Am I the only person in this world that believes the first Godfather is better than the second? Everyone says, “Godfather 2 is the only instance where the sequel is better than the original.” I wholeheartedly disagree. Let me be lay out a few things before going any further:
1. I love the Godfather. I love the Godfather Part 2. AND I love the Godfather Part 3 (That’s an entirely different blog post)
2. I think that Robert DeNiro is awesome including his performance in Godfather Part 2
3. I will refer to The Godfather and The Godfather Part 2 as GF1 and GF2
4. A bad mafia movie is still better than most of any other movie.
Ok. Let’s get started.
Godfather 2 is boring, too confusing, too much work, too long, and doesn’t stand on it’s own.
GF2 IS BORING
GF1, GF2, and GF3 all start off with a party. That’s cool. But the party that starts off GF2 goes on way too long. We see the new posse. We see the old guys. We see speeches. We see dancing. We see strong-arming. We see drunkedness and public embarrassment (Fredo’s wife). We see drunkedness and private embarrassment (Connie and her new dweeb of a fiancé). The point is it takes like 45 minutes of screen time sorting and re-establishing everything about the family. I know I had the benefit of seeing the first 2 movies back to back for the first time (I was not born when they came out) but please. We loved these characters. We knew their motivations, their strengths. Their faults. We didn’t need it spelled out again. Couldn’t they have done the spinning newspaper effect to explain all of this like they did in GF1 when Michael kills the Turk and McCluskey?
GF2 IS CONFUSING
I understand the whole back story of Don Corleon but after a while you forget what time period you are in. Believe me, I prefer this method of explaining back story way better than Lucas’s lame-ass attempt in Star Wars Episodes 1-3. But the DeNiro as Vito should really have been it’s own movie. GF2 is really 2 movies shuffled together to form a garbled mess. Ok so when is Vito in Italy? When is he in NY? When does he become the Don? But then when does he go back to Italy? And what about the dude he kills in NY? Confusing confusing confusing.
GF2 IS TOO MUCH WORK
One word. Subtitles. Yes, it adds to the authenticity and I didn’t mind it in GF1 but then again Apollonia in GF1 was so pleasing to the eye that I didn’t care. But I get annoyed with it in GF2. Again, its the fact that one minute you are watching their mouths, then you need to read the bottom of the screen. At least for the DVD release, you can set the subtitles below the widescreen box. You couldn’t in the VHS version. Plus, with DeNiro doing his best Mr Mumbles as the young Vito, you don’t know sometimes whether he’s speaking english or not. So your eye is pinging back and forth back and forth. Way too much work.
GF2 IS TOO LONG
GF2 is 200 minutes long. GF1 is only 175 minutes. 25 minutes goes a long way believe you me. And I would contest you could certainly cut 25 minutes from this drawn out borefest. The entire Hyman Roth sequence in Cuba could have been cut down to 10 minutes. Of course you have to have the whole, “You broke my heart Fredo” line. Cuz that’s the best line in the entire movie.
GF2 DOES NOT STAND ALONE
GF2 is a continuation of GF1, not a sequel. It’s a case of where Coppola could have had a cheesy dissolve transition and then say, 5 years later and we would all be cool. We would say, oh ok. its later on and that’s that. Plus GF2 really does not have as many memorable lines. Just the “You broke my heart Fredo” line stands out. Like how in GF3 the “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” line. GF1 has tons! here are the most notable:
• “Be my friend, Godfather?”
• “You can start by being a man!”
• “Luca Braci sleeps with the fishes”
• “It’s not personal Tom, it’s business”
• “Leave the gun, take the cannoli”
• “Whuhh Ahhh Ahhh”-The horse in the bed
• “Never ask me about my business kay”
What do you think?
Do you think Godfather 2 is better than the first Godfather? Or are you with me and think Godfather 2 is merely a vehicle to get to the conclusion of the trilogy in Godfather Part 3?
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Gregory Ng
GOAL: Visit 100 National Parks as a family by 2020. Favorite Parks: Zion National Park, Mt Rainier National Park, Valley Forge National Historical Park
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