A hallmark of American cinema (The Godfather: Part II (DVD))

Member Name: shaneo632

Product:	The Godfather: Part II (DVD)
Date:	12/09/09 (7 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Everything

Disadvantages: Nothing

note: also appears on The Student Room and Flixster

The Godfather Part II is one of the best sequels in film history - it somehow managed to reach the superb heights of the original film, astronomical as they were, matching them with another engrossing, lengthy look at the continued legacy of the Corleone family following the death of Don Vito at the end of the first film. It strengthens the viewer's emotional attachment to the surviving characters from the first film, and is a tender, heartbreakingly tragic look at the strain this family is put under.

Part II is a dark affair in which Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) is now the head of the crime family, and depicts his deterioration into a man without many scruples and a considerable lack of honour when compared to his departed father. He sees his family ripped apart as he begins to suspect that those around him may not be acting in his best interests. This is crossed with an alternative plot set many decades before this, as we observe Vito's rise to primacy as he arrives in America from Italy and sets up his own crime family. What makes this so clever is the way in which Francis Ford Coppola sutures the viewer - these two stories seemingly don't connect, but they are forever tied together through meaning, as a collage of crime new and old and how the methods, attitudes and customs have changed over the years.

Although lengthy, this is one of the rare films that earns its length by telling an almost relentlessly engaging story that tells one of the classic American crime tales. There really is nothing like this film's devastating climax. Somehow, Coppola manage to strike lightning twice with this fantastic sequel to the brilliant "The Godfather". The iconic moments, the performances, the twists - everything is near-perfect.

Summary: One of the best sequels ever