My Review of "The Godfather Part II"

The Godfather Part II came out back in 1974 only 2 years after the first movie. Back in the day when I first saw this movie it was a revelation. I couldn't believe I liked this even more than the first movie when the first movie was so good! Today I put the two movies on par with one another. They're vastly different but parallel at the same time.

This movie starts off with a crazy opener. We go back to the year 1901 when Vito Corleone's father gets assassinated. Here we get an understanding that organized crime has existed for a long time. Vito's father simply made a remark about a mob boss and was killed. Then Vito's older brother gets killed. To protect Vito, his mother tries to plead with the mob boss to stop and then she gets killed. Vito has to escape the town of Corleone in order to save his own hide.

We then swing to one of the most beautiful and patriotic imagery of the United States. Little Vito makes it to America in New York city. He's all by his lonesome but never complains. It's very suiting for how we remember his character in the first movie.

We then come back to their present time. It's been a few years from the last movie. Michael is of course the new Godfather of the Corleone family. They've moved off to Las Vegas and things have changed. Instead of being isolated with the problems with New York, Michael has gone bigger. He's going international. I guess you can argue that the Corleone family has always been international but this movie really shows it off.

This first portion of the movie is quite interesting as it shows that everyone is gunning for Michael, figuratively and metaphorically. Since he's such a big shot now, there are also a lot more potential enemies. No one can be trusted and you see this kind of early on. This all soon becomes a mystery as someone actually tries to assassinate him in his own home.

This is the catalyst of the story between the two timelines. The Vito Corleone story keeps coming up to help transition the sands of time and montage the trials and tribulations that Michael is experiencing. It's a very clever and fun way to transition the tension and conflict in Michael's timeline. It's also a really great side story to follow as well. I like how you can kind of see how Vito and Michael's ascensions to Godfather were kind of similar in some ways.

Michael's story is quite intense and fascinating as it really shows you how much time has passed. Things kind of seem the same but they really aren't. There are so many new factors that come into the mix. You kind of get a feeling that this would never have happened in the past. Michael is going into unchartered territory.

In the first movie we saw Michael's descent into the underworld of organized crime but this movie goes even deeper. Michael falls even further down the rabbit hole and we see what he has to do to stay on top. In this movie they kind of question Michael's methods. At times it seems as though he's already won but he goes a step further to eliminate any sort of repercussion. This is kind of parallels to the mob boss that killed Vito Corleone's family in the first place is kind of funny.

In the end we see what it takes to be on top and you kind of question whether success is really worth it. What do we have to sacrifice for the successes in our lives and is it worth it to go down that path? I love this about this movie because you start to question whether Michael is really winning the battle at all when you see the results of his actions.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this viewing yet again. It is just as convoluted as the first movie but also has some things pulled from the first movie to add to the complexity. This is why multiple viewings just makes this movie that much more satisfying as you can identify characters a lot easily. I have to give this movie a 10 as well. It is still one of my favorites but I can admit it is not for everyone. Those that loved the first move owe it to themselves to watch this second part. They will be the ones that will likely gain the most out of it. I'm not sure how much you'd get out of this movie without watching the first movie though.