Acting and Directing for Film
9/21/14

The Godfather Essay
Character Evolution

Genuine character development is simply a product of habit and a result of cultivating yourself and working to become a certain way. Working to be that ‘perfect’ version of yourself. The youngest son of Don Vito Corleone, Michael Corleone, transforms from the most decent Corleone into the most despicable. It is this extremely astonishing yet extraordinary character arc that makes this film so memorable. In the beginning, Michael wanted absolutely nothing to do with the family business. Neither did his father want him to be involved in the Mafia. So instead Michael became an army man, enlisted in the Marine Corps and fought in the Pacific War. He wanted to be a good man, and lead an honest, more Americanized life. He wanted to be his own person, to be different from the ways of his family. Michael was always very shy and he never liked when family asked him to do any dirty work. But he would do it only for the care he has for his family. His father Don, did not want Michael involved in the business at all because that he could protect him and make sure that he was not dragged into the dangers the family business brought. The beginning of the movie shows that Michael has just come home from war, he was discharged early to recover from a wound and he returns to attend his sister Connie’s wedding. The opening scene, at the wedding, you can tell he just wants a normal life after he talks about the deal with Luca Brazzi, he turns to his girlfriend Kate, and says, “That’s my family Kate, that’s not me.” All of a sudden Michael’s views take a turn when his father is nearly assassinated by drug kingpin Virgil Sollozzo just before Christmas, and he is thrust into the world he has avoided for so long. His character changes greatly when he reaffirms his loyalty at his father's bedside, and then prevents a second attempt on his father's life by Sollozzo and corrupt NYPD Captain McCluskey, who in rage broke Michael’s jaw. Later, arguing that Sollozzo will likely take another run at Vito, he volunteers to kill both Sollozzo and McCluskey. A gun is planted for him at a restaurant, and he plays it off to them as if he wants to talk business, but he waits for the right moment and then murders them both. Michael’s character has a major twist here because he worked so hard to not be driven into the ways of his family but in order to protect it he stands up as a hero and takes down the men that want to tear up his family. He was forced to flee to Sicily and even though he was in a steady relationship with his future wife Kate, he has to leave her, and he changes from love being his main focus to defending his family’s business. Michael then changes again to becoming the operating head of the family, he orders murders of the leaders of the New York’s Mafia’s head persons, and reestablishes the Corleone family as the most powerful crime family in the nation. His reputation for himself transforms to him wanting to be even more cunning and ruthless than his father. Michael became the new Don Corleone and no longer has the feelings and views he had in the beginning. All the events throughout The Godfather shaped Michael from believing what his family does is wrong to believing that his family’s crimes are a necessary evil. In the end, he is organizing the execution of these crimes as the family’s new Don, and by becoming The Godfather he reasons all these wrongdoings as completely necessary. When his family’s power was threatened he became the only one capable of preserving it. Michael was once a hero to his country in war, but throughout the movie he becomes a hero to his family. With a lot on his plate, he is virtually unable to cope with problems internally, always finding a way to solve them externally. This leads to the many murders he orders such as when Michael secures his family’s seat of power by having all other threats eliminated during his godson’s baptism. That is something the old Michael would of never agreed to, but after being put through tragic experiences and having to step up and take control, his decisions at the end now only reflect for the good of his family’s hierarchy in the mafia world and no longer his views on living a normal Americanized life. Michael is also shaped differently as a husband because he ultimately convinces himself that his “business” has nothing to do with his wife and that because she is “not involved” she should not ask him about it. So when pressed by Kay about Carlo’s death, he denies any involvement in the murder. Kay represents his original desire to remain outside of his family’s dirty business. When he changes by becoming willingly committed and involved as the new Don, his need to prevent Kay from discovering this indicates he is still plagued by his personal problems. There are only a limited number of Corleone’s who have the ability to maintain the family’s powerful stature and become the new “Godfather”. Michael changes from good-hearted war boy, to the new “Godfather”, and has to keep his family and the power structure of New York’s underground soundly preserved, and he will keep it this way through any means, no matter the consequence. Entirely, the major events in the film triggered change in Michael leading him to unexpectedly become the new head of the family in the end. He definitely cultivated himself to become even greater than his father. He grew to be that version of himself and it was completely different that we had first seen him. A most significant change is from the opening scene of him being unimportant at the wedding, just sitting with Kay, to the last scene when he shuts Kay out of the office while he meets with his capos, where he is then greeted as "Don Corleone" and kissed on his hand just as his father always was.