Review of The Godfather Part II (1974) by Yorkman — 04 May 2016

The Godfather part II is hailed as the greatest sequel of all time..... But it isn't. It is a remarkable movie, but has some big problems... Problems which you can't simply overlook, and which manifest themselves more and more with repeated viewings.

The film struggles to maintain the narrative and characters as defined in the first film. It's understandable that Michael has become embittered and has difficulty balancing the life as the 'Don', and that of a loving husband and father. But that element only exists because the movie insists on keeping Kay away from the actual truth about who Michael really is. When, towards the end of the movie, she discovers his duplicity and hard-edge, she is actually shocked..... Even though throughout the movie she clearly doesn't believe Michael's assurances about what he does for a 'living'. It's not enough to wonder where their family's wealth comes from, and it just makes no sense.

The other major problem is from a Direction point of view. De Palma won an Oscar for this movie (he didn't win for The Godfather, which is a far, far better film!) but the narrative structure is pretty awful. Jumping between Vito (in 1920's New York) to Michael (in the late 50's/early 60's) isn't handled well. The popping back and forth, and the parallels in the two storylines is well crafted, but there are massive pockets in the movie where the pace just falls off. There is a need in the 'Vito' era to introduce the characters who appeared in The Godfather, just as there is a need in the 'Michael' era to tie it into contemporary 'big' events..... (in this case the build up to, and subsequent take-over, of Cuba by the Communist rebels).

The bottom line is that the film falls well short of the brilliance of the original. Even so it's still a masterpiece compared to the truly awful Part III!!!

You don't need to see part II, if you've seen part I....