The Godfather

Bonasera begging Don Corleone for justice. Daughter assaulted. "I believe in America." Dark office. Wedding outside. Contrast: joy and violence. Family power. Respect. Before Michael transformation. Old world vs. new. Tradition established.

Michael to Kay: "That is my family Kay, that is not me." Theme of family destiny, inherited violence, transformation from innocent to godfather. Cannot escape blood. Business becomes personal. Corruption inevitable.

Connie wedding. Corleone family gathered. Vito Don refusing Sollozzo drug deal. Sonny hot-headed. Fredo weak. Tom Hagen consigliere. Michael war hero, outsider with Kay. Clean. Before catalyst pulls him in. Family business thriving but dangerous. Old ways threatened.

Vito shot! Assassination attempt. Don dying. Family in crisis. Sonny wants war. Michael visits hospital. Finds father unguarded. Moves him. Saves his life. Bluff with empty gun. Cop McCluskey breaks his jaw. Entering violence. Protecting father. Cannot stay out now.

Should Michael kill Sollozzo and McCluskey? Never done violence. Sonny mocks him. Michael insists: "It is not personal, it is strictly business." Planning murder. Crossing line. Family needs him. Kay waiting. Future diverging. Can he do this? Is this who he is?

Restaurant. Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey. First kills. No going back. Flees to Sicily. Enters world of violence and power. Transformation begun. Cannot return to civilian life. "It is not personal" but it changed him personally. Family claimed him.

Sicily. Michael meets Apollonia. Thunderbolt love. Marriage. Brief happiness. Also Vito recovering, grooming Michael. Father-son relationship. Trust. Also Michael and Kay - lost innocence. Relationships before and after violence. Love in both worlds.

Michael in Sicily. Courtship. Wedding. Walking with wife. Brief peace. Also Vito planning. Sonny raging. Promise: mafia operations, family dynamics, power struggles, Italian culture. Corleone world in full. Beauty and brutality.

Sonny killed at tollbooth. Ambushed. Brutal death. Apollonia car bomb - killed! Michael loses wife and brother. False defeat: family destroyed. Vito broken. Michael hardened. Stakes raised enormously: must end war, rebuild family, assume power. All loss. Total transformation forced.

Return to America. Michael cold now. Reunites with Kay. Promises legitimate. But taking over family. Vito stepping down. Five Families threatening. Tessio and Clemenza captains. Barzini real enemy. Planning revenge. Cannot escape. Business expanding. Violence inevitable.

Vito dies in garden. Father gone. Michael alone as Don. Must handle everything. Connie husband Carlo betrayed Sonny. Moe Greene disrespects. Tessio will betray. All closing in. Weight of empire. Soul fully lost. No Michael left, only Godfather.

Michael planning baptism and murders simultaneously. Godfather to nephew while becoming Godfather to family. Duality. Lies to Kay about Carlo. Isolation beginning. Power over love. Calculated. Cold. Transformation complete. Innocent boy dead. Killer remains.

Baptism begins. "Do you renounce Satan?" Intercut with murders. Synthesis: holy and unholy. Family and Family. Michael orchestrates killing of all enemies while standing in church. Absolute power. Evil baptized. Religion corrupted. Perfect plan executing.

All enemies dead. Tessio taken. Carlo strangled. Michael lies to Kay. "No" about murders. She believes. Door closes on her. Capos kiss Michael ring. Don Michael. Complete power. Family safe. Soul gone. Victory is damnation.

Door closing on Kay. Outside family now. Michael alone in dark office like Vito in opening. But colder. Became what he said he was not. "That is not me" but it is. Tragedy complete. Power achieved. Humanity lost. Transformation total.