What The Godfather Part II Means to Us
I remember getting the chicken pox in high school, so while I was laid up in bed, I watched pretty much every VHS my parents had on hand. I watched the original Godfather and the sequel back to back. It was absolutely amazing to me how good the films were. I was just so enamored with both of them. I loved the original for its straightforwardness of it all. But when it came to the sequel, I loved the duality of telling both Michael’s story as he takes over the family business, juxtaposed with the flashbacks of his father’s rise to power. It was like watching two movies at once. To this day if either of these are on, I will gladly sit and watch for a bit. All-time great films that everyone needs to see.
–K. Alvarez
Eye-Catching Set Pieces
While The Godfather Part II may deviate somewhat from the first instalment in this film trilogy in terms of story structure, one aspect of the original film that’s maintained here are the gorgeous visuals. Cinematographer Gordon Willis is on fine form, replicating the sultry, rustic qualities that make rural Italy and New York City streets so majestic, turning these ordinary areas into magical places where one can imagine this film’s unlikely heroes and villains emerging from such poverty-stricken regions. While it mightn’t be the first quality viewers think of when they reflect on Michael’s pivotal scene with Freddo involving betrayal (though technically they are quite a few of these moments), this brief interaction of despair amidst a thriving party offers some of the most sumptuous visuals in the entire film.
It isn’t just the visuals themselves that make these scenes so intoxicating, but also Coppola’s unparalleled mastery of mise en scène. He is especially adept at capturing the rhythms of everyday people in his grander sequences, including background actors and actresses that most directors would pay little attention to. The Senate committee meetings, for instance, contain a quietly electric ambience, where the brief notes of silence hum with an energy that can’t be heard, yet is visceral all the same. You feel the tension of these interactions emanating from a giant room full of people, all of whom have varied roles in this judicial meeting. These are scenes that can be re-watched again and again, and not just for the main drama that unfolds: pay attention to the extras in these scenes, and the subtle acting they display, and a greater appreciation for this movie’s finer details will be unearthed.
As in the first film, an extended early scene, this time at Lake Tahoe, is one of the highlights. Instead of being the reluctant outsider, Michael Corleone is the don dealing with business in a smoky room with low lighting. You don’t doubt his authority for a second, just as the film presents two very different kinds of openness in its divergent locations, as secrets and bitter feelings gradually bleed out in the outdoor party, or as they are discussed in measured (but implicitly threatening) tones indoors. Both halves of this lengthy sequence are spectacularly directed, with Coppola’s proficiency as a screenwriter (alongside the writer of the novels, Mario Puzo) allowing the film to glide back and forth between these different environments with ease.
Rise and Fall Technique
The party scene isn’t the only time Puzo and Coppola will contrast two distinct kinds of stories, with The Godfather Part II opening with an introduction into the life of a young Vito Corleone, whose entire family is brutally murdered. First his father is executed, then his brother is dispatched after attempting to take revenge against his father’s murderer, and finally his mother is shot dead when she takes this mafia chieftain hostage for a few seconds, buying enough time for Vito to make his escape. The chieftain, Don Ciccio, knows that even a young boy can be a threat, and while he turns out be on the money with this prediction, even he probably couldn’t have predicted the journey that young Vito would undergo before exacting his revenge. It starts with him fleeing on a ship to New York and having to make his way as a young boy with no one to look out for him.
Vito’s rise to becoming a mafia don is a spectacular journey, yet while it’s fascinating to watch this lonely child make something of himself, the most notable aspect of this plotline is how he never fully sacrifices his humanity in the process. In the decades since the Godfather movies were released, it’s difficult to approach this crime genre with the same degree of reverence that it treats these characters. It’s true that these films never hide their characters’ sociopathic tendencies, and that Michael’s arc as a whole is a tragic exploration of a man who sacrifices his soul. Even still, the old-timey Italian music, tender notes from the film’s soundtracks, and emphasis on family and brotherhood ensure that there are many scenes in which this violent world of mobsters isn’t just seen in a positive light, but an adoring one. The many mafia movies this series has spawned have put a dent in the simple morality tales at the heart of the Godfather films, while The Sopranos was such a brutal, unforgiving and complex take on this subject matter that it feels as if it has ended this cultural conversation, having dove headfirst into virtually every aspect of this Italian American subculture throughout its six-season run.
With the litany of mob movies that have come out since The Godfather’s release, or the moral complexity in David Chase’s TV show, it is easy to dismiss this two-parter as a quaint, overly simplistic tragedy. But the contrast between Vito’s rise in power and Michael’s fall as a human being remains a compelling storytelling device. Michael succeeds again and again throughout The Godfather Part II, and yet in many respects these victories are the worst possible thing that could happen, bringing him further away from those he is supposed to care about most. By the end of this film, the world is a sad, grey place, with a man who is fading before our eyes even when he’s at the height of his power.
Normally flashback scenes at the end of movies are godawful, but this is one of the rare exceptions, not just because it is an original scene that didn’t already take place in the first film, but because the authentic joy that is depicted between Michael and his siblings presents a brutal final shot as this protagonist is left to contend with a life of pure, bleak loneliness. While it feels naïve of Coppola to convey this family’s brutal activities as if they are acts of sanctity at times, the hollow victory he devises for Michael resonates deeply.
Despite being critically acclaimed, award-winning and generation-defining, some criticism has been levied at The Godfather Part II for feeling inessential, especially when the first film culminates in Michael distancing himself from Kay and ensuring that his role as the ominous leader of this crime family is cemented. But though this sequel doesn’t totally earn its runtime, with a story that feels less complete than the first one while also containing a longer runtime, the tragic arc that Michael undergoes ensures that both instalments are essential halves of one extended film. This grand film’s tale of fading glory and moral stagnation has understandably reverberated throughout the generations, and is crafted with more than enough skill to justify the adoring legacy it has accrued today.
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