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| Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton,
Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Robert Duvall, John Cazale |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Michael
Corleone (Al Pacino): I don't want to kill everyone, Tom. Just my
enemies.
The
consolidation of Michael Corleone's Mafia empire is contrasted with
his father Vito's establishment of the Corleone family syndicate in
the 1920s.
 Rarely
has a sequel been envisioned both as audacious in its scope and as bold
in its exploration of the first film's roots and ultimate consequences.
In a masterstroke as unlikely as it was brilliant, Coppola decided to
explore his main characters' family history while also continuing to
develop the narrative forward towards its terrifyingly grim conclusion.
This approach could just have easily resulted in a TV miniseries result,
but the parralel narratives and contrasting visual styles expand and
amplify the first film's original themes while providing an experience
that is both more satisfying and more chilling. The sequel's epic canvas
and harrowing emotional impact invite favorable comparison to the original
film, but Part II also exists as an astute enhancement of the
preceding film, and ultimately draws its meaning, characters and impact
directly from it.
Filled to bursting with memorable images, The Godfather Part II
also sees cinematographer Gordon Willis embellishing on his work in
the first film. The sepia-toned 'Young Vito' sequences have been copied
so often, they have become a visual cliché for representing that
particular era on film, though none have captured the detail and atmosphere
of the period as acutely as is the case here. The more contemporary
sequences meanwhile go further than the original in both the doom-laden
darkness of the interiors and the exuberant decadence of the syndicate's
Las Vegas, Cuba and Lake Tahoe surroundings. This sequel, more than
any other film I can think of, makes the utmost of every aspect of moviemaking
to bring home its main story. |
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Released
in the same version worldwide on 9th October 2001, it marks the first
release of all The Godfather movies on DVD in one package of 5
discs: The Godfather DVD Collection. The following links offer
in-depth reviews of the other two movies and the extras disc:
The
anamorphic widescreen image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx.
1.78:1. The visual presentation of the second film in the trilogy is
slightly more consistent in any case than the first film, with similar
problems of graininess and minor source print damage flaws, but fewer
shots that seem either much better or much worse than the rest of the
picture. The presentation of the 'Young Vito' parts of the film faithfully
represent the gorgeous sepia-tones of Gordon Willis's original cinematography,
full of rich browns and warm yellows, while the 'Michael Corleone' segments
are all but drained of color. Black levels in both stories are deep,
though shadow detail sometimes suffers.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio mix is a little more expansive than that
of the first film, though it does include a few instances where dialogue
reproduction is very poor, and speech sounds muffled to the point of
unintelligibility. The .1 LFE once again gives some extra punch to occasional
action and crows scenes, and rear channels are all but unused.
Francis
Ford Coppola again provides a full-length audio commentary track.
As the segments that deal with the further development of Michael Corleone's
empire were basically culled from an original screenplay of Coppola's
that was then further augmented - and fiercely debated - by input from
Mario Puzo, he has much to tell about the development of the themes
and backgrounds of what is widely known as the Best Sequel Ever Made.
No one will be surprised that there are dead spots and silent moments
in a commentary that runs the entire length of the film's nearly four-hour
running time, but Coppola does an outstanding, open-hearted job at keeping
the info and the anecdotes coming, and all fans of the film are sure
to see their patience rewarded in the end.
For an in-depth critical discussion of the full disc of extras, see
our separate feature on The
Godfather Collection - Extras Disc.  Animated
menus offer three options and when you retun to the main menu from any
of the three options you'll notice there are three different menus available,
all tastefully done with an image from the movie and with fitting music
from the score. Navigation is easy.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on The
Godfather Part II.
Click here
to return to the front page.
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