FINAL COMPARISON ESSAY

Nigel Tan

1102H12805

Fall 2011

Final Comparison Essay

                Al Pacino was one of the great actors of the late 70’s. During this time, he was the powerful man that most male figures look up to and want to be. Among his great movies, were the Godfather II and Scarface. In both of these movies, he portrayed the role of a leader in an underground and black market businesses. But, in each of these movies, he portrayed each character very differently in the aspects of how his character involves himself with his family, his business, and his love life.

                In the Godfather II, Al Pacino portrayed the character of Michael Corleone, heir to the Corleone Empire that was built by his father Vito Corleone.  Vito Corleone has always been a man with strong family values. He would never let any harm come to his family and would do everything in his power for their benefit. Michael Corleone on the other hand, was raised to do the same. But, his ability to do so deteriorated as he took over the family business. Michael Corleone’s family in the beginning of the movie was very united and had close ties. Michael had 2 beautiful children with his beloved wife Kay. His sister, Connie, who was recently divorced, came to request for Michael’s approval to marry a new man. Michael did not agree with this due to the fact that she had just gotten out of a marriage just recently. Michael quoted “The ink on your divorce isn’t dry yet, and you’re getting married?”. He instinctively treated his sister, Connie as how his late father would have treated her. Michael disapproved and insisted that she did not go with this man. Michael insisted she stayed on his estate with the rest of the family. He would do anything that would benefit the family. But, as the movie developed, so did Michael Corleone’s character. He got in too deep into his business that it consumed him. He develops the thought that his family was the business. He had his very own blood related brother killed because he had double crossed him. The destruction of Michael’s character was too much to handle for his wife Kay. She could not live with him any longer and could not bear the thought of bringing another one of his children to this earth. She wanted the entire business to end and had an abortion to eliminate her child in carriage. Michael was furious when he found out what had happened that he had physically assaulted his wife Kay. At that very moment, a loss of a child had destroyed the family values his father raised him to have. This was the downfall of Michael Corleone’s family values.

                Tony Montana, is the main character of the movie Scarface which was also portrayed by the actor Al Pacino. He too, had similar family traits with Michael Corleone. He had a sister he loved dearly and a wife who were both destroyed because of his actions. Tony Montana in Scarface met his sister and mother 5 years after the war against communism in Cuba. When he visited, he was amazed at his sister’s beauty, he was almost mesmerized. In the movie, he treats her almost the same as Michael Corleone would, but instead of how Michael treated his sister, it was the same as how Michael treated his wife. As much as Tony had loved his sister dearly, he did the exact same as Michael to his wife, he slapped her. He slapped her because she was standing above Tony and thinks that she is independent enough to do what she wants in life. You could say that Freud’s theory of the id could be applied here. He instinctively treated his sister as an item more than a person. And item that he owns. During the uprising of his empire, he proposed to Elvira who was previously the mistress to Tony’s former boss. As Tony became more and more successful, his love between Elvira grew more and more distant. Later in the movie, Tony starts verbally assaulting his wife by calling her a junkie. He pushes it even more and says “Her womb is so polluted, that I can’t even have a kid with her.”. This would most probably be because during his uprising, he has never had any difficulties that stopped him. And now, the only thing that is letting him complete his perfect life, is an element of that perfect life itself. As for a brother, he did not have an actual brother, but his best friend represents the brother he did not have. He worked closely with him in his rise to the top, but when he reached his peak, he treated him like a horrible business partner. Tony murdered him later in the movie because he took Tony’s sister’s hand in marriage without reconciling with him first. Tony at this point was in such a rage that he lost control of his id and allowed himself to do everything by instinct and without any thought. The most obvious part of the movie where we can truly see Tony’s family values is when he was hired to assassinate a man, but pulled out because killing him would involve killing the rest of his family as well. We can conclude that based on family traits, both characters Tony Montana’s and Michael Corleone’s family values were destroyed by their urge for a more successful business. This makes a lot of sense, seeing that in our modern day lifestyle, money is put before anything else. These two movies by Al Pacino may be a sign that family values are the only thing keeping us somewhat human.

                Speaking of business, both personas played by Al Pacino also had their very different way of running their businesses. Tony Montana, the main character of the film Scarface, ruled his business with an iron fist. He did not take any advice throughout the movie and did everything out of pure guts. He barely had any thought on most of his actions, which would later be the cause of his destruction. And even after his destruction, he has never had any regret throughout the entire film. Tony Montana came to America with nothing and grew into one of the biggest cocaine distributers in America. He came to America with nothing but the bare ability to speak English. He climbed the ladder of success quickly, but alone. He started off as a mere soldier in crime organization. But his cockiness and street smarts help him climb and reach the top of the ladder much faster than anybody else. When hired to transport Marijuana for his superiors, Tony was offered the commission of five hundred dollars. Tony knew that five hundred was mere peanuts for the risk that he is taking. Tony stood up to his superiors and thinks highly of himself as somewhat a more superior human being than them.  Tony portrays that he is a more important part of the world compared to anybody else.  He shows this with the extremely high end security that he had installed in his estate. Even when sent by his superior to purchase cocaine from Columbia, he stood up to the drug overlord and spoke to him in a disrespectful manner. Tony quoted “I’ve never fucked anybody over in my life, didn’t have it coming to me, you got that? All I have in this world is my balls and my word, and I don’t break em’ for no one. You understand?” What he said was actually quite true; he has nothing in this world, only his balls and his word.  He especially did not have anybody he could trust. He was never afraid to show his true colours to the world. Even in the beginning of the movie, he killed a man in public. It is also ironic, that the reason he came to America is to remove himself from a communist country, but instead built an entire communist system empire for himself.

                As for Michael Corleone, he does the very exact opposite of Tony Montana. He rules his entire empire systematically and silently. Like the Roman Empire, he has ranks for the people working under him. For example the Capos (or known as Caporegime) and the Soldiers. This organized system helped Michael manage his empire more sufficiently and silently compared to Tony’s dictatorship system. He made connections with a lot of external parties and through his respective way of doing business.  Unlike Tony Montana, Michael inherited the family business from his late father Vito Corleone who built up the business just as Tony Montana did. He also had a consigliore which was an advisor to Michael. Michael Corleone would rarely get his hands dirty and do jobs and hits himself. Instead he would have somebody else do it for him. Unlike Tony Montana, Michael was a very more intelligent in running his business. He would dig out information himself and find suitable ways to settle his problems. He shows this when he tries to uncover who hired assassins to gun him down in his very own home. He eventually narrows it down to two candidates. In deciding between these two candidates, he decides to eliminate both of them which are far better and safer choices. Michael does not show his true colours to anybody outside the business and is well respected by the society. He covers up his crimes by making generous contributions to charities. Michael also keeps a close eye on his friends and is cautious. Late in the movie, we see Michael questioning his consigliore, Tom about his future plans. This expresses the saying that you should always keep an eye on your enemy, but a closer eye on your friends. For both Michael and Tony, their businesses were their lives which later destroy them. It destroys their family, their reputation, and themselves.

                In the early parts of The Godfather II, Michael showed much affection and love towards Kay. He respected Kay and did everything to ensure that she was unharmed. It came to a point that he would disallow her to leave the estate premises for her own safety. Through his entire life, he has never laid a hand on a lady. But, as business became a bigger issue, and the business started to take over Michael’s life, Kay became worried and upset. She hated the life she was in and she could not imagine having another child to heir the Corleone Empire. She got an abortion to attempt to stop the business from continuing. Michael’s inner id reacted to this as a part of him was hurt or killed. He instinctively leaped forward and slapped Kay. With that slap, he destroyed his relationship with Kay which he took so long to build. Just like Tony Montana’s business, it was built and destroyed by Michael’s id.

                 Unlike Michael, Tony was the more sexually active characters of Al Pacino. Tony had fallen for Elvira at first glance. He knew nothing about her, but wanted to have her. He instinctively was attracted to her but we are never sure why. Could it have been the male gaze towards Elvira’s beautiful back? We can only assume that his id was the cause of the attraction between him and Elvira. Unlike Michael towards Kay, Tony had never shown much respect for Elvira. He had always forced himself on her even if she refused him. He lets his sexuality take control and forced a kiss to Elvira even tho she was the mistress of his boss at that time. He later proposed to Elvira and got married, but it is when they get married that they start falling apart. Both of them were using each other for self benefits. She needed him for money, and he needed her for sex. Their relationship from husband to wife has now become mistress and master. Tony bursts out into a rage and verbally abuses Elvira. She could not take it and left him right after that. We never see her in the movie then after. We can see the similarities in both movies, but how they treat women differ over time.

                In conclusion, Al Pacino was able to portray two extremely different characters based on their psychology, in the same form of which both of them are underground overlords. Both these movies show that businesses will ruin ties between families. And the id is a source that is to be reckoned with. It is the id, based on Freud’s theory that is the part of our mind that is unconsciously acting along with instinct. This leads to actions that are uncontrollable and may cause devastating results.