On the last episode of The Godfather:
At his daughter's wedding, Don Vito Corleone did a favor for Johnny Fontane involving a horse's head. The Sollorozo family tries to kill Don Vito and his son Sonny. Don Vito almost gets killed but survives. Younger brother Michael meets with Sollorozzo and his henchman and kills'em both after fishing a gun out of the toilet. He's the hero. Don Vito dies of a heart attack in a tomato garden. Sonny gets gunned down. Fredo's a pussy. Micheal has his enemies killed including his sister Connie's husband, and ascends to power, closing a literal and metaphorical door in girlfriend Kay's face. Also, Kurt and Blaine finally did it.
And that's what you missed!
Plot summary (with spoilers): In 1901, in the town of Corleone in Sicily, Don Cicco kills a local named Anthony Andolini for some sort of mob-related slight. Anthony's son Paolo goes into hiding, vowing revenge, but he's quickly killed as well. Anthony's wife takes her youngest son Vito to see Don Cicco and beg for her other son's life to be spared.
"Please-a, he's just a boy-a." she speaks in their native tongue.
But Don Cicco is unmoved. He's convinced one day Vito will grow up big and strong and take his revenge. Vito's mother pulls a knife on Don Cicco and tells Vito to run away as fast as he can!
She's immediately shot, but Vito manages to get away. Some neighbors put him on a boat headed for the New World. He shows up alone, a nine year old in a foreign country, but somehow manages to time-lapse into Robert DeNiro. Twentysomething Vito hangs out with his friends, gets involved in low-level crime, marries a girl, has a son imaginatively named Sonny. But there's a mob boss in the neighborhood named Don Fanucci, who squeezes all the legit businesses for extra dough. He tells Vito and his friends that they owe him six hundred bucks, but Vito offers only 100, and then sweetens the deal by offering him a bullet in the mouth. Don Vito rises to power, flexing his muscles in the neighborhood, gaining the respect and fear of everyone. After Sonny comes Fredo, then Connie, and then finally little Michael. Don Vito takes the family on a vacation to Sicily. They go to the old town of Corleone, and Don Vito visits Don Cicco, now an old and infirm man. Don Vito believes that revenge is a dish best served to the really old and defenseless, and slices Cicco's chest open, then he and his men flee, one of them getting shot in the process.
The family Corleone leave the town Corleone that day by train. Don Vito holds little Michael and tells him to wave bye-bye.
In 1959, Don Michael Corleone holds a communion for his eldest son Anthony. People stand in line to meet with Michael and his consigliere Tom Hagen to request favors. "Consigliere" just might be the best word in the history of words. Certainly the best word for an occupation. Sister Connie wants Michael to meet her new boyfriend, some WASP prick with no job or future. Michael orders his sister to dump her, and she does. Senator Geary meets with Michael and demands high kickbacks and bribe money and stuff in order to get him to allow Michael to purchase another casino in Las Vegas. He asks for a huge sum of money, but Michael tells him he gets nothing. Johnny Olaf, right hand man to another gangster named Hyman Roth, meets with Michael and tells him Hyman looks forward to doing business with him. And family friend Frank Pentangeli meets with Michael and asks for permission to kill the Rosato brothers, who are infringing on Frank's territory. But Hyman Roth is friends with the Rostao brothers, so Michael says no.
At the party, Fredo's there, lurking around the edges, a total waste and embarrassment. His wife gets super drunk and Michael's men drag her out of the party. Micheal dances with his wife Kay. As in the last movie, she's still surprised he's a mobster and his family and friends are all murderers. She reminds him that he said he would go legit in five years and that was seven years ago. Michael reminds her that he's a mobster, and that his family and friends are all murderers. No actually, he just mumbles reassuring platitudes that he hopes will buy him another seven years. Also, Kay's pregnant again. It will be their third child after Anthony and little Mary. (Fucking little Mary. She's just there, lying in wait, ready and willing to kill The Godfather III as viciously as any other mob hit).
That night, as Michael and Kay prepare for bed, automatic machine-gun fire explodes the room in a hail of bullets. Michael and Kay crash to the floor, unharmed. Tom Hagen and the other men try to find the would-be assassins, but only discover to dead bodies. Michael knows someone close to him betrayed him.
He travels to Miami to see Roth, and tells him that he believes Pentangeli tried to kill him. Then he sees Pentageli and says that Roth tried to kill him. Michael believes in covering his bases. He tells Pentageli to make nice with the Rosato brothers, so that Roth doesn't suspect they're on to him, and Pentageli agrees. He meets with the brothers, but they claim to be sent by Michael to kill him. One tries to garrote him in a bar, but a cop walks in and interrupts them. They flee, and Pentageli is brought to the hospital, still alive.
Meanwhile, Senator Geary innocently goes to a whorehouse that happens to be Corleone-owned and wakes up with a live boy in his bed and no memory of how he got there. No, wait. It was a dead hooker. Tom Hagen shows up and tells Geary that he'll hide the evidence of this now that he and Michael are such great friends.
So then Michael goes to Cuba to hide out and meet with Roth and other Big Time mobster goombas. Their plan is to make major investments in Cuba together and live there permanently, but Michael sees some suicide-bombing rebels blow up a cop and thinks that this Castro guy might be a bigger threat than the current Cuban government realizes. He wants out of the deal, but Roth begs him to reconsider. Michael decides to give dopey Fredo an assignment, and asks him to fly down to Cuba with 2 million dollars to give to Roth as a respectful parting gift before he backs out of the deal. Fredo shows up, and meets Roth and his underling Johnny Olaf for the very first time.
They all go out partying that night, and encounter a live sex show. A goomba asks Fredo how he knows about this place and Fredo, not knowing Michael is about five feet away in the crowded room, says that Johnny Olaf told him about it awhile back.
It all comes together for Michael. Fredo knows Olaf which means he knows Roth which means Roth and Fredo betrayed him.
That night, there's a big ol' Cuban New Years Eve party, and not nearly enough of them are smoking Cuban cigars, considering.
At the stroke of midnight, everyone's hugging and kissing and Fredo goes to hug little brother Mike, and Michael grabs him and kisses him hard on the mouth. "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart". Fredo backs away, terrified.
Meanwhile, one of Michael's goombas sneaks into Roth's place and strangles Olaf to death, then goes to Roth's room, but paramedics and police are already there. He had a stroke and they discuss taking him to the hospital.
Back at the party, the rebels pick this time to invade. Some poor chump goes up front and tells the party-goers that the government was just officially toppled and they don't have to go home, but they can't stay here. And by "here", I mean "Cuba".
All the rich white one-percenters flee the party, boarding into their private jets and whatnot. Michael sees Fredo leaving and shouts to him to get in the limo. "You're still my brother, Fredo!". But Fredo doesn't trust him, and runs away. Maybe Michael should've waited until after they got back to the states before that kiss.
When they get back to the states, Hagen tells Michael that Kay had a miscarriage while he was gone. Michael can't bring himself to even visit her. He instructs Hagen to reach out to Fredo and tell him all is forgiven.
Meanwhile, out of nowhere, there's a low-level mobster dude testifying before Congress about the Corleone family. He says Michael's a mobster who regularly orders murders. He admits that he never received any orders directly from Michael, though. Michael testifies that he's not a mobster at all, and he's totally just a stand-up businessman. Senator Geary, who is on the panel, hilariously gets up and says he has a prior engagement, but not before falling all over himself to talk about how Italians are the bestest people in the whole wide world. The other Congressmen say that they'll provide a witness tomorrow who will state that he received direct orders from Michael to kill people, and that Michael will be charged with perjury. (And presumably also murder, but they weirdly don't say that).
The witness they have is Pentageli, who the Rostao brothers failed to kill in the beginning of the movie. Pentageli believes Michael tried to kill him, because that's what the Rostao brothers told him right before they garroted him, because it's totally normal to lie to someone for no reason right before you kill them. So Pentageli intends to blab everything. The next day at the hearing, Pentageli sees Hagen and Michael enter the building with another older man. It's Pentageli's brother, who is not a mobster and lives quietly in Italy, making pizza pies or whatever. Pentageli understands the implicit threat against his brother's life and refuses to testify against Michael.
Fredo returns and begs Michael's forgiveness, saying he didn't know Roth has going to try to kill him. Michael says they're not family anymore and to stay out of his life forever. He tells his main goomba Neri to leave Fredo alone until their mother dies.
Kay, in the meantime, announces to Michael her intention to leave him and take the kids with her. Michael says there's no way he'll ever let her take the kids. (Take Mary! Fucking take Mary far far away!) Kay says that when she married a mobster who kills people she didn't know he was going to be a mobster who kills people, and she wants out! Michael says stop being so irrational, are you on the rag or something? I know you're upset about the miscarriage, but go to bed, things will look better in the morning.
Kay tearfully and angrily confesses that there was no miscarriage. It was an abortion. Because she wants out and there was no way she was going to let another child into this abortion of a family.
Michael's eyes get wider and angrier and she goes on, twisting the knife.
And it was a boy, and I'm glad he's gone!
He lunges at her with a powerful slap, and knocks her down. Divorce granted.
Then Mama Corleone dies, and Michael waits in the boathouse while Fredo, Connie, and the rest of the family gather to grieve. Connie goes to visit Michael and begs him to forgive Fredo. They're all the family they have left. Michael leaves the boathouse and enters the main room, hugging Fredo. It's a beautiful moment, utterly undermined a moment later when he stares meaningfully at Neri.
Meanwhile, Roth is denied asylum in Israel and other countries, and is forced to go back to America where he's arrested. Michael wants him dead, Pantageli dead, and Fredo dead.
Hagen tries to be the voice of reason and point out that none of these people constitute a real threat. "Do you want to kill everyone?"
"Not everyone. Just my enemies."
So Hagen visits Pantageli in protective custody and tells him that his brother is back in Italy and totally safe...for now.
Another goomba approaches Roth giving a press conference in Miami and shoots him dead, before being brought down himself by the FBI.
Pantageli slits his writs in the bathtub.
Fredo tries to take Neri and little Anthony out fishing, telling Anthony that he always prays before fishing because it helps him catch more fish. As they start to set off, Connie tells Anthony that Michael wants him to skip fishing that day. Anthony says goodbye to Uncle Fredo and runs off.
Fredo and Neri sail out onto the lake, and Fredo says his final prayers.
In 1941, the Corleone family prepare to surprise their father on his birthday. They've sent him out on a silly errand while they set up the decorations and cake. Sonny says he can't believe those dirty Japs attacked Pearl Harbor on Pop's birthday. Fredo says they probably didn't know it was Pop's birthday. Michael says he's dropping out of school to join the army and fight the Nazis and the Japs. Sonny, Tom, and Connie are appalled, saying he's wasting his future for no good reason. Only Fredo is supportive. Don Vito shows up at the door, and the others race to greet him, leaving Michael alone at the kitchen table.
In 1959, Michael's enemies are all vanquished, and he's still very much alone.
Review: My first time watching this movie--in fact the whole trilogy--wasn't that long ago, about four or five years. I'm glad I saw it then, so I was able to see it now without first having to watch The Godfather, which would've thrown the whole list in disarray and possibly given me an OCD-related coronary. I have to admit, I expected to just rubber-stamp this with a five star rating, going along with the general consensus that it's an even better movie than the first one. But I don't think I believe that. I'll have to see when I watch the first one again, Make no mistake, it's a really great movie, but I just don't think it's a perfect one.
The wide, sweeping epic shots are all great, and the acting is uniformly wonderful, to be sure. This was Al Pacino's sweet spot, before he went off the HOO-AH deep end and became mostly a cartoon. It's great how the majority of the time, Michael is incredibly quiet and almost minimalist, a sharp contrast to Brando's showy Vito, but at the same time the rage is underneath it all, lying in wait, ready to strike at any moment. The best parts of the movie are when Pacino lets that monster out, just briefly, like the kiss with Fredo or the slap with Kay. It's a stellar performance.
John Cazale, gone before his time, is also excellent as the wormy Fredo. Cazle appeared in five movies, three of which are on this list (Godfather, Godfather II, The Deer Hunter) and the other two are also classics. (Dog Day Afternoon, The Conversation). Talk about the world's most impressive resume. I don't think any other actor can top that. Of course, had he lived, he probably would've made plenty of stinkers.
Full disclosure: Haven't seen The Conversation, but I've heard it's great. I freaking loved Dog Day Afternoon. It's ridiculous that it's not on this list.
DeNiro is also excellent, natch, doing a great impression of Brando and also being totally awesome in his own interpretation of the character. BTW, according to Wiki, Brando agreed to appear in the ending flashback, but didn't show up for the one day of filming and the scene had to be rewritten on the fly. You suck, Brando.
The movie has some flaws though, mainly weird plot stuff. The Congressional hearings come totally out of nowhere, and are not even hinted at before we're thrown right in the middle of them. And Michael was incredibly stupid and acted out of character, letting Fredo know that he knew about the betrayal and giving Fredo the opportunity to run. Also, as I alluded to upfront, it's just bizarre for the guys trying to kill Pentageli to lie to him and say they were sent by Michael. There's no reason to lie to someone you're about to kill, and the fact that Pentageli lives and that unnecessary lie drives the plot of the second half of the movie is weak.
Minor nits, really. It's a great movie and a sweeping epic and a wonderful sequel. And the parallel Vito/Michael stories work great, both of them highlighting the futility and emptiness of a living your life obsessed with vengeance. I'm glad these two great movies exist. We'll not discuss number three.
Stars: Four and a half out of five.
Next, "The Maltese Falcon" and then more Brando in "Apocalypse Now".
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