This Magnificent Baddie was Headlined on March 2024.
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I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.
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~ Don Vito Corleone's most famous line and one of the most famous movie quotes of all time.
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A man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man.
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~ Vito Corleone's second most famous line.
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You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance going to bring your son back to you or my boy to me? I forgo vengeance for my son. But my youngest son had to leave this country because of this Sollozzo business. So now I have to make arrangements to bring him back safely, cleared of all these false charges. But I'm a superstitious man. And if some unlucky accident should befall him, if he should be shot in the head by a police officer, or if he should hang himself in his jail cell, or if he's struck by a bolt of lightning... then I'm going to blame some of the people in this room... and that, I do not forgive. But, that aside, let me say that I swear, on the souls of my grandchildren, that I will not be the one to break the peace we have made here today.
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~ Don Vito Corleone to the other assembled Dons.
Vito Corleone, born Vito Andoli, is the deuteragonist of Mario Puzzi's 1969 best seller crime novel, The Godfather, as well as of the 1972 film adaptation by Francis Ford Coppola of the same name and its 1974 sequel, The Godfather Part II. Due to Vito's death in the first film, Vito only appears in the second film in flashbacks.
Once a young immigrant hailing from the Sicillian town of Corleone and orphaned by Don Ciccio, Vito builds his entire criminal empire as a petty crook with his friends Peter Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio, becoming the Godfather, the crime lord that has the highest power in the entire New York criminal world, and the former head of the Corleone family, succeeded by his third son Michael, the franchise's protagonist, following his death, running the entire empire through a code of honor. He is the husband of Carmela Corleone and the father of Santino "Sonny", Frederico "Fredo", Michael & Constanzia "Connie" Corleone.
He was portrayed by the late Marlon Brando, with Robert de Niro (who has portrayed Neil McCauley in Heat) playing him in his younger days, both who have won the Academy Award for Best Actor (Supporting Actor in de Niro's case) for their performance.
He is one of the most iconic villains in fiction, who is the very person that codified the Don trope for years to come, partly thanks to the iconic performances of Marlon Brando and Robert de Niro.
His evil stems from having been a Sicillian boy whose entire family was murdered by Don Ciccio, and had to flee to new York as an orphan to build a living by himself, harassed by Don Fanucci and having to struggle to provide for his family.
As a crime lord, he always operates under a code of honor, always willing to do any favour to anyone who approaches him, and is extremely affable as well, treating everyone with respect as he knows that by doing so, everyone will respect him back.
Unlike other mafioso members, he lacks any explicitly misogynistic or xenophobic views other mobsters have. On the contrary, he actually takes in the German-Irish Tom Hagen as his adoptive son after he was orphaned.
Despite his criminal behaviour, he has other virtues, such as being a family man, refusing to ever cheat on his wife and only has eyes on her, and tried his best to steer all of his children from a life of crime, and spends his final moments happily playing with his grandson Anthony.
Builds his entire criminal empire from scratch by rallying up the loyalty of his 2 friends, Peter Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio, using an olive oil import company as a front and ends up becoming the most powerful crime lord in not only New York, but in the entire United States.
Upon catching onto subtle hints that Don Fanucci may not actually have connections to the Black Hand and is just a bully harassing people in Little Italy, Vito meticulously plans his death in such a way that he can kill him, frame it as a suicide and get away with it, knowing that nobody will ever miss Fanucci.
As a crime lord, Vito is swift on any and all threats that threaten his dominion over the Underworld, while swaying all the other crime families and mobsters like the more imposing Luca Brasi to his side, with the latter being one of his most loyal and most feared mercenary of his as a result of his undying loyalty.
Under the guise of making a peace meeting to end a destructive gang war that caused the death of his eldest son, Sonny, Vito uses this as a front to see who the mastermind behind the downfall of the family is.
Upon deducing it was Don Emilio Barzini, Vito plays the long game with Michael, in which after stepping down, he frequently advices Michael, knowing that Barzini will lure him to a trap using a traitor, and formulating a gambit that for Michael to wipe out all the Five Families and secure the Corleone's power, a gambit that Vito pulls off even after his own death.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
Is a ruthless crime lord who wouldn't hesitate to kill if he has to for his business.
While his owner is a jerk, he still has his innocent horse killed just to punish him.
Even if Don Ciccio is a despicable Hate Sink who deserved death for what he did to Vito's family, Vito still kills him brutally while he was nothing but a helpless old man, with this being used to showcase how badly he was consumed by revenge to ever redeem.
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