Disc Reviews

The Godfather Part II Blu-ray Review

gfIt’s become somewhat a cliché to state that The Godfather Part II is a better than the original sequel. For many that is true, even if it’s only marginally so. That’s coming on the back of an already excellent film. Whereas Marlon Brando stole the show as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972) in one of his most iconic performances; here it is the turn of Al Pacino. In between the two Godfather films Pacino had starred in Serpico in which he played a cop surrounded by corruption in the police force and was able to shine in this explosive performance. Here he was able to equally demonstrate an even broader range to his skills as an actor.

 

Released with the original film on a separate disc, this more than three hour sequel follows the now successful ‘businessman’ Michael Corleone to tense betrayals as well as flashing back to the early days of Vito Corleone from the death of his parents by a rival clan in Sicily to his emigration to the United States in the early 20th century. There, after being processed on Ellis Island, Vito meets a woman; he marries and has children while struggling to make his way in the New World. This Vito (the adult is played by a younger Robert De Niro) gets on by killing off the local Little Italy mob boss who runs the neighbourhood. Intercut with this is the career of Michael in the 1950s. In the first film Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone was the fresh faced kid who had recently come back from World War II, a decorated war hero reluctant to become involved in the family business and crime syndicates. This all changes when his father is killed in a gang war between the families. Now, in The Godfather Part II opens as with the first film a celebration, this time staged by Michael Corleone with musicians, family members and politicians attending the party at the Corleone compound on Lake Tahoe. At one moment a state governor is singing the praises of the Corleone’s in a speech but in a private conversation with Michael he spits racial venom and says he does not do business with “spicks” or “wops” (Michael Corleone is trying to buy a gambling license). Just the cool calculating expression on Pacino’s Corleone spells that revenge is a dish best served cold… and inevitably that is just what happens. Later that evening machine gun fire rattles through the Corleone house while he is preparing for bed and having put his kids down with Michael knowing that this is an inside job. In the meantime he is negotiating business with a former rival of his father’s, whom Michael knows he can’t trust (played by acting impresario Lee Strasberg in his only screen acting performance) but who sees the future of business with Cuba.

 

The film is still powerful today and thankfully and can on top of the films many merits it is the performance of Pacino that stands out the most. Never before nor since has acted with such quiet slow burning psychosis as he does here. It is to the credit to him as an actor that the viewer is able to read what is going on in his mind merely from the facial expressions either when faced by betrayal, aggression or stress such as the bare faced lies of the Senate hearing that the family business is being questioned about or the cold, remote and dispassionate way he treats his wife, Kay (Diane Keaton) when she betrays him, just slamming the door in her face after they divorce.

 

The print itself seems a little tan in tone; the faces appear to look as though they are caked in make-up, despite this being a director approved restoration of the print. Never the less The Godfather Part II is great to see anytime. Sadly The Godfather Part III (1990) fell into type and became more the let down one expects from a sequel. There are no extras on the disc.

 

Chris Hick

 

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