The reasons behind Michael Corleone’s valiant attempt to turn the Corleone family into a legitimate empire in The Godfather are deeper than one might assume at a glance. Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 epic might be the greatest gangster movie of all time, but whereas most mafia stories chronicle the protagonist falling deeper and deeper down a hole of criminality, The Godfather finds Michael pulling in the opposite direction. Throughout the entire trilogy of The Godfather, Michael tries desperately to transform the Corleone family from an underground racket into a respectable operation.
In many ways, it’s this journey that defines Al Pacino’s character more than anything else. The famous moment in The Godfather Part III when an irate Michael seethes, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” is all about the don’s frustration at being unable to escape the mafia realm his family once ruled over. On the surface, it may seem that The Godfather explains Michael’s motivations for taking the Corleones in a legitimate direction, but the true reasons reveal hidden depths within his personality.
Turning The Corleone Empire Legitimate Is Michael’s Way Of Proving He Isn’t Like The Rest Of His Family
This Is How Michael Corleone Lived With His Actions For So Long
There is a moment in The Godfather when Michael Corleone makes a rare exception to usual house rules and allows his wife, Diane Keaton’s Kay, to ask about his business. It is here that Michael declares his intention to make the Corleone family legitimate within five years, and The Godfather Part II and Part III chart his success (or otherwise) in doing so. After watching this scene, one might naturally assume that Michael seeks legitimacy for Kay’s sake. Michael promises to keep his wife away from a world of violence and criminality, and he continuously tries to honor that as the trilogy progresses.
Not until the second half of The Godfather Part III does Michael actually acknowledge his sins.
In truth, Michael Corleone’s search for professional respect has less to do with how Kay views him, and more to do with how Michael views himself. Everything comes back to The Godfather’s iconic wedding scene. Speaking to Kay once again, Michael utters the immortal line, “That’s my family, Kay, it’s not me.” It may look like Michael is just trying to reassure his girlfriend that he isn’t a monster who threatens band leaders here, but Michael is, once again, reassuring himself.
The Godfather reveals how Michael split from the family early on, seeking education, joining the military, and preparing for a career in business or politics. His backstory demonstrates how, from a very early age, Michael sought separation from his kin- both geographically and morally. It is very evident during the aforementioned wedding scene that Michael sees himself as an ethical individual, and the rest of his family as criminals.
Moving forward to The Godfather’s restaurant sequence – the moment Michael fully transforms into the future Godfather – his hesitation is palpable. Clemenza instructs Michael to exit the restroom blasting, but he does the exact opposite, demonstrating how, right up until the final moment, part of Pacino’s character does not want to take that irreversible step toward becoming like the other Corleones. Michael’s quest for legitimacy in The Godfather is, ultimately, his way of justifying his actions, and how he can cling to the vague belief that “that’s my family, it’s not me” still holds true.
As proof of this, one need only examine Michael’s actions in The Godfather Part II and the gap before Part III. Kay and the children leave Michael during Francis Ford Coppola’s sequel. If turning the Corleone family legitimate was for her, he would have abandoned the mission as soon as their marriage fell apart, realizing that even keeping a promise from years prior wouldn’t win his wife back. Instead, Michael keeps the Corleone ship sailing toward the island of professional respectability. Michael makes that decision for himself, not Kay, because not until the second half of The Godfather Part III does Michael actually acknowledge his sins.
Going Legitimate Was Vito’s Vision For The Corleone Family
The Original Idea Was Not Michael’s
While I would still argue that Michael’s aching conscience was the primary reason he wanted to make the Corleone family a legitimate empire, there are other factors to consider. Firstly, Michael was honoring the blueprint his father had already started mapping out, as The Godfather heavily implies, if not states outright, that Vito himself wanted the family to gradually move away from illegitimacy.
A major plot point in The Godfather involves Vito refusing to become involved in the narcotics trade, instead prioritizing political connections and other, less shady enterprises. Vito’s stance highlights his reluctance to explore more lucrative ways to break the law early on, and Michael hammers that point home later in The Godfather.
While explaining his five-year vision to Kay, the upcoming Godfather claims, “My father’s way of doing this is over. It’s finished. Even he knows that.” The line creates an impression that Vito has long been planning for the day when the Corleone name emerges from the shadows, and by continuing that, Michael is doing justice to his father’s memory.
The Corleone Family Made Way More Money As A Legitimate Enterprise
Crime Did Pay, But Not As Much As The Legal Stuff
After taking over from Vito, Michael works relentlessly to grow the Corleone family, and his wealth and power increase exponentially with each installment of the Godfather trilogy. Going legitimate plays a major part in making this possible. The sums of money Michael discusses with the Vatican in The Godfather Part III tower over the deals his family make in the original movie, which look amateurish by comparison. Such prosperity is only possible because Michael drags his family’s assets into a place of authority and credibility. It’s certainly hard to imagine Vatican representatives doing deals in Vito’s office like Virgil Sollozzo in the original movie.
Michael uses his intention to go legitimate as an emotional crutch.
This is likely why Vito realizes legitimacy is the only way forward, and why he passes that ethos down to Michael. The original Godfather’s ambitions are larger than the mafia system can accommodate. He has designs on the strings of power holding up the entire United States and beyond. Meanwhile, Vito’s gangster rivals and The Godfather’s Five Families fall one by one, if not in the first movie, then certainly by the third. Vito has an incredible knack for knowing which way the wind is blowing, and responds before any of his peers.
Regardless, that doesn’t take away from the fact that Michael uses his intention to go legitimate as an emotional crutch. It allows him to keep some semblance of moral high ground – a buffer between himself and so-called real gangsters like his father, Sonny, and Barzini. This is why Michael feels the weight of his actions so heavily upon confessing in The Godfather Part III. Before that point, a small part of Michael is still mentally repeating the words he spoke at the beginning of The Godfather: “that’s my family, it’s not me.”
