How Did Don Michael Corleone Crush His Most Powerful Enemy? | The Godfather 3 Explained

michael corleone's entire life's ambition was to transform the corleone mafia family built by his father don vito into a completely legitimate organization making it into one of the wealthiest organizations in the country and maybe even the world but unfortunately things were not going to be that easy all my life i kept trying to go up in society for everything higher up was legal straight the corleone family already had very powerful enemies and long-held vendettas that would emerge forcing michael to actually sink even deeper into that world it seems the more he tried to leave the more problems would arise just when i thought i was out they pulled me back in but eventually he would come out victorious so after finally annihilating all his enemies don michael corleone was the godfather of not just the corleone family or just new york or las vegas but he was the godfather over the entire mafia yes he allowed a few other families to exist however everyone knew who was really in charge and so after taming the criminal underworld michael now put all his focus on to finally achieving the goal he was working towards ever since he joined this life the immobile yuri deal for michael symbolized the ticket that would finally allow him to escape that world a world that was forced upon him for the sake of the survival of his life i wanted family i wanted the family out but this seemed the opportunity that would finally absolve him from his and his family's past and for a while it seemed he was actually going to succeed as this was the closest he had ever been in achieving his life's goal however once again things did not go to plan his new enemies were on a completely different level compared to anyone he had faced in the past this is the final battle the last challenge that don michael corleone would lead and would prove as the most difficult [Music] our true enemy has not yet shown his face as we discussed in previous video michael did not know exactly what and who he was dealing with what at first seemed to be the opportunity of a lifetime the golden ticket for redemption ended up being the thing that actually crushed him unlike the previous parts where michael was dealing with what we commonly consider as mafia bosses and traditional gangsters who were extremely cunning powerful and intelligent but he was now dealing with a far more dangerous type of criminal bosses in the beginning there was nothing to suspect however after the attack on the commission and the immobile yari deal being stalled michael began putting the pieces together he knew that joey zasa and don alto bellow were both in on this together [Music] but neither was ambitious or bold enough to be able to conjure and execute such a well-orchestrated plan joe saser he's just muscle he's an enforcer he's nothing he doesn't have a win for that helicopter attack he doesn't even have the ambition to wipe out the whole commission hence why he was not too concerned about zasa and told vincent not to overreact he asks the help of someone very close to him a mentor and father-like figure it's only then that he reveals that the only person powerful and influential enough to be able to give such an order is don lucasy and it made sense michael learned from his father and realized that not everything is as it seems the attack on the commission was not something someone would mindlessly do as committing such an attack is essentially declaring war on the entirety of the mafia and as most of you might have realized this incident is very similar to what we saw in part one where the plot to destroy the corleone family was not set up by don philip italia or virgil salazzo rather meticulously orchestrated by none other than the cunning don emilio barzini who hid behind the shadows as he used italia and salazo as pawns in which he would use to secure his grip over the mafia similarly lukazi was powerful enough in both worlds that he was indeed able to devise such an ambitious and well laid out attack so this is why he ruled out joey zasa from the very beginning he did not have the manpower or skill to do this by himself and lucasy did and so michael finally has the whole picture he now understood that he was the target of an elaborate scheme and betrayal designed to completely crush him and steal his as wealth see i'm now the victim of a swindle all my life i kept trying to go up in society where everything higher up was legal straight but the higher i go the quicker it becomes oh where the hell does it end to put it simply a small group of very powerful individuals that we mentioned had been making fortunes by stealing and laundering money from the vatican bank for years but in 1979 lucasy and the others were afraid that vatican officials would notice the missing money and so to cover their tracks and pay off some of the high ranking officials they put together a scheme to put back the missing money and so they found the perfect target they chose michael because he was already one of the largest shareholders in the company and was continuously increasing his share they understood michael was trying to clean his image from its criminal past and what better way to do so than owning one of if not the largest land and real estate company on the planet so from there it was pretty simple all they needed was to show michael that they were willing to sell their 25 and then once they received the money they would stall the deal until they could get rid of michael fortunately for them they were inadvertently helped by the pope's illness as under the terms of the lateran treaty the pope himself had to personally approve the deal meanwhile lucasy through his ally don alto bello made a deal with joey zasa the current boss of the corleone family's criminal operations where he would take out michael in exchange for backing his claim to become the boss of all bosses over the five families and so the plan was set and put into action michael now has unveiled the plot against him he knows his true enemy all that is needed is to act one last time this moment on call yourself vincent collier after finally reaching his limit michael could not continue on he chose vincent as his successor making him the new godfather now as the godfather vincent wanted to start his reign similar to how michael consolidated his power all those years ago and it almost worked vincent similar to michael had orchestrated a string of attacks on their enemies all at once and it seemed to have worked but vincent was not as strategic or calculated as michael michael initially wanted to have the baptism in the corleone compound and actually did not want to be godfather to connie and carlos son but after kay pleaded with him he agreed and so he made all the appropriate preparations he ensured that the area was completely secured and that no one would even suspect him coming but in vincent's case he was fairly incompetent all the assassinations were fairly well planned and well executed he did however fail at his most important task he failed to protect the family both the corleone godfathers put one thing above everything else and that was the family it is questionable if that was always michael's intentions but he did for the most part do everything to protect the family even if it was from someone within the family however vincent began his reign with a catastrophic failure michael corleone's entire life's ambition was to transform the corleone family into a completely legitimate organization michael envisioned the family becoming one of the most powerful and wealthy in the country raising it to be among the upper echelon of society in the end he might have got the immobile yari deal but the cost was far greater than the money paid for it so [Music] in the next and final part of this mini series we unravel all the hidden details events and explain what it all means giving you the real meaning and explanation of the final film of the godfather trilogy [Music] you

Channel: The Culture Mafia

Views: 177,778

Keywords: the godfather, mafia, michael corleone, godfather, al pacino, the godfather part 1, the godfather clip, the godfather theme, marlon brando, mafia documentary, families of the mafia, the culture mafia, don corleone, lucky luciano, cosa nostra, mafia boss, the real life godfather, Hyman roth, real life mobsters, real life mobster movies, entrepreneur, mafia business, francis ford coppola, don vito corleone, Sicily

Id: rCtGAb1hcyw

Length: 10min 29sec (629 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 05 2021