Emilio Barzini.
As played by Richard Conte in The Godfather, Barzini is far different from many of the other mob bosses that we meet over the course of Mario Puzo’s and Francis Ford Coppola’s Mafia epic. He doesn’t yell. He doesn’t threaten. If anything, Barzini comes across as almost being a statesman. When it’s time to broker a peace between the Tattaglia and the Corleone families, Barzini is the one who sits at the head of the table. When it’s time to determine how the drug trade will be divided, Barzini is the one who offers up the “sensible” solution. Barzini keeps calm. He knows how to deal with volatile people. He just wants to make sure that peace is restored and everyone gets a fair cut of the profit. “We are not communists,” he says.
It’s after that meeting that Vito Corleone finally realizes that everything that has happened, from the nearly successful attempt on his life to the exile of Michael to the death of Santino, was Barzini’s doing. Barzini perhaps a got a bit too clever for his own good. By so coolly and efficiently brokering the peace, Barzini revealed that was far more clever than the “pimp” Philip Tattaglia. Whereas Tattaglia was too crude to put together a coalition against the Corleones, Barzini was just the type of pitiless manipulator who could convince a group of otherwise powerful people to sign away their own futures. Perhaps he was a communist after all.
Of course, most viewers (and readers) will have figured out that Barzini is the main bad guy long before Vito does. From the first minute that we see Barzini at the wedding reception at the Corleone Compound, we know that he’s a sinister figure. While everyone else at the wedding is being emotional, sentimental, and delightfully Italian, Barzini watches without a hint of emotion. Indeed, the only time we see any real emotion from Barzini is when he smirks at Vito’s funeral.
After his goons unsuccessfully attempt to assassinate Don Vito, Sollozzo famously tells Tom Hagen that “the Don was slipping.” And it’s hard not to feel that Sollozzo had a point. Consider Vito Corleone’s track record in The Godfather. He failed to teach Sonny the basics of being a good Don. He promoted Tom Hagen to consiglieri despite the fact that Tom was viewed as being an outsider by the other Families. When it came time to send someone undercover to investigate the Tattaglias, he gave the job to Luca Brasi despite the fact that everyone knew there was no way that Brasi would actually betray Vito. He stopped to buy fruit, despite not being accompanied by his bodyguards. Worst of all, Vito somehow missed that it was Barzini all along. Vito was slipping. He got complacent. He failed to see how the world was changing and how the old honor system was being discarded. That allowed him to be victimized by Barzini.
Fortunately, Michael was there to take charge. Unfortunately, for Barzini, Al Neri was also there to put on his policeman’s uniform and wait for Barzini to exit from his latest meeting. Barzini took several bullets to the back. Barzini’s driver was caught in the cross-fire. I’ve always felt bad about that. I mean, the driver was just asking why he had been given a parking ticket and Neri shot him. If nothing else, we can see why Neri didn’t make it as a cop.
Barzini and Vito had a lot in common. They were both diplomats who could use violence when necessary. It’s perhaps not a surprise to learn that, before he was cast as Barzini, Richard Conte was one of the many actors considered for the role of Vito Corleone. How different would the film have been with the sinister Conte — as opposed to the likable Brando — in the lead role?
Luckily, Coppola made the right decision. Just as Brando was the perfect Vito, Richard Conte was the perfect Barzini.
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