Michael Corleone vs Tony Montana — Who is the greater movie mobster?
Two iconic movie characters played by one of our greatest actors Al Pacino.
The Godfather’s Michael Corleone* and Tony Montana from Scarface. Two of the screen’s most evil characters but who is the foulest of the two?
They had completely different backgrounds while rising to power, but both ended up as head of a crime organisation terrorising their adversaries.
Although born into an existing crime family, Michael was brought up in a secure environment. He was cared for and protected by Vito and his wife. He was well educated and, once a young adult, intelligent enough to decide he wanted to break free from the family tradition of crime. He joined the army and was determined to lead a normal life against the wishes of his father and elder brother Sony: “That’s my family Kay, that’s not me”.
However, this stable life changed when he sought revenge after the near mortal assassination attempt on his father. After he kills Sollozzo and McCluskey in the famous restaurant murder scene he draws himself back into his family’s business. And once his hot-tempered elder brother was killed his destiny was sealed.
We don’t know too much about Tony’s early life, but we can imagine it was the complete opposite to Michael. We can assume he came from a poor Cuban background and his father was not around much or must have left at an early stage “Forget papa we never had one”. Therefore, along with his younger sister he only had his mother as his guardian. Being the only man of the house from an early age in a broken family, Tony’s fate was already sealed. He was not protected like Michael and no one was going to give him anything for free. He had no other choice than to grow up on the backstreets of Cuba learning the hard way and the only way he knew how to survive. A life of crime.
Michael rose to power as the natural successor whereas Tony had to fight his way to the top. Once Michael had established himself as the head of his crime family, his motivations and intentions were clear. To keep the family at the top and wipe out anyone who got in their way. For Tony, there was no plan just survival. He wanted money and the girls but his rise to the top was most likely accidental and unintentional.
Both men had to kill during their rise to power although their purposes were different. Michael was only concerned in removing people who were a threat to his empire. Therefore, he had no quarrel with the man on the street just those from other crime families. Tony would kill for money and was not really bothered who they were. So, at this stage we could argue for Tony being the greater evil of the two. Michael only had to kill twice and because of his position, no longer got involved in the dirty business. He just gave the orders to kill. Tony kept his hands dirty in killing right to the end in order to survive. Both men killed cops, albeit corrupt ones, so when comparing the evil of the two men they are equal on this front.
In terms of personalities, again they could not be more different. Michael was cold and calculated. He was so intelligent he could mastermind the best way of getting rid of his adversaries knowing he would not be held responsible. Tony was a hot head and hadn’t the care to worry when he killed or who was witnessing him. Tony excessed on cocaine which made him paranoid and even more of a threat to mankind. The level headed Michael would was too smart to contemplate ever going down this road.
Both men were protective of their families. Michael more of his family empire whereas Tony only really cared about his siblings and was particularly overprotective of his sister. However, trapped in their evil empires, both men killed someone very close to them. Tony killed his best friend and Michael had his own brother killed! Both such wicked acts but was one more evil than the other? After discovering his sister living with his best friend, a cocaine fuelled Tony lashed out and murdered Manny on the spot. It was never planned just like everything else he had ever done in his life. It was a pure reaction. He always thought his sister as pure and not part of the crime life and couldn’t stomach the idea of her being involved in any part of his friends corrupt life. Michael was naturally emotionally wounded by his brother Fredo’s foolish involvement in a plot to kill him and his family. Michael could never forgive the pathetic Fredo who was in so much pain as to how he unintentionally had a hand in the plot. However, Michael didn’t lash out like Tony. As ever he took time and thought through his plan of revenge and cold heartedly ordered his brother’s killing after their mother’s funeral. Fredo was never a real threat to him. He could have just left it and never talked to him again, but this was not enough for the brutal Michael! Surely this act is the colder hearted of the two?
And finally, we come to the dilemma for Tony Montana. Tasked with assassinating a journalist who intends to expose his business partner’s drug business, Tony travels to New York to implement the crime along with one of his partner’s henchman. Tony is however horrified to learn the journalist is accompanied by his wife and two children in the car they are intending to blow up. Tony chickens out not wanting to kill any kids. It is ironic that when we finally see some sort of humanity in Tony, this decision leads to his eventual downfall. The question we all have to ask is what Michael would do if he was put in the same position. Knowing that the assignation of one of his enemies would eliminate his wife and kids, would he hesitate and not go ahead with the order? Knowing the way he dealt with his brother, one would guess not. Does this then make Michael Corleone the viler or are both acts equally wicked?
In summary both men started off with good intentions but were sucked into a life of crime and eventually became evil monsters corrupted by power. Therefore, who is the greater movie mobster, the cold bloodied Michael Corleone or the fiery drug addict Tony Montana?
*We are only considering the character of Michael Corleone in the first two Godfather films and not the weaker third sequel where Michael tries to repent for all his sins.
