Godfather, Part II, The (1974)

May 30, 2025 admin Comments 0 Comment

“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”

Synopsis:
After immigrating from Italy as a child (Oreste Baldini), young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) rises to a position of power and influence in New York City. Years later, his son Michael (Al Pacino) becomes increasingly alienated from his wife (Diane Keaton) while navigating ongoing tensions in Las Vegas with his brother Fredo (John Cazale), his stepbrother Tom (Robert Duvall), his sister Connie (Talia Shire), and Jewish mob boss Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg).

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

Al Pacino Films
Betrayal
Diane Keaton Films
Family Problems
Flashback Films
Francis Ford Coppola Films
Historical Drama
Mafia
Marital Problems
Robert De Niro Films
Robert Duvall Films
Siblings

Response to Peary’s Review:
Peary is not a huge fan of Francis Ford Coppola’s Oscar-winning follow-up — a combined prequel and sequel — to 1972’s The Godfather. He asserts that “Coppola doesn’t have De Niro or Pacino do much acting, limiting them to little snippets of dialogue and many moments when they react (with quiet, calm voices) to the more emotional and demonstrative peripheral characters around them.” (I disagree, but will keep going with Peary’s assessment.)

He argues that “De Niro gets by on presence alone (his charming smile, his quizzical look, his physical grace), but Pacino is a brooding bore” — a character who “does not develop logically from the person he played in the original,” but rather “is a caricature of a crime boss” (again, I disagree). He adds, “All [the] major scenes seem unreal, calculated for audience response,” and “phoniest of all is his breakup scene with wife Diane Keaton, who looks over-rehearsed, like a scene for an acting class.”

Peary continues his take-down by noting that “several of the major scenes in the contemporary section come across as mere duplications of real-life drama we’ve seen on television,” noting specifically that “the scene in which the senator (G.D. Spradin) is found in a brothel with a hooker he brutally killed is similar to numerous sequences in exploitation films of the era and is included for no reason other than sensationalism.”

He asserts that “the only moments that come across as real are when the crime bosses and legitimate businessmen gather in Batista Cuba to decide how to divide up the American pie”:

… and “when a Jewish crime boss (a terrific, subdued debut performance by legendary acting teacher Lee Strasberg) raises rather than lowers the volume on a televised football game while talking over important crime business with Michael.”

In Alternate Oscars — where he names Chinatown (1974) the Best Picture of the Year instead — Peary concedes that The Godfather, Part II “went a step farther” than the original film “by exploring the link between organized crime and politicians — which was certainly a topical theme in light of the Watergate scandal.”

I — along with most other film lovers and critics — disagree with Peary’s take on this justifiably lauded sequel. It’s equally, if differently, compelling throughout, taking the sprawling storyline in fascinating directions (both backwards and forwards) and continuing to evolve our understanding of precisely how a mob family like the Corleones may have evolved. I don’t have any complaints, and find both De Niro and Pacino suitable in their roles; to that end, for another take on the depth of Pacino’s characterization as Michael, check out the video “How Michael Corleone Looks at People”.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments: