Yay! We come to it at last ladies and gentlemen. The last pest picture winner for me to review. So let's not say anything more as I finally give you my 500th review: Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II.
Plot: The movie is split into two stories - one about Michael Corleone and one about his father Vito Corleone a.k.a. The Godfather. It mainly focuses on Michael about a couple of years after the events from the first movie. After a failed assassination attempt on his life, Michael travels to try to hold things together with his business ventures as he believes that one of his father's oldest partners is behind the assassination attempt and that there is someone in the family who helped him. But as that story is going on, we also focus on his father Vito and his life from childhood to when he rose to finding the Corleone family in New York.
What is there to say that isn't already said about this movie? The Godfather Part II is longer, more complex, darker, succeeds where many sequels don't in giving us a completely different kind of story then was the previous film gave us, and it develops very deeply into the characters from the first film while also giving us new characters to enjoy. As a result not only did it win best picture in its year, but it's considered to be one of the world's greatest cinematic achievements in history. It's ranked #1 on TV Guide's 1998 list of the "50 Greatest Movies of All Time on TV and Video", it's featured on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list, it's currently #3 on IMDb's Top 250 movies, below only The Shawshank Redemption and the first Godfather movie, the list goes on and on and on. One of the most common things that are particularly loved about this movie are it's performances. This movie especially had three nomination for best supporting character because it had so many great performances such as Lee Strasberg as Hyman Roth and Michael V. Gazzo as Frank "Five Angels" Pentangeli. But in the end it was Robert De Niro who won the oscar for his excellent performance as a young Vito Corleone who went from a young and honest man in Little Italy to one of the most respected Dons in New York City. But what is considered to be one of the biggest oscar screw ups was Al Pacino losing for best actor in a leading role for his performance as Michael Corleone. As who can blame us for feeling that? When I say this film developed very deeply into the characters, I was primarily referring to Michael. From the beginning to the end of this movie, Michael as a character changes dramatically up to the point where AFI even ranked him # 11 in their list of top villains. And Al Pacino does a spectacular job at it. Finally I will point out that people who love the first two Godfather movies are heavily divided over which one is their favorite or which one is truly better. Some say the first one is the best because nothing beats the original and they find the second to be a little too confusing and too long. Other think the second one is best simply because as wonderful as the first one is, The Godfather Part II is a slightly bigger masterpiece -mainly because its performances from Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. As for me, I will admit that I do find the first one to be a bigger classic and a little easier to understand, but that doesn't stop this movie from being any less of an ultimate masterpiece.
And that my friends is my review for The Godfather Part II. It's one of the greatest movies of all time with a sequel that is more complex and darker with a completely new kind of story and characters that are extremely well developed with terrific performances from Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and many other actors. If you haven't seen this movie or its predecessor, go check it out. It make take watching them more then once to understand everything, but it's worth it.
So there you have it. All best picture winners to date and 500 movies reviewed total. With the best pictures I want to conclude in saying that while it's very true that many of these films have not dated well and in some cases had no right whatsoever to win, *glares at Out Of Africa and Shakespeare In Love* that doesn't mean we don't have great movies that deserved such a title. Movies like All Quiet in the Western Front, The Godfather films, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Million Dollar Baby, Schindler's List, Casablanca and so on still are rightly viewed as the best pictures of their years as well as some of the greatest movies of all time. There may not be a whole lot of movies created today that go that high in the film world, but it's not impossible for there to be more films to come that may yet become some of the greatest. With that said, I also want to thank all of you for reading my reviews. It's been quite a journey going through so many movies good and bad or in between or what have you. And yet there's still plenty more to see just from the remainder of this year alone with The Wolverine, Kick-Ass 2, Thor 2, the next Hobbit film and so on. Until then, this is H.A.K. saying thank you again for reading and here's to more reviews that are yet to come.
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