Now that I've finally had the chance to watch the second movie a few times, let me get a few things off my chest in what should be the longest blog post I've written. (SPOILERS GALORE)
The Godfather Part II is about Vito Corelone's rise to power. It's also very representative of the themes of the series, respect and revenge. He grew up in a village near Sicily named Corelone, a town run by the power abusing Don Ciccio. This Don asked Vito's father for more tribute, which he could not afford. This cost him his life. Vito's brother swore revenge. During the funeral preceding of his father, gunshots were heard and everyone there scattered. Then a voice screamed bloody murder that his brother was, in fact, murdered.
Vito's mother, now all alone save Vito, decided to go to the Don to beg for her child's life. This request was rejected in fear that the boy would grow up to seek revenge as well. She pleaded that the boy was weak and couldn't even speak much less be violent. Again, he refused. She took the last action she saw fit buy pulling a knife on him to threaten for a better answer. She was shot and Vito was on the run. The people of Corelone, who lived under the Don's tyranny, felt the plight of this boy was worth risking their lives for and helped him immigrate to America.
This background helped Vito become a strong young man. It gave him the strength to push through his small pox scare (of which me and my girlfriend interpreted to him having weak vocal chords, explaining his raspy voice through out the series), learning to live on his own before marrying and eventually taking power into his own hands. I know the last part of that sentence makes little sense, but if you interpret it after watching the movie, you'll know I meant becoming the head of a "family" through taking it from another black-handler, Don Fanucci. Thus the Corelone family became the power it became in the 50's.
What I've gathered through watching the movies a few times backs up my theory's on the themes of the series. Respect can be earned "legitimately" (and you will hear that word a lot in these movies) through good business practices and kindness to whom respect you. Revenge is a bloody path that never ends.
Michael is a prime example. Towards the end of the first Godfather, he took revenge on anyone involved in the killing of his brother and led to the shooting of his father. Going into the next movie with this overthrow of the "five families" and Moe Green in Las Vegas, the Corelone family had all it needed to run two bases of operations. Mike moved the family to Nevada to attempt to be legit and underbosses ran the fronts in New York.
But, of course, the cycle of revenge didn't just stay in New York. After the baptism of first child, Anthony, there was a party similar to the party in the first movie. While the festivities were being held outside on his estate on Lake Tahoe, he was conducting business in his office. This is where you are introduced to the name Hyman Roth, a Jewish investor who did business with Vito years ago. They are working on a deal (with Johnny Ola acting as the in between) that could set up the family for years, ever closer to becoming legitimate. But what you learn in the long run is this could never happen.
What about the video to Today by Smashing Pumpkins makes sense? Sex plus a disgruntled ice cream truck driver picking up a man in drag that go to a semi-abandoned gas station, start painting the truck with the two people working there only to have the truck stolen from him and being stranded in the middle of a plains orgy. *shakes head* Lets get back to the story.
Michael also hears from his underboss running New York, Frank Pentangeli, that he's having trouble with a rival mob that's under Roth. Michael attempts to tell him to make peace because he and Roth are working together. He very reluctantly agrees.
Later that night Mike gets attacked from outside his window. This hit obviously puts things into perspective for him because 1) he makes Tom Hagen, his adoptive step brother and family lawyer, the Don after basically telling him at the end of The Godfather that he's out of the "family business"; 2) goes to Roth's home in Miami to talk to him about the deal, his underlings giving his family trouble, that he was attacked at his home and that Pentangeli was behind it; 3) only to tell Pentangeli that it was really Roth whom put the hit on him.
This excites Pentangeli to try to talk Mike into giving him the order to take out Roth's men. He says again to try to work it out by saying, "Keep your friends close and your enemy's closer."
Pentangeli, confused enough as it is, gets tricked at the meeting to make peace with Roth's NY goons by being told "Here's a message from Michael Corelone." (Don't quote me, I don't feel like finding this scene again. I done sent the DVD's back)
OK, most of you have seen the movie, Mikey goes through the movie, getting revenge on anyone in his path. The point I learned about Michael is hes a mix between his father and his brother. Don Vito was a fair but firm man who knew when to draw the line between business and senseless killing. Don Sonny was a ruthless killer, especially when his temper flared at the drop of a hat.
Don Michael was a business man with the power to take out the opposition if need be. He killed off the heads of the five families to the chord of a corporate take over. He took revenge on his sister's husband (we'll get to her later, trust me) for setting up the murder of Sonny. He even had his own brother killed for accidentally giving Roth information enough to put a hit on him and cut his wife off from her children for many years just for having an abortion out of fear of being in his world anymore. He couldn't let things go. Revenge was his fucking middle name. HE WAS AN ASSHOLE.
Which brings me to the third installment of the series. Deemed the worst of the three, rumor has it that writer/producer/director Francis Ford Coppola was still having money problems stemming from having to put his own money into the production of Apocalypse Now and lack of blockbusters in the 80's (save The Outsiders, though it was nearly enough to cover his losses). Paramount had been hounding him to make a third instalment, but he felt the series was closed after the second one having Michael living with his life the way he made it. He finally accepted an offer to make it after all of his financial troubles.
The Godfather Part III is set at the end of the 70's, with Michael doing his best to fully end his career in the mafia world. Being honored by the Vatican Church for contributions in helping the church restore Sicily, he has a very awkward reunion with his family. Kay, his ex-wife from the first two movies, still resents him for the world he forced her to live in. His son want's to forgo his college degree in Law to become a singer, primarily in opera. His daughter, Mary, blindly loves him dearly, not able to distinguish the truth of his life as head of the family business and her upbringing as daddy's girl.
Enter Vincent, the son of Sonny through one of his many flings documented in the first movie. He works for Joey Zasa, the man who now runs what used to be the original neighborhood the Corelone family had resided over. He hates the way Zasa had run the Little Italy into the ground with drugs and the way he talks about the family behind Michael's back. At the after party for the ceremony, Zasa and Vincent confront Michael in a round about way about their problems with each other. The civility of this meeting doesn't last long as Vince is brushed the wrong way by Joey and bites his ear.
Is it just me, or are record companies shooting themselves in the foot by removing their music that's put up by other people on YouTube? They should be happy with the publicity they get from people putting those videos up. I mean, not everyone does it because, well, they're smart. But come on, remove all of the CKY off my playlists? Really? (FOCUS DAMN IT)
This leads Michael to be touched by Vincent loving and respecting the family name. Thus, he takes Vince under his wing to groom him to be a more intelligent, calm, collected and competent mafia hood. He has his father's blind rage, which leaves Mike in a compromising position every time he's around when he talks business in the family. (I mean, seriously, he pulls the same shit Sonny did around his father with outbursts and then has to be scolded, "Never let anyone outside the family know what you're thinking." Boy o boy.)
When Michael makes the big power play to buy control of the Vatican owned International Immobilare, in an attempt to gain power plus bail out the Vatican Bank from a 700 million dollar deficit, he finally lets go of his last vestiges of being in the mafia biz by spreading the profit and ownership of his last casino in New Jersey to the don/underbosses left. This angers Zasa, because he wasn't invested, his group was the muscle and runners for the casino. The meeting at which this all takes place is broken up by a hit performed by Joey himself and kills off most of the remaining dons. This leads to Michael to have a diabetic stroke, agitated by Vincent repeatedly saying they need to knock off Zasa. (My girlfriend oversaw the scene where Al Pacino acts out having the stroke and said, "Al Pacino doesn't have [heart attacks,] he's Al Pacino!" Not to add the fact that Al does some of his best over-the-top acting in this scene, with lines like, "I try to leave, but the keep PULLING ME back in."; "Fuck Fucking Joey Zasa!"; and screaming, "Fredo! Fredo!!! FREDO!!!" while being taken off to the hospital. Loved this scene.)
Meanwhile, the worst part of this movie is focused on. Mary and Vincent, cousins if you connect the dots, begin to have a relationship. This is shown with some of the WORST dialog reading I have ever heard, seen or been witness to in my entire life. It's like a computer with voice box read the script with out any knowledge to what punctuation marks are for. If you told me that happens in the scene where Mary visits Vincent at his bar and they talk in the dark, I'd believe you.
Now, mind you, I respect the Coppola family. I've loved all of their works, but Sofia is no actress. (Loved what you did with Bill Murray in Lost in Translation by the way) She speaks with such a lack of emotion in these scenes she's in with Andy Garcia that the lines, "Did my father really kill his brother," and, "I love you, cous," HAVE THE SAME EMOTE!!! (shakes his head) WHAT THE FUCK?!?
A bit of plot exposition after Mike gets out of the hospital, they go to Sicily to see Anthony in his opera debut. Vincent, at the behest of Mike, switches sides to the don that had defended Joey Zasa (who's dead now, Al Pacino was pissed at that knock off). He finds out that a secret organization of Mafia heads in Italy are trying to stop Michael's deal to control Immobilare. One of the more anti climatic parts of this film is where Anthony sings a song to the tune of the theme for The Godfather. During the song, he remembers his first wife that he married when he was in exile in Sicily (this is from the first movie, KEEP UP). After crying, he tells the children later about the relationship and they have a diatribe about how violent the people of Sicily are (and I am using the third definition of the word diatribe, cause that's how the film made it feel to me).
(I almost forgot to talk about this scene, one of my favorites) Michael needs to find out whom in the Vatican to talk to in order to get deep into the situation that is keeping him from getting that Immobilare deal done. The don who gave him shelter during the first movie tells him to talk to Cardinal Lamberto, a priest high in the rankings of the Vatican. He meets with Lamberto, who councils Michael in the dealings of the world while trying to give him insight in his life as well. Hell, he even talks Mike into giving a confession. After having a diabetic attack where he drinks a glass of OJ and is the messiest chocolate eater I've ever seen that's not a female, he agrees. After struggling a bit, he finally confesses (after admiting that he's 1) killed people, 2) had people killed, 3) betrayed his wife whom he wasn't married to when he did marry another {I added that last part}, and 4) betrayed himself {???}) to having his brother Fredo killed. He bursts into tears and the cardinal tells him that he deserves to suffer and, although he has no doubt he won't change, blesses him after it's all said and done. (One of the best scenes in the movie, shows Michael regrets some of the bad thing's he's done)
After Mike beats a dead horse (try's to get Kay to forgive him), the momentum switches to the fact that an assassin, who has been hired to kill Michael, killed the don whom protected him when he lived in Sicily so many years ago. He gives up, tells Vincent that he's done with that life and tells him to call himself 'Vincent Corelone.' When he askes Mike to advise him now that he is the don, Michael tells him to stop seeing his daughter, because she is not to be apart of that life ever (although, in retrospect, you kinda failed that task yourself, Don Mikey).
Vincent makes plans to kill off anyone making the Immobilare deal difficult to finish while the family watches the opera. The assassin, disguised as a priest, sneaks in and kills off the security that Vincent had placed through out the opera hall. By the time he did all of that and came back to the balcony he planned to use as his sniper's nest, Michael had gotten up from his chair to talk about Pope John Paul I (originally Cardinal Lamberto) and the attempt on his life that would be eminent.
Durring the opera, one of the investors who stole money from the Vatican Bank, the don whom Vincent came into contact under cover, and the head of the Vatican Bank were killed; as was the Pope, but not before giving the go ahead on the Immobilare deal earlier in the day. After the round of applause given to the opera, the family attempts to leave. Vincent wants it to go smoothly after hearing that his men were killed. During the exiting of the opera house, Anthony and his fellow opera actors/singers greeted with the public. The assassin took this opportunity to take two shots at Michael. Vincent, seeing the other priests accost the assassin in their garb, shoots him. Michael checks him self, noticing the brush wound on his arm, then turns to see Mary shot in the chest.
So, after all the attempts to keep his family safe since his rise to power and finally stepping down to further protect them, he loses another loved one.
Maybe if Michael had more time to spend with his father so he could learn more of what his father knew, or maybe if he had never went after the drug dealer and the crooked cop in that diner, maybe he'd never had to have to be the don. No one knows, but because of everything he did to burn bridges, he died alone.
I have forgotten about someone through all of this and that's his sister Connie. She was the most RANDOM character in this series.
At first she's a teeny bopper who gets married *turn*
She's a defenseless housewife *turn*
who gets all uppity when a mistress calls the house *turn*
gets beat again *turn*
who gets upset when Mike kills her husband for setting up the death of her BROTHER *turn*
(next movie) Is disillusioned to the world after losing her husband *turn*
who comes back with a changed heart and begs her brother to take her back *turn*
then cares that he's not talking to Fredo *turn*
(next movie) She stands by Michael's side during his twilight years as a don *turn*
whom is weak in his eyes now for not taking care of Joey Zasa *turn*
has the balls (or ovary's in her case) enough to tell Vincent to kill Joey Zasa while Mike's in a diabetic coma *turn*
refuses to bow to Mike's authority *turn*
cries in Michael's arms over Fredo dying so many years ago while not knowing that he didn't drown but that MIKE PUT A HIT ON HIM *turn*
tells Vincent that he's the first person to remind her of her father Vito's strength as a don (even though she had no idea how important HE WAS up to this point) *turn*
feeds Don Altobello poisoned cannoli *wait, that last one wasn't really a turn*
She took more turns in this than a wrestler does in a career. If she was a wrestler, I don't think the crowd would know whether to cheer, boo, or stare blankly.
OK, now for that shocking revelation I had mentioned a while back about all of this.
I actually like Part III more than II.
Ironic seeing as how (semi)serious I treated the review for II but had a lot of jokes and gripes to say with III. I think it has a lot to do with how human the third one was while the second one was down right evil. I loved [most] of the actors in these movies. Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, John Cazale, Robert Duval all did an amazing job. And for as much as I gave Sofia Coppola shit for her performance, well... as a minimalist, she worked?
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