I saw a variation of this question on the Internet Movie Dbase a while back. But even before I saw it, I had thought of this myself and wanted to ask it here.

Think back to the first time you watched The Godfather Part II. At what point in the movie did you think, "Wow, this is going to be great like its predecessor"?

Speaking for myself, I just knew, within ten minutes or so, that this was going to be as top notch as the first one. When I saw the opulent party scene -- the drunk Deanna, the oily Senator Geary, the outspoken yet comical Pentangelli -- I observed the same high production values and classy acting that was a hallmark of GFI. The characters were colourful and individualized, plus every subtlety introduced conflict right away. I immediately got the feeling that something sinister was in the air.

When did you all get your "epiphanies"?

To tell the truth, when I first saw it in the theater, I thought it was too long, and the time shifts annoyed me. But the next time I saw it was when NBC first aired the "Saga" version withe the two films in chronological order and all the deleted scenes included. Then I realized how great it was.

TB, I too was put off by the length, but I enjoyed the flashbacks et al. I thought some parts of it were slow, but you can't have everything.

When Pentangeli was drinking from the hose.

CW, I saw GF2 with my parents and grandmother when I was about 13. My grandmother found the flashbacks a bit confusing, but she was thrilled with the scenes of Sicily and the authentic dialect. The second time, we were actually flying to Sicily and they showed it on the plane.

The first 20 minutes or so are perfect. Sicily, the party. I loved it from the beginning.
Michael/Roth in Miami - too much talking. It's as if the writers didn't know themselves what it's all about. Worse - the meeting Michael/Pentangeli in New York. Pacino's overacting: "I remember there used to be a big desk, right here." (The same he would do later in City Hall: "They warned me, 'Don't stand behind that coffin.'")
All the DeNiro scenes - perfect.
Cuba - I don't know. It was OK, but I'm never thrilled.
And I love the rest of it.

"You can have my answer now, if you like . . ."

No, that's really my answer .

When GF II came out in '74, I was 15 years old. And to my high school mind, I still remember thinking to myself how "cool" Michael was in that scene; how I was going to love the film. I've since come to realize that Mafiosos are mostly murderous psychopaths, but back then I couldn't help but admire Michael Corleone's balls in that scene. I was in love with the film from that point on.

"My offer is this . . . nothing."

All of the Pentangeli scenes at the Communion, especially :

"A kid comes up to me in a white jacket, gives me a Ritz cracker, and uh, chopped liver, he says Canapés. I say uh, uh, can o' peas my ass, that's a Ritz cracker and chopped liver! Bring out the peppers and sausage."



Also how authentic the flashback scenes were and how convincing DeNiro was as young Vito in those scenes.



BTW Christina, welcome back! Where have you been? I think I speak for many when I say that I hope you stick around. I am looking forward to once again reading the interesting posts that you make.

Benvenuti a casa!

I agree with your points, DC. The fact that DeNiro learned to speak authentic Sicilian dialect was terrific. And actually going to Sicily to film Sicily! It was unusual, for sure.

And who doesn't love Pentangeli?? If you're Italian, you have an uncle just like him!

Whenever I see Frankie drinking from that hose he reminds me of my Grandfather!

"Ladies and gentlemen, in preparation for our landing in Sicily, we're going to present you with a bit of cultural history to prepare you to enjoy your visit to this sunny and peaceful land..."

The "chilly" conversation between Michael and Geary really set the table for the rest of the film, IMO. Although we knew that Don Vito had many politicians in his pocket in GFI we never really saw much interaction between Vito and them. II brought this element in.

What makes that even more remarkable is the fact that DeNiro didn't even speak Italian up to that point, let alone Sicilian. He's only actually 1/4 Italian, through his paternal grandfather (hence the name), and did not grow up speaking the language.

Incredible.

Is Pacino all Italian? Does he speak Italian?

I don't know his ethnicity, but he learned for the film. That's why he switches to English during the scene at the restaurant with Sollozzo. He didn't do a great job learning.

well, the movie confused me the first time I saw it; in some cases I could not follow the subtitles when the dialogue was in Italian due to lack of contrast (white letters on light background).. too much Italian I thought.
Also, the first time I saw it, I thought the killing of Vito's mother was over dramatic.. I remember thinking if a dim-witted 9 year old saw his mother get shot after seeing his brother get shot, after burying his father... he would not probably continue running without any sign of devastation or pause at least! ....I later realized the scene's importance. I also recall asking myself "who the hell is Pentangeli"?

I needed to have it on video tape, pause, read subtitles, rewind scenes... to fully understand and appreciate it.

However, I know it was a great movie by the DeNiro scenes!

BC: Al made good Italian conversation scenes in GFIII, maybe he learnt my then

According to his interview book: "Al Pacino : In Conversation with Lawrence Grobel," Al speaks "a little" Italian, but he's not very confident in doing so. As Babe mentioned, he had to learn his dialogue for the Sollozzo scene.

Al is 100% Italian. His parents were born here, but all 4 of his grandparents were Italian immigrants.

His grandparents are actually from Corleone Sicily.

While it was obviously a good film, I didn't see 'greatness' in GFII at all during the first time watching. I hadn't even seen The Godfather yet, so there was no 'first one' to compare it to.

In fact, there was no single moment or scene or actor that indicated a great movie. It was really a gradual thing, seeing it many times over the years, understanding the story more each time, noticing a subtlety that I never had before...and eventually just realizing, 'Man, this is really something..!!'

Apple

Ah, Don Cardi, you remember me! Back in May, I received a PM from gangsterbb.net inviting me to reply to the topic "GBB Ultimate Comeback" (in General Discussions). I guess that topic was to see what became of "dormant" members. I just replied (four months after the PM, but hey, better late than never is what I say ).

Various events/issues led to my slowing down of internet activities (work commitments, periods of low energy, forgetfulness, etc., etc.). Thank you for the warm welcome (or, rather, the "re-welcome"). Hopefully I'll remember to post something once in a while. The problem is this board can be quite addictive. If I have work to do, I'm almost afraid to visit here because once I start reading, I'm amazed at how quickly the time goes by. I'm just too undisciplined!

Oops, I caught myself in a Godfather faux pas. When I said I knew within the first ten minutes or so that GFII was going to be great (the communion scene, Deanna, Senator Geary, Pentangeli), I was thinking of the Saga, which is in chronological order. If one goes by the theatrical release, those scenes came later, after the Sicily flashback. So I suppose it took me a little longer to appreciate The Godfather Part II than I first thought.

First impressions can be mysterious things. It makes me smile when I think about my reaction to GF3. Just as I knew within a few minutes of the communion scenes that GFII was going to be on a level with the original, I had the opposite feeling within a few minutes or so of GF3. I just knew I was looking at a faded imitation of the first two. After such stellar performances in GFII, we now had George Hamilton trying to fill the shoes of Robert Duvall. Multi-faceted characters like Pentangeli were replaced by one-dimensional aggressors like Vincent and garden variety hoodlums like Zasa. The opening conflict between Kay and Michael lacked any of the spark that was present between Deanna and Fredo. Whereas GFII introduced an undertone of unease and danger right away, GF3 grasped to replicate that, but only ended up looking derivative and forced.

As you can probably tell, I'm not a huge fan of GF3.