Protect the family even if it means breaking it apart

Rating: 5/10 (19 July 2013)

The Godfather, Part II continues from The Godfather with the idea of protecting the family at all costs. In Part I, Michael's internal change from anti-Family to taking up his father's mantle drove the story. In Part II, Michael is unchanging in his pursuit to protect the Family. And we see this idea, that the family needs to be protected at all cost, taken to its extreme logical conclusion, with Michael killing his own brother.
Part II also adds to the stakes of family by having a parallel story of Vito building the family in the last generation.
In the end, Michael is able to protect the family, but at the cost of having torn it apart: having killed his own family members and casting his wife out.
Part II is a great film that takes the premise to its gut-wrenching extreme but logical conclusion. It makes us question the idea that the ends justify the means that we bought wholesale in Part I.
Redemption would be called for in The Godfather: Part III, but as we shall see, it will not come easily.
My Story Chart of the movie is at storycharts.ca.