Episode 17: The Godfather Part II

Justin:

Making a sequel has to be both awesome and nerve-racking. By getting the green light, you’ve clearly stumbled onto something worthwhile and exciting and, assumedly, profitable. But at the same time, expectations are now even higher because of all of those reasons. This is why I feel it’s not a leap to suggest that making a sequel to a legendary film like The Godfather, especially when part twos weren’t really a thing then like they are now, must have been quite the unnerving undertaking. (I guess that’s the reason Coppola originally tried to pawn it off on ol’ Marty!) 

And for the most part, The Godfather Part Two sticks the landing.

Everything about the movie, from the mood and the music to the familiar characters and the set design, definitely makes this feel like a true continuation of the first film. But I think the thing that makes it so memorable (and, obviously, so long) is also what takes it down a notch. My favorite bits of Part Two are when Young Vito is on screen, as portrayed by a very young - and awesome - Robert DeNiro. During these scenes, we get to see what made Don Corleone the formidable force we had previously seen portrayed by Marlon Brando and how he got to the heights he did. And I understand the storytelling techniques here of showing the ascension of Vito at the same time as you see the decline of Michael, but after watching the nearly 3.5 hours of Part Two, I can’t help but wish it was two movies. I would have loved to see an entire movie based in early 1900s New York, following around young Vito and Clemenza (shout-out Bruno Kirby!) and Tessio and see even more detail about just how Vito came into so much power (and not just that he helped get old ladies cheaper rent). And in the Michael movie in my head, I would have loved some back story on Hyman Roth and maybe how he had worked with Vito in the past, instead of just being told of their history. Again, I get why both stories are told together. I just kinda wanted more of both, but not at the same time.

I did some reading and discovered that the initial cuts of the film were even more back-and-forth between the stories and test audiences were said to be confused and thrown off by the time jumps, so Coppola and crew made some adjustments and stayed in the respective timelines a bit longer. I’ll admit that even still, I was left feeling a bit lost, not in the sense that I was confused when was when (specific actors giving those things away fairly easily) but rather in that I was having to recall where we had left off in each story when we returned. Between that and trying to parse through the dense subject matter, back-stabbings, and the litany of names you’re apparently supposed to just know, I was often frustrated watching the Corleones, even though I was certainly enjoying the overall experience.

So all that being said, of course it’s a good movie, a great sequel, and a worthy follow-up to one of the absolute best American-made films ever. And again, maybe it’s that symptom from being a sequel, those too-high expectations, that make it just miss the mark for me. But when you consider the story at-large, starting from tiny Vito watching his whole family die and having to flee his home country, all the way to Michael’s lonely, lakeside stare, it’s impossible not to declare the two films together to be a true masterwork by all involved.

Pete:

I’d be lying to you if I said there wasn’t a certain amount of cathartic joy in watching an authoritarian criminal who lies, cheats, and steals his way through life finally get his just desserts, but Michael Corleone’s arc in The Godfather Part II strikes me more as sad than cleansing. Watching this movie in January 2021 probably has a lot to do with seeing that in the movie, but it also speaks to both how timeless art can be and how these great, big, important ideas like family, integrity, and corruption hang over everything. Coppola saw that America was ripe for this kind of gutting nearly 50 years ago. Yet here we are: somehow as shocked at the state of things as we are unsurprised. 

Who knows where things will go from here, but what The Godfather Part II gets right is this: Even when the bad guys are held accountable, that doesn’t come without leaving a certain amount of damage in its wake. We don’t feel bad for Michael while watching this movie. At best, his detachment and distance leave us with a numb feeling towards him. We feel for his wife and children for having to deal with a monster. We even feel for his father, another monster that at least had the decency to love his family, who would be appalled by what his son has become. But not Michael. Never Michael. And that’s how it goes with monsters, and empathy, and the limits of things.