The Godfather Part II [M]

As Michael Corleone, the new ‘Godfather’, rapidly ascends to power and control he just as rapidly sinks into melancholy, ruthlessness, and moral decay. His plans to expand his family business from Havana to Cuba sees feathers ruffled and an assassination attempt made on him. With revolution in the air and the political climate heating up in terms of cracking down on the mafia, Michael’s search to find his would-be dispatchers and turn the tables on them leads him into a web of corruption and no mercy as potential enemies include even members of his own family. 

The first sequel to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture, apparently, The Godfather Part II sits, in my book, as an engaging movie, but one that just does not scale the lofty heights of its predecessor. Honestly, at the time of writing this and indeed watching the movie, I’m exhausted and not in the right headspace at all so this may have had a fair amount of impact upon my reaction to the movie, but I cannot deny that I found this to be confusing and unnecessarily long. I could not see the beauty that was coating the first film and failed to properly engage myself with the movie in general (I just kept glancing at the player to see how much time had elapsed). 

As Michael Corleone, the new ‘Godfather’, rapidly ascends to power and control he just as rapidly sinks into melancholy, ruthlessness, and moral decay. His plans to expand his family business from Havana to Cuba sees feathers ruffled and an assassination attempt made on him. With revolution in the air and the political climate heating up in terms of cracking down on the mafia, Michael’s search to find his would-be dispatchers and turn the tables on them leads him into a web of corruption and no mercy as potential enemies include even members of his own family. 

It cannot be denied that this movie does overtake its predecessor in that it’s a much richer piece. Though ‘haunted’ by the first movie, it does very well in stepping away and making a movie of itself. The screenplay is very well written with lovely and rich poetic elements coming at you every which way, from reflective motifs, to multiple stories, and even differences in how everything is shot. 

The film not only chronicles Michael’s story about power, betrayal, and his lapse into heartlessness and moral decay, it also travels back in time and chronicles the back story of Vito Corleone, the original ‘Godfather’: his childhood in Sicily, his travelling to America, and his gradual ascension to power and revenge. What I really liked most about this film is how the story of Vito is shot with this really light and soft sort of sheen, almost like looking through a threadbare sheet. Unlike the scenes set at the present, there’s this beautiful softness and fragility that covers those scenes set in the past and, for me, that’s the thing that stood out most in this movie. And it’s probably worth mentioning that Robert De Niro won his first Oscar for his performance as the young Marlon Brando. 

Starring Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, John Cazale, Talia Shire Lee Strasberg, Michael V. Gazzo, G. D. Spadlin, Richard Bright, Gastone Moschin, Tom Rosqui, Bruno Kirby, Frank Sivero, and Francesca De Sapio, The Godfather Part II is a beautiful, albeit really long and oftentimes confusing movie that’s filled with action, murder, betrayal, and drama. I definitely didn’t love it as much as the first one, but it’s worth the effort to watch nevertheless.