The Godfather 2 Could Have Worked Without Robert De Niro
It is rare for a sequel to surpass its predecessor. The Godfather 2 nearly does, if it was not for the elbowed in prequel starring Robert De Niro.
The Godfather Part II stands as one of the greatest cinematic events of all time. Some argue that it surpassed its predecessor as a masterpiece of filmmaking. Its sweeping journey and depth of character are unmatched even by todays big blockbuster CGI-fest standards. It would be an ill thought to compare the likes of Avengers: Endgame or Avatar (the two highest grossing movies of all time to date) to the Godfather 2. Yet even in its splendor, the Godfather Part II could do with a little pruning of one of its major plotlines – the prequel of Vito Corleone’s ascent to the top.
The Godfather Part II was released in 1974, two years after the first swept Hollywood and the world. Like the first, it won several Oscars including Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for De Niro, and repeat victories for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Although it did not reach the box office heights of the first, it still raked in $88 million on a budget of $13 million. Godfather 2 is divided into two story lines.
The first is the sequel to the Godfather where Michael Corleone, played by Al Pacino, is shoring up his power against a quickly changing political landscape and investigating an assassination attempt on his own life. This investigation takes him right into the heart of Cuba during the momentous victory of Castro’s Revolution and back to the United States hot on the heels in pursuit of a sneaky, slippery rival. Michael is also forced to reckon with the US government in public Senate trials against his family for organized crime.
The second storyline intercuts all of this, stepping back in time to the life and establishment of Vito Corleone. It starts in the early 1900s in Sicily when Vito was a child and his whole family fatally suffers under the violence of Mafia Don Ciccio. Young Vito escapes and is whisked away to America, to New York City. From there, the audience sees snippets of his life over the next forty years. Adult Vito Corleone is played by Robert De Niro. It starts with him beginning his family and working as a grocer and then his inevitable entrance to a life of crime. There is only a small handful of flashbacks of De Niro that show how Vito becomes the powerful Don who is feared and respected, as he is known in the first movie.
Was it vital to The Godfather 2 to see a young Clemenza or Tessio or Vito’s family celebrating his birthday party as in the last scene? What did the prequel really contribute to the overall story? The life of Vito Corleone did not parallel to Michael’s plot in any way. On its own, Michael’s story is a gripping and exciting movie. It is one thing to take power, as Michael did in the first movie, but quite another to have to defend it. This is the real test of his intelligence and power. The Vito flashbacks interrupt all of this, breaking the pace and the narrative Michael’s plotline requires.
While the flashbacks show the rise of Vito to become an American Don, as a just and community-oriented figure as compared to the Sicilian style of tyranny and violence, they only do so gradually and without context. After Vito’s murder of Don Fanucci, which establishes his commitment to crime and gangster life, there are no other momentous scene. There is a who’s who of younger versions of characters in the first movie that gradually gather around Vito. Vito opens an oil import business. He helps an old lady with her dog. Finally, he goes back to Sicily to take revenge for the murder of his parents and older brother.
The revenge is the conclusion to the miniature prequel, showing that the boy victim really did grow up to be the powerhouse that Don Ciccio feared he would. A lot of it is cool to see and De Niro portrays a spot-on younger version of Marlon Brando, even mimicking the iconic voice Brando uses as Vito Corleone. Unfortunately, it mistakenly diverts from the main drama of Michael. Had Coppola grouped the entire prequel scenes together at the beginning and then led into the Michael plot, or excised it entirely, then the Godfather 2 would have been a much better movie.
It could be said that a Godfather prequel starring Robert De Niro as Vito Corleone could be an entirely stand-alone film. It could also be said that this prequel should have taken the place of the third movie. Instead of waiting sixteen years to force out a third movie Francis Ford Coppola should have seen the gold he had with Robert De Niro and made a whole new film out of that. That a prequel was sandwiched into the sequel lessens the full impact and potential of Vito Corleone’s life as another glorious tale of epic crime. So far as it goes in The Godfather Part II, it was a needless branching off from the core of the film’s singular thrust.
