Thursday 17 March 2022

FILM REVIEW: The Godfather Part 2 [2022 reissue] - Cineworld, Bolton.


Francis Ford Coppola’s 'The Godfather Part II' is one of those films that I don’t watch very often, but one which I have the pleasure of forgetting the majority of the storyline and its beats (I always remember Batista’s “solid” gold telephone, Lee Strasberg being topless, and the music which the funeral band play at the very beginning of the film); and so every time I do see Part II, I’m always blown away by just how fantastic a film it is.

Using a dual narrative structure, taking the rise of young Vito Corleone (that guy from the Scorsese films, Robert DeNiro) and the establishment and growth of his family, juxtaposing his son, Michael’s (Al Pacino) struggle in legitimising the Corleone empire at the cost of neglecting and ostracising all those close to him. I could attempt to go into the plot some more, but firstly I fear I wouldn’t do a very good job and secondly, it’s that dense a plot I would only scratch the surface. Here goes... Michael is doing business with an old family associate, Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg), all the while trying to discover a rat in the family that is working with Roth. The Corleone’s go to Cuba!

Why does this film work so well? Normally sequels are just okay, good but not as good as the first one. Yet here we are, with a film that is as good (some would say better, I’m undecided) as the first one, and that won double the amount of Academy Awards than the first film. Normally you would expect me to answer that but I’m sorry, I’m still trying to figure it out myself. Is it the writing partnership of Coppola and The Godfather’s author, Mario Puzo? The outstanding performances of the actors? I don’t think it’s any one thing.

As I read back and edit this review, I can’t seem to find anywhere to place this so I’ll just write it here. Special mention has to be given to John Cazale’s performance as Fredo, What a great actor and such a shame he died so young.

Unlike the 50th Anniversary screening, which was shown in 4k and HDR, I think this was the Coppola Restoration version from about a decade ago. It still looked great on the big screen, and if anything I couldn’t really tell any difference between this and the 50th Anniversary screening. Are we being duped?! Part II also makes use of the Technicolor dye imbibition that was used in the first film and so we have those wonderfully warm, golden tones to the picture. Those who read my “review” of the first film will remember that I loved the Sicily scenes, and it’s the same case in this film too. I’d say it was my favourite sequence of the film, when Vito and his family visit Corleone in Sicily, it looks great. I’m a sucker for period costume anyway, so that with the settings, the oil presses, the wine, the food, the warm tones and the music swells and crescendos into a key change, ah it’s an overload, it’s estremamente bella!

And talking of the music! Nino Rota came back and expanded the music from the first film, giving us Kay’s Theme which is so wonderfully melancholic and whimsical. Plus the folk inspired music that accompanies the flashback scenes, taking influences from all over Italy and Sicily. The peppy tuba bass and clarinet sounds out of place when listened to alone, but when matched with the respective scenes it works so well and you can’t help but tap your foot or bounce a little in your seat.

Dear reader, you may remember the little details I picked up on in the first film. I’d like to say that Diane Keaton’s eyebrows are consistent in this film! However on a more serious note, the first film is very static, as in the camerawork. I recall reading or hearing somewhere from the cinematographer, Gordon Willis that every shot was made to look like a photograph or painting, but this doesn’t seem to be the case for Part II. What is apparent though, is that the crew were allowed to have a camera dolly! Every other shot is a tracking shot, or a slow dolly zoom. It’s not a negative, or a criticism, I didn’t hate it, just merely an observation. 

It’s such a methodically paced film, with the flashback scenes which are quite heart-warming, contrasted with the cold paranoia of the late 1950s with Michael. I couldn’t help but think how such a narrative device would be butchered if the film was made today. Those of you who know, the flashback scenes are taken from the book, yet I feel if it was made today there would be some Last Crusade-esque joke where a young Vito falls into a stables and comments about a horse’s head, or that the film was edited chronologically, so that the first half of the film is just young Vito and the second half Michael, and so any comparisons and the impact of some beats aren’t there. Luckily, it’s not reality, just my brain asking ‘what if?’ and not being able to forget everything and enjoy the film.

As for the cinema experience, I think I can speak on behalf of the twenty other people in the screening that we all had a great time. From what I overheard, it was a nostalgiac trip for some seeing the film again since they first went to see it in 1974; which was sweet. One elderly couple were commenting how cinemas don’t show older films anymore and that they have to really search around for these screenings. I don’t claim to understand the politics and economics of running a cinema, but I think it’s unfair and even impossible for some people that they have to travel off-the-beaten-track to see a particular film. I know what I’m saying could be interpreted as an uncultured dismissal of arthouse cinemas. It’s not, I love arthouse cinemas as much as their bigger, mainstream cousins. I would just like to see more variety and more reissues of older films in cinema chains which are more accessible for the populous. Saying that, the same Cineworld is showing the new edit of the third film, The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone in a couple of weeks’ time, which I am looking forward to see. In these post-COVID times where the cinema industry took such a battering, I hope that they do more of these screenings of older films etc. and so this dear old couple can enjoy going to the cinema again.

Unfortunately it was a one night only screening of The Godfather Part II, same as it will be for the third film. I know I had said in my review for the first film that I was unsure if I would go as see Part II, but I’m glad I did. I had forgotten just how good a film it really is, and it’s always a treat to experience these giants in film. If you haven’t seen it, don’t let the running-time put you off, if it’s a truly good film how long it lasts doesn’t matter - find a copy and watch it.

Reviewer – Daryl Griffin
on – 16/3/22


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