It's Michael Corleone, they all wanna be Michael Corleone...

Jack Abramoff is known for quoting him in business meetings, and I wouldn't be surprised if his buddies did, too. As I sit here and watch the Godfather II on AMC, it's so painstakingly obvious. Michael Corleone is to white collar criminals as Tupac is to gang life, and Marilyn Manson is to the trenchcoat mafia--probably way more so. I think the fans of the latter two are more aware that those are just entertainers.

I think it's funny that there's such a fuss made over our impressionable youth, and all the rap music and video games, when the influence of the Godfather and the Sopranos over a group of middle aged men is doing very real damage to society.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Godfather. It's such a powerful, riveting movie. Seeing it now, I realize how powerfully it speaks to men in their twenties entering manhood, which *, Abramoff, Rove, Lay, Skilling, Libby, and many of their pals were (maybe a little older in some cases, but same demographic). In many ways it's a drama about taking over the reigns from your father, especially once he passes on. In many ways the criminality is romanticized, often presented as honest, and necessary. I believe though that Coppola made the sequel much darker in part to make it clear his intentions weren't to glorify crime.

But man, oh man, they are so Brokeback for their cold-blooded, Machiavellian "CEO", it's palpable.

It's just too bad that they're all as competent as Fredo Corleone.

He starts out trying to uphold his father's project for getting ahead, lifting his own family up out of the misery and poverty of their class. By the end of Michael's war to advance his family's honor he has no family left. He's sitting on his chair by Lake Tahoe thinking about how he killed his brother, caged his sister, and drove off his wife. He's got it all, but it's all been for nothing, and whereas Vito Corleone's story is presented in ways making it seem justified and noble, Michael's story is one of escalating ruthlessness and coldness. I believe Coppola has made some statements indicating that he saw this story of the American Dream growing dark and bitter for one family of immigrants as a metaphor for what was happening to the country as a whole as the optimism that characterized America up through the 60s changed into the pessimism of the Nixon era. We were finally on top of the world, but hating it.

I never heard about those statements Coppola made about the Nixon era, that's really cool. Makes sense.