I watched this again over this weekend.......Oddly I actually found Michael quite depressing in part 2. Dude almost seemed depressed the whole fukking movie. Michael just seemed completley burdened by the job of being the Don. He never wanted to be apart of the life but was thrust into the role to save his father and protect the family. You gotta remember he never wanted THIS life. He had to learn what to do on the fly. I'm sure Sonny was being trained for this forever, he was just too hot headed and couldn't think rationally.
Michael was very unlucky in that his first wife Appolonia who was more suited for him was blown up in a car bomb. Kay was an outsider to the culture and could never understand why Mike lived the way he did & constantly asked questions she never should have asked. Mama Corleone knew her role and never asked Vito those questions. Appolonia being Italian would have understood & played the role better. That's a major reason for him failing family wise and ending up alone. He chose the wrong one. Kay was great for him when the goal was him trying to separate himself from the family business becoming Senator or Governor Corleone but she didn't fit his Mafia boss lifestyle. She never accepted him as is and spent the whole marriage hoping that he'd become legitmate. The fact that he had to lie to her was more of the problem than the fact that he did lie. Let's say Appolonia lives and Mike becomes the Don, they move back to NYC....I doubt he has his son aborted and/or dies alone with no one to take position of Don but Vito.
I think Mike had it much harder in that he had more people turning against him and he always made the tough & correct decisions. That said he could have treated his team better & there would have been less traitors. As someone said about Tessio, Clemenza, Frankie & Tom. Part of running an organization is how you treat your workers. Tessio never would have turned on Vito.
Mike had so many tough decisions tho....How could he not murk Carlo knowing he's responsible for Sonny? Do you put yourself and the family in jeopardy just because that's your sister's husband? Ultimately I think he made the right decision but I think he had so many lose/lose decisions. The Decision to kill Fredo was the right one.
Vito definitely handles that Senator Geary situation much better. Like someone said Vito is much better at dealing with people.
In some ways I think the argument for Vito vs Michael is a time based argument. I'm not sure if Vito survives in Michael's era. Maybe he goes too light on a Fredo or a Carlo & gets caught slipping. Michael is like Marlo in the sense where he'd rather not risk it. He doesn't want to take everyone out, just his enemies.
I hated how Frank Pentangeli came out of fukking NOWHERE in Part 2. I know Clemenza had a contract dispute but yeah they didn't do a good job of writing him out and Frank Pentangeli in.
I could barely get through Godfather 3, the shortest movie but somehow it felt like the longest....
