Does anyone really like this better than the first film? I mean, really? Notwithstanding what they say in Scream 2? Or is it just one of those things that get repeated by film buffs without thinking, like that directors cut versions are the best?
Francis Coppola certainly deserves points for boldness - a sequel which jumps forward and back in time, and where many of the characters speak Italian. The production design and cinematography are stunning - perhaps better than the first. It's a feast for the eyes.
There's also some superb acting. Pacino is magnificent - I'd forgotten how restrained he could be. (When did he jump the shark into becoming a ham forever? Was it Scarface?) He's like this vampire, a man who becomes the walking dead... when he smiles in a joking scene with his brother it's like his face cracks. Occasionally he yells and has explosions of temper, but it's like the last gasp of passion of a dying man.
Robert de Niro is also very impressive - lithe, watchful, smart - though truth be told he doesn't have the world's most complex character to play. Young Vito is intelligent, loyal, faithful, a good friend, wryly humorous, and the only people he's mean to are nasty mafia dons, mean landlords, cocky and smug representatives of the Black Hand. And he's doing it all for this family; he's got to be the most kindly mafia chieftan in film history. (Michael Corleone also only has to fight baddies - corrupt politicians, other gangsters, treacherous employees - but at least smacks his nice wife, is a lousy father and orders his brother to be killed).
There is excellent support from Robert Duvall and John Cazale again - the movie doesn't really know what to do with Duvall's character to be honest, but the Cazale-Pacino relationship is the guts of this movie. James Caan's cameo at the end points up the lack of someone with equivalent zest in this film but Lee Strasberg is stunningly good as the Jewish gangster Hyman Roth (he's very well presented, listening to baseball, complaining about his health(, and Talia Shire impresses again as the now-wastrel Connie. Good to see Ray Bright again as Al Neri (who has a much bigger role here) and Dominic Chianese.
And you know something, Troy Donahue is good in his part as her gigolo boyfriend (Donahue was at his best in short appearances - he was in Imitation of Life as well) and I liked seeing directors such as Roger Corman and Bill Bowers as the Senators.
I wasn't wild about Michael Gazzo's Frank Pentagelli - I really missed Clamenza, for whom the script was so obviously written ("oh he died") and thought Gazzo was irritating though I loved his taciturn brother from Sicily.
The film goes for far too long - it could easily have an hour cut out of it, and smacked of indulgence - especially the flashback stuff it was like Coppola was going "this is my once chance to recreate my family's history so I'm going to go for it". The whole opera sequence, the parade - there was just endless endless art design. So many scenes felt as though they went on loo long.
It also lacks iconic moments. There are some: Hyman Roth's speech about Moe Green (actually every bit involving Roth), Cazale's ranting about being overlooked, the Senate hearings. The murder of Roth at the end is too silly for a decent assassin, the "I had an abortion Michael" speech feels amateurish. It's worth seeing but is heavily flawed.
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