On a flight watching my favorite movie. The older I get, the more I understand why it’s my favorite. One of it’s central ideas is inheritance, but not just inheriting money or a business, but inheriting a name, obligations, relationships, reputation, wisdom and responsibility for what his dad built. Michael initially didn’t want anything to do with his father’s world. But his evolution isn’t framed as becoming a man by disrespecting Vito, defeating him or proving he no longer needs him. He gradually comes to understand his father, learns from him and eventually assumes responsibility for the house his father built. There’s hierarchy between father and son, but also love and respect within that hierarchy. Michael becomes powerful and can still sit across from his aging father and receive his counsel without viewing it as an attack on his independence or manhood. I think this is what’s missing from so much modern storytelling, particularly stories about Black families. Fathers and sons are so often written in opposition to one another. The father becomes someone the son has to challenge, escape, expose or defeat in order to become his own man. It’s one reason shows like Power never resonated with me. Vito also leaves Michael something greater than money. He leaves him social capital, a respected family name, relationships, knowledge, people who owe favors and a position in the world that took Vito’s life to create. That represents an older conception of fatherhood that I think we’ve lost, your life should leave your children standing on higher ground. A son honoring his father doesn’t mean believing his father was flawless. And becoming your own man doesn’t have to mean rejecting everything your father built.