The Godfather Part 2 - Full reaction!
Added 2024-09-23 18:00:07 +0000 UTCI did not know there were different versions of this film, but this is the longer version. I watched it on Paramount+.
Comments
Yes! I didn’t even notice!
bunnytails
2024-09-30 07:53:58 +0000 UTCAm I the first to mention that Fredo's wife was Marianna Hill, who played Dr. Helen Noel in the Star Trek TOS episode, "Dagger of the Mind"? Marianna Hill doesn't get enough credit for being an outstanding actor with great range.
Erwin Quiachon
2024-09-29 08:02:27 +0000 UTCMy first rewatch was to trace when exactly did Michael start showing sociopathic behavior. He goes from being a warm, caring, person in the beginning who wants to be honest with Kay about his family history before he asks her to marry him, to a cold, bitter, paranoid, sociopath after Apolonia is killed. It's as if the last bit of innocence that Michael had died with Apolonia. His sociopathic transformation hits rock bottom in the abortion scene. His condescension and dishonesty toward Kay in that scene is a complete transformation from the beginning. His warmth never returns until Part 3. I remember George Lucas saying that he was Coppolas assistant in 1973 while the worked on Part 2. Lucas said that he was working on his screenplay for Star Wars at that time when he and Coppola talked about making movies where the hero and the villain are the same person. As a result, Anakin Skywalker has the same character arc as Michael Corleone.
Erwin Quiachon
2024-09-27 06:06:19 +0000 UTCI feel that this movie gets better the more you watch it. I was underwhelmed with it too, the first time I watched it, all the characters, all the plot, impossible to grasp everything the first time you watch but through repeated viewings over the course of my life, I now consider it to be one of the greatest films I've ever seen. There's just so much here to see, no one person can get everything with one viewing. You learn more everytime you view it, I think that is what Coppola intended to make a movie with complexity that can stand up to repeated viewings. At this point in my life I think it's better than the original (and that's saying something, lol). It just takes time.
Michael Roach
2024-09-26 19:50:52 +0000 UTCI've been rewatching the Godfather movies for decades and I'm still not satisfied that I've figured out everything I want to know about the decisions made by these characters. Morality is an easy line to draw, but the questions that last are how the decisions could have been better. These are decisions most people will face in their own lives. Abortion? How far would you go to protect and provide for your family? How far would you go to protect the innocent? I've been meeting more people over the years who use the Godfather movies to test the morality of anyone they rewatch them with.
Erwin Quiachon
2024-09-25 18:23:07 +0000 UTCDon’t feel bad about that Bunny. This is a brilliant movie but I would say anyone who claims they completely “got” it after only one viewing is probably lying. Certainly not all the nuances. It’s one that definitely rewards repeat veiwings.
Matthew Graves
2024-09-25 05:32:30 +0000 UTCThe ending of Part 2 is why I appreciate Part 3 more and more as time goes by.
Erwin Quiachon
2024-09-25 03:39:33 +0000 UTCMario Puzo drew upon the Kennedy family when developing the Corleone story. JFK was also a sickly younger sibling who wasn't expected to be successful when he grew up. Like Michael, JFK wa a war hero who became the leader of the Kennedy family after the violent death of his older, more physically dominant, brother, Joe. Coppola also reveals in his blu ray commentary that he was the one who prayed the Hail Mary when he fished with his family as a child in real life.
Erwin Quiachon
2024-09-23 21:03:49 +0000 UTCThat’s really interesting how and why those details were changed in the movie. It also makes me curious about reading the books. I will surely have more thoughts at the end of the YT edit, after I rewatch the movie through editing. I did struggle a bit with keeping up with the plot and all the people with this one.
bunnytails
2024-09-23 20:57:02 +0000 UTCPart 3 usually goes over everyones head who isn't familiar with King Lear. Without spoiling, all you really need to watch for is how the theme of moral and emotional blindness is carried over to Part 3. You may have noticed how Kay kept calling Michael "blind" in the abortion scene of Part 2 as Michael was starting show signs of diabetes when he kept drinking water and rubbing his eyes. Part 3 also has an Oedipal complex that is a reference to King Lear that most people don't understand. Shakespeare and Coppola were very correct to use the Oedipal complex to show how the children in powerful families often become attracted to people who are like their parents. This is still very true in wealthy families today in real life as it was over 400 years ago when King Lear was written. Part 3 also has a hidden allegory that Coppola didn't explain until about 10 years after its release that shows how the Coppola family became the family Vito always wanted. The Oedipal complex, Michaels diabetes, and the opera used in Part 3 are tied into that hidden allegory.
Erwin Quiachon
2024-09-23 20:15:06 +0000 UTCFredo never dies in the book and is described in the book by Sonny as the toughest of Vito's sons. Coppola changed Fredo for the movies, with Puzo's permission, to reflect how Coppola was treated as a child. Coppola had polio as a child and spent about a year in bed. Like Fredo, people ignorantly assumed that Coppola would grow up to be a weakling and a failure because he was a sickly child. Coppolas talents did not show until he went to college and he become the most successful and wealthiest member of his family. Coppola uses this in Part 3 as Michael watches Connie's development and is haunted by the consideration of how Fredo might have developed if he was allowed to live.
Erwin Quiachon
2024-09-23 19:39:19 +0000 UTCAndolini sounds like Vandal, who settled in Tunisia after being driven out of Spain by the Visigoths. The Vandals settled in parts of Sicily so Vito's family name could be derived from them. Godfather II starts with some really effective period authenticity when the audience is paying close attention. The production is most of what I got out of the movie, because the characters and plot never reached the level of Godfather. Robert Duvall is strangely subdued in the picture. Pacino has one expression. The shining stars are DeNiro, who channels an incredible Brando and is not given enough screen time (also like Brando), and of course Cazales, as the tragic Fredo. A disappointing ending, with a repeat of the ending of Godfather; montage of Godfather whacking his enemies.
William Terry
2024-09-23 18:55:54 +0000 UTC
