Best Picture Winner: 1974

The Godfather Part II (1974)

When we last saw Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), he had assumed control of the Corleone mafia family. It is now 1958, and he is organizing a move into the Nevada gambling industry, which is being supported by Jewish gangster Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg.) At his home in Lake Tahoe on the night of his son’s First Communion, an attempt is made on Michael’s life. He tells Roth he believes the guilty party is Frank Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo), a disgruntled Corleone soldier in New York who is having problems with the Rosato brothers, who are backed by Roth. Later however Michael confides in Frank that he believes Roth was behind the attack, but must have had inside help. Michael must discover who the traitor is. He also must contend with a senate investigation into the dealings of the Corleone family.

While The Godfather Part II continues Michael’s saga, it also crosscuts to the story of how his father Vito, played here as a young man by Robert DeNiro, came to America and became a force in the underworld. As a young boy, his parents and brother were murdered under orders from a Don who was insulted by Vito’s father, and Vito escaped to New York to avoid the same fate. As a young man he now works at a grocery in an Italian neighborhood and gets involved with a local criminal, Peter Clemenza (Bruno Kirby). He learns that area merchants are being extorted by Don Fanucci, and soon finds himself in the same situation when Fanucci demands his share of Vito’s illegally gotten gains. Vito’s response starts him on his path to mafia chieftain.

What is most fascinating about The Godfather Part II is that, even though both Vito and son Michael are able men who commit horrible acts, they are not viewed the same way by those closest to them. In The Godfather, Don Vito Corleone is loved by wife and children, and dies while playing with his grandson. Don Michael Corleone is, on the other hand, feared and reviled by his wife. Part III confirms that his children want nothing to do with the family business, which, ironically, was exactly Michael's feeling when we first meet him The Godfather. The final shot of Part II has Michael sitting by himself, wondering why his father was so loved while he is all alone.

While Part II is rife with double crosses and betrayals like its predecessor, one character’s fate packs a particular wallop. Poor Fredo (John Cazale, reprising his role), tired of playing errand boy to his younger brother, does the unspeakable thing of betraying Michael to Hyman Roth. A slip of the tongue on Fredo’s part reveals that he knows Roth’s right hand man, Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese, later of The Sopranos). At a New Year’s celebration, as 1959 is ushered in, Michael grasps Fredo face, kissing him. His voice cracking, fighting back tears, Michael tells him, "I know it was you Fredo. You broke my heart." We have learned by now what happens to traitors, even if they’re your own mother’s child. Whatever heart Michael may have had left at the close of The Godfather is now completely gone. Pacino plays him as a cold, stern businessman with no room for humor or warmth. He will fly into a rage when his family is attacked, or when Kay reveals the devastating truth about a miscarriage. But we come into The Godfather Part II with no illusions about Michael or what he has become.

Perhaps realizing this, Director and co-writer Francis Ford Coppola and co-scripter Mario Puzo give us Vito Corleone’s back story which provides the emotional connection we felt with Michael in the first film. Vito Andolini, mistakenly given the last of the town from which he comes upon his entrance into America, is forced from his homeland through no fault of his own. He finds himself struggling to raise a family and loses his job at the grocery due to Don Fanucci ordering the owner to employee a relative. Fanucci is an arrogant, unpleasant thug for whom we feel no grief when Vito kills him. Vito’s early dealings are rather endearing, such as when he intimidates a sleazy landlord to let a lady stay in her apartment. Vito even gets him to lower her rent. We also don’t feel too bad when Vito returns to Sicily and avenges his family’s murders. But again, like Michael in The Godfather, Vito has responded to immorality with immorality and succumbs to the life of crime and power which will result in tragedy for his children.

Coppola also continues the sacrament and sin parallel by opening the film at Michael’s son’s first communion. But the meetings inside his Lake Tahoe home deal with gaming corruption, Connie’s divorce and remarriage, and the request for a hit on rival gangsters. Coppola will take the parallel to even further extremes in Part III, which has the Corleones involved with the Vatican and Michael making confession to a future Pope!

As in the first film, Part II is rich in supporting characters. Michael V. Gazzo’s Frank Pentangeli is a nicely textured role that is a blend of bravado and wisdom. Lee Strasberg is superb as Hyman Roth, the back-stabbing conniver who outwardly seems so loyal and trustworthy. And Bruno Kirby brings humor to the role of Clemenza. He and DeNiro have real chemistry in their scenes together.

In The Godfather Brando’s Vito tells Michael, “A man who doesn’t spend time with his family is not a man.” The Godfather Part II continues the story of Michael Corleone and his alienation from the family that seems so important to him. He is a man who seems to have lost his humanity. His father may not have been proud.