The Godfather, Part II (1974) | |||||||||
Background
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 first sequel in Academy history to win a Best Picture Oscar.
The Story 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:
[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, né 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:
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 (Bed #52), sits in a chair facing the window, and sings to himself in Sicilian. A super-imposed title reads: "VITO CORLEONE, ELLIS ISLAND, 1901." SEQUEL: The scene dissolves in a connective transition to the superimposition of another young Corleone son, seven year old Anthony Corleone (James Gounaris) in the modern story two generations later, moving down the aisle of a church for his first Holy Catholic communion: "HIS GRANDSON, ANTHONY VITO CORLEONE, LAKE TAHOE, NEVADA, 1958." [The first film ended with a baptism and christening for younger members of the family. The symmetry is maintained in the second film with another family celebration following a religious ceremony while the Don holds meetings with important business personages.] On the expansive lawn on the shore of Lake Tahoe where the boy's father owns a great estate, a party is being held to celebrate. At the lavish occasion, there is a specially-built bandstand pavilion, a full dance orchestra, and dancers exhibiting the tango. Thirty-one year old Connie "Constanzia' Corleone (Talia Shire) makes her way through the tables with a blonde gigolo/escort named Merle Johnson (teen idol Troy Donahue - the star's real name is Merle Johnson!) - he's her future third husband. Irresponsibly, she is one week late: "Here I am, just one week late." At the table of her sixty-one year old mother Mama Corleone (Morgana King), she is scolded for being a lousy mother and deserting her children [nine year old Victor and three year old Michael Francis] for her own self-seeking debauchery: "You go see your children first, and then you worry about waiting on line to see your brother. Like everybody else." Nevada's U. S. Senator Pat Geary (G. D. Spradlin) and his wife are presented by the bandleader. The distinguished congressman graciously accepts an endowment check from the Corleones "for a magnificent contribution to the state...a check made out to the university, and it is a magnificent endowment in the name of Anthony Vito Corleone and the check is signed by that young man's parents whom I think we should recognize them: Mike, Pat, Kay..." He viciously mis-pronounces the name of "Vito Corleone." Pictures are taken with the check and a plaque. The Sierra Boys Choir performs at the boy's First Communion. Thirty-eight year old Michael dispenses justice and conducts business in his boathouse office [just as his father Don Vito Corleone did at the beginning of the first film during his daughter's wedding] during the celebration of his eldest son's first Communion. Senator Geary [Geary's character is reportedly based upon corrupt Nevada Senator Pat McCarren] is brought to the Tahoe Boathouse for a private meeting in Michael Corleone's new office and headquarters to speak about the gaming license on a new casino - part of the Corleone expansion plan in the state after moving westward from the East Coast. In their presence is forty-two year old Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), Michael's trusted lawyer. Outside the picture window, celebrants play croquet on the lawn while corrupt deals are engineered inside. Inside the office, Senator Geary turns sinister and corrupt. He speaks toughly, bluntly and "more frankly" about his real feelings for the Corleones in Nevada, insults Michael and his family personally, and tries to extort money from the cooly confident chieftain:
Calmly, Michael rejects the "little games" of the Senator, refusing to pay even the $20,000 legal fee for the gaming license of the casino he will take over from Klingman: "My offer is this - nothing. Not even the fee for the gaming license, which I would appreciate if you would put up personally." Frankie Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo), a greyish-haired man in his sixties - one of the old-time gangsters who used to work for Vito Corleone and operates on the East Coast, catches sight of thirty-nine year old Fredo Corleone (John Cazale), Michael's older brother. Pentangeli is an uncouth, uneducated Italian unaccustomed to the modern, de-Italianized style of Michael's West Coast party, or having to wait in the lobby to see the godfather:
A second, darkly-lit meeting is conducted in Michael's boathouse office with Sicilian Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese) and his men - they have just arrived by boat launch. Ola presents Michael "an orange from Miami" - the contact represents ailing Jewish crime czar Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg) from Florida who is the real financial, wily mastermind of the Nevada casino (the Tropicana), where Michael wishes to amass his own influence. [Roth's character is reportedly based upon crime syndicate treasurer Meyer Lansky.] An advantageous alliance between Roth and Michael would assure the smooth takeover of a third casino for Michael in Las Vegas (and grease other efforts to expand casinos into pre-revolutionary Cuba):
While waiting for his meeting with Michael, Frankie Pentangeli is disgusted that "out of thirty professional musicians" on the bandstand, "there isn't one Italian in the group here." They play "Pop Goes to Weasel" instead of a tarantella when he tries to direct them. The third conference in the boathouse is between Connie, Merle and Michael. She has come to ask her brother for support for their marriage, and for money for their trip to Europe ("passage on the Queen"), but Michael resists giving approval to his hedonistic-loving, profligate sister. He severely lectures her for abandoning her children:
Speaking softly with her, he proposes to his spoiled sister that rather than marry Merle, she should stay with the family and live on the estate with her kids: "You won't be deprived of anything. You can have everything you want....Connie, if you don't listen to me, and marry this man, you disappoint me." The elaborate party continues into the evening - the Corleone family is seated for dinner in a party tent. Everyone in the family is there with Mama Corleone - Michael, Kay (Diane Keaton) - Michael's wife, Tom Hagen, Connie and Merle, Fredo and his drunken, flirtatiously-uncontrollable, slatternly, non-Italian wife Deanna (Mariana Hill), and Frankie Pentangeli. When Mama raises her glass for a toast to "Famiglia! Cent' Anni! [a hundred years]", Connie spitefully adds: "It means we should all live happily for a hundred years. The family. It would be true if my father were alive..." After dinner, Fredo's wife has to be dragged off the dance floor for flirting with another man - a deliberate attempt to intimidate her husband:
A fourth meeting in the boathouse finally allows Frankie Pentangeli to meet with Michael. They discuss Pentangeli's operation in his New York (Bronx) territories, where he "welshed" on a previous promise by Clemenza (one of Vito's trusted men) to give "three territories in the Bronx" to the Rosato brothers before he died [of a 'heart-attack' induced by the Rosato brothers]:
Pentangeli complains that Michael is passing judgment on him "high up in the Sierra Mountains" while drinking "champagne cocktails," and that his competition in New York, the Rosato brothers, are encroaching on his territory without any help from Michael to contain them. Michael won't "touch" the brothers or interfere in the affairs of the East Coast because the Rosatos answer to Hyman Roth in Miami - his new business associate. He refuses to let Pentangeli 'disturb' his important and delicate business dealings with Roth:
While Kay and Michael dance outdoors, Michael asks his wife about their expected baby, and then apologizes about the "bad timing" of having so many old-style gangster meetings with the underworld. She is reminded of his previous, hollow promises:
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