Fredo in check, someone else was going to get to him. That happened once, and it nearly got Michael and Kay killed, with their children in danger too. It wasn’t about being careful around him anymore. Exiling him would have left him out there for someone else to use. Killing him was brutal, yes. But patience is a game only the chief player knows how to play. New rivals were always going to emerge. It was a statement.

Michael’s transformation was layered, painful and just…ice-cold. Adaptable, efficient and brilliant, not old-school, warm or the epitome of wisdom. Had they switched eras, Michael could have thrived in Vito’s time. But I can’t say the same for Vito.

Michael evolved into someone who responds with stillness and precision. Still not robotic, but ice-cold y’know? His emotional language turned inward. It was simmering on the inside. Everything from the orchestra to the lighting worked in harmony to express the texture of that internal world without glorifying it. It lets us see it, and that’s all. This wouldn’t have been possible without the soundtrack, crew, artists, and a vision thoroughly attuned to what power, treachery, trauma, and legacy really feel like. The lighting is intentional enough to say what words can’t. What deep, low-key lighting, casting characters into and out of darkness, carrying hidden agendas, moral ambiguity, and internal tussle. The Rembrandt-style lighting takes it somewhere else entirely.

I picked up the book and often looked back. The Godfather cast is iconic for a reason. Marlon Brando isn’t there anymore. John Cazale isn’t. Morgana King isn’t. James Caan isn’t. Yes, time is said to age us like fine wine. We say “aged like fine wine” but the wine turns bitter once you realize every sip is one less from the can. The pain is inimitable.

Finding something relatable in this masterpiece isn’t unusual. To find ourselves reflected here is hardly surprising. Each character, every facet of this magnum opus, is a significant part of a whole we should cherish. Masterpieces can be relatable. Again, we’ve all seen too many films and you may have seen many more than I ever did. This trilogy though, while having all the doom and gloom in the world, manages to spark a thought process. Subtle, nuanced and very, very fragile.

P.S. This has been on my mind for a while. Before it’s too late, we can do something. I truly admire the old-school style of gratitude. Anything we can look back on than a gesture that vanishes in the feed. But if they don’t use social media, how do we send those without going digital? Just something to think about. Analog and digital for the win ;)