Mickey Altieri from Scream 2 may have been a deranged film freak with a multitude of flaws, but you’ve got to give him his due when it comes to recognising a quality sequel when he saw one. Even the naturally combative students in his film class had to agree that his selection of The Godfather Part II was a stellar example of a follow-up expanding and enriching the premise locked down by its immediate predecessor before The Empire Strikes Back came along to reap similar accolades.
However, while the continuing adventures of Han, Luke and the gang had the benefit of everyone except Porkins returning for a darker go-round, the sequel to The Godfather had a more complicated route to take considering that the first film was pretty dark already and it ended with half the original characters dead. However, this didn’t stop Francis Ford Coppola managing to do the double and deliver something truly innovative in a time when most sequels offered up a rinse and repeat approach. Film historians will argue into the mists of time whether which Godfather is truly superior, but for now let us glory in Michael’s reign in the comfy, foreboding chair.
When we last left the Corleone crime family, massive upheavals had occurred in the wake of the death of Vito Corleone. With his father dead and his volatile oldest brother, Sonny, shot to pieces, youngest son Michael has taken his place at the head of the table as the new Godfather and promptly consolidated his power by having the heads of the Five Families assassinated. But while he’s in year seven of a five year plan to take his businesses into legitimate territories, the veneer of family that the Corleones live by is starting to crack. Wife Kay is realising that the idealistic young man she’s married and had two children with has evolved into a cold hearted monster, sister Connie has distanced herself from the family after the “disappearance” of her abusive husband and middle child Fredo is jealous that he’s been passed over for everything in favor of his younger, but far more capable brother.
But while we see Michael trying to juggle family affairs with lucrative business prospects in Havana, Cuba, we also flash back to a young Vito Corleone as he first arrives in New York City back in 1901. As the years pass, we watch the future Godfather as he goes from humble shopworker, to creating an empire from the ground up as he butts heads with local extortionist, Don Fanucci.
However, while Vito’s journey to the top seems fairly straight forward for a man with drive and ambition, Michael is discovering that after an attempt on his life that takes place on his own compound, he’s going to have to be even more cold-hearted if he’s going to keep his multiple, blood-stained plates spinning. In fact, to satisfy his need to erase all of his enemies and obstacles from his past, Michael may have to turn that unflinching gaze upon the unthinkable – his own family.
So, to quickly give my answer the age-old question about which Godfather is superior, I have to go with my heart over my head and say that in a pinch I side with the original, but that’s only because it feels like such a damn classic right down to it’s bones. But if we’re talking about an actual superior movie, Francis Ford Coppola takes what, on paper, seems like a poisoned chalice (half of the most memorable characters are dead) and turns it into an ambitious, sweeping, operatic crime epic that covers a time period of nearly 60 years – more impressive still, Coppola makes it look easy. For someone to whip up a film that simultaneously acts as both sequel and prequel to an instant classic as early as 1974 is mindblowing enough but the fact that it flows as seamlessly as it does secures it’s credentials as a sequel for the ages.
Focusing on the continuing reign of Michael Corleone as he continues to blacken his soul all in the name of business, the previous soap opera of the Corleone family falls away to deliver the sort of real-world, history accurate double dealings you would find in a James Ellroy as Michael attempts to go legit by investing in business opportunities in Havana despite the growing issues of the Cuban Revolution, however, there’s a potentially deadly speedbump in the road that fires up that old paranoid streak after a bunch of hitmen try to machine gun him to death through his bedroom window. The early sections of the film has Michael trying to work out if the traitor is either his business partner, Hyman Roth, or from within a disgruntled fraction of his own organisation and his manipulations to weed out the traitor prove to be typically vicious. However, as Michael’s to-do list gets ever more hectic as Kay’s pregnancy leads to yet more heart rending complications, it’s overlayed with the warm, almost romantic themed origins of Vito as a shockingly young looking Robert DeNiro does his best Marlon Brando rasp. It’s no accident that the crimes of Vito seem almost honest compared to the callous, evil stuff that Michael is willing to do to stay on top.
Be it framing a hostile senator with the murder of a prostitute in order to guarantee his compliance or reacting to the infamous betrayal of Fredo, Michael switch to lizard blooded Godfather is chillingly complete and somehow, even if his character is required to relax, Al Pacino is nothing less than terrifying for the entirety of the entire film. It’s all in those eyes, you see – not only am I certain that I could count the times I saw the motherfucker blink on only one hand, but you’re fully expecting to order violent deaths to anyone who looks at him funny. In fact, a scene where Diane Keaton reveals the tragic, true nature of her miscarriage may be one of the potentially terrifying scenes of that decade as we’re fully familiar what a slighted Michael is capable of. Of course, everyone one else, from Robert Duvall’s calm Tom, to Michael V. Gazzo’s extravagant Pentangeli all fill their roles perfectly as Coppola continues to add that unfeasibly detailed sense of realism to everything as he carries on doling out iconic moments en masse. While there’s admittedly nothing here to match the sight of Brando stoking his cat as he offers favours throughout his daughter’s wedding, young Vito assassinating Fanucci as the muzzle flash from his gun sets a sound muffling blanket alight goes head to head with the sight of a clueless Fredo sitting in a fishing boat while Michael watches from a window as the end inevitably comes to bore themselves irrevocably into the public consciousness.
Existing as the very definition of what a good sequel is supposed to do, The Godfather Part II expands on both the themes, the world and even the moral ramifications of the original to create a sprawling experience that takes its characters to bold, new places. Whether it’s showing us how Vito went from a poor immigrant to becoming a big fish in Little Italy, to seeing the ruthless depths that his son will truly sink to, this film seals the already rock solid deal that the Godfather is the undisputed Don of Mafia related shenanigans.
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