The Godfather Part II

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

15 July 2024

See

Two timelines play out simultaneously, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) consolidates his grip on the five mafia families of New York, while the early ambition of his father Vito (Robert DeNiro) is shown in the 1920s in Little Italy, where if you blink you can think you’re back in Italia.

Think

IMDb’s number 4 film of all time and somehow the first time I’ve seen it, I only watched the first installment, ranked number 2, a few years ago. Must work my way through the chart. Why is this an American story, a nation built by immigrants can also be corrupted by them? Michael is cool, calm and collected as the criminal archetype that all others followed. Or was that Marlon Brando? Particularly impressive were the scenes with him testifying in a trial alongside his lawyer and consigliere Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) and how restrained he was while still answering questions in his taciturn way. Also the scenes as patriarch with his family, sister Kay (Diane Keaton), brother Fredo (John Cazale) and wife Connie (Talia), where he manages to comport himself as similarly composed and calculating. 

Feel

“I can’t have this conversation again,” says Tony Soprano in the eponymous HBO series when asked what part of this film is his favourite. Only to answer when Michael is back in Italy in part I. Mine would be young Viot starting to make his way, and how he handles being let go from a neighborhood grocer, declining a care package as severance, maintaining his dignity only to move on to better badder opportunities.