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Santino "Sonny" Corleone is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel ''The Godfather'' and its 1972 film adaptation. The character also appears in various flashback sequences in the film's 1974 sequel, ''The Godfather Part II''. In the novel and film, he is the oldest son of New York City Mafia Don Vito Corleone and Carmela Corleone.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Fact and Fiction in The Godfather )〕 He has two brothers, Fredo and Michael, a sister, Connie, and an adopted brother, Tom Hagen. In the film, Sonny was portrayed by James Caan, who reprised his role for a flashback scene in ''Part II''. Director Francis Ford Coppola's son Roman Coppola played Sonny as a boy in the 1920s scene of that film. ==Novel and film biography== In both the novel and the movie, Sonny is the eldest of Vito Corleone's four children, and depicted as the most impulsive and violent. He is heavily involved in his father's crime family. At age 16, Sonny committed a robbery. When Sonny's godfather, Peter Clemenza informed Vito about it, Vito demanded his son explain himself. Sonny said he had witnessed Vito murder the feared "Black Hand" gangster Don Fanucci. He now wants to sell olive oil like his father. Vito, understanding that Sonny wanted to join the Corleone crime family, sent him to Clemenza for training. Sonny "made his bones" when he was 19. By his mid-20s, he was promoted to a ''caporegime'' in the Corleone family. By the end of World War II, he is his father's underboss and heir apparent, respected and feared as a ruthless killer with an explosive temper, though Vito doubts his son's ability to succeed him as Don. Sonny also possesses a gentler side; at age 11, he brought home a homeless boy, Tom Hagen, demanding he be allowed to live with the family. Hagen eventually rises through the ranks to become Vito's ''consigliere''. As the eldest child, Sonny acts as protector to his younger siblings and has a close relationship with his youngest brother, Michael and only sister, Connie. The novel shows he is unable to harm women, children, or anyone unable to defend themselves. This trait probably saved Connie's abusive husband, Carlo Rizzi, from being fatally beaten by Sonny when Carlo refuses to fight back. Sonny is married to Sandra with whom he has four children, but he has several mistresses, including Lucy Mancini, who was Connie's bridesmaid. In the novel, Sandra ignores his infidelities because she is unable to tolerate his enormous penis. Sonny’s life is upturned in 1945, when Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo, backed by the Tattaglia family, approaches Vito with an offer to enter the narcotics trade. During the meeting, Sonny spontaneously speaks out-of-turn, expressing an interest in the deal that Vito had declined. Vito later chastises Sonny for revealing his thoughts to an outsider and says Sonny's affair with Lucy Mancini must be making Sonny soft. Sollozzo later attempts to have Vito assassinated, believing Sonny, as his father's successor, will bring the Corleone family into the drug trade. The failed assassination attempt leaves Vito near death, making Sonny acting boss of the Corleone family. Sonny orders Clemenza to execute Vito's traitorous bodyguard Paulie Gatto. Sollozzo mounts a second assassination attempt on Vito at the hospital that Sonny's youngest brother Michael circumvents. Sonny then orders Bruno Tattaglia, son and underboss of Sollozzo's ally Philip Tattaglia, to be murdered. Sollozzo proposes that Michael to be sent to hear a truce proposition. Sonny, believing it is a ruse, refuses and demands that the other Mafia families hand over Sollozzo to the Corleone family or else face war. Tom successfully convinces Sonny to wait because Captain Mark McCluskey, a corrupt NYPD police captain on Sollozzo's payroll, has agreed to be Sollozzo's bodyguard. Tom warns Sonny that killing McCluskey would violate a long-standing Mafia rule not to kill members of law enforcement: the backlash from rival Mafia families and law enforcement would be severe. Michael advises Sonny that Sollozzo will never honor the deal and will likely make another assassination attempt on their father to remove his opposition to the drug deal. Clemenza agrees with Michael's theory. Sonny asks Michael's opinion on what to do about McCluskey. Michael, who distanced himself from the family's criminal activity, volunteers to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, arguing that McCluskey is fair game because he is a corrupt cop mixed up in the drug trade. Sonny, amused by Michael's proposal but also impressed by his family loyalty, initially doubts that his "nice college boy" brother is capable of murder. Ultimately he approves the hit. Michael meets with Sollozzo and McCluskey at an Italian restaurant in the Bronx where he fatally shoots both men. This ignites the New York underworld's first Mafia war in a decade. Sonny had arranged for Michael to flee to Sicily under the protection of Vito's friend and partner Don Tommasino. The war between the Five Families drags on, and Sonny, unable to break the stalemate, orders bloody raids that earn him a legendary reputation. In retaliation, Don Emilio Barzini, the real mastermind behind the conspiracy, enlists Sonny's brother-in-law Carlo to help set a trap. Earlier, Sonny savagely beat Carlo upon learning that Carlo physically abused Connie. To draw Sonny out into the open, Carlo baits Connie into an argument before severely beating her. Sobbing and hysterical, she telephones the Corleone compound. Enraged, Sonny speeds towards Connie's apartment in Hell's Kitchen ahead of his bodyguards. At the Long Beach Causeway toll plaza, rival mobsters emerge with tommy guns and fatally ambush Sonny. During a meeting with the Dons of the crime families to establish peace, Vito realizes that Barzini masterminded Sonny's murder. After Michael returns from Sicily, he becomes Vito's heir apparent. Vito and Michael secretly plot to wipe out the other New York Dons to avenge Sonny's death. The plan is successfully executed in 1955, and after Vito's death from natural causes. Michael informs Carlo that the rival Dons have been killed and coerces Carlo's confession for his part in arranging Sonny's murder. Carlo admits Barzini was the mastermind. On Michael's orders, Clemenza strangles Carlo with a wire. In a single strike, the Corleones become the most powerful crime family in the country. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sonny Corleone」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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