Line #27 Heartwarming/TheGodfather


1	!!Part I
2	* Even if their relationship is strained, Vito won't take a family photo without Michael. His unconditional love for his family is reinforced later when Vito is touched upon hearing that his godson Johnny Fontane has come all the way from California; it doesn't matter that he's (mostly) showing up to ask a favor.
3	* Vito is vulnerable and set up to be assassinated, and the only person there to help him is Michael. When he sees how much Michael cares for him and wants to protect him, he silently begins to tear up. And according to Creator/AlPacino, Creator/MarlonBrando cried real tears in that scene.
4	* When Michael is outside the hospital trying to protect his father from being assassinated, Enzo the baker arrives to visit Don Vito. When he hears that Vito is in danger, he refuses to leave, even though he is clearly scared, and stands outside the hospital with Michael to bluff the would-be assassins. Vito may be a criminal, but it's clear plenty of people in the community love and respect him.
5	-->'''Michael:''' You better get out of here, Enzo, there's gonna be trouble.
6	-->'''Enzo:''' If there is trouble, I stay here to help you. For your father. For your father.
7	** Also, the reason Enzo was at the hospital in the first place: Don Corleone had agreed to help make arrangements for Enzo to marry his employer's daughter and thus become a citizen rather than be deported back to Italy. Enzo had likely shown up to pay his respects to the ailing Don, and by pure happenstance ends up returning the favour made on his behalf by helping to foil an attempt on Vito's life.
8	*** Afterwards when Enzo is having trouble lighting a cigarette, Michael takes and calmly lights his cigarette for him.
9	*** Don Vito requires the people he does favors for to return said favor at some point. But Enzo volunteers, gladly, and without hesitation. No one would have held it against him if he'd heeded Michael's warning to get out of a very dangerous situation, but Enzo stays, determined to repay the favor.
10	* Clemenza telling Michael that they were all proud of everything he did during the war, including his father.
11	* Michael and Sonny's last scene together before he goes off to kill Sollozzo and [=McCluskey=] and Sonny's promise to let Kay know when the time is right.
12	** Michael hugs big brother Santino and adopted brother Tom goodbye with equal affection.
13	* Michael's courting and marriage to Apollonia. What starts as a LoveAtFirstSight, without him even knowing her name, leads to a bit of tension when Michael and his men mention having seen her and finding her beautiful to a man who turns out to be her own father. The man is enraged, and when Michael tells his men to call him back out he comes with several young men (probably sons or other relatives.) Michael defuses the situation with translation from Fabrizio: He explains he meant no disrespect to the man or his daughter, that he is a stranger as he grew up in the US despite having Sicilian blood, and that he wishes to marry her. Then he requests a meeting with her, where the man and the whole family would be present as well. The man (who expressly mentioned before that Sicilian girls are beautiful but virtuous) concedes and Michael and Apollonia start a very adorable old-fashioned courtship, with chaperones included.
14	* Sonny's intense protectiveness over his baby sister in regards to her abusive husband. When Sonny sees her bruised face for the first time, his expression is pure "Must. Defend. Sister." It's sharply contrasted with Vito, who feels the honorable thing to do is to leave the marriage alone. Sonny doesn't care about honor, he cares about family.
15	** As savage as Sonny's beatdown of Carlo is, his line afterwards is both this and a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome:
16	-->'''Sonny:''' ''[[BigBrotherInstinct You touch my sister again and I'll kill ya.]]''
17	* After Sonny's death, Hagen is shaken and goes to [[INeedAFreakingDrink pour himself a drink.]] Don Vito walks in and Tom scrambles to the effect that he was about to waken him and let him know. Vito initially reproaches him, but later, he embraces Tom, telling Hagen that he acted properly in this terrible time.
18	--> "You've been a good son. You comfort me".
19	** Santino brought Tom Hagen in off the street as a child. If not for that kindness (and Vito accepting him into their home and family), who knows where Tom might have ended up.
20	* After Sonny's death at the tollbooth, Don Vito has Tom call the mortician Bonasera to repay the favor he owes. Bringing Sonny's body to funeral parlor, Vito begs for the favor (doubles as a TearJerker):
21	--> '''Vito''': I want you to use all your powers, and all your skills. I don't want his mother to see him this way. ''(he pulls away the sheet to reveal Sonny's bullet-riddled corpse. After a moment, Vito begins crying)'' [[HeroicBSOD Look how they massacred my boy]]...
22	** The book shows how it's heartwarming towards Bonasera as well. Since accepting Vito's friendship and owing him a debt, he has been in fear that he would be forced to cover up a murder. Now he gets out of it by just doing his normal job.
23	** In their first meeting, Vito only grants Bonsera's request reluctantly, and handles him with a degree of disdain, since Bonsera never bothered to show him any courtesy until he needed his protection. But when the time comes for Bonsera to do his work, Vito treats him as what he is; a skilled, powerful man in an underappreciated profession. Vito places his trust in Bonsera, and we know that Bonsera will not fail him.
24	** The book further establishes how much trust Vito puts in Bonasera: when Vito himself dies, Bonasera is his undertaker.
25	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ9-wNAfTSY Vito's final conversation with Michael]]. Vito shows interests in Michael's family, and is happy about Michael's three-year old son Anthony reading the funny papers. He laments that Michael had to follow his footsteps, "I never wanted this for you", but finds some solace when Michael assures him that the family "will get there" (reach legitimate, political power)
26	* Don Vito, one of (if not ''the'') the most powerful, feared and respected men in the mafia... [[PetTheDog playing with his grandson in the backyard of his estate as if he were any other grandfather.]]
27	** A sweet moment during this scene is when Vito initially puts the piece of orange in his mouth. Little Anthony seems to get scared and starts to cry and Vito quickly reassures him with a comforting hug.
28	** In the book, when Vito is stricken, he urgently sends Anthony away. Not to get help, as Vito knows it's pointless, but so that Anthony won't see his grandfather actually die in front of him.
29	* In the DVDCommentary, during the baptism scene, Creator/FrancisFordCoppola remarks how blessed he was to have Creator/SofiaCoppola born to him at the time and pauses to note how cute she was.
30	* Sonny's relationship with Tom in general. They have a heated argument over whether or not the family should go after Tattaglia. Sonny says something offensive to Tom claiming that, he wouldn't be so riled up if he had a wartime Consigliere that was Sicilian. When he realized what he said, Sonny apologizes and offers Tom a seat at the dinner table even putting an arm on his shoulder reassuringly. Sonny is, after all, the whole reason Tom is a Corleone.
31	** There's a moment in the book after Tom is released from his kidnappers. Sonny rushes to grab him in a hug, thus revealing how much he loves Tom and how genuinely afraid he was for his safety. Observing this, Michael realizes that Sonny is closer to Tom than he'll ever be to him, his biological brother. The book makes it clear that out of the entire family, Tom was always closest to Sonny and truly thought of him as his brother.
32
33	!!Part II
34	* Grocer Abbandando is forced to give Vito's stockboy job to Don Fanucci's nephew. Abbandando is distraught when giving him the news but Vito tells him he understands and says he'll never forget how he took him in when he first arrived in New York when he was a boy. On the street, Abbandando tries to give Vito a box of groceries for him and his family, which Vito politely refuses. When Vito comes home, he places a pear he bought on the table, which is enough to make his wife happy. As they sit down to eat dinner Vito kisses her.
35	* Michael shielding Kay with his body during the assassination attempt scene. When the bullets start, she rolls out of bed and he crawls over to her and shields her and the first words out of his mouth are to ask her if she is okay and almost weep with relief when she is. The relationship between the two of them deteriorates over the course of the movie, but in that moment he was absolutely willing to die for her and the way they hug eachother afterwards shows they really do love each other (at this point) despite their obvious issues. This also crosses into TearJerker territory when you remember Michael's first wife, Apollonia, was murdered by an assassin trying to get to Michael, and he was unable to protect her in that instance.
36	* Michael saying goodbye to his son Anthony before he leaves for Cuba.
37	* Michael's discussion with Tom after the bedroom shooting. Michael reassures Tom (who since halfway through Part I has thought Michael's kept him and his talents at arm's distance) that he's kept things from him to protect him because Tom is his most trusted associate and his brother. Mike then makes him Acting Don while Mike sniffs out the traitor. Tom is so overwhelmed by emotion over realizing how much Mike genuinely loves and respects him that he's almost in tears. [[note]]The remarkableness of this action should be addressed. It was the rule that all members of the mafia must be 100% pureblood Sicilian, with a family line traceable to Sicily. Even non-Sicilian Italians had much difficulty being accepted into the group (this rule has lessened over time). For him to name a non-Italian Acting Don showed an amazing trust. Hagen even being Vito's lawyer and later consigliere caused other families to mock the Corleones as "The Irish Gang".[[/note]]
38	* {{Subverted}} near the end when Mama Corleone passes away and Connie talks Michael into forgiving Fredo for his accidental betrayal. Michael comes out of hiding and hugs his grieving brother... only to coldly look up toward Al Neri, who nods quietly back to his Don. This is the DarkerAndEdgier sequel: Michael's not about to forgive ''anyone''...
39	* One that's easy to miss and might depend on your interpretation; Neri's attitude towards Michael ordering Fredo's death might be just cold professionalism, or it could be a matter of that he'll do it but won't enjoy it, and might not even like the order in the first place. Take note of the fact that when Fredo and Neri are out on the lake, Neri could take out Fredo at any time, but opts to wait until Fredo finishes his Hail Mary.
40	** Earlier Michael ordered Neri "I don't want anything to happen to him, while my mother's alive. As Michael hugs Fredo at their mother's funeral he gives a cold look at Neri to signal "It's time." Neri looks down sadly.
41
42	!!Part III
43	* The DVDCommentary, Creator/FrancisFordCoppola gives a passionate defense of Creator/SofiaCoppola's much-mocked performance. Regardless of whether you agree, it's incredibly touching hearing him go to bat so hard for his daughter.
44	* Brief and almost missable, but one of the attendees at Michael's party (and the caterer) is Enzo Aguello, the baker from the first film, showing that he managed to find the happiness he was seeking in America with Katerina, and that he remained good friends with the family.
45	* Connie's murder of Don Altobello, via poisoned cannoli. As he slowly nods off in death, Connie sadly whispers, "sleep, godfather", perhaps displaying lingering affection for the lifetime of kindness the man showed her, despite his later treachery.

Context Heartwarming / TheGodfather