The Godfather: Should Michael have ordered the hit on Fredo? *

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by misterclean, Mar 28, 2017.

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  1. bferr1

    bferr1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    Here's another what-if question:

    Should Kay have had an illegal abortion in 1959?
     
  2. Desert Explorer

    Desert Explorer Music Enthusiast

    Location:
    Athens
    It was not the way I wanted it!!
     
  3. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    Yes, so long as it was nothing personal and required by the business of which they do not speak. :sigh:
     
    GTOJUDGE likes this.
  4. Chazro

    Chazro Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Palm Bch, Fl.
    The moment Fredo sealed his fate was in the den with Michael:

    "I'm smart! I deserve respect!"
     
  5. hbbfam

    hbbfam Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chandler,AZ
    I wonder?
     
  6. tman53

    tman53 Vinyl is an Addiction

    Location:
    FLA
    Yes, Fredo betrayed the family.
     
    ohnothimagen likes this.
  7. carrick doone

    carrick doone Whhhuuuutttt????

    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    This discussion is the ultimate spoiler in the history of 70s movies.
     
  8. guidedbyvoices

    guidedbyvoices Old Dan's Records

    Location:
    Alpine, TX
    It's almost 50 years old. Spoiler limitations don't apply
     
    905 likes this.
  9. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    NO, they should have shipped him to Sicily
     
    EwaWoowa likes this.
  10. boots

    boots Chokma!

    Location:
    Madill,OK,USA
    He did, caused by the gapping hole in his head.
     
  11. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    Spoiler: Fredo sleeps with the fishes. Well, the fishes were spoiled anyway. :eek:
     
  12. Lord Summerisle

    Lord Summerisle Forum Resident

    Would the old man have done the same had he been alive?
     
    Grunge Master likes this.
  13. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Always a sad scene.
     
    Michael likes this.
  14. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Fredo was smart! Not dumb, like everybody says! He could handle things! He's smart!
     
  15. Not AJB

    Not AJB Shark Repellent Bat Spray!

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    No, Michael shouldn't have done it. It's his most tragic moment, his downfall, the action that most contrasts his reign as godfather from that of his father's. He will never morally recover from this decision.
     
    Vidiot, ocd1 and EwaWoowa like this.
  16. mfletch

    mfletch Forum Resident

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    Texas
    To me that was the point of the hit on Fredo. It was to show just how ruthless Michael would be as the head of the family.
     
    Vidiot and Cheepnik like this.
  17. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    Exactly. Brother or not, there was no way Michael was going to let Fredo get away with it. IN MY HOME! IN MY BEDROOM, WHERE MY WIFE SLEEPS?! Where my children play with their toys...nope, no way in hell Michael was gonna let that one slide, no matter who was behind it. He got everybody who was involved in that little operation...it's almost like Fredo was collateral damage but it still had to be done.
    In other news, Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father.:righton:
    Sort of. He really betrayed Michael, which was even worse in a way.
    Indeed. That was the whole point, to show just how low Michael could go. And it worked, didn't it? Between having Fredo whacked and slamming the door in Kay's face minutes before, at the end of Part II Michael Corleone comes across as such a detestible s.o.b. that you hope he gets everything he has coming to him. Which he does, total abandonment and estrangement from his family (well, maybe not Connie). And yet, in spite of it all, you can't help but felling sorry for the bastid. They do take the whole "redemption" aspect a bit too far in Part III though.
    Probably not. Vito and Michael had completely different methods in how they ran the Family. Vito could be ruthless when he wanted to be, sure, buy you couldn't "reason" with Michael the way you could with Vito. I couldn't see Vito sanctioning the murder of one of his sons no matter what the circumstances.
     
  18. Scott222C

    Scott222C Loner, Rebel & Family Man

    Location:
    here
    Vito would have done the same to his brother under those circumstances and being roughly the same age of Michael IMO - you can't compare apples with oranges ..... would an older Michael have ordered a hit on one of his children ? Probably not.
     
  19. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    I disagree about Don Vito. His brother would have had to be one horrible, unfeeling SOB -- not a pathetic little nothing like Fredo -- for Vito to have him whacked. Vito would have found some other way to deal with a brother like Fredo.
     
    ohnothimagen likes this.
  20. The Hermit

    The Hermit Wavin' that magick glowstick since 1976

    No, she shouldn't... she's as much of a murderer as Michael, the only difference is the latter was forced into those acts to protect his family, Kay had no such reasons.

    Man, the look on Michael's face when Kay tells him what she did... sheer boiling, seething, volcanic rage bubbling underneath the surface... she's damned lucky she only got a slap to the face and not a bullet to the head; if I had been Michael in that pressurized circumstance (what with the ongoing Senate hearings and all), I just might have given Al Neri one of 'those' looks when he was escorting Kay out the door... y'know, the same look he gave him at Mama Corleone's funeral.
     
  21. Muzyck

    Muzyck Pardon my scruffy hospitality

    Location:
    Long Island
    Michael didn't kill Fredo because he feared for his safety or thought he would be betrayed again. It was just another action taken due to a vendetta mentality, this Sicilian thing that's been going on for 2,000 years. If he feared further betrayal, he wouldn't have waited for the matriarch to pass away.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
  22. Muzyck

    Muzyck Pardon my scruffy hospitality

    Location:
    Long Island
    I don't think you can compare Michael with Vito in this way. I think what the movie shows is that although both men were killers, they had very different motivations and character. Vito was a warm loving father that spoiled his children. He killed the local thug that was threatening his neighborhood and family and eventually went back to Sicily to kill those responsible for the deaths of his parents and brother. He became feared and developed respect.

    Michael ultimately became a depraved killer of anyone that threatened his business dealings whether they were other capos or prostitutes. Maybe he went insane when Sollozzo tells him the attempt on his father wasn't personal, it was strictly business. He kills his brother in-law (well, maybe he had it coming), becomes estranged from his wife, is distant from his children and kills his own brother in the end. He ends up destroying the family his father loved so much or as his sister said, he became a lazy cold-hearted bastard.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
    Chris from Chicago likes this.
  23. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    He could have sent him to Sicily.
     
    Michael likes this.
  24. Avenging Robot

    Avenging Robot Senior Member

    Michael is squashing a bug, not saving his own skin, IMHO.
     
  25. Luke The Drifter

    Luke The Drifter Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    No.

    Fredo was content to be back in Michael's good graces (so he thought), and I think he could have lived out that lifestyle with no threat to the family. It was revenge plain and simple against his simple minded brother. It really shows how far Michael had fallen.

    "I'm not like them Kaye"
     
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