Sunday Matinee #75 The Godfather Part II
Broken hearts, divine and human.
1 Samuel 15:34-16:13 | EnterTheBible.org
Fourth Sunday After Pentecost | 06.16.2024
Context: God is not happy with King Saul. Though he won a few rounds on the battlefield, he has been a poor ruler in the “obedience and fidelity to God” department. God tells Samuel that Saul has been rejected as king and to go to Jesse’s family where God has found a new king amongst his sons. Samuel meets all of Jesse’s sons. Well, almost all of them…
11 Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." 12 He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one." 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
The Godfather Part II | 1974
IMDb | Letterboxd | RRMC
Context: Michael (Al Pacino) was made head of the Corleone family mafia after his father passed away in The Godfather. His greatest rival, Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg) tries to pull the rug out from under him, culminating in an assassination attempt. Devastated, Michael learns his older brother, Fredo (John Cazale), gave Roth the information he needed to carry out the hit. At a New Year’s Eve party in Cuba, Michael prepares to fly the family away to safety, but not before he caves to his desire to tell Fredo he knows the truth.
The Dance Hall crowd cheers, throwing confetti into the air. There are hugs, kisses, big smiles. Michael walks over to Fredo and pulls him close for a hug. He whispers in his ear.
Michael: There's a plane waiting for us to take us to Miami in an hour, alright? Don't make a big thing about it.
Fredo looks confused. Michael grabs Fredo on both sides of his face and kisses him on the mouth.
Michael: I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!
Fredo frees himself from Michael’s grip and walks away, pushing through the crowd. Michael watches him.
Commentary:
To be clear, this is not what was supposed to happen.
The people demanded a king. The prophet Samuel said no, that is not going to go the way you think it will. And yet, the people said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Nah. Do it.” So God directs Samuel to Saul and Saul is made king. He does king stuff. You know. Win wars. Win other wars. Win a few more wars. But he also does other king stuff. You know. Making sacrifices he knows he’s not supposed to make. Not following God. The kind of stuff you don’t want your king to do but they ultimately do it, anyway. God regrets trusting in Saul and tells Samuel - who was demoted by the people (but not God!) from prophet to seer - that, in the words of Yoda, “there is another.”
Samuel meets Jesse and then all of his sons. All but one, the youngest son, David. Samuel knows that when God sends you to meet someone, you meet someone, so he says I’m not going anywhere until I meet him. When David arrives, God makes it clear to Samuel, I know it’s him. He moves my heart. Samuel anoints David.
This is a big deal. First, Samuel anoints David in secret, away from King Saul and the court, so nobody knows that this is the new direction that God is going. Second, David is not the first-born of Jesse’s sons, he’s the eighth. In that time and place, seven was seen as perfect, or complete. That means David is an outsider, from beyond completion. He’s not the expected one to inherit the kingdom. And third, though Samuel anoints David, he will have to wait, as will the kingdom of Israel, as will we as readers to see how it unfolds. That’s politics.
The Godfather films are all politics. In this family dynamic, people have their roles to play and when people step outside of those roles, bad things happen. In The Godfather, Vito Corleone is almost killed and family control goes to his first-born son, Sonny. Michael is the youngest son and is not involved in the family business, a joint decision between him and his father. But he steps up, in secret, to avenge their father because Sonny has to be in charge and second-born Fredo can’t handle a job like this. Sonny’s leadership comes to an end, and again, Fredo can’t handle a job like this, so Michael is made the leader. That’s politics.
The Godfather Part II shows the ramifications of those politics. Like we’ll read later in 1 Samuel of David and Saul first as friends and then as feuding enemies, here we see Fredo betray Michael. After Vito was injured, Sonny the oldest took over. When Sonny was killed, Vito skipped Fredo and put Michael in charge. That hurt Fredo. Later, he would tell Michael he betrayed him because the people who made a deal with him made it clear that he would have something of his own.
Michael said I’ve always taken care of you. To which Fredo responds, “You’re my kid brother!” Being stepped over drove Fredo to do what he did. He never could understand the secret machinations that their father put into place to put in new leadership. To be clear, in Fredo’s mind, this is not what was supposed to happen.
Saul wasn’t up to the task of king, so God sent Samuel to find an outsider, David. Sonny was out and Fredo wasn’t up to the task of don, so Vito set up Michael as boss though he’d been an outsider. No one can claim that either of these paths ended up perfect, but both were about preserving the heart of the kingdom / family as much as possible. If you read that and think I’m saying God is like a mob boss (I guess that makes Samuel not a prophet but a consigliere?!), banish the thought. I’m saying that human emotions like jealousy, selfishness, and ego can get in the way of doing the right thing.
We see politics play out on national and global stages, but also in our families, businesses, churches, and local municipalities. When people feel hurt, bad stuff can happen. How do we best handle bruised ego? How do we offer honesty in loving ways? What does it take to make the tough call when a change is needed?