In The Godfather Part II, we follow Don Michael Corleone after the events of the first film,
in which he became the head of the Corleone family and wiped out the heads of the rival New York
dons. Moving his family to Nevada, Michael spends the second film trying to expand the Corleone
empire, namely with deals involving business partner Hyman Roth to acquire Casinos in Cuba.
After an assassination attempt is made against him, Michael tries to work out who tried to
have him killed and seeks out the traitor within his own family, leaving Tom Hagen
in charge of the family. Michael eventually works out it was Roth who tried to kill him,
and that Fredo, his own blood brother, is the traitor within his family. At the end of the film,
Michael is successful in taking revenge against Roth by having Rocco Lampone murder him,
and Michael then turns his attention to Fredo, who is killed by Al Neri. Shortly before the film’s
climax, just after the wake of Michael’s mother in which Michael feigns forgiveness for Fredo,
there is a scene between Michael, Tom, Rocco and Al in which their plans for Roth are discussed.
I’d love to show the scene but I tend to get hit with copyright strikes, so a quick recap:
Tom enters the room; Michael asks him in Sicilian if everything’s OK,
and then changes the subject to Roth. The men discuss Roth’s movements, and Tom makes
a remark about Roth having a terminal condition, that he’s going to live another 6 months anyway,
to which Michael sharply responds “he’s been dying of the same heart attack for 20 years”.
Michael makes it clear that he wants Roth taken out, but Tom says it’s impossible, that there
would be no-way they could get to him. Michael then says: Tom, you know you surprise me – if
anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it’s that you can kill anyone
Tom is not swayed. Michael then asks Rocco his opinion, who says it is difficult,
not impossible, to which Michael replies “good” and looks back at Tom, suggesting
that he doesn’t want a discussion on whether they should be killing Roth or not, he wants
a discussion on how they will be going about it. Tom looks uncomfortable, and this entire scene has
a weird, uneasy vibe about it, but he then asks Michael why he asked him if something was wrong,
and Michael says “I thought you were gonna tell me that you were moving your family to Vegas,
that you’ve been offered the Vice-Presidency of the house and hotels there.” Tom responds:
It turned them down – I mean do I have tell you about every offer that I turn down?”
Again the subject is changed to Roth, with Tom presenting a case that it isn’t worth killing
Roth, telling Michael he’s won, and asking him if he wants to wipe everyone out, to which Michael
coldly replies: I don’t feel I have to wipe everybody out Tom, just my enemies, that’s all.”
Tom has no response, but then bizarrely, Michael follows this up by saying:
Are you gonna come along with me in these things I have to do or what?
Because if not you can take your wife, your family and your mistress and move them all to Las Vegas.
Tom then says, “Why do you hurt me, Michael? I’ve always been loyal to you, I mean what is this?”
Then in the mother tongue, Michael asks, “so, you’re staying?” and Tom replies “yes,
I’m staying” and then asks Michael what he wants him to do, and the scene ends,
with presumably the plans being discussed on how to deal with Roth and also Pentangeli.
So what is going on here? Why is Michael so cold here to Tom, seemingly berating him for no good
reason? It’s a far cry from the beginning of the movie after the assassination attempt,
where Michael identifies Tom as the only man he can trust, saying he froze him out on
previous occasions – like shutting him out of the meeting with Johnny Ola - because he loves him,
and leaving him in charge of the family, leaving him to take care of Kay and the children,
which Tom successfully does so. He calls Michael a brother, which makes Tom emotional as he always
wanted to be felt of as a true brother to Michael. Tom has insecurities of his own,
being a German-Irish outsider in this Sicilian family, but that’s a subject for another day. The
fact is Tom was given control of the family, he defended Michael during the hearings,
he kept Kay safe, he set up Geary, he eventually sorts things out with Pentangeli – so
why is Michael treating him like this? Well, one way of looking at it is quite simply,
Michael is frustrated that Tom is not agreeing with him and is second guessing him.
He’s done this before with Sonny, and though The Godfather Part 1 makes it out that Sonny
was rash and emotional – which was true – he was a successful wartime don, and as we know,
Tom is not a wartime consigliere. and in fact, the book goes into how Sonny’s death was in
part a failing of Tom, who mistook the rival families’ lack of violence for them backing down,
and not setting up a trap. And they are at war here – Tom’s reserved approach is not what is
needed when Roth might strike again, or other enemies of the Corleones who’ve seen Michael can
be gotten to might have a pop. Tom approaches these kinds of situations thinking about the
risks, and he cannot see the point. Why not wait it out until Roth dies naturally? “You’ve won”,
as he says, but this highlights he lacks Michael’s cold, killer mindset, perhaps even that he lacks
the Sicilian mafia culture where the Corleones must seek retribution. In Michael’s mind, anyway.
Michael is not like his father, not anymore, and doesn’t want people around him advising him,
he wants people agreeing with him. When Michael says that history has
taught us anyone can be killed, this could be a meta reference to JFK,
or a reference to numerous historical figures who have been killed, such as Julius Caesar.
However, this can also be a reference to the fact that Fredo’s name is on his hitlist, and even,
he could be talking about himself. He’s vulnerable with Roth alive, at least he feels that way.
He’s paranoid, he has to attach, he’s already in that mindset and now Tom is undermining him.
But the thing is, Tom is actually acting more like Michael’s father in this scene than he is.
In fact, Tom has always been close to Vito, and his personality and style has clearly rubbed off
on him. Tom’s mantra in this scene is essentially ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’
which is what Vito taught to Michael, but Michael has strayed so far his father’s teaching
that his method is now essentially ‘keep your friends close and your enemies dead.’
Michael’s rebuff of Tom is to say that Roth’s been dying of the same heart attack for 20 years,
which leans into the idea that, aside from the fact that Roth might live for many more years,
that the Corleones need to kill Roth to show that they are not to be messed with.
If Roth were to die of natural causes, it would be seen as a defeat for Michael,
that Roth got away and he essentially won. So you can see that Michael, right or wrong,
is frustrated with Tom, so he chooses to hurt him. that’s one interpretation. Another is that
Michael is actually hurt himself in this scene. He’s afraid of having his heart broken again,
so pushes Tom away. You have to understand where he is mentally to understand his comments to Tom.
He’s been betrayed by Fabrizio, Roth, Fredo, Kay, Pentangeli, by Tessio, he’s had the senate
hearings out to get him, with one of the senators in Roth’s pocket. Thinking that Tom is looking to
leave the family, Michael has lashed out at him, taking out his anger and hurt from other
betrayals on Tom, thinking he must be next – he’ll be the next to betray me. Michael lives in a world
where you can only trust your family (think of the scene where Sonny says “country ain’t your blood”)
but Michael has been betrayed by that very family. He’s lost and confused, as emphasised by the scene
with his mother, and he’s now isolating himself. He may be starting to lose it – in any case,
he no longer trusts anyone, not even the man who he said was the only one he could trust at the
beginning of the film, and he’s clearly on the path that will lead him to become the lonely man
sitting by himself at the end of the film. If you can’t trust your blood brother who
can you trust? It’s almost like Michael expected Tom to leave and betray him,
because everyone else has done so. It’s also a slap in the face to his principle that blood
trumps all, seeing as though Fredo ended up as a traitor but Tom remained loyal.
Going back to Tom representing Vito, Tom exhibits many of the Don’s traits and is essentially
Michael’s last link to his father. Kay, Connie, Fredo, Tessio, Clemenza and Pentangeli grew to
resent Michael or think him inadequate. Even his own mother couldn’t understand him. Tom has always
remained loyal, and he can relate, to an extent, because he also is an outsider in the family. It’s
possible Michael stills holds some resentment towards his father, maybe in some way he holds
him to account for bringing him into this life. Maybe Michael projects these feelings onto Tom,
thus furthering the complexity of their uneasy relationship. Tom advocates for reason over
violence, as Vito would, and Michael knows that Vito would not have approved of killing Fredo,
which Michael plans to do. Perhaps he resents Tom in this moment for being more like his father
than he is, and thus he brings up Sonny having a mistress, which Vito would have disapproved of.
The mistress line stings further because the script reveals that this mistress is
actually the widow of Sonny, which both Vito and Michael would see as an insult to Sonny’s memory.
Michael might want to lower Tom to his level in this instance,
differentiate him from Vito, because he’s afraid of being judged by his father.
Interestingly, director Francis Ford Coppola has spoken about imagining a scene in the afterlife
where Vito is disappointed in Michael, asking him if he used his heart as well as his head.
Vito inspired love and respect in those around him, but for Michael these traits would be seen
as a weakness, for him coldness and fear are the tools to use to control his family.
But it’s this philosophy that alienates him from the very family he has promised to protect.
Tom’s mistress being Sonny’s widow also highlights the closeness between Tom and Sonny,
something which was never apparent between Tom and Michael – there has always been a distance
between them, something which the book expands on. In any case, the mere fact that Tom got a job
offer and didn’t tell Michael would have angered Michael. Perhaps he’s so insecure and paranoid he
sees it as a straight up betrayal? If Tom’s been offered legitimate work, it suggests Tom’s been
looking around, having second thoughts on his role as a member of the Corleone family. With this in
mind, Michael needs to know where Tom is coming from with his comments about laying off Roth – is
this standard consigliere or lawyer advice, or is he looking to avoid being involved and associated
with bloodshed so his resumé is clean for his new job role? Hagen’s loyalty and commitment are being
called into question, which in turn hurts Tom because he’s proven time and again to be loyal.
It's also worth mentioning that Michael has to be hard on Michael in this instance,
because he’s got Al Neri and Rocco in the room – he can’t be intimate and play his hand,
as he did with Tom in the beginning of the film. Perhaps Michael has lost his humanity to such an
extent that he can’t tell Tom that he wants him to stay in a loving manner, he has to berate him.
Just a piece of symbolism that I wanted to add about this scene – we know that an orange
represents death in The Godfather, and here we see I believe the only scene in The Godfather trilogy
where a character actually eats an orange – as if Michael is consuming death itself.
The scene ends with Michael asking Tom if he’s staying, and Tom saying ‘yes,
I’m staying. Now what is it you want me to do?’ cementing that Tom is going nowhere
in spite of the offers and being offended by Michael, and thus Michael is satisfied.
This scene can also be seen to be sowing the seeds of dissent between Tom and Michael,
setting up a conflict for the 3rd film where Tom and Michael were going to turn against each other,
though this idea for the trilogy’s third movie was scrapped. It’s probably just a coincidence,
as I don’t believe the idea for a 3rd film had been conceived yet.
So why do you think Michael was so mean and cold towards Tom in this scene?
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