No man is an island...excepting Michael Corleone.

Rating: 9/10 (27 May 2012)

The Godfather Part II is a tale of two cities, New York at the turn of the 20th century and mid century Lake Tahoe where Vito and Michael Corleone's stories unfold. Much less violent than its predecessor, Part II focuses on Michael's abandonment by family, friends and eventual retreat into himself.
Our feature starts in Sicily them moves to New York, focusing on young Vito Corleone and his orphaned youth. He's said to be "dumb" because he never expresses himself, but you can see his furtive eyes observing everything and his open ears listening to every detail. Vito leaves Sicily orphaned and bereft of siblings, all of them dead at the hands of the local mob boss. He makes a new life for himself in New York, raising a family and overtaking a mob lord with quick wit and a quicker trigger finger. These scenes in 1910ish New York are superb, from the theatre to the grandiosity of the mob to the rigours of health in that area (Fredo is born with Pneumonia, for example) but our future Godfather survives it all, to his credit.
In present day Michael tries to solidify his empire through backroom deals, treachery and the disintegration of his family unit and friends. With Hyman Roth (a Florida mobster), he makes inroads into fertile Cuba but he and his family almost perish in a hit at his own home. Everyone turns on Michael, from a jealous Fredo (older brother given no responsibility) to an estranged Kay (who aborts his second son as she doesn't want to contribute to the mob nightmare any longer) to his mob associates. The only one who comes close to "redeeming" himself is Frank Pentangeli , the key witness for a Senate Investigating Committee into the Corleone's business who recants on the stand when a long-lost brother appears at the tribunal.
In the end, Michael is alone with his son Anthony while Kay and their daughter is gone, Fredo dead, the mob dispersed and the Corleone clan expanding from Vegas to Cuba to Tahoe to who knows where...this chapter is excellent, even surpassing the original in some spots in character development and analysis. Recommend highly, but see The Godfather first.