The Godfather Part II (1974) Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxp4c0hqu9w

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When a story is so good once it’s over, you’ll want to wonder what happens next. Francis Ford Coppola did just that and then some with The Godfather Part II
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PLOT


The 1974 follow up shows two different stories that are told out of order, so bear with me as I try to explain chronologically all that follows.
The first story begins in the past showing the origin of the original Don, Vito Corleone. Born as Andolini, his father Antonio was murdered in 1901 for refusing to pay tribute to a mafia chieftain, Don Ciccio. His mother Signora (Maria Carta) plead for her son to be spared, but he refused, believing he would avenge him should he let him. As a result, she would hold him at knife point and die protecting her only son, giving him time to immigrate from Italy to New York. It is there where he would take the last name of Corleone and by 1917, is when he would marry Carmela (Francesca De Sapio/Morgana King) and have their first born Sonny. At that point in his life, he’d lose his grocery job to Don Fanucci who has preyed on the neighborhood as a Black Hand extortionist. Feeling no other choice, he would sell stolen goods with Peter Clemenza & Salvatore Tessio in order to make a living. By the time rest of his children were born (Fredo, Michael & Connie), Fanucci would start demanding payoffs from them. Not wanting his way of life to be ant risk again, he takes it upon himself to track him down and kill him. The neighborhood would respect Vito for his actions and would later ask for his defense against predatory figures. By 1922, he would return to Sicily to start an oil importing business. With the assist of Don Tomassino (Mario Cotone) does he meet an elderly Don Ciccio and achieve his blessing for their business before taking overdue revenge by revealing who he was while slicing his stomach.


The second story is its main present of 1958, following Michael taking his father’s place as the Don. The Corleone family has gone through ups and downs because during a celebration to his son Anthony’s First Communion, Connie returns with a new boyfriend named Merle Johnson (Troy Donahue), but has been living in a destructive lifestyle to the point being estranged from her children and only arrives to ask Michael for money. She sees him after meeting Senator Pat Geary (GD Spradin) who demands a large bribe to secure a casino license, but the Don refuses. He then sees Johnny Ola  (Dominic Chianese) who represents Jewish mob boss Hyman Roth who promises support in taking over a Las Vegas casino. After he gives Connie an ultimatum, he sees capo Frank Pentagleni asking for help in defending against Rosato territories but refuses to give him that. That same night does Michael and his pregnant wife Kay survive an assassination attempt. Certain of a traitor responsible, he appoints consigliere Ton Hagen in charge in his absence until he finds the one responsible. He goes to visit Roth and Pentangeli separately to tell his suspicions one or the other planned the hit, deciding to arrange truce with Pentangeli and the Rosatos. That backfires when one of the brothers tries strangling Frank and they flee when an officer drops in. In the meanwhile, Hagen does blackmail Geary into cooperating by having him framed of a prostitute’s death. Michael then joins Roth to Havana to invest in activities under the Batista government. When he expresses reservation, it causes tension since he never questioned killing Moe Greene but asks who went after Frank. Michael then goes to a New Year’s Eve party with Ola & Fredo and the latter slips that he knew the former after previously telling his brother they never met. After he tells him he knows what he did does he orchestrate Roth and Ola to be killed. The assassination on Roth would backfire when he gets saved by a bodyguard and when Fulgencio Batista resigns to flee amid rebel advances, Michael & Fredo would barely escape Cuba with their lives. When returning home does Michael find out from Hagen that Kay miscarried. Roth would then use his connections to arrange a senate committee and investigate the Corleone family. Pentangeli would go under witness protection when testifying against Michael. The Don eventually gets the chance to confront Fredo of his betrayal who admits Ola promised him back in a previous meeting in Beverly Hills that he’d help him establish his own business interests, exploiting his resentment of being overlooked. Hearing this, Michael would choose to disown his brother but would not lay a finger as long as their mother lives. After Frank retracts his testimony upon seeing his brother Vincenzo (Salvatore Po) does Kay tell Michael she wants a divorce and take the kids, Anthony & Mary, with her. He tries to calm her down and level with her, believing she’s acting out of heartbreak from the miscarriage. However, she admits she aborted the baby as an act to prevent another child being part of an unholy world, wanting to end the cycle of violence associated with the Corleone family. Enraged, he strikes her and banishes her from the kids. A year after this does Carmela pass away and Michael allows Fredo to bond with Anthony over fishing. Roth eventually returns to the States, but is assassinated at an airport by a capo who too gets shot trying to escape. Frank would be found dead in his bathtub having slit his wrists. Fredo would be saved for last to be executed by enforcer Al Neri while fishing near the family compound. The film would end with Michael remembering a conversation he had with his family before celebrating Vito’s 50th birthday in 1941. That day, he told his siblings he had dropped out of college to join the Marines and while Sonny & Hagen were not onboard, Fredo was the only brother that supported his decision.


THOUGHTS

I called the first film a drug that you’ll watch whether you plan to or not, proving how iconic it’s grown to be. That is why this follow-up is that second batch that hits just right. Everything that worked the first time works again and then some. Nino Rota’s score feels more empowering because you sense the evolution and legacy that unfolds in the Corleone family. Gordon Willis’ cinematography feels so grand because you feel how crime is everywhere you go unbeknownst. I mean it’s quite hard to not get chills with moments like young Vito following Fanucci or every blank stare Michael gives to those that disappoint him. Like the rest of the trilogy, seeing the color scheme of orange appear throughout is so powerful here because it symbolizes the consistent imminence that is violence that absorbs the mob life, something that you can also say is echoed in Apocalypse Now. Seeing two stories parallel one another was a great way to keep audiences hooked because Coppola is reflecting a comparison in leadership and shows the exact consequences when it becomes unsustainable without humanity and everything you choose to sacrifice will cost in isolation. This is exactly what is captured between two generations who fought for survival much differently. Expectations must have been high to see who would be Marlon Brando’s younger counterpart of Vito and needless to say, Robert DeNiro was the perfect choice. Earning the Supporting Actor Oscar in a fully Italian spoken performance, DeNiro makes Vito so compelling because we see firsthand he was always someone who had a sense of justice, as well as understand others’ needs. He builds a reputation being a people person and find fairness to solutions so much that everyone would see as a trustworthy protector. Dons Fanucci & Ciccio were of course the opposite of that since Gaston Moschin & Giuseppe Sillato portrayed them as leaders who ruled off of fear and would eventually cross the wrong people, being slain when thinking they’d live untouchable. Revenge doesn’t always solve anything because it doesn’t undo past trauma, but it sure worked out for Vito because he wasn’t gonna keep being looked down on, not wanting to waste the second chance in life his mom sacrificed herself for. Bruno Kirby & Abe Vigoda were great younger counterparts to Tessio & Clemenza respectively because they were in the same shoes as Vito in relating to hustling for survival’s sake, thus staying by his side as long as they did. This is the wisdom Corleone brought as he got older and hoped each of his children would grow to understand. Sadly, it didn’t seem to keep him in the right mindset that long. Al Pacino was so menacing as Michael because he’s grown to be much different of a man he tried to be. He tried so long to be a family man as he was taught, but his paranoia when in power made him so detached that it made him all the more ruthless compared to however so he was in the Marines. He did his best in maintaining allies out of Roth and Pentangeli because as both Lee Strasberg & Michael V Gazzo, their loyalty was limited based on the levels of greed. Sadly for Michael, death in the family would tear him apart from everyone he loved rather than bring them together. Talia Shire in her given time showed Connie to be full of inner conflict since not only did she miss her dad, but also feels bitter towards Michael for killing her husband Carlo without her blessing. But once she lost her mom, she understood how protective he was trying to be. This doesn’t apply for everyone else because Robert Duvall still succeeds in making Hagen the method behind the madness since he can still manage being strategical, but is also visibly annoyed whenever Michael chooses to sideline him after being called a brother. He remains loyal however because he tries seeing whatever greater good can come from it, but that sadly didn’t apply that way for Fredo. John Cazale broke our hearts the way he broke Michael’s  because as Fredo, he lets his insecurities get to him and it leads to a terrible ripple effect that would further tear the family apart. You can get how fragile he feels since he was the one who saw Vito get shot and couldn’t avenge him the way Michael would. Had he not let his jealousy cloud his judgement, he would’ve eventually gotten the validation he was seeking. Sadly, ambiguity to his surroundings is what killed him before the bullet would. As it is a tough decision to wait out executing his brother, Michael’s true solidification to villainy came when he broke up with Kay. When he refuses to see how terrified & rebellious Diane Keaton embodies as his wife, it establishes that he’s grown to prefer power over love and proves his promise to stay away from his family lifestyle was always false as that inheritance was bound to consume him. You could say that he finalizes his decision when he strikes her down and keeps the kids from her, but it truly happens when he closes the door on her instead of capos doing so the first time, officially accepting isolation. The ending flashback always breaks me because while I can relate to having a broken family and love recounting on what was the good days, that scene is what proved Michael was always a loner even when living in the good days and looks back at the irony how good things were for him before further accepting the isolation he’s inflicted upon himself that does not get solved by the time the trilogy is over. In conclusion, The Godfather Part II ties its predecessor in being the greatest movie of all time for being a poignant and gripping tale of what happens when corruption destroys family, earning the Best Picture Oscar in the process. If you were blown away with what the first one did, see this now and be blown away some more.