The Oscar Project #47: The Godfather Part Two (1974)

by Chris Marshall:

Before I get into The Godfather Part Two, a caveat/boast: I passed my thesis defense today. What this means for the blog post is that I am writing it on a very strict deadline. It’s a shame, too, because it probably means the writing won’t be so good, and I really wanted to have something profound to say about this movie.

Ok, so maybe I never have anything profound to say about any movie, but this film is better than most, and it seems like it would lend itself to some kind of Great Writing. As magnificent as it was, though, I still have to argue that the original film was better. This is by no means a slight against the sequel, just an acknowledgment that The Godfather was one of the greatest movies ever made, and it’d be hard to top.

The Godfather Part Two is in some sense a continuation of The Godfather, in that it spends most of its time focusing on Michael’s ascent to absolute power over the family. In addition, though, there are multiple flashbacks to the life of young Vito Corleone, this time played by Robert De Niro. Some have described the stories of Vito and Michael as being parallel; there is some truth to this, but I would argue that their timelines are going in opposite directions.

The Oscar Project Interlude #4: Best of the 1960s

by Chris Marshall:

Here we are, on the brink of the 1970s. I couldn’t be more excited. The musical-heavy 1960s weren’t as bad as I expected, but I’m still glad they’re over, if only so I can get into what promises to be the best decade of Oscar winners from top to bottom. There are individual winners in other decades that may match up, but no time period matches the overall quality of the 1970s.

The 60s were somewhat uneven, but in addition to the musicals, which I’ve talked about ad nauseum, there was also a glut of British-made films: Lawrence of Arabia, Tom Jones, and A Man for All Seasons. Between 1961 and 1968, In the Heat of the Night was the only American-made non-musical Best Picture winner. As opposed to the 1970s, which contains 10 American-made non-musical winners.