The Godfather’s most essential scene, and perhaps it’s most tragic, doesn’t announce itself.
It isn’t a bombastic outburst, there aren’t any guns firing or powerful men crying over lost loved ones. Instead it portrays four men talking in a room.
One of them has had enough.
That man is Michael Corleone (spoilers). He is supposed to be the straight and narrow one of the Corleone Crime Family. He went to college and distinguished himself in World War II, all to distance himself from his families misdeeds.
As he says to his (non-Sicilian) girlfriend Kay: “That’s my family Kay, they’re not me”.
But then Victor Sollozzo shoots his father, and everything begins to fall apart. Slowly, Michael, in the midst of a family tragedy starts hanging around the discussions that decide the future of the family business.
Finally, after a run-in with corrupt police at the hospital, Michael has had enough. He volunteers to kill Sollozzo personally to save his father, officially joining the mob and forgoing any chance at a legitimate life.
But that’s not the specific line that begins Michael’s tragic character arc, his fall from caring about family to simply caring about business.
The major line is when Tom Hagen mentions that Michael can’t kill a cop, so Michael says something to the tune of “Why not?”.
This is where Michael doesn’t just forgo his legitimate life, he also doesn’t see the need to follow any of the rules of honor that have governed mob affairs for generations.
The same dismissive “why not” that convinced him killing the cop is alright is what makes him think that he can knock off the heads of all five families at the end of the first film, taking power for himself.
Any of the heads could have done this before Michael did, but they didn’t because, primarily, they weren’t supposed to. Michael doesn’t give a damn for tradition, which is both a major character flaw and strength throughout his arc.
Michael purely wants power. That’s what leads him to neglect Kay and to kill Fredo in the second one. It’s what causes him to distrust Tom Hagen and needlessly kill Hyman Roth.
Vito Corleone never would have done those things, because he respected tradition. That’s why he is never able to obtain the nationwide power that Michael does.
It’s also why Vito has hundreds of people at his funeral, including a loving family, while Michael dies alone.
Picture Source Wikipedia
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