[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:The Godfather]]
* From the very first scene:
-->'''Bonasera:''' They made her drink whiskey. And then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her honor. So they beat her, like an animal. When I went to the hospital, her nose was broken. Her jaw was shattered, held together by wire. She couldn't even weep because of the pain. But I wept. Why did I weep? She was the light of my life -- beautiful girl. Now she will never be beautiful again.
* Tom Hagen witnesses what Woltz has done to an exquisitely beautiful pre-teen actress. The description of the sweet child torn and broken on the stairwell -- while her mother's all business and clearly unconcerned with her daughter's pain -- is enough to make you cry ''and'' puke. In the book, when Tom recounts this to Vito, the Don is so disgusted that he proceeds to call Woltz the most insulting thing you could ever say in Sicilian.
* When Vito is shot and nearly killed, Fredo's reaction is just painful. Not only was he sitting in the car instead of protecting his father, but he fumbles his gun, allowing the shooters to get away. When he sees Vito's injured body lying in the street, he just sinks to the ground and sobs "Papa!"
* After Vito gets shot, Tom tries to convince Sonny to not get revenge and try to make a deal to avoid bloodshed. Sonny does not take it well and things get heated:
-->'''Sonny:''' That's easy for you to say, Tom, he's not your father!\\
'''Tom''' ''(clearly hurt)'': I'm as much a son to him as you or Mike!
** Nobody, but nobody, counts Fredo.
* Michael's desperate worry after hearing that his father has been shot, despite his estrangement from his family.
* Vito torn by the news of Michael being the one who killed Sollozzo and [=McClusky=], crushing any hope of Michael being the one who will lead the family into respectability.
* Michael and Sonny's goodbye before the former leaves for Sicily becomes this in retrospect, as it's the last time they ever see each other.
* While Michael is busy getting married in Sicily, Kay is desperate to find him, in the dark about where he went to or what he's doing now.
* Tom Hagen's reaction to Sonny's death. Particularly in the novel, where it's detailed that he feels as if he has failed. He's also the one who has to tell the news to Vito in another heartbreaking scene. No wonder he [[INeedAFreakingDrink needed a drink first.]]
* Vito's reaction to seeing Sonny's body:
--> '''Vito''': [''weeping''] Look how they massacred my boy...
** Even more painful and sad is his reason for asking Bonasera to use all of his skills to fix up Sonny's bullet-riddled body:
--> '''Vito''': I don't want his mother to see him this way...
* Apollonia's death. Michael was so in love with her you can almost tell it's too good to last...
* Tessio is taken away and appeals to Tom, who is quietly saddened by the turn of events.
-->'''Sal:''' Tell Mike it was only business, I always liked him. [...] Tom, can you get me off the hook, for old times' sake?\\
'''Tom:''' Can't do it Sally.
* Vito confides to Michael that he has essentially failed in life as he was not able to make the family climb up the power ladder, so Michael is cursed with his legacy, repeating Vito's way of life. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ9-wNAfTSY Brando's terrific body language and voice permeates the whole conversation with sadness]].
-->'''Vito:''' I knew Santino was going to have to go through all this and Fredo... well, Fredo was... But I never-- ''I never wanted this for you''. I work my whole life -- I don't apologize -- to take care of my family, and I refused to be a fool, dancing on the string held by all those bigshots. I don't apologize -- that's my life -- but I thought that, that when it was your time, that ''you'' would be the one to hold the string. Senator Corleone; Governor Corleone, something...\\
'''Michael:''' Another pezzonovante.\\
'''Vito:''' Well... ''(sighs)'' It wasn't enough time, Michael. It wasn't enough time.
* Tom's backstory. He grew up in a dysfunctional family with a violent alcoholic for a father and a mother who apparently was completely neglectful towards him. His mother contracted an eye infection and later died of an unknown disease. In reaction to her death, his father wound up drinking himself to death. Tom and his younger sister were put in an orphanage, but Tom ran away (as 1920's orphanages didn't have the greatest track records when it came to the treatment of their charges), and spent an unspecified amount of time living on the streets. By the time Sonny found him, he was starving and nearly blind in one eye (having developed the same infection his mother had before dying). In the novel it says that even as an adult, Tom has nightmares of him and his children reliving his horrible childhood, showing that he's [[TheStoic a lot more affected by this than he seems.]]
** And it was Santino who saved him from the streets, bringing him to his own father, Don Vito, who blessed him with a life of significance, and a house of love and support. No wonder he's utterly ''crushed'' by his brother's death.
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[[folder:The Godfather Part II]]
* Right after it's revealed Kay had an abortion so she wouldn't have to bring another child into the Corleones' ruthless world, the scene fades into a flashback of baby Fredo suffering from pneumonia, crying hysterically and Vito tearing up outside the door, feeling helpless. It's such a heartbreaking sequence, showing how much parents want to protect their children from experiencing pain and hardship.
** Even before then, Michael slapping and shouting at Kay sounded more like he was scared than he was mad about losing his kids.
--->'''Michael:''' Enough! ''({{Beat}}.)'' You won't take my children.\\
'''Kay:''' I will--\\
'''Michael:''' ''YOU WON'T TAKE MY CHILDREN!''\\
'''Kay: [sobbing]''' They're my children too...
* The fallout between Mike and Fredo is full of these:
** Michael's face growing blank when he overhears Fredo casually admitting he knew Johnny Ola all along, meaning he was in on their plan to murder him. He goes through a tranquil turmoil before covering his face to avert tears at knowing his brother betrayed him.
** Michael confronts Fredo in the middle of the New Year's party and delivers a devastating line with almost reptilian but true, anguished emotion.
--->'''Michael:''' I know it was you Fredo. You broke my heart. ''You broke my heart!''
** The scene where Michael coldly disowns Fredo. The whole time he's speaking, Fredo is weeping and begging for forgiveness.
--->'''Michael:''' You're nothing to me now... You're not a brother. You're not a friend. I don't want to know you or what you do... I don't want to see you at the hotels. I don't want you near my house... When you see our mother, I want to know a day in advance so I won't be there... You understand?
** Just before that, watching Fredo spill out all his rage and despair at Michael for having been stepped over as the older brother, being treated ill by his own ''family,'' becomes just heart-wrenching.
--->'''Michael:''' I've always taken care of you, Fredo.\\
'''Fredo:''' "Taken care of me"!? You're my kid brother! You take care of ''me''?!! Do you ever think about that, huh? Do you ever ''once'' think about that?! "Send Fredo off to do this, send Fredo off to do that... Let Fredo take care of some Mickey Mouse nightclub somewhere! Send Fredo to pick somebody up at the airport!" I'm your older brother, Mike, and I was stepped ''over!''\\
'''Michael:''' That's the way Pop wanted it.\\
'''Fredo:''' IT AIN'T THE WAY ''I'' WANTED IT!!!
** Shortly after Fredo is murdered, we cut to a flashback from 1941, where Michael gets criticized by Tom and Sonny for his decision to join the marines. The only one that supports him is Fredo.
** Listening to Fredo cast his fishing line into the waters of Lake Tahoe, offering a Hail Mary prayer with Neri sitting behind him, finishing out the entire tragedy with a discretionary off-screen gunshot...
** Michael's feigned forgiveness of Fredo at their mother's wake. The brotherly hug would make for a wonderful heartwarming moment, until Michael gives Neri the look that seals his brother's fate.
** Neri himself sadly looks down after Mike’s glare-order.
** Even the damn ''music'' gets you. When poor Fredo hugs Michael (and Michael hugs him back), there is a sweeping, triumphant piece that plays, [[HopeSpot giving hope that all is forgiven and that everything is gonna be okay]]... and then Michael (unbeknownst to Fredo) gives that side look to Al, and the music suddenly stops, then changes to a much more somber tune.
* Vito's mother [[MamaBear Signora Andolini's]] HeroicSacrifice. Knowing full well it would result in her death, she holds a knife to Don Ciccio's throat and screams at Vito to run so as to ensure that he survives. And with her death, a young Vito is left completely alone in the world...
* In a ''Saga'' only scene, the film concludes with Kay in a church, lighting candles for Michael's soul. Despite their divorce, she clearly still cares about him.
* Crossed with WhatCouldHaveBeen, Pentageli was originally meant to be Clemenza before the actor bowed out. Michael was already betrayed by Tessio in Part I, and while he and Tom discussed Clemenza, they brushed it off then.
* When Michael asks his mother if being strong could cost him his family; she thinks he's talking about Kay's miscarriage (at this point no one knows of the abortion yet) and tells him he could never lose his family, unaware of Fredo's betrayal and Michael's plans for him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The Godfather Part III]]
* Speaking of Apollonia, Michael's flashback to their wedding day. When the flashback ends, he's in tears, showing that after all this time, he hasn't forgotten her.
* Michael's confessional to Cardinal Lamberto:
--> '''Michael''': I, uh, betrayed my wife.
-->'''Lamberto:''' Go on, my son.
-->'''Michael:''' I betrayed myself. I've killed men, and I ordered men to be killed.
-->'''Lamberto:''' Go on, my son, go on.
-->'''Michael:''' No, it's useless.
-->'''Lamberto:''' Go on, my son.
-->'''Michael:''' I killed... I ordered the death of my brother; he injured me. [''He now begins to sob''] I killed my mother's son. I killed my father's son.
-->'''Lamberto:''' Your sins are terrible. And it is just that you suffer. Your life could be redeemed, but I know you do not believe that. You will not change.
* When Michael has a stroke, after Joey Zasa's assassination attempt. It starts out as NightmareFuel since it legitimately looked like Al Pacino was having one for real. It goes into this territory when he shouts one name before his collapse.
-->'''Michael:''' FREDO! FREDO!
* Vincent ends his relationship with Mary in a [[BreakHerHeartToSaveHer very cold way]]. Especially considering she is killed a few minutes later, and this is the last thing he says to her.
-->'''Mary:''' I'll always love you.\\
'''Vincent:''' Love somebody else.
* Connie watching, regretfully, as her godfather Don Altobello is dying in his seat at the opera. [[spoiler: By her hand.]]
--->'''Connie [sadly]:''' Sleep, Godfather.
* Any one who claims Sofia Coppola is completely without acting chops is completely FOS. See how she breaks down upon seeing her father Michael carried out on a stretcher after his diabetic stroke, sobbing uncontrollably. Any person who's had a parent or other loved one in such dire straights will feel her anguish.
* A one-two punch with Mary's death, followed by Michael DyingAlone.
** It's Michael's agonized screaming after Mary's death that does it. That's not grief. That is PAIN. Coppola even cut the sound out from his scream because it was too terrible.
** If one interprets the movie by the original title suggested by Coppola, ''The Death of Michael Corleone'', then ''the entire movie'' is one big Tearjerker.
** It's been said by many that THIS moment, Mary's death, is the moment that Michael Corleone dies. His daughter dying leaves his spirit completely broken, and the final scene is just his body catching up. So, in a way, you can say that Michael Corleone dies screaming in agony.
** Not to mention the montage between the two tear jerkers featuring all the women Michael has lost - Apollonia, Mary, and, in a sense and now permanently after Mary's death, Kay.
** The sheer, undignified manner in which Michael dies, with him slowly falling off his chair with a wide shot, and the dog nearby running around him. It solidifies Michael's tragic journey, one where he unwillingly embraced his family's violent business, exacerbating his ruthlessness and driving his loved ones away from him until the bitter end. It's also a tragic contrast to his father's death. Vito died in his own garden at a family gathering after playing with his grandson. Michael dies completely alone save for his dog.
** The music "[[Theatre/CavalleriaRusticana Intermezzo From Cavalleria Rusticana]]" that accompanies the final minutes of the film really makes this even more heartbreaking.
** The ContinuityNod of Michael dying in the same courtyard where Apollonia did, since it's believed that it's her death that was the beginning of the ruthlessness that cost Michael everyone else he loved.
** The Director's cut adds another layer of tragedy to Michael's life, as he doesn't die in the final scene and just keeps lingering around alone in his villa, with the implication he's going to have a very long lifespan (cent'anni) as a [[EmptyShell broken man]].
* Crossed with another WhatCouldHaveBeen, Part III was originally meant to be a full blown war between Michael and Tom. Michael would've been truly alone in the end, left completely friendless.
[[/folder]]