I agree he shouldn't have trusted Tatallia, but he should have gotten his men into the heroine trade and made some solid and big money. the colored were the ones doing it mainly, so let them keep themselves high, and make millions. being a old grumpy curmudgeon, got him blasted. The wise ones got into drugs.
shareI disagree.
Getting into the drug trade would have immediately corrupted the lower echelons of his organizations resulting in a mutiny. The lure of easy money would inspire the soldiers to push drugs far beyond the black neighborhoods. Just my .002 but I'm sticking with it.
If that were true, I think Tom would’ve refused to get into drugs. But he felt it was a good idea
Society was becoming more immoral, and drugs were becoming more of a thing. Don didn’t like drugs because he was an aging patriarch with values belonging to a long-gone era
Just because Tom thought it was a good idea, doesn't mean he was right. fictional charaters can obvious be wrong too. It was made clear in all 3 films that Tom wasn't regarded as a "sicilian" i don't mean that literally, as in his nationality or family, but meaning that although he was a good legal mind, he wasn't streetwise. both the Don, Micheal and Sonny all had him step back from certain things "he's not a wartime consigliere"
The thing is, since then, the Godfather and Don Corleone have been proven right. prostitution, gambling and illegal booze (prohibition) was something the police pretty much turned a blind eye to. they even got involved in. but drugs are another story.
If you listen to any of these exmob guys speak, sammy the bull, micheal franzese,.... when the government started to hand down 30, 40 year sentences for dealing drugs.. they didn't want to do that amount of time. if you're 30, 40 and get a 40 year sentence, you could die in jail.
So they turned witness and so many people went to jail that it pretty much ended the mafia.
The Mafia is pretty much gone from America, or at least a shell of what it used to be - most likely due to drugs.
Tom wasn’t streetwise, but he was good with politics. His judgment was that getting involved with narcotics wouldn’t cost the family their political ties
Vito was the only one averse to getting involved with drugs. Drugs in this film represent something new: it is the future. The 1960s and 1970s was the time of young people who got into hippie culture and drugs, and as time went on, drugs became more mainstream and acceptable in society. Vito, of course, belongs to the old school moralistic era where drugs were totally bad. He rejected drugs because he was an aging patriarch in a changing world with lesser values
it wasn't just about morality, is there a huge moral jump between prostitution and drugs?
You can't play the morality card being a mobster saying "drugs are bad, but we kill people" right?
Don Vito had enough foresight to be able to see that drugs would make government act differently.
Drug trafficking was one of the things that led to the eventual collapse of the Mafia in America. That's a fact. Vito didn't have any real opposition to the drug trade on moral grounds-- he opposed it more as a matter of political pragmatism. Short-term profit or long-term influence? He preferred the latter whereas the other families preferred the former.
Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment. -Michael Corleone
This.
"It makes no difference, it don't make any difference to me what a man does for a living, you understand. But your business is a little dangerous."
He knew that drugs was far too risky a venture and that the money was not worth the security that comes from political connections. He understood the value of society as a shield and power base: do things for people and they will support you.
07/08/06... 786... the sentinel of Allah has arrived.
Getting into drugs is a bad idea for a crime organization, because it attracts the feds much more quickly than an organization would if it were based on sporadic crimes (which is something they couldn't afford because the feds were already on their back) and there's too many risks involved with the product. Capos getting high, going to jail, turning rats etc.
The Sopranos and Goodfellas clearly outlined why drugs and the mob don't go together. No. Vito was wise for saying no. It's not worth the risk.
What does an Italian say when he moves to Canada? I use to live in a boot.
Drugs were the reason many turned within the Sopranos. Convictions carried heavy sentences. Pussy Bonpensiero and Adriana. This happened even though the organization prohibited the dealing of drugs as a primary source of money.
Bonpensiero was dealing heroin to pay for his kid's college. So drugs were going to be a problem in the Corleone family regardless.
After the meeting in which he turned down Sollozzo, Vito very angrily upbraids Santino for "letting someone outside the family know what you think". For this reason, I have to assume that the reasons he gave Sollozzo for turning down his offer were not necessarily the actual, genuine reasons. However, we don't really gain much other insight into why Vito says no. Santino and Tom both are in favor and give there reasons, but when they ask Vito what his decision is going to be, the scene ends and we don't find out.
Quite honestly, I don't know what his actual reasons were. He's smart enough to know that this might incite a war (of course, his casual behavior that got him shot might indicate otherwise, that Sollozzo was right and he was "slipping"). In any case, in the end, he was nearly killed, Sonny was killed, Michael joined the family business (which upset his lifelong plans for Michael), Luca Brasi and Paulie were killed, as were Sollozzo, Captain McClusky and Bruno Tattaglia (and I assume there were many other corpses strewn about the place that we didn't see). All of this was unleashed because of Vito's refusal, yet, in the end, he gave in and agreed to the drug trade. So wasn't his initial refusal foolish and costly?
He gave very good reasons for not entering the drug trade. The law enforcement people who supported him (or at least looked the other way) with his illegal activities drew the line with drugs. He didn’t want to imperil the rest of his “business” by branching into a sector that was considered nefarious.
shareI agree that this was one of his reasons, but I don't think it was a good one. There was so much money potential in drugs that the other Families would get into it, and the Corleones would have to get into drugs also to stay competitive. I don't recall whether the movie includes this, but at the conference where Vito agrees to use his political connections to protect the other Families' drug trade, another reason was given in the book. The money would tempt individual soldiers, who would get into the drug trade even if the Dons said no. Maybe drugs would be the thing that broke the Mafia, but it seems to me they had little choice. They had to get into it so they could control it.
It's interesting that Sollozzo's original proposal was that the Corleones partner with him and the Tattaglias, but what Vito agreed to at that conference went much further. He agreed to use his influence to protect all the Families. And yet, in neither the book nor movie do we hear anything about Vito losing this influence. My theory is that the Corleones were making a lot of money from drugs, enough that they could retain that influence with larger payoffs to judges, politicians, et cetera.
I agree that this was one of his reasons, but I don't think it was a good one. There was so much money potential in drugs that the other Families would get into it, and the Corleones would have to get into drugs also to stay competitive.
> Michael told Kay he was taking the family legitimate - was he being honest at that point or just trying to placate Kay?
Just my take on it, but I think he was being dishonest with himself. It seems to me there are three critical turning points for him.
First, his decision to be the one who kills McCluskey and Sollozzo. He understands that this means giving up his former life, at least for the foreseeable future. He doesn't want to do it but knows there's no other choice.
Second, his meeting Apollonia. The thunderbolt. I think it's safe to say he'll never look at Kay quite the same way again.
Finally, Apollonia's death. Michael was knocked unconscious by the explosion. In the book, when he awakens the first thing he says is something to the effect of, "Spread the word. Whoever gets me Fabrizio will own the finest pastures in Sicily." There's a similar deleted scene in the original movie that was included in later versions.
That's the first time he embraces the power of the Mafia. Yes, part of him wanted to return to the legitimate life he used to have. But I think he also never stopped wanting that power of being a Don, and was deluding himself about that.
> If so, did Michael get this idea from Vito?
I don't think so. Vito hadn't wanted Michael to be part of the life at all, he wanted Mike to be a pezzonovante -- a senator or governor or some other species of big shot. But there's no indication he had ever planned legitimizing the Family with Sonny, back when he was still alive and heir apparent.
while those were Vito's reasons, we then had a police captain act as a round-the-clock bodyguard for Solozzo the drugs baron! So maybe Vito's judgement of what the police will and wont accept was off, or maybe McClusky was a different type to the law enforcement guys Vito knew. After all, we're talking about a crooked cop. A dishonest cop who got mixed up in the rackets and got what was coming to him.
shareAfter the meeting in which he turned down Sollozzo, Vito very angrily upbraids Santino for "letting someone outside the family know what you think". For this reason, I have to assume that the reasons he gave Sollozzo for turning down his offer were not necessarily the actual, genuine reasons.
The godfather predicted in 1972 that drugs would bring down la cosa nostra. LE don't really care that much about hookers, booze and gambling and even if tney did, you wouldn't really spend too long in prison for getting involved in these things.
When they were handing out 20, 30, 40 year sentences for dealing in drugs, nobody wanted to do that type of time in prison, so they ratted, they sang... and that brought the whole mafia down.
The Don was exactly right. look what the corleones had already? they already had millions, they had power, everything... you're acting as if they were poor.
It wasn't worth the risk and 50 years later everything that Vito said has turned out to be 100% true.