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The Godfather Part II

filmography

CAST AND CREW

DIRECTOR
Francis Ford Coppola

WRITING CREDITS
Mario Puzo

CAST
Al Pacino Michael
Robert Duvall Tom Hagen
Robert De Niro Young Vito Corleone

RELATED LINKS
imdb

The Godfather, Part II (1974) of the Godfather trilogy continues the saga of the Corleone Family, serving as both a prologue and a sequel, extending over a period of 60 years and three generations. The script was again co-authored by director Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo, the author of the popular novel about American organized crime. Many critics believe this film sequel, at a lengthy three hours and twenty minutes, is a superior improvement over the original film, although some of it is confusing and leaves questions unanswered.

The film is masterfully intercut back and forth between two parallel stories: the prologue story (about one-quarter of the entire film) to the sequel, contrasting the two eras and their protagonists. The prologue portion follows the background story of the rise of youthful Don Vito Corleone (Robert DeNiro replacing Marlon Brando) to Mafia chief in the early 1900s in the Little Italy section of New York City. About fifteen minutes of the prologue portion is in Sicilian with English sub-titles. The major portion of the sequel begins in 1958 - about three years after the conclusion of the first film (The Godfather, Part I (1972)) and follows the career of Corleone's son Michael (Al Pacino again) from his patriarchal prime to his decline a year later. The saga leads to the inexorable passage of 'sins' from the immigrant father to his modern-day son.

Similar themes from the original are carried over and arise in Part II: revenge, intrigue, betrayal, alliances, violence, the corruptive influences of power, and devoted loyalties to the family. Unlike the first film, the forbidden words "Mafia" and "Cosa Nostra" are each mentioned once - in one of the Senate Hearings scenes. The film contains fewer deaths, though - a total of 16. But the tragic film is more somber with Gordon Willis' un-nominated cinematography highlighted by sepia-toned, golden amber, and darkish tones.

The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won six: Best Picture (for producer/director Francis Ford Coppola), Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Robert DeNiro in a Sicilian-speaking role), Best Adapted Screenplay (co-authored by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, and Best Original Dramatic Score (Nino Rota and Carmine Coppola). It was a three Oscar win for Coppola. Five of the other six un-rewarded nominations were for acting roles: Best Actor (Al Pacino), Best Supporting Actor(s): (Michael Gazzo and Lee Strasberg), and Best Supporting Actress (Talia Shire). The Godfather, Part II was the only sequel in Academy history to win a Best Picture Oscar.

The film opens with a brief connection to the first film - the last scene of Part I, in the year 1955. In the old Corleone office, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) extends his hand - it is kissed by Rocco Lampone (Tom Rosqui), one of his henchmen. Michael has emerged as the new Godfather in his father's image, an image he once sought to escape. His leather-backed chair, the Mafia leader's throne, sits empty as the film's titles are displayed. The story dissolves back to the remote Sicilian countryside in 1901, where a funeral procession is passing along the edge of a rocky riverbed - a marching band with musicians accompanies the mourners carrying the crude wooden coffin. Corleone's original surname was Andolini: The Godfather was born Vito Andolini, in the town of Corleone in Sicily. In 1901, his father was murdered for an insult to the local Mafia Chieftain. His older brother Paolo swore revenge and disappeared into the hills, leaving Vito, the only male heir, to stand with his mother at the funeral. He was nine years old. [Whereas the first film began with an authentic Italian-American wedding, a religious event, this film begins with a funeral, another important rite of passage.]

The widow Andolini (Maria Carta), dressed in black, walks alongside young nine year old Vito Corleone, n� Andolini (Oreste Baldini) at the funeral of her husband, Antonio Andolini. Two gunshots are heard, and everyone scatters for cover. Paolo's body is discovered slain on the ground - the fourteen year-old son has been murdered by orders of the local Mafia Chieftain Don Francesco Ciccio (Giuseppe Sillato). The widow kneels in front of the chieftain, who is seated on the porch of his baronial villa sipping wine with his bodyguards. She pleads, in Sicilian, for him to spare her remaining son's life:

Widow: All my respect, Don Ciccio. Don Ciccio. You killed my husband because he wouldn't give in to you. And his oldest son Paolo...because he swore revenge. But Vito is only nine. And dumb-witted. He never speaks. Don Ciccio: It's not his words I'm afraid of. Widow: He's weak - he couldn't hurt anyone. Don Ciccio: But when he grows, he'll grow strong. Widow: Don't worry. This little boy can't do a thing to you. Don Ciccio: (standing up) When he's a man, he'll come for revenge. [In fact, the young boy returns for revenge later in his life.] Widow: I beg you, Don Ciccio, spare my only son. He's all I have left. I swear to God he'll never do you any harm. Spare him! Don Ciccio: No. After the Don's rejection of mercy, the woman reaches for a concealed knife and holds it to his neck. As her son runs away, the Don's guards grab her arm, push her away, and kill her at close-range with the blast of a shotgun. The young boy quickly runs through a grove of olive trees toward the town to escape. While two of the Sicilian guards call out warnings of Mafia reprisal in the village streets that evening: "Any family who hides the boy Vito Andolini will regret it...Anybody who hides the boy Vito Andolini is in for trouble!," family friends hide the young fugitive in a basket on the side of a donkey, counterbalanced by a load of firewood on the other side. He is smuggled away from danger and taken out of the country.

In the next scene, following a dissolve, the young orphaned boy is huddled with other immigrants aboard the ship Moshulu as it moves past the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. The hundreds of steerage passengers stand on the deck and expectantly look at the greenish female symbol of freedom - a memorable pan moves across their faces from right to left. In the Ellis Island Processing Hall [historically-recreated], a bustling and chaotic place captured in the poignant scene, large numbers of new arrivals are seated on benches and waiting in lines to be interviewed by officials. A "Red Star Lines" number 7 is pinned to his coat. A doctor examines Vito's eyes and chalks an X in a circle on his jacket. In the waiting room which looks like a cattlepen, a man plays a soulful violin tune; others speak in a multitude of different languages. When the quiet boy doesn't respond to an official asking him his name, the young Sicilian immigrant has his name mistakenly changed from Vito Andolini to Vito Corleone - the name of his town, taken from the tag on his coat.

The quiet, scrawny waif is again inspected by medical officials and found to have smallpox - he is ordered to be quarantined for three months. With another group, he is led down the interior of the Quarantine Corridor at Ellis Island to his cell. The Statue of Liberty is reflected on his window - he steps forward to the glass where the reflection casts its image. He accepts his fate in his bare room, stands and looks out at the immense statue. Then, he places his suitcase on his bed , sits in a chair facing the window, and sings to himself in Sicilian. A super-imposed title reads: "VITO CORLEONE, ELLIS ISLAND, 1901."

Secong part of The Godfather is extremely more powerful and includes more mafia themes.