The Godfather教父 1972 Movie Script

DON CORLEONE:

This old building has seen its day.

No way to do business...too small, too old.

They enter the DON's glass-panelled office.

DON CORLEONE:

Have you thought about a wife? A family?

MICHAEL:

(pained) No.

DON CORLEONE:

I understand, Michael. But you must make a family, you know.

MICHAEL:

I want children, I want a family.

But I don't know when.

DON CORLEONE:

Accept what's happened, Michael.

MICHAEL:

I could accept everything that's happened; I could accept it, but that I never had a choice. From the time I was born, you had laid this all out for me.

DON CORLEONE:

No, I wanted other things for you.

MICHAEL:

You wanted me to be your son.

DON CORLEONE:

Yes, but sons who would be professors, scientists, musicians...and grandchildren who could be, who knows, a Governor, a President even, nothing's impossible here in America.

MICHAEL:

Then why have I become a man like you?

DON CORLEONE:

You are like me, we refuse to be fools, to be puppets dancing on a string pulled by other men. I hoped the time for guns and killing and massacres was over. That was my misfortune. That was your misfortune. I was hunted on the streets of Corleone when I was twelve years old because of who my father was. I had no choice.

MICHAEL:

A man has to choose what he will be.

I believe that.

DON CORLEONE:

What else do you believe in?

MICHAEL doesn't answer.

DON CORLEONE:

Believe in a family. Can you believe in your country? Those Pezzonovante of the State who decide what we shall do with our lives? Who declare wars they wish us to fight in to protect what they own. Do you put your fate in the hands of men whose only talent is that they tricked a bloc of people to vote for them? Michael, in five years the Corleone family can be completely legitimate. Very difficult things have to happen to make that possible. I can't do them anymore, but you can, if you choose to.

MICHAEL listens.

DON CORLEONE:

Believe in a family; believe in a Code of Honor, older and higher, believe in Roots that go back thousands of years into your Race.

Make a family, Michael, and protect it. These are our affairs, sono cosa nostra, Governments only protect men who have their own individual power. Be one of those men...you have the choice.

--------------------------------------FADE OUT----------

EXT DAY:

STOCK FOOTAGE LAS VEGAS (1955) A MOVING VIEW, driving up the Las Vegas Strip of 1955.