One of many best sequels turns 50 this month. It is a towering movie that options the one best kiss between brothers ever placed on display screen. The Godfather Half II will perpetually be a colossal movie that exhibits not solely how one can develop a narrative but additionally how one can place it on a course towards tragic inevitability. Francis Ford Coppola’s film manages to stroll a skinny line between the impenetrable world of the mafia and the world the boys try to guard, past the fits and passive-aggressive conferences.
Saying all of this, The Godfather continues to be the higher film of the 2. This isn’t to dismiss The Godfather Half II in any respect, however The Godfather is a thematic distillation of every thing Half II tries and succeeds to broaden upon. It’s the mafia film at its most stripped down, with the most effective dramatic arcs in American movie historical past with Michael Corleone and a few of the greatest work of Marlon Brando’s profession. The Godfather Half II takes what The Godfather does so nicely and builds on it additional, however there’s an unmistakable appeal to the primary movie that imbues all of the second’s tragedy with the presence of Brando’s central power.
The 2 collectively make the most effective double-bills ever as a result of we wish to fake The Godfather Half III by no means occurred, and evaluating the 2 is not any simple activity. However there’s one thing extra tragic in regards to the ascent than the descent, and that is the primary distinction between the 2. Why is The Godfather higher than The Godfather Half II? What does The Godfather Half II do to advance the primary? How has it aged 50 years later? Here is what it’s essential know.
‘The Godfather’ Is Higher Than ‘The Godfather Half II,’ Briefly
- Launch Date
- December 20, 1974
- Runtime
- 200
5 a long time later, each of those films stay the top of what American movies can obtain. The Godfather Half II exhibits the descent of Michael Corleone’s grip on the Mafia, and it’s fantastically captured. The distinction between Michael and a younger Vito Corleone creates an attention-grabbing push and pull throughout time, increasing the primary film and including subtext that, whereas not essential to understanding Vito, makes his character all of the extra haunting. The Godfather Half II pokes on the delicate edges of Michael’s flaws, coming to the crushing realization that he does not actually know what he is doing, identical to his father. The fits had been a lie, and he’s simply as weak as some other man when pressed proper.
The Godfather acts because the precursor to this however consists of extra of a dramatic core by means of Marlon Brando’s towering presence to tie all of it collectively. The Godfather drags the household up by the scruff of the neck as they launch their final gasp because the group they know themselves as. They know the hierarchy and respect their roles. Coppola rips the guts out of them in The Godfather, a film from which they by no means recuperate. The Godfather Half II exhibits what the dying breath of an empire can appear like when managed within the shadow of a equally ailing outdated man. As a sequel, it owes every thing to what got here earlier than it, which is not a foul factor in any respect, nevertheless it does endure underneath the burden of an arguably weaker narrative drive than the primary.
How Does ‘The Godfather Half II’ Construct on ‘The Godfather?’
Few sequels have mastered the idea of increasing a universe like The Godfather Half II. All the things is given an environment of unease, a brand new model of the household making an attempt to determine their subsequent strikes whereas nonetheless uncertain how to take action. They haven’t any selection however to maintain going, however new dynamics emerge, all whereas Michael tries desperately to step into the unfillable footwear of a person he by no means actually understood. The Godfather Half II nearly seems like an epilogue to a change that occurred in The Godfather and executes it with a figuring out messiness that The Godfather solely confirmed glimpses of.
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On this approach, The Godfather is the stronger film. It has extra to say and arguably captures the extra attention-grabbing moments of their lives. The Godfather Half II additionally suffers from the De Niro sections, which, whereas efficient at holding up a mirror to Michael, do not do a lot on their very own. De Niro is not given a lot to do in these scenes apart from making an attempt to behave like Brando, although it led to an Oscar win. The Godfather Half II‘s twin construction takes the sting out of either side, and The Godfather had carried out sufficient to ascertain their relationship with out these scenes being wholly vital.
‘The Godfather Half II’ 50 Years Later
The Godfather Half II lives on a number of stellar moments, just like the Fredo subplot, which culminates in the very best of John Cazale’s restricted on-screen historical past. It efficiently pushes previous what the primary did whereas positioning itself because the impression of The Godfather‘s fall. The second recontextualizes the primary’s change as a deadly one in such an excellent approach, however the first nonetheless has the dramatic edge due to key scenes and an irreplaceable Marlon Brando.
5 a long time later, The Godfather Half II continues to be one of the vital influential crime films in American cinema. It carries over all of the inevitable violence and loss that comes with this world whereas reflecting on the previous and the way it has influenced the current. The Godfather is the higher movie, however this does not take away from what the sequel managed to do to advance the story of cyclical violence and betrayal of Michael Corleone.
No mafia film has ever come near what both of the 2 films did, and if 50 years have handed, plainly one other defining piece within the style continues to be as distant because the Cannoli that is been left within the solar since 1972. The Godfather and The Godfather Half II can be found to stream on Paramount+.