An insight I had recently about the very last scene.

The scene where Michael is on what seems to be the garden of the mansion, alone, might go almost unnoticed to many viewers. It might not strike them as so relevant, since nothing much happens and all...

But it occured to me that this scene dialogues directly to the one that might very well be Michael's most important one in the trilogy, which is the one in the first film where he's with Tom and Sonny and starts wording his plan to turn the tables against Solozzo. The camera continuously and slowly approaches him for a few seconds, as he builds up the essence of his plan (and the intensity of that crucial moment) and, when the camera stops at him, he delivers the blow, (even though he says it calmly, as his personality dictates), that "I kill them both" conveys the big explosion that defines Michael's trajectory in the first film.

By the end of the second film, Michael of course managed to eliminate every single one of his enemies, yet, at this point it's more than clear to him that he couldn't be further from his dreams. He basically "lost the family", as he puts in the conversation with his mother and is absolutely isolated now.

The last shot references directly the firstly mentioned one, however, despite the resemblance, there's a huge and shattering contrast between them, inasmuch as here, we miss words, and so does he. A deafening silence sets the tone of the scene and it screams. In here, as the camera approaches him, he doesn't say anything and, when it finally stops near him, that's when this absence of words is at its strongest, it begs for words. And again, not only not a single word is pronounced, but he just slightly changes his posture, to no avail. This vacuum is so intense that it even kind of makes the ending theme begin before the image fades out. I can't think of a scene in any movie where the silence is so powerful as in this one.

thoughts?