Day 12: January 14th, 2014: The Godfather Part II (1974) - Francis Ford Coppola

Well this happened. The only sequel on my list, The Godfather Part II, is #3 on the IMDb Top 250 and #32 on AFI’s list. That makes it a pretty big deal. But I should go ahead and say that I feel a little tricked. The Godfather Part II is a sequel in that it is a movie that was released chronologically after a previous movie (just 2 years after The Godfather). But The Godfather Part II does not only follow the Corleone family after the events of the first film, but also the generation before the first film. It is a prequel and a sequel… wrapped into one…

Sorry to use a Jersey Shore gif, but this properly expresses my bitterness for watching a film that could literally be two separate films. Like in the way The Little Mermaid had a sequel, called the Little Mermaid II: Return To The Sea, that followed Ariel’s daughter, and then another sequel, The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning, which is actually a prequel. Imagine taking those two movies and intertwining the scenes from both films to make just one film.

That movie would be 48 minutes shorter than The Godfather Part II.

For some reason I think reality TV stars just get me right now. Anyway. I’m not denying that the film is great. It is really a cool gangster film that also is directed and filmed very artistically, to the point where you feel entranced in the world of the Corleone’s, almost like you’re a real spectator in their crazy and dangerous lifestyle. Michael Corleone, still played by Al Pacino, is insufferable in how far he has sunken into the role of the Don in his family. His heartache is the audience’s heartache, the betrayals, the drama, it’s all right there courtesy of the great Francis Ford Coppola.

Not to mention Robert De Niro plays a young Vito Corleone (Michael Corleone’s father, played by Marlon Brando in the first film). He has a tragic and badass backstory. Being just an orphan brought to America as a child, he has to claw and scratch his way all the way up through the corrupt system of hierarchy in poor Italian American neighborhoods.

And his death-stare game is unmatched by any other actor of his time.

The Corleone’s go through a lot, and I guess the prequel plot-line helps the audience understand why Michael is so frustratingly fixed on keeping his family’s power, because we see how hard Vito worked to get it. So yeah. Maybe sometimes the movie feels like this:

But obviously I’m aware that it’s a masterpiece and it’s very obvious most of the time you’re watching why that’s true. The film is also the only sequel to a Best Picture winner to also win Best Picture. (The only other sequel to ever win Best Picture is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but neither of the LOTR films before it won). The film won a total of 6 Oscars, with the only acting one going to Robert De Niro.

Sidenote: The Godfather Part II contains one of the few film performances of the great acting teacher Lee Strasberg, who cofounded the Group Theatre of the 1930s and is considered the father of method acting in America. He plays a frenemy of Michael Corleone’s, Hyman Roth.