Adapted from the novel The Godfather by Mario Puzo
This is both a sequel and a prequel to The Godfather. Part of the movie focuses on Michael Corleone's rise to power; the rest on his father Vito's, decades earlier.
When I blogged about The Godfather, I mentioned that most of the book was already covered by Part I, so I didn't see what more was left for Part II. However, the book does include one section (Book III, i.e. Chapter 14) that gives some of Vito's backstory, and most of Vito's scenes in this movie are taken from that part of the novel. The Michael scenes are all new. I'm not sure how much of Michael's story in Part II was in Mario Puzo's mind when he was writing the book and how much of it was Francis Ford Coppola's addition, but the book pretty much ends where the first movie ends.
Personally, I much prefer Vito's story to Michael's, so I think the adapted material was far superior to the additions. The novel and the first movie both imply that Michael has stepped into his father's shoes as The Godfather, and will hold that position with perhaps even more ruthlessness, and honestly, that's enough for me. I don't need to see what happens next; I get the gist. To me, for both these men, it's more interesting to see how they became the way they were than to see them acting the way they turned out. Part I does that for Michael; Part II does that for Vito. Anyway, the adapted part was quite consistent with that section of the novel, and the additions seemed fairly consistent with the characters portrayed in the novel, so overall I'd call it a decent adaptation, but definitely inferior to Part I.
The main thing I remembered from watching this movie for my Best Picture project, lo those many years ago, was that it was very confusing. So I was not surprised that I wasn't entirely sure what was going on when I started this movie. I felt like I'd missed something, but I was still kind of following it, so I was waiting for it to take us back in time and explain what had happened. Until I went to change the DVD and realized I had been watching Disc 2 instead of Disc 1. So then I watched the first half of the movie, and shockingly enough, it made a LOT more sense. I think if I watch it a third time, in the right order, I might finally fully understand this film, but I don't think I'm up for trying that anytime soon. I know this is widely considered one of the best sequels ever made, but most of it seems superfluous to me. There are some great scenes, to be sure, but there is absolutely no reason for this movie to be three and a half hours long.
Next up: Best Picture and Best Actress winner One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, based on the novel by Ken Kesey
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