Godfather Part 2

So, I watched my Blu-Ray copy of Godfather II this weekend. As with Part 1, it was interesting to catchup after all these years. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw it, but it was a long time ago; perhaps 1991.

So what did I think?

This is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde movie. More specifically, it is partially great, and partially... well... let's say it didn't quite come together. Students of Coppola know that GF2 is both a prequel and a sequel. The movie interleaves two stories: The story of how Vito Corleone came to America and made it big, and the story of Michael... er... we'll get to that one in a moment.

The prequel component is sensational. The sequel component is not so sensational. I found the prequel totally fascinating. Robert Di Niro's performance seemed better than ever. The recreation of early 20th Centry New York was amazing. The origin story was pointed and amazing. There was a clear-cut story with a clear path & agenda. The same really cannot be said for the sequel.

The sequel is a narrative muddle. Michael is now the Godfather. He has moved the family to Las Vegas. Most of his family members are undisciplined embarrassments to him. He taking a lot more shit than his papa ever had to suffer. Abruptly, hitmen from New York try to grease his bedroom with machine guns. Michael and Kay survive without a wound, due to a flash of intuition Michael has. Michael is first pushing Tom away; then he is going to make him the boss. The rest of this story is a convoluted trap play Michael runs, trying to ferret out who the 'traitor' in his family is. We waltz around the country, going to Florida, New York, and Cuba. We play Hymen Roth off of Frank Pentangelie. Roth is promising real partnership with the real government in Cuba. Five-Angels goes over to the police, and turns states evidence. We go to Cuba and see the Baptista regime at the end of its moment in time. We have a trial. Michael discovers his own brother Freddo is traitor at a live sex show in Cuba on the night of the Castro revolution. Michael has Freddo and Roth killed. Michael wins again.

When you interleave the two stories, you get a pretty huge, sprawling, endless epoch. It does take forever to get ot the end of this movie. The prequel is tight, well planned, brilliantly executed. The sequel has a lot of loose change rolling around in its knees. It walks too slowly because of these loose bodies in the joints. It's painful. This is a tale of two stories, one great and one not so great.

For those who say that the Godfather II is better than the Godfather I, you are simply mistaken. For those who point out that it won 6 Oscars rather than 3, this fact doesn't mean a damn thing to me. The Motion Picture Academy makes mistakes all the time. They don't always get it right.

The Godfather 1 on Blu-Ray

Yesterday, Fry's Electronics offered us our choice of 3 out of 5 members of the Paramount Sapphire collection at an insane discount price. I already owned Gladiator and Braveheart, so I took the other three: Godfather 1, Godfather 2, and Forrest Gump. My final, walk-out-door, price was just $43 for these three Gold-winners on Blu-Ray. I was fairly ecstatic our my purchase.

I decided to plug in Godfather 1 just to have a look at the quality of the restoration and transfer. I had no intention of watching the three hour epic in full last night. Well, I got sucked in. I watched the whole damn thing straight through in one sitting for the first time since around 1996. It's been 14 years since the last time, so my memory had faded on several points. As was the case with Logan's Run. It is interesting to come back to a piece after so many years, and see how you feel about it. So what are my thoughts?

1. I still don't believe that this is the best movie of all time. I still give that award to Dr. Strangelove.
2. I still don't believe that this is Francis Ford Coppola's best film of all time. I give that award to Apocalypse Now.
3. With that said it is a fantastic movie, and rightly won best picture of 1972. It was probably under-awarded as it obtained only three Oscar-wins. They probably should have won a few more than that.
4. I still believe that The Godfather is a highly romanticized rendition of La Cosa Nostra. This is the way Wise Guys would love to be portrayed, and this is the way they would like to think of themselves. However, it is sanitized, scaled-down, and soft-pitched on the violence and ugliness of organized crime.
5. For a more realistic portrayal of La Cosa Nostra, you still need to look towards Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas.

I am impressed about how clear the theme of this movie is after so many years. When I was younger, I did not detect a clear cut focal theme. I just thought it was an epic story about a key moment in Mob history. Yes, that is true, but there is a sharper focal point than that.

The Godfather takes place in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The Godfather is Vito Corleone, a first generation Sicilian immigrant to New York city who set up a large and powerful Mafia family that runs Gambling, Prostitution, and smuggling in the Eastern United States. His daughter Connie is about to be married. His son Michael, the white sheep of the family, has returned home from WWII.

Unbeknownst to all at the wedding party, the New York Mafia is headed for a full-scale war over the issue of Narcotics; China White Heroine from Turkey to be more specific. The Godfather is against this LOB, believing it is a dirty and dangerous trade that will cost him his political and judicial allies. Everybody else, including two of his sons, believes there is more earning potential in Narcotics than any other single line of work. The five families of New York want to deal, but they need the Godfather's political protection to open up this new business. He refuses. A war ensues.

The absolute focal point of this movie is Michael Corleone, the man destined to be the next Godfather. As we begin this movie, he is a squeaky-clean Ivy League graduate, Marine Corp Infantry Captain, decorated for valor in battle during WWII. Michael knows everything about the family. He is ashamed of his family, and his family business, even though he loves them. He stays at a distance. Unknown to him, Michael has his father's blessing. Pop hopes Michael will become the first Governor or Senator from his family. He is very proud of Michael. He never wanted Michael to be in the family business.

The absolute pivotal point of the movie is the transformation of Michael Corleone's character. The war changes him completely. The moment his father is shot, and forces inside the police conspire to assassinate him, all kinds of things begin simmering up inside Michael's soul. In a matter of a few short days, the highly intelligent Ivy Leaguer, and the decorated Marine Infantry Captain begins using all his talents to help his family win the war.

Michael has a number of bitter moments on the way to victory in this mob war. The attempted murder on his father is the first. The murder of his brother, with his brother-in-law's complicity, is the second. The final burn is the murder of his Sicilian bride, Apolonia, in a car-bombing.

As his brother Sonny dies, it becomes clear that Michael is the only one smart enough to inherit his father's throne and run the family business. But is he tough enough? Is he ruthless enough? Is he a strategist? Can he trap his enemies? Can he be a wartime boss?

Shortly before the movie ends Michael answers all these questions. He accurately ferrets out all of his enemies. He lays out a brilliant plan for murdering them all. He executes the plan without a hitch. Everybody who opposed the Godfather during the Narcotics war is dead at the end of the movie. He settled all of the Family's accounts in a single day. He consolidates all power in his hands, making his family the most powerful underworld force once again.

It turns out that the decorated Marine Corp Captain was more that strategic enough, more than ruthless enough, and more than violent enough to kill all of his opponents. He is a far more terrifying figure by the end of this movie than the sentimental Vito, or the hot-headed Sonny ever were. He's cool. He's calculating as hell. He is ruthless as hell. He stops at nothing. He convinces us that he will do anything necessary to win.

The cold chill you get at the end of the movie is palpable. Michael is almost a type of frog prince. You had no idea that this squeaky-clean Harvard kid had it in him. The moment he is kissed by Mafia war, he suddenly and abruptly transforms into a much more ruthless warchief than his father. The reason cold chills happen is that it is so believable.

Why did I believe it? I picked up on things watching this Blu-Ray, things that I had never noticed before. I noticed the Marine Corp emblem on Michael's uniform. I don't think there was a single word of dialog which stated that he was a Marine. You had to see the logo. I noticed the crossed rifle emblem on his uniform. This signifies 0700 Infantry. I don't think there is a single line of dialog in the movie which stated that Michael was an Infantry Captain. You had to see the logo. Being a Marine Infantry captain in WWII means being on the beach and in the jungle. The year is 1946, signifying the end of WWII. The implication is strong that Michael fought the Japanese. The life of the Marine Infantry fighting the Japanese in WWII was absolutely brutal. If Michael was a decorated war hero, you can be assured that he saw murderous combat.

Noticing these things, it becomes obvious why Michael would make a much better and tougher wartime Don than his brother Sonny. He is the one who has seen the real shit. He is the only family member to wage real war. He has seen and done things most Mafia thugs can't imagine. The intellectual power needed to graduate from Harvard doesn't hurt Michael any either. This unassuming, humble, and squeaky clean guy is a facade. He makes his other brothers look weak and stupid in comparison. Once his family survival instincts are flipped on, Michael becomes a terrifying force to reckon with.

It is great to see this movie restored on Blu-Ray. You should see this. My one and only bitter complaint about this disc is that they were unable to come up with a state-of-the-art 5.1 surround mix for the movie. The Godfather was recorded in 100% pure mono. There are no source tracks left for remixing. They were able to digitally sample the sound track at 24/96 and put that on 6 channels, but what you are hearing is always mono sound.