MY MOVIE SHELF: The Godfather Part II

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 251 Days to go: 254

Movie #126: The Godfather Part II

It’s long been posited (and upheld) in film circles that The Godfather Part II is at least as good as, if not better than, The Godfather. It’s easy to see why. Though twenty-five minutes longer than the original, The Godfather Part II moves faster and is paced better than the first. And in telling two parallel stories — that of Vito’s (Robert De Niro) past in Italy and rise to power in New York, and of Michael’s (Al Pacino) expansion of and further entrenchment within his crime syndicate even as he hopes to legitimize the family — it has a more balanced structure than The Godfather, which was extremely front-heavy and somewhat sloppy and haphazard for the final third. The Godfather Part II is compelling on all fronts, making it deserving of the first ever Best Picture Oscar win for a sequel, though it’s hard to tell what kind of acclaim it would’ve gotten had The Godfather never existed and this film stood on its own. Would it have felt incomplete? Perhaps. There’s a lot of world-building happening in the first that the second relies on, but for the most part it stands apart as its own film fairly well.

Robert De Niro, it must be said, is by far the most fascinating character of the film. His performance is riveting and flawless. Somehow he manages to embody Vito Corleone almost better than Marlon Brando did. He comes off as calmer, stronger, more centered and even more devoted to his family than Brando did in the original film. And with the addition of Bruno Kirby as young Clemenza and John Aprea as Young Tessio (played by Richard Castellano and Abe Vigoda in the later years), the early life of Vito Corleone is a two-hour film in itself that I would happily watch. It is the strongest and most consistently gripping part of this movie.

Michael’s struggles in 1958, however, are compelling in their own right. Instead of the outside rivalries facing them in The Godfather, the family is roaring with internal conflict in the sequel. Kay (Diane Keaton) has become frustrated and weary with Michael’s continued illegal activities, despite his promise years earlier to legitimize the family business. Connie (Talia Shire) still hasn’t forgiven her brother for Carlo’s (Gianni Russo) murder, and has been depressed and moody and defiant ever since. And Fredo’s (John Cazale) feelings of being slighted and disrespected by everyone have only festered over the years he’s spent in Nevada. Only Tom (Robert Duvall) remains loyal to Michael, though he even voices strong disagreement with him at times. The familial dynamics and politics are much more intriguing than the roundabout dealings and betrayals concerning Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg), Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese) and Frankie Pentangeli (Michael Gazzo), or anything that happens with the Senate committee or the FBI, possibly because sibling rivalries and power struggles are far more universal and relatable than the government pursuit of the mafia. Michael’s confrontation and conflict with Fredo is powerful, heartbreaking and iconic. And his split with Kay (particularly her revelation about her abortion) is even more so.

The one quibble I have is that the interweaving tales of Vito and Michael aren’t evenly spaced. Some segments are too long, while others are too short, giving the impression that the movie has spent too much or too little time with a particular half of the tale before moving back to the other. It’s once again an editing/structure issue of Coppola’s, but in this case it’s a far less cumbersome one, making The Godfather Part II, in my opinion a superior film than its predecessor.

MY MOVIE SHELF: The Godfather

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 252 Days to go: 254

Movie #125: The Godfather

What Francis Ford Coppola really needs is an editor.

The Godfather is an amazing film — beautifully shot, powerfully acted, and epic in both scale and theme. Simply gorgeous, and I mean that. But it is unconscionably long. The movie could’ve been cut down by an hour, easily.

Take, for instance, the entire foray into Sicily and Michael’s (Al Pacino) courtship of Apollonia (Simonetta Stefanelli). Why is this here? Yes, it’s a beautiful and fascinating segment, illustrating Michael’s embracing of the traditional family and his place therein, but that could be conveyed simply from his murder of Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) and McCluskey (Sterling Hayden). The time-lapse could be handled via exposition when Michael meets back up with Kay (Diane Keaton), the same way it’s already used to let the audience know he’s been back for a year. Maybe establish a shot of him in Sicily, and maybe another for when he gets the news of Sonny’s (James Caan) death, but the rest is completely unnecessary. I mean, he winds back up with Kay anyway. He doesn’t indicate he married anyone else in Sicily or that he’s a widower. It never comes up, so why does it need to happen at all?

Another problem — whether it has anything to do with the Sicily segment is up for debate, but it doesn’t crop up until after that point — is the pacing is all off. From the opening of the movie at Connie (Talia Shire) and Carlo’s (Gianni Russo) wedding, The Godfather is meticulously paced, spending a lot of time at the wedding and building the universe of the Corleone family. We are introduced to all the main players: Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) holds court for guests needing favors or paying respect. Consigliere Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) is a trusted advisor and treated like a son by Vito and brother by Sonny and Michael. Vito’s other son Fredo (John Cazale), however, doesn’t seem to have as much pull or garner as much respect from anyone there. As the movie progresses and business is carried out, the Sollozzo business deal comes up and the focus shifts to that particular deal and everything that comes from it. Vito is shot, and hotheaded Sonny wants to go to war after Michael barely keeps Vito from being ambushed at the hospital. But that wouldn’t be wise, so he, Michael and Tom plan Sollozzo’s murder. Everything that happens in this whole first act, all the way up to Michael dropping the gun as he hurries out the door of the restaurant, is very deliberate. One thing happens, then another, then another. There are no big gaps in time or events that have been glossed over. After this point, however, the movie is full of them. Michael spends something like a year in Sicily, and when he meets Kay again he’s been back another whole year working for his father. He asks her to marry him and before you know it they have a toddler and Michael’s been the head of the family for some time. It’s almost as if everything that happens after the Sollozzo/McCluskey incident is epilogue — epilogue after epilogue after epilogue. There are significant turns of events in these scenes — Sonny’s murder, Vito’s death, Michael’s trip to Vegas, the baptism juxtaposed with the hits on the heads of the other families — but they feel tacked on, like afterthoughts. It’s almost as if they should be in a sequel of their own.

I’ve attempted to watch The Godfather many, many times, but this is actually the first time I’ve ever seen the whole thing in a single block. Usually I fall asleep and have to pick it up again later. That almost certainly destroys any cinephile cred I might ever have hoped to have had, but it also doesn’t necessarily reflect too well on a film that is largely regarded as a masterpiece. The thing is, though, it is a masterpiece. Of that I have no doubt. It’s an amazing, incredible film. But it’s still too freaking long.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Deep Impact

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 296  Days to go: 283

Movie #81: Deep Impact

Back at the start of 1998 there was a lot of hubbub within insider entertainment news about two different “giant asteroid” movies being made (and set to release ) at the same time. Within two months of each other that summer, Deep Impact and Armageddon were released. Armageddon was by far the bigger movie — bigger stars, bigger budget, bigger hit, plus a theme song that railroaded just about everything in its path — but for me, Deep Impact has always been the better one.

Armageddon was always meant to be a flashy, wise-cracking dude movie with explosions, and that’s fine. Those are good, enjoyable popcorn flicks, and they don’t need a lot of substance to succeed. It’s a save-the-world movie, concerned only with those doing the saving. Deep Impact, on the other hand, is a movie about human frailty and heroism — it’s about the people on the ground faced with the hopes and fears of a global mission to divert an extinction-level event-sized asteroid, and the harsh realities that force them to face their own mortality and decide what’s important.

On the surface, one could probably pin Deep Impact‘s humanity on its director Mimi Leder (as opposed to Armageddon‘s testosterone-obsessed Michael Bay), a woman who throughout her career directing (largely) TV episodes has always shown interest in the personal stories associated with great drama. Even her other action thriller motion picture, The Peacemaker, had a villain with an emotional, personal purpose. What makes Deep Impact so exceptional, though, are the multiple stories it encompasses and the breadth of their emotions contained within.

Elijah Wood plays a young high school student named Leo Biederman who is thrust into the spotlight when the anomaly he spots during astronomy club turns out to be an asteroid larger than Mount Everest on a collision course with Earth. But he’s still just a kid, in love with his high school sweetheart Sarah (Leelee Sobieski), interested in sex and motorbikes, and close to his parents. In a quintessentially teenager way, he finds the notoriety kind of thrilling at first, and as the time to collision draws nearer, he fights to hold things together, and matures quite a bit, as he would have to.

Tea Leoni, meanwhile, is Jenny Lerner, an ambitious researcher at MSNBC who stumbles on the story of the asteroid when looking into the questionable resignation of a top government official. She bluffs her way through a confidential meeting with the President (Morgan Freeman) enough to find out the true story and get first question (a significant boost to her career) at the White House press briefing on the matter. Suddenly, she too is thrust into the spotlight, seen by the nation as the face of any news concerning the asteroid. It’s everything she’s wanted professionally, but personally she is suffering. Her father (Maximilian Schell) has left her mother (Vanessa Redgrave) and married a much younger woman — only two years older than Jenny herself. Any other time this state of affairs would be a tough hurdle, but faced with the possible end of all life on Earth, Jenny is at loose ends, unable to find any solid footing — particularly after the suicide of her mother. She shuns her father in anger, but gives up her ride to safety at the zero hour to a colleague she’s always admired (Laura Innes) who has a young daughter, and seeks out her father to reconcile with him. That’s where she needs to be, because her family is what’s most important to her.

The astronauts sent into space to destroy the asteroid are also featured, but as fully realized people with strengths and weaknesses instead of as wacky balls of machismo. These astronauts feature a woman, for one, played by Mary McCormack, who joins Blair Underwood, Ron Eldard, Jon Favreau, Aleksandr Baluev and Robert Duvall on a mission of arrogance, humility, loss, solidarity and ultimately sacrifice. Their mission, above all, is to save mankind if they can, regardless of the cost, and they fulfill it with heartbreaking and heroic resolve.

The movie also has small moments of lovely character work: Leo’s dad (Richard Schiff) giving him items to trade (and hence his blessing) when Leo decides to go back for Sarah. The President facing the nation with calm leadership, pragmatism, hope and eventually heartfelt compassion. The meticulous beauty regimen of Jenny’s mom and the devastating realization that she’s preparing to take her own life. The wrenching goodbyes between Sarah and her parents as they hand over her baby brother to care for and send her off with Leo to survive without them, then their touching embrace as they await their ends.

Deep Impact is great. It’s a movie filled with touching and thoughtful moments, of the wide array of feelings and fears that would be an absolute certainty in the face of such an impending event. It’s a movie that is concerned with the human condition, without sacrificing action and suspense. It explores the realistic, years-long process between discovery and destruction of such an asteroid, and how life continues to go on all that time, despite the looming possibility of the end of the world. It’s an emotional, touching, heartbreaking film. So I guess it’s no surprise that Deep Impact, unlike Armageddon, always leaves me in tears.