The movie followed the rise and fall of the Corleone family. It follows Michael Corleone as he sturggles to keep the family together and flashbacks to the rise of Vito Corleone as the original Godfather. Michael trys to expand the family empire by buying casinos in Nevada and trying to get casinos started in Cuba, while still trying to hold on to what power they have in New York. Along the way he is betrayed by a number of people including his brother. The movie flashes back to his father's humble beginings and how he rose to power in New York by helping people out and exchanging favors.
The movie somehow works when in theory it shouldn't. The movie is over 3 and a half hours long and tells two simultaneous stories. It is like a prequel and a sequel wrapped up in one movie. It almost makes you wonder if they could have told a better story if they had split it up into two different movies. But the movie flows really well even with the jumping around in time. I think the origin story is the more interesting story and Robert Deniro as the young Vito Corleone is excellent. But to see Al Pacino navigate the modern world and trying not to lose his power while his family falls apart is captivating. It truely is a remarkable film and worthy of the praise it gets.
The other movie that was highly praised that year was Chinatown with 11 nominations and only 1 win for screenplay. Roman Polanski's crazy movie about a detective who uncovers a murder plot and lots of weird little things. I have watched the movie a few times and still don't get what is so good about it. It doesn't make any sense and the last line of the movie sums up the movie "Forget it Jake. Its Chinatown".
Oscar Facts
Robert Deniro's win for Best Supporting Actor was the first time that two actors won an Academy Award for playing the same charecter. Marlon Brando won Best Actor for playing Vito Corleone in 1972.
The Godfather II had three nominations for Best Supporting Actor a repeat of the rare feet that the original The Godfather had done.
Francis Ford Coppola directed two movies that were nominated for Best Picture. Not only The Godfather Part II but also the low budget The Conversation.
Bob Fosse was also nominated for Best Director for Lenny. This is the second time that Fosse and Coppola were both nominated for Best Director. Fosse had beat Coppola in 1972 for Cabaret. They both would be nominated again in 1979 Fosse for All That Jazz and Coppola for Apocalypse Now. They both lost that year to Robert Benton for Kramer vs. Kramer.
By the Numbers
The Godfather Part II was ranked at number 37 in both 1997 and 2007 on AFI's 100 Greatest Films. The only sequel to make it on the list.
Chinatown was ranked at 19 and 21 in 1997 and 2007 respectivly.
On IMDB Top 250 The Godfather Part II is currently ranked at number 3 and Chinatown is ranked 69.
No comments:
Post a Comment