Musings on The Godfather - can we lose focus

I recently watched The Godfather (parts one and two) again and was again blown away by the story. The thing that particularly fascinated was watching the similarities and difference between father and son (Vito and Michael). I won’t talk for too long about this, just wanted to note a few observations.

Both characters have the same main focus: the family. To both father and son, the family is the most important thing in their lives, and the way that they protect and better the family is through the family business. So they both center their lives around making sure the family business thrives. They do anything to keep it going, keep it respected, and to get rid of the competition.
There are also some firm principles that they both have. A key thing is respect. They demand respect from others, but also give respect where respect is due.

The thing that I find more interesting though are the differences, and I think they come from the start of both characters.

We see in the first film that Michael originally didn’t want to be involved with the family business (especially not the illegal parts), but he was almost pushed into becoming involved. By a mixture of both his own principles (love and respect for his father/family) and circumstance (the assassination attempt on his father) he found himself in the situation where he does get involved. In order to protect his father and family he murders two people. This is a brilliant scene because there is no music, just the sound of a train going past. As the train gets nearer you can feel the tension building. He’s thinking that once he does this his life will change forever. He’ll be a part of the family’s illegal activities.

In the second film we see the beginnings of Vito. As a young boy (I think he was 9 or 10) his father is murdered. Then on the way to the funeral his older brother is murdered. His mother begging for her child’s life is then murdered in front of him. Vito runs for his life and flees to the US. Vito turns to crime (I wouldn’t say that he’s forced) to help his family and friends. You get the feeling that he feels sorry for the people that are lesser off, and that get taken advantage of by those around. All he asks for is respect (and a favour at a later date).

Anyway my point is this: There is a scene in the second film that I think sums up what I mean and I’ll copy it here:

MICHAEL
…Tell me, when Pop had troubles…
did he ever think, even to himself,
that he had gone the wrong way;
that maybe by trying to be strong
and trying to protect his family,
that he could… that he could…
lose it instead?

MAMA
(Sicilian)
You talk about the baby. She can
have another baby.

MICHAEL
(Sicilian)
No, I meant lose his family.

MAMA
(as best she ever
understood it)
Your family? How can you ever lose
your family?

MICHAEL
(almost to himself)
But times are different…

Michael is now realising that his actions to make the family the most successful/powerful have actually made the rest of his family fear and dislike him. Look at his position at the end of the film - both his parents are dead (natural causes), his older brother is dead (assassinated by enemy), lots of family friends have been killed (some by him), he had his sisters husband killed and now she hates him, he had his own brother killed, and finally his wife aborted their child and left him.

In trying to protect his family, and a lot of that is by him doing the dirty work so that they don’t have to, he has ended up pushing them away. I think that this is a really good lesson in life. You can sometimes get so caught up with doing things that you forget why you’re doing it. I think it’s a good thing to remember that you need to stop and regather your self every now and again. I think Ferris Bueller summed it up (okay it was in a different context) when he said ‘Life moves pretty fast, If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it’