[ahariail]

Yeah, what was the point of the ending? Was it just his punishment?

Michael was, at his core, a good person who got caught up in evil. But did the best job that he was capable of in the role in which he found himself.

Something like a Greek tragedy, perhaps.

[Defiant]

Actually, I think the question that the movies ask us to ponder is whether Michael is a good person who got caught up in the circumstances of his birth or whether he was always a sonofabitch who came into his own when the job as Don fell into his lap. The scene at the end of Godfather II makes him out to have always been a cold-blooded bastard. I think the contrasts in Part 2 between the generous, good Don (played by De Niro) and the ruthless Michael are also meant to bring this out. Then again, Michael is portrayed as someone whose greatest loyalty, like his father's, is to his family, in his twisted way. I can't answer the question, and maybe we're not supposed to.