The Godfather vs Scarface: Who Was The Greatest Mob Boss?

Vito Corleone vs. Tony Montana

Welcome to WatchMojo, and in this installment of Versus, we’re going to be pitting The Godfather, Don Vito Corleone, against Scarface himself, Tony Montana. We realize both men grew up in different time periods, but we’re going to analyze their runs at the top under a certain set of criteria, to see which gangster reigns supreme amidst the criminal underworld. This will entail a few spoilers.

Who do you got? Let us know in the comments!

Round 1: Physicality

Both of the men in this battle have proven, beyond a shadow of doubt, that they’re willing to get their hands dirty, if the situation calls for violence. Vito Corleone tends to be thoughtful and measured when it comes to action, making moves that count, rather than posturing by confronting every questionable associate or street-level lowlife that’s in his way. The murders of Dons Fanucci and Ciccio are certainly brutal, with the latter stemming from Corleone’s mission of vengeance for the loss of his family. These are the exceptions, rather than the rule, however, and occur when the future Godfather is still a young man.

Tony Montana, conversely, is never able to reach old age, thanks to the dangerous and costly empire he builds for himself throughout the story of “Scarface.” In Tony’s own words, “I come from the gutter. I know that. I got no education but that’s okay. I know the street, and I’m making all the right connections.” Those connections require Montana to be much more hands-on than Corleone, right from the beginning of the film, where he kills a former Cuban general, at the request of local criminal Frank Lopez. Tony’s rough and ruthless behavior is further exemplified during the infamous scene where one of his first jobs for Frank gets really bloody, really fast. Montana has no qualms about laying someone out in the street, betraying Frank, and repelling forces sent by his ex-partner Alejandro Sosa at the end of the film.

Tony wants the action, the glory and the riches, and he’s never afraid to get down in the muck to get it all done.

Winner: Tony Montana: 1 / Vito Corleone: 0

Round 2: Quotable Lines

“The Godfather” and its subsequent sequels contain many scenes that would go on to enter the cultural zeitgeist. Many of these quotable lines are spoken by Vito Corleone, both in the first film, and the flashbacks to Vito’s youth in “The Godfather Part II.” “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse,” has been parodied to death by everything from mafia spoof comedies to animated features, such as Disney’s “Zootopia. Additionally, the line "someday, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me," hammers home the fact that a friendship with The Godfather, is a friendship for life, and requires a certain tit-for-tat, if that two-way street is going to endure.

Tony Montana’s famous lines betray an equally intriguing amount of his character, this duality of blood-boiling viciousness and humility for his poverty-stricken origins back home in Cuba. "All I have in this world is my balls, and my word. And I don't break them for no one." This is the mantra for Tony Montana. He has his own moral code, perverse as that may seem, although his drug abuse and resulting paranoia eventually dull this for Montana in the end. Elsewhere, his iconic, fatalistic line near the end where he asks Sosa’s invading goons to “say hello” to his little friend is surely passionate, but we actually prefer a more measured line that Tony says earlier in the film.

Specifically, it’s during an otherwise embarrassing dinner scene where Tony goes off the rails at his girlfriend, Elvira, while assorted patrons look on in shock. He then turns to them and admonishes their staring, criticizing their view of him as a scapegoat, “the bad guy.” This speaks more to Tony’s personal insecurities with his sudden rise to power, and it’s a great moment for a character who’s perhaps unfairly maligned as being “one note.”

Winner: Tony Montana: 2 / Vito Corleone: 0

Round 3: Empire

The Corleone Empire, like most gangster families, possesses two sides: the vice and the front. Vito Corleone had the foresight of establishing a lucrative, respected and honest business for his front, the importing of olive oil. The Genco Pura Olive Oil Company eventually grows to become one of the nation’s most successful importers of the product, allowing the Corleone’s to safely run their vice and racketeering operations relatively quietly. This is also due to the impressive amount of local and federal government officials on Corleone's payroll. It’s also important to note that it’s established early on, during a family meeting with Tattaglia family member Virgil Sollozzo, that Vito is reticent about getting into narcotics.


This isn’t only due to fears that those government agents would stop looking the other way at his activity, but also a moral and ethical objection to drugs. Vito is a family man, and dislikes the idea of selling drugs to children, at any stage of the game. It's the refusal of Sollozzo that directly influences the attempted hit on Vito’s life, but it speaks largely to the man’s moral compass that he stuck to his convictions.


Tony Montana’s rise to power is equally impressive, and occurs in a comparatively shorter amount of time. It’s actually staggering how quickly Tony rises up the ranks for triggerman to made man, to the point where his narcotics empire is pulling in upwards of fifteen million a month. Tony’s moral compass is more than a bit greyer when it comes to the things he will and won’t do in the name of upward mobility. There is a scene where Montana refuses to finish a car bomb hit, when he discovers a wife and child have entered the vehicle. This offers a moment where we see slightly deeper into Tony as a person, but it’s brief, and very soon we witness Montana instead assassinating his partner in the car.

Tony is flashy with his earnings, too, and draws unnecessary attention to himself. He’s eventually arrested for tax evasion, and this speaks of his inability to see the big picture, by perhaps investing in smaller, dummy corporations with which to launder his funds. Tony Montana is ultimately his own worst enemy.

Winner: Vito Corleone: 1 / Tony Montana: 2

Round 4: Character Arc

If there was ever an organized crime story where the protagonist, for lack of a better phrase, “wins,” it’s that of Vito Corleone. So many characters that make their way within the criminal underworld wind up staring at life through prison bars, or down the barrel of a gun. Vito, to his credit, lives to a ripe old age, and is able to watch his grandson grow. Granted, the scene where Corleone succumbs to a heart attack while playing with the boy is bittersweet, but we don’t really mourn Vito’s loss as much as we sort of admire how such a character was able to navigate morality in such a violent world. Make no mistake, Vito Corleone is a criminal who has done reprehensible things, but his character arc is also one that moves from the fire of youth into the more measured thoughtfulness of middle and old age.

Vito learns from his mistakes, and the tragedies that have surrounded his sons, while Tony Montana is a man destined to be destroyed by his same errors. Tony is mentally and emotionally unstable, he’s ill-equipped to deal with his sudden rise to power, and eventually breaks one of his cardinal rules, by “getting high on his own supply.” Montana’s character arc is a rags-to-riches story, but also one of the American Dream. Granted, this is all set up underneath a blanket of hard drugs and a violent lifestyle, but Tony dreams big, even if he ultimately telegraphs way too much of what he’s thinking, and what actions he plans to take.

Compared to Vito, Tony Montana is just way too impulsive, and as a result ends up just another casualty, face down in a pool of his own mistakes.

Winner: Vito Corleone: 2 / Tony Montana: 2

Round 5: Cultural Impact

What would happen if we had a fictional time machine, allowing for a meeting between Vito Corleone and Tony Montana? It’s more than highly likely that Vito would still be the Don, and Tony, at best, a capo amongst Vito’s hierarchy. Perhaps Tony might attempt a coup of some sorts, but this would inevitably become discovered, thus costing Montana his life in what we can only imagine would be a bloody affair by one of Corleone's soldiers or associates.

This isn’t meant to disparage Tony Montana as a one-note character, but more to underlie the purpose of his story. “Scarface” is meant to be a cautionary tale, not a handbook for success. Tony Montana was powerful, but reckless, eventually indulging in the paranoia that cost him his everything. Still, there’s something glittery and glamorous about that sudden rise and fall that makes it impossible to look away. Tony is loud on all levels: he passionately shouts what he’s thinking, dresses in suits with labels large enough to land an airplane, and indulges in enough of the white stuff to fuel the meme factory to this day.

Conversely, there’s something regal and equally cool about Vito Corleone. A certain aloofness that makes us wonder exactly what the man’s thinking… because he never shows his hand. The first two “Godfather” films also possess something of a more highbrow reputation than the gleeful exploitation that is “Scarface” and its hyper-eighties excess.

Both men remain iconic, certainly, but there’s a reason why nearly every gangster picture since 1972 has owed a debt to Vito Corleone and “The Godfather.”

Winner: Vito Corleone: 3 / Tony Montana: 2

Winner: Vito Corleone