Show Business: The Final Act of a Family Epic

THE GODFATHER, PART II

Directed by FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA Screenplay by FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA and MARIO PUZO

It is possible to pinpoint precisely when a sense of well-being begins to take over in The Godfather, Part II—a sense that this is "a film of respect" rather than a cynical attempt to cash in on The Godfather. This moment occurs at the end of the establishing sequence that deliberately challenges comparison to the great wedding scene that opened the earlier film. The occasion for a party this time is the First Communion of Michael Corleone's son. The setting is Lake Tahoe, where Michael, as the new head of the "family," has moved his home office in order to run his casino operations in Nevada. An emptily handsome U.S. Senator commands attention in order to acknowledge receipt of Michael's handsomely empty contribution to the state university's scholarship fund. Inevitably, the lawmaker finds it impossible to throw his Western accent around a proper pronunciation of the new philanthropist's name. Equally inevitably, a boy choir has been recruited to sing a song dedicated to Michael Corleone.

Their choice? What else but Mister Wonderful?

What happens at this point is that delicious sensation of letting-go familiar to readers of huge 19th century novels, but much less readily available to a moviegoer today. A skilled popular artist —the kind of man who can blend subtly observed details with a gift for socko showmanship—takes over to lead a guided tour of an exotic yet humanly recognizable and completely realized world. That's really entertainment.

Austere Aspirations. It should be understood that the mood of Godfather II is quite different from that of its predecessor. This is a much colder film, with austere aspirations—not fully realized—to transcend its melodramatic origins and to become an authentic tragedy. The modern sections show what Michael (Al Pacino), as heir to his father's empire, must surrender in order to maintain his power and his ideal of a Mafia-style "family." The first film made clear that part of Michael knows better, but he cannot really change the stern conditioning of his upbringing.

The basic, pitiless irony is that what he must do is sacrifice the happiness, often the lives, of his family (his wife, his elder brother, old associates). The end finds him stripped of everything he once valued except the one thing he found essential—unquestioned, unquestionable authority. It seems a far more terrible punishment than the bloody retributions the old movie code used to insist on applying to Scarface, Little Caesar and their ilk.

The new movie also has a stronger moral dimension than Godfather I, which ended with the Corleones' wiping out their rivals from less nice families.

Here there is no doubt that they are as vicious, as driven as their enemies.