Achieves the impossible

Rating: 10/10 (5 March 1999)

As I've said before, I really hate sequels. Technically, this may not strictly be a sequel (since half of this, the flashback half, was in the original novel), but what the hell; this is the rare sequel which is not only great, but improves on the original. If you held a gun to my head and asked me what my favorite movie was of all time, this would be the one. Though I disagree with Coppola, who felt he romanticized the Corleones in Part I, without that feeling, there would have been no Part II, and we must thank him for that.
The way time passes from present to pass effortlessly, the way we see how past affects present, the way the story of Michael Corleone achieves the level of Greek tragedy, the direction, the performances, the score, everything comes together even deeper than in the first one. But the primary reason to see this is Al Pacino. It is my humble opinion that not only is this the best of his five great performances from 1972-75 (the others being THE GODFATHER, SCARECROW, SERPICO, and DOG DAY AFTERNOON), it is the greatest performance by an actor I have ever seen, period (Liv Ullman's performance in PERSONA is the best performance by an actress I have seen). Michael Corleone becomes more closed off as he achieves power. He alienates friends, family, even the people who work for him, because he completely closes himself off from humanity. Yet we feel for him, partly because Pacino NEVER plays for our sympathy, but gives a closed performance. It's easy to overact, it's hard to play still and close to the vest, and Pacino chooses the more difficult path. We also feel for him because we can sense Michael acts this way because it's the only way he feels he can run things. If he ever came out of his detachment, he'd have to admit he was a failure and was being immoral(which he does in Part III). A masterpiece.