Why was Sonny considered bad in The Godfather?
This is an odd and sloppy question. What, exactly, is considered bad supposed to mean? Sonny was the the eldest son of Vito Corleone, the head of the most powerful crime family in New York. The Godfather pulls no punches in establishing what things were like in a business where a good kill was nothing personal, just business.
While it’s possible to mistake Vito may have been wiser and more principled than some of his peers, there’s no reason to mistake him for a choir boy. In the film’s opening scene, he denies an undertaker the justice he seeks, refusing to kill two men for hire. He does, however, agree to help him with his problem by having men find and beat the men responsible for the rape and disfigurement of Buonasera’s daughter.
Smiling, charming, good-natured Vito killed his way to the top, gutted the man who killed his family, had Luka Brasi put a good to a band leader’s head and ordered his henchmen to give movie-producer Jack Woltz a little nudge, on Johnny Fontaine’s behalf, by cutting off the head of his prized stallion and sticking it in bed with him.
Sonny was not as polite or restrained as Vito. He was full of youthful exuberance. He was loud and proud, cheated on his wife and ordered Paulie’s death, when he wasn’t pretending to be concerned about his cold. Sonny was a hot head who acted on the spur of the moment, a vice that ultimately led to his murder on the Turnpike.
But Sonny wasn’t considered bad, except by his enemies. His family loved him. They know that his loud barks, and painful bites, were part of his protectful nature. As the eldest son, he felt the pressure of living up to his father’s standards. He had Paulie killed because he didn’t buy Paulie’s excuse of being sick the day his father got whacked.
Sonny’s need to get Sollozzo – and his unwillingness to take the deal – were grounded in his love for his father. There was just no way he would ever make peace with the sonofabitch who’d had his father gunned down like a rabid dog.
When Tom insisted he was taking things personal, Sonny said, “That’s easy for you to say; you’re not his son,” a comment that devastated Tom. Realizing what he’d just said, Sonny apologized profusely, saying he didn’t mean it and mentioning food. One of the great touches to the script is that Sonny asked Tom if he was hungry, that their mom had made some food. It was Sonny’s way of showing remorse.
What often gets unnoticed is that Sonny wasn’t trying to tell Tom that he wasn’t a real Corleone. It came out that way but Sonny’s point – in his head – was that it was easy for Tom to talk about business. This wasn’t something Sonny could do, not as Vito’s son. He couldn’t just accept that the attack on his father was business. How could he not take it personally?
When Michael got to the hospital, and found Vito with zero protection, he called Sonny. While freaking out on the receiving end, Sonny’s next thought was Michael’s safety. You can hear Michael arguing back at Sonny, with the attitude of the youngest child, that he didn’t need Sonny’s pep talk.
The next time Sonny sees Michael, his brother has been beaten by McCluskey. Sonny’s reaction was pride. He was so proud Michael had stepped up for the family.
One of my favorite unsung scenes in The Godfather is the dinner scene where they’re all waiting for the call. Michael has agreed to meet with Sollozzo because he’s planning to gun him down, if Clemenza can plant a gun at the meet. That suspenseful wait, with nobody saying anything, was priceless.
As soon as the phone rang, with the hot tip about where the meeting would be held, Sonny was on it. He wanted that gun planted and he wanted it done right. This is Sonny worrying about Michael. That walk to the door, with Michael asking when he’ll be able to come back and Sonny reassuring him that he’ll get word to his girlfriend – when the time is right – is a surprisingly tender one for a scene in a mobster flick.
The truth is, Michael and Sonny were not that different. To be sure, Sonny was the loud one who roared; Michael was the one who kept his peace, who didn’t strike until the timing was right – but both men had a lot in common.
As the eldest, Sonny felt the burden of leadership. Part of his personality had to do with the need to live up to his father and to shepherd his brothers. As the youngest, Michael had no shot at Sonny’s role, so he did what the baby of the family typically does: He looked for his opportunities elsewhere.
One scene that shows the brothers on opposite sides is the final scene in The Godfather, Part II, where Sonny is complaining about the Japanese bombing on Pop’s birthday. Tom tries to explain their behavior as logical, given the U.S. boycott. Sonny rejects this amoral explanation. When Tessio mentions all the men who enlisted, Sonny calls them saps.
[There are other voices in this conversation, but I’ve cut them out to focus on Sonny and Michael.]
“Why are they saps?”
“Because they risk their lives for strangers.”
“That’s Pop talking.”
“You goddamned right that’s Pop talking.”
“They risk their lives for their country.”
“Your country ain’t your blood. Remember that!”
“I don’t feel that way.”
“Well, if you don’t feel like that, why don’t you quit college and go join the Army?”
“I did. I enlisted in the Marines.”
“You little punk!” [Sonny grabs Michael and comes close to punching him out, but relents after Tessio and Tom step in.] Nice! Nice! Break your father’s heart on his birthday. Did you go to college to get stupid? You really are stupid.”
On the surface, this looks like a show of how different these two are. Michael is the idealist. Sonny is jaded. Michael is quiet. Sonny is loud. Clearly, Michael is smarter than Sonny, and better educated. But such an analysis masks what’s really going on here. Sonny is holding court, shouting down anybody who disagrees with him. Michael is quietly challenging his authority.
But that only accounts for a certain amount of irritation. What throws Sonny into a fit is when Michael announces he has joined the Marines. Why? Because he doesn’t want to see his kid brother go off to war. At the end of the day, these two are brothers. Behind Sonny’s rage is fear. The family pulled a lot of strings to keep Michael out of the war and now he’s placed himself beyond their protection.
Fredo congratulates him. Tom is bewildered. Sonny practically loses his mind. He’s ready to lay hands on Michael, not because his snot-nosed brother disagreed with him. He’s upset because Michael has done something that could get him killed. And if he’s not eaten up with a practically parental reaction, he’s also thinking about how this news is going to be received by their father.
It’s an ironic moment, given that Sonny would rush off to beat the bejesus out of Carlo for physically abusing their sister. Sonny would be the one whose death would cause their parents to mourn. But Sonny didn’t know that. All he knew was that his kid brother had just done something stupid that was going to get him killed.
Sonny’s rage was love expressed as aggravation.
When Michael found Vito alone at the hospital, his first instinct was to call Sonny. And while the two brothers went about it differently, they both agreed that Sollozzo had to die. While Michael’s offer to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey was initially met with laughter, he and Sonny were in agreement – that Sollozzo had to die and that peace talks were not the answer.
Once the plan is decided on, Michael and Sonny are working together. Michael is working with Clemenza to make sure he does it right. Sonny is making sure they know where the meet will be held so they can plant the gun. When Michael leaves, in what will be the last time he and Sonny will see each other above ground, it’s a soft and quiet moment, a tender moment, of two brothers focused on the deed to be done.
The two brothers are tied together in two more ways. First, Michael’s Sicilian exile is cut short by the successful attempt on Sonny’s life and the unsuccessful attempt on MIchael’s. Second, that dirtbag, Carlo, is both the means of ending Sonny’s life and the last of Michael’s hits in The Baptism of Fire. The last thing Michael does, before he receives his capos, who pledge their loyalty to him, is revenge his brother’s death.
Michael an Sonny were different, to a degree, but they were brothers. In many ways, they were very much alike.
