It’s New Yr’s Eve in 1958, Havana. Fidel Castro’s revolution could also be lurking exterior, however the ambiance within the corridor is thick with celebration. Amid this joyous chaos, two brothers embrace. It appears to be like like a heat, familial second.
And that’s when the youthful brother, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), with a forceful belligerence, kisses his older brother, Fredo (John Cazale), on the mouth. He says:
“I do know it was you, Fredo. You broke my coronary heart. You broke my coronary heart.”
Michael, by this level, ever since taking the reins from his father, has already crossed a number of factors of no return. That is a kind of moments. The second when Michael’s household loyalty, which he holds in excessive regard, lastly dies. The second when Michael irrevocably loses his soul.
The Background: Resentment and Betrayal
The scene in query is the product of years of insidious bitterness rising inside Fredo, coming along with Michael’s unstable sense of safety.
Fredo’s Resentment
This sequel explores Fredo’s rising resentment. Within the Corleone household, Fredo was at all times the black sheep. He was neither powerful like Sonny nor sensible like Michael. He was weak and insecure, and at all times handed over for somebody or one thing higher. Whether or not it was Vito, Sonny, Michael, and even Tom Hagen, he at all times lived of their shadows, by no means attending to make a mark of his personal.
It’s no surprise he grew spiteful in the direction of everybody, particularly Michael, his “youthful” brother, who stole his rightful prerogative to guide the household enterprise. This bitterness made him weak—one thing that the rivals might exploit. They usually did.
Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg) used his affiliate, Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese), to supply Fredo one thing that appeared like a very good deal for the Corleone household. Fredo, nonetheless, noticed it as one thing he might declare as his personal. It stroked his wounded ego. However what Fredo couldn’t see was that he was being manipulated right into a plot to assassinate Michael.
Michael’s Reign of Paranoia
Ever because the try on his life, which killed his Italian spouse, Michael had grown more and more mistrustful of everybody round him. He expressed this paranoia when he informed Hagen (Robert Duvall), “If something on this life is for certain, if historical past has taught us something, it’s that you would be able to kill anybody.”
This chilly assertion reveals Michael’s mind-set. Anybody can kill him, and he can kill anybody—even when it’s his circle of relatives.
The Scene: New Yr’s Eve in Havana
This second is the end result of all this seething rigidity. That is the place Michael finds the lacking piece of the puzzle that’s making him really feel insecure, and that is when his brotherly bond with Fredo takes a deadly flip.
The Get together
Fairly paying homage to the baptism scene in The Godfather (1972), this scene can be a duel between the brilliant and the darkish. The jubilant celebration of the celebration creates a stark distinction to the darkish affairs happening within the shadows. Michael has ordered Hyman Roth’s assassination. He is aware of it was Roth who tried to kill him, and now he needs to know who helped him.
Fredo’s Deadly Slip
After Michael introduces Johnny Ola to Fredo—and Johnny proclaims, “We’ve by no means met”—they proceed to look at an underground leisure present. Throughout the present, along with his guard down, Fredo lets slip, “Johnny Ola informed me about this place,” instantly catching Michael’s consideration. This informal slip is all Michael wants for an entire confession.
Within the very subsequent scene, Johnny Ola is killed, and an murderer is distributed to kill Hyman Roth.
The Embrace and the Kiss
Whereas Ola and Roth are being tackled, the celebration is underway. Because the clock strikes 12, the celebratory temper reaches its climax. Michael, balancing the vacation cheer along with his fixed insecurity and the surprising secret he had found just some moments in the past, greets Fredo with a good hug. The hug rapidly turns right into a deathly embrace earlier than Michael kisses him and says he is aware of it was Fredo who betrayed him.
Michael makes use of the kiss, often an indication of affection and respect, however generally utilized by the Italian mafia as a proclamation of betrayal, judgment, and demise. It leaves Fredo shaken. You’ll be able to see the moment remorse and terror unfold throughout his face.
The Level of No Return
The one thread that will have sure Michael to his outdated self—the conflict hero, the considerate and thoughtful companion, the household man—snaps with this kiss. It’s the ultimate nail within the coffin of his humanity. Within the first movie, he kills Sollozzo and McClusky to avenge his father, and he kills all the opposite crime household bosses to guard his circle of relatives. Now he vows to kill his household to guard himself.
Cinematic Legacy
The Havana kiss is likely one of the most iconic moments in cinema historical past, famous for its good, minimalist writing, insightful path, and performances that make us really feel the characters within our pores and skin. The scene can be a touch upon energy, decaying morality, and the disintegration of a household.
The Echo of a Damaged Coronary heart
There may be extra to this scene from ‘The Godfather Half II’ than what meets the attention. It’s not a mere plot level; it’s the place the movie’s central theme—the harmful nature of energy—is condensed into its uncooked kind. Michael’s kiss is a logo of damaged brotherhood, his personal damnation, and a sign that he continues to avoid wasting his empire and himself on the expense of his soul.
Michael Corleone has defeated all his rivals and detractors, and now he will get to take a seat on his silent, empty, pointless throne.
