The Godfather Part II - A Masterpiece of Cinema
The Godfather Part II complements the movie showing how Vito Corleone rises from being a simple but shrewd Sicilian immigrants to head of a powerful crime syndicates and how Michael faces ordeals of running the family business. It mostly takes place in the decade of 50s, but also features back story of Vito from 1920s New Vegas and his Sicilian background, and the show runs parallel to that of Michael in the attempts to expand the family’s business in Las Vegas, Hollywood and pre-revolution Cuba. Such themes as family ties, betrayal, and death help to set up an evil and morose atmosphere of the story. The aspect of connection between the two is well depicted involving family relationships and business part which is quite compelling given the basis for the story-vae for power.
The movie features excellent acting, especially Michael Corleone played by Al Pacino is excellent in portraying his role through the ruthless business angle while Robert De Niro’s Vito shows humility in the early stages of the film, but is equally powerful. It must also be underlined that the actors such as Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, John Cazale create realistic, multilayered characters.
Francis Ford Coppola is extremely brilliant as a director, being able to shoot the scenes that take place in different time frames as well as depict various emotional states. This aspect bears testimony to his talent as a director with the unique ability to build tension, suspense, and complex emotions in almost every shot.
Nino Rota’s music plays another vital role in the movie in that it is very thematic and at some points it becomes a character since it narrates much of the Corleone story. Every score is set to tone the film to the tee and offers a great build-up of tension and drama without feeling too much bombast.
The cinematography by Gordon Willis is also excellent in terms of the contrast between the light and the shadow which visually captures the tenor of the film. So the scenes, as always, present both the glamour of the Corleone family and its criminal world.
Production design in The Godfather Part II is great as it sets the movie in the 1920s and 1950s period perfectly. The choice of the locality delivers the audience into the world of the Corleones, starting from the streets of New York and getting through the Cuba scenes.
Despite not much use of computer graphics, the necessary scenes of nucleated and action, look quite believable and convincing to share the space for the veracity of the middle of the background.
The scenes were edited by Peter Zinner and Barry Malkin, which allowed moving between the time lines and the plots with the greatest ease while keeping the audience’s interest high. The slow and unhurried tempo keeps the viewer engaged in the movie for a rather long time, as the movie runs for more than three hours. However, this pace, dictated consciously, fills the plot with great depth and lays the ground for a strong denouement.
The choice of words in the characters’ conversation is very good; there is a lot of hidden meaning, and emotions are set up with a metallic sense of the protagonists. While The Godfather Part II is a classic movie which has aged well even now, I must admit that it suffers from the problem of excessive length and incredibly intricate plot which needs viewer’s undivided attention. If there might be any fault it is on the pausing of the excitement by taking a longer than normal period of time between some steps but do not let this dissuade you for it is deeply fulfilling. The paralleling of the two plot lines can be somewhat confusing at times but all adds to the grand nature of the movie.
Studying the tapes and watching the scenes of the movie, it feels like a viewer is being totally involved into a powerful epic movie which exceeds the framework of the criminal cinema. This aspect creates an appeal to the audience as the issue of loyalty as well as the theme of power and the theme of the story’s moral gray area make this film memorable, even after one is done watching it.
