The book does a good job of showing how Vito built his organization bit by bit. He quietly amassed power without doing a lot of killing. He was feared, and that was enough.

To be frank, that's a lot fucking smarter than most villains who tell the good guys their entire plan or take hostages expecting to win them over.

Well, go try to outmaneuver five established crime families and coordinate a simultaneous attack in a way that none of them get a chance at retaliation. Let us know how that goes, then we can start understanding the levels to "cunning".

Edit- and aside from Sollozzo to avenge Vito, Michael didn't shoot anyone.

I've never gotten the mass appeal of The Godfather series, personally. But I like a lot of shit movies, so I can't pass judgement.

When you come to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.

Great movie. Loved the shooting.

Everyone said the third one was shit. But it was the pentultimant consequence of Michael's success. He was all alone at the end, a victim of his own ruthlessness and success. It completed the arc.

Well he was cunning compared to his brother James Caan.

Capitalism encapsulated: They sell you “meritocracy”, you get a suicide machine.

Also, these Neo-feudalist freaks, the one thing they don’t seem to understand is that when you set up a mafia infrastructure, it’s only a matter of time before one of your capos shoots a hellfire missile up your asshole and takes your place. You want Rome, you get Rome, complete with the Praetorian Guard.