The Godfather II (1972)
Another film colossus falls. As regular readers will attest I finally saw the first installment of Coppola’s classic crime drama during a limited re-release last year and some twenty years ago I saw the slightly unfairly maligned third and concluding episode to the finest criminal odyssey to ever grace the silver screen. This was the first film I’d seen in weeks back in September and it has certainly been far too long since I luxuriated in a three-hour epic at the National Film Theatre, I can’t imagine a purer fix to my celluloid itch . Any suspicions that this wasn’t my favourite picture of the three were swiftly dispelled, I have an enormous amount of admiration for The Godfather but I do prefer the wider grandeur of Part II with its transitions between the time frames, the mirroring of the rise of the Corleone empire with its final moral plunge into the abyss , an organic expansion from the previous films compact criminality. As for the third one, yeah it pales in comparison to the first two but which crime films of this epic variety don’t? Well, apart from Once Upon A Time In America anyway? Then again, I haven’t actually seen Part III in quite a few years, maybe its really bad. Anyway, enough of these delays, its time to revisit Francis Ford Coppola’s 1975 masterpiece….
In a lyrical swoon The Godfather II moves between the story of the young Vito Corleone at the turn of the century and his son Michael’s final consolidation of power in the 1950’s and 1960’s, a graceful symmetry that also charts the omnipotent rise and saturnalian fall of the Corleone empire, as their influence and power proliferates their souls are utterly destroyed, a fall that culminates in a murder within their most precious and prized commodity, the family and the blood ties of kith and kin. Newly decanted from New York to Nevada with Michael ensconced as godfather (Al Pacino, never better), the family is looking to move into the lucrative Las Vegas casino business with the influence and assistance of the corrupt Senator Pat Geary (a fantastic G.D Spradlin* whom you may recall is the mission instigator of Apocalypse Now) and in a pincer movement the family is also looking to extend its tendrils to foreign climes, to move into Cuba with the patronage of a certain Hyman Roth, an ancient ally of the Corleone family, a duplicitous snake performed with a beguiling intensity by Lee Strasberg, the legendary Actors Studio teacher. Against these strands the film also looks backward to chart the rise of the young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro, also never better) and his escape from Sicily to New York in 1903, an abandonment of his homeland due to a blood feud that has left his brother, father and mother dead. Amongst the swirling immigrant communities of New York during the infancy of a new century the young Vito comes of age and questions the validity of the local criminal gangs who shake down and exploit their own local communities, and in partnership with his young countrymen plots to usurp their power as his own brood are born.
The projection was of a fairly scratchy print but this did not detract from my enjoyment, in fact this was proof that the screening was of a genuine nature, of an original splice from 1974 and not a digitally rendered facsimile, as seems to increasingly be the case in London. This does give a sense of authenticity to us film weirdos and a more fulfilling experience as although some groans were emitted when reel changes resulted in fragments of dialogue being obscured (and some quite important pieces of dialogue as it happens) this was a film I’m sure the majority of the audience had seen before. On the big screen you can really appreciate its operatic, epic sweep, those lyrical dissolves from father to son refracting and reflecting upon each other, as they both carve out a bloody existence amongst the American dream.
The cast, from the principles to the supporting players are impeccable. To bang the drum again I would argue the case that Pacino’s achievement is one of the all-time great screen performances, he instinctively knows screen acting – as opposed to stage acting – when entire reams of information and subtlety can be encapsulated in the movement of the eyes or his stalking movements within the frame. De Niro equals his finest moments in Taxi Driver or The King of Comedy or Heat or The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (one of those might be a joke) and if you squint you can also see the likes of Roger Corman, Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior in The Sopranos) Robert Duvall and Harry Dean Stanton floating around as supporting players. Perhaps the films most quietly brilliant performance is that of John Cazele however, a man whose every screen appearance was in a best picture nominated film (Both Godfathers, The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter) before his untimely death at the tragically young age of 42 . A new documentary on his career has just been released in the states with contributions from the likes of Streep, Pacino and De Niro whom actually worked with him and contemporary admirers such as Sam Rockwell and Philip Seymour Hoffman – you can see the connection I think so that’s one Blu-Ray for the Christmas list.
Being an early fan of Coppola I picked up some of the names that repeatedly cropped up in the credits of his films – Fred Roos, his father Carmine Coppola, editor Barry Malkin but its production design Dean Tavoularis who really excels himself here, in tandem with Gordon Willis ground-breaking lighting schemes they craft a murky stage for the Machiavellian maneuvering, beautifully creating a heaving, sepia tinged New York of the 1900’s and a ruthless clutch of hematic amphitheatres around the middle of the century in which the drama unfolds. That Nino Rota score is a bona fide classic, up there with Jaws, and Gone With The Wind or The Good The Bad & The Ugly as immediately identifying the picture, a tempo that has burrowed itself into the cultural consciousness. The rituals of family provide the spine for the film – the weddings, the christenings, the funerals – and an emphasis on food prefiguring death, whether its Vito breaking bread with his potential allies in the opening catenations of the film, or Michael munching on a quartered orange as he plots the assassination of his surviving adversaries during the final denouements. But it’s the script and plot that are most celebrated (at least by me), the interweaving libretto and the labyrinthine plots of Michael’s empire that build to their brilliant apex as he slowly unveils the traitor within, compelling him to issue orders that leave him all-powerful but spiritually wretched, eternally and forever damned.
There is a whole host of deleted scenes on youtube which is something of a surprise, I’m sure they were not included in the DVD box set I got a few years ago so I assume they are culled from the horrific re-cut for TV version of the saga which moves through the odyssey historically and therefore removes all of the mirroring qualities that I mentioned beforehand. You know, I might give part 3 a spin this weekend and see how it pans out, it could be good right? Well? No, I’ve just remembered the scene with the pastry, and the stupidly over-cooked machine gun attacks, and lets face it, Joe Mantegna is no Virgil Sollozzo or Hyman Roth is he? Oh well, anyway, a little bit of a fun to finish on – if you call an infuriating brain scrambler fun – here is a fiendishly difficult film quiz set by the great David Thompson, its one of those where you have to really think about the questions before assembling an answer, at a first glance I’ve got perhaps fourteen or fifteen out of fifty which isn’t a bad start as man, those questions are nasty. I’ve posted it here as one of them is coincidently answered up-post, how many others can you solve? So that’s me all caught up, this leaves the field clear for my 500th post extravaganza, although I do have a plan for the weekend to catch another restored classic. EDIT – damn, just caught this and to keep with the classic and Italian themes ciao Dino, and thanks for Danger Diabolik, Dune, Blue Velvet, Manhunter, Evil Dead 2, The Dead Zone and La Strada just to name my favourites out of a epic career.
* God I hate that new IMDB design, it’s terrible and removes the opportunity to easily scroll through a figures entire CV. I think there’s a petition to change it back somewhere….
The Godfather
It’s a funny old world. I was called into the Directors office this morning for what I assumed was news of two weeks notice – my contract with Southwark was always agreed at three months (which expired last week) and they are hemorrhaging consultants all over the place due to cost efficiency drives. That’s fine, it’s expected (I’ve been given two hours notice of termination in the past), it’s the game I’m in and that’s how the industry works. I walked out with a three month extension and an exceptionally strong push to take on a future permanent role that they would construct around my recommendations – she made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. There, I’ll bet you were wondering where I was going with that in a post about the Don of all crime movies, ‘The Godfather‘ which my local cinema once again excelled in picking up as part of its national limited digital big screen re-release.
Do we really need a synopsis? OK then, it is the late 1940s in New York and Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando, iconic) is, in the parlance of organized crime, a “godfather” or “don,” the head of a Mafia family. Michael (Al Pacino in his breakthrough role) initially uninvolved with the family business has returned a war hero from Europe and arrives at the wedding of his sister, Connie (Talia Shire), with his non-Italian girlfriend, Kay (Diane Keaton), who inquisitively
learns about the family “business.” A few months later Don Vito barely survives an assassination attempt fron mobsters hired by a drug-trafficking rival whose request for solace from the Corleones’ political influence was rejected. After saving his father from a second assassination attempt, Michael persuades his quick tempered elder brother, Sonny (a feisty James Caan), and family advisor, consigliere Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) and that he should be the one to exact revenge….
So much of the movie has entered the lexicon of cinema thus it’s quite difficult to dismantle its legendary reputation and take a fresh look at the film, I tried to be as dispassionate as possible but it was impossible not to be astounded on almost every level. It’s the American Dream writ large, the unceasing seduction of more power, more wealth and just how tenuous that position of authority can be – a couple of punks armed with .38’s can bring it all crashing down. As always with these new prints it looked fantastic, Gordon ‘The Prince Of Darkness’ Willis submerging the drama into a cloaked world of violence, betrayal and murder. The Nino Rota score is perfect, the performances are all perfect, as Kubrick once said it is a strong contender for the best cast movie ever made, from the central roles down to the granite faces of the criminal foot soldiers. Walter Murch’s post production strokes of élan such as the match cuts and sound design on the central murder scene, the impeccable re-creation of the late 1940’s from designer Dean Tavoularis, they all blend to make this a sumptuous cinematic feast. Oh, and that’s Michael Chapman listed there as the camera operator, he would go on to photograph a few Scorsese’s and some other classics.
If someone held a gun to my head and instructed me to give the best film acting performance ever I would have to elect Pacino in both Godfathers I and II, it’s not the most original choice I know but it doesn’t distract from 
his volcanic, internal, brooding achievement, quite the reverse of the explosive, attention seeking performances that he’s subsequently delivered. I love the minutiae of detail in the film, the guns adapted to make a lot more noise and scare off witnesses, the Machiavellian maneuvering of the competing criminal dynasties, the almost Shakespearean tragedy seething in every scene. One strange thing was the lack of dialogue subtitles when Michael is talking with Sollozzo and McClusky as seen here, they were completely absent yet earlier in the film when characters are speaking Sicilian the subtitles are present and correct – weird. I’d heard on one of my podcasts the complaint that digital screenings sometimes mis-align the dialogue track so you see actors lips moving with a delayed sound, something which apparently wrecked the premiere of the new print of ‘An American Werewolf in London‘ at Frightfest this year and something I did occasionally notice during both screenings of Scarface and The Thing. Thankfully the technicians at the Cineworld seem to have cracked this one as there were no irritating distractions such as that at this screening. So lets close with the operatic conclusion of Michael’s ascent – or should that be descent – to Godfather with the ruthless execution of the bosses of the five families which elevates him to the highest echelon of power. Stunning orchestration eh?
Gomorrah
One of the most lauded films from this years Festival de Canne finally reaches London and given my love of crime movies I was happy to see this Italian language film being screened at my local multiplex. Based on the best selling journalistic reportage of Roberto Saviano, ‘Gomorrah‘ is a powerful presentation of the modern day Mafia who run rife through the poverty stricken tenements of Naples. The film is comprised of a half dozen or so threads detailing all strata’s of the Comorra clan, building a complex picture of a terrible criminal enterprise that seems to have permeated all aspects of contemporary Italian society. We are taken through the lives of the middle ranking thugs who are involved in waste disposal and government liaison, the aspirant minded teenagers and their Tony Montana influenced truculence, the traditional money managers who spend their days managing a byzantine web of protection rackets and the lives of the law abiding citizens whose lives are tragically wrecked by the Mafia’s pervasive criminal conspiracy.
The film takes the best elements of Italian neo-realism, namely the use of fluid and scrappy handheld camera work, the employment of non-professional actors along with the absence of any soundtrack to deliver a powerful punch of gripping vérité, punctuated with moments of horrific violence. This is obviously a close reference point, given its design and attitude. The myriad strands of the film are managed skillfully, I will certainly be keeping an eye on director Matteo Garrone and checking out his past work, for instance this looks intriguing.
It’s quite an antidote to the romanticised portrayal of the Mafia that the films of Scorsese and Coppola have projected or of course the adventures of a certain rotund gentleman from New Jersey. There is no sense of honour among thieves or any sense of ‘omertà‘ that is explored in those cultural milestones, in ‘Gomorrah‘ we are immersed in a hell on earth which is comprised of random violence, frequent betrayal and explicit brutality. The action unfolds in a tableau of Neapolitan urban decay which also marks a distinctive shift from the impeccably lit New York that has frequently served as the backdrop to previous organised crime films, the various threads all reaching their inevitable, blood drenched conclusions to build an uncompromising and frankly exhausting cinema experience.
It has something of the intertwining, macro level reportage feeling of the (MAJOR SPOILERS) ‘The Wire‘ to it and I can’t think of any higher praise. It concludes with some grim text on the history of the Comorra clan which blends into the final titles with a killer musical score. Highly recommended and a film whose story is constantly evolving…..
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