The Godfather succeeds because it refuses to romanticize violence while making it inevitable. Unlike later gangster films, it does not celebrate the mafia lifestyle – it mourns the loss of humanity. Marlon Brando’s Vito is a paradox: a killer you love, a monster you pity. Al Pacino’s Michael is a tragic figure: a man who becomes what he hates.
Michael returns to New York. Vito, now weakened, brokers a peace. He dies of a heart attack in his tomato garden (“Life is so beautiful”). At the funeral, Michael identifies the conspirators. He becomes godfather to Connie’s child (the film’s title sequence) while orchestrating the simultaneous murder of all five family heads. The film ends with Michael lying to Kay about having ordered the killing of his brother-in-law Carlo – and the iconic door closing in her face. The Godfather