more complex and even richer than the original

Rating: 10/10 (22 November 2010)

It's rare for a sequel to match its predecessor, but the follow-up to Francis Ford Coppola's monumental mob family drama does more than simply continue the same story, expanding on themes only suggested in Part One to present an ambitious overview of organized crime in 20th century America. The Corleone family tree is divided here into parallel histories, with young Vito (Robert De Niro) arriving in the New World to begin a family, and a family empire, which a generation later his bitter and lonely son Michael (Al Pacino) would consolidate, destroying in the process everything he holds dear. The sudden displays of gangland violence are no longer placed in ironic juxtaposition to the unlikely richness of Corleone family values, being used instead to measure the corruption of il padrone's immigrant idealism: murder to young Vito is strictly a matter of honor, but to Michael it's only an extension of his absolute power. The crosscutting between two stories sacrifices a consistent narrative flow in favor of complexity and depth, but it's a fair trade, and seen together with Part One (Part Two should not be seen without the introduction provided by the earlier film) is a rich experience not soon forgotten.