Day 5: The Godfather, Part II (cont.)

Movie #3 - The Godfather: Part II (1974) - 200 min, cert 15.

This film takes up about seven years after the first film ended. In the interim, Michael has successfully relocated the Corleone family from New York to Nevada, but the ideals he had before about moving the family into legitimate business seem to have fallen by the wayside. He is now a ruthless kingpin with a thirst for power that leads him down a dangerous and violent path that will eventually alienate him from his friends and family. This story is interwoven with scenes from the young life of Vito which take place many years before the first film was set, and they show how he rose to power after being driven out of his native Sicily.


This was the highest-placed movie on the list that I hadn't seen before, so my expectations were quite high. Maybe they were too high. I have heard it said by many people that this is the rare sequel that transcends the original. Not in my book, I'm afraid.


First of all, it was too long. Any film in excess of 3 hours is unusually long. Some films get away with this because they grip you all the way through. I didn't feel gripped by this. Many of the scenes seemed irrelevant, like one in Cuba where Michael talks about expansion there, but then no further reference is made to it. Also, I was left confused by the other, entirely separate, story being told in parallel with that of Michael. This was the story of the young Vito, his youth in Sicily, and then his rise to power in New York. Don't get me wrong, I loved those scenes. I thought De Niro's portrayal of the young Vito was a masterclass of minimalist acting. The scene where he terrorises an unscrupulous landlord with no more than a handful of words of dialogue, and a few shrugs and small hand gestures is something you feel few actors could make convincing. My problem was that the fast pace of the Michael story and the slow pace of the Vito story seemed to jar against each other. Each switch from one to the other seemed to throw me off balance. I've no doubt that Coppola was presenting each story as a counterpoint to the other. Contrasting Vito's rise to power through respect, honour and a desire to help his friends with Michael's self-destruction though ruthlessness, and a thirst for power, but I would rather have seen them in two entirely different films.


There are a lot of positives about this film. The acting is once again superb. Pacino and De Niro are both exceptional and the supporting cast is also strong, particularly Robert Duvall and Diane Keaton. The soundtrack is a masterpiece and does much to build sympathy for Pacino's character, despite his escalating levels of violence and paranoia.


Anyway, overall I'd say I still liked it as a movie. Good, but not as good as the first one, so I'll give it 7/10. My list so far then continues to mirror the official one -

1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)

Next on the list is The Good, the Bad and the Ugly which is probably my favourite film of all time. So I may well watch the first half before I go to bed. You can expect a glowing recommendation.