The Godfather Part II

Plot: The second installment of this film franchise parallels the rise of a young Vito Corleone from immigrant to crime lord with the continual fall of Michael Corleone to a life of crime and brutality.

Thoughts: My favorite movie of all time that plays the sad song of a family building itself upon the crumbling of others. This film was two movies for the price of one and they were both captivating and had strong lead roles. I’ll divide this review in two to make it easier.

The Michael Corleone plot: This story was very well done and mirrored the first film almost perfectly. Frank Pentangli was a great advocate for the protagonists of the film but as we found out in the first movie: omerta always wins. Michael had several near breaking points in this movie and that is when Pacino is at his finest. The final scene is always the saddest to me and it makes you look back and see what went wrong.

The Vito Corleone plot: DeNiro was by far the greatest actor in the film. He brought back the smoothness and cold heartedness that Brando had portrayed in the first film and made it better. His fall into the crime world was chronicled in the novel and done very well. You feel for him and root for him, even though in the end he is a murderer. Great plot and acting all around.

5/5