The Godfather 2 Essay Questions

The first two Godfather films are famous for their murky atmosphere, thanks to Francis Ford Coppola's use of dim lighting and an extremely muted color palette. Especially in The Godfather Part II, the dark interiors intensify the darkness of the narrative. Discuss the lighting and color choices made by Coppola and cinematographer Gordon Willis and analyze their impact on specific scenes.

This is a great opportunity to talk about the ubiquitous yellow light found in the film and contrast its appearance in a variety of contexts, comparing, say, the scenes where Michael meets with family members in the bar of his compound with the bright, yellow sun shining down on Havana. In terms of dark colors, take a look the browns and blacks often found in the interiors of mob-related spaces depicted in the movie, including Michael's home, the brothel, the bar where Frank Pantangeli is almost killed, and the cafe where Vito meets with Don Fanucci.

A key theme in The Godfather Part II is patriarchy, from Michael's uneasy status as the patriarch of the Corleone family to the ways men inhabit positions of power to exert political control or make money. But while The Godfather Part II is very much so a story about men, the women seem to wield power to shake up the narrative and direct the action. In this essay, discuss some of the key women in Michael Corleone's life and what significance they have on the events of the film.

Michael's story has three key women in it: his mother Carmella, his sister Constanze or "Connie", and his wife Kay. Carmella, a very traditional old-school Italian woman, was very submissive toward her own husband and gave him, and her sons, unconditional love and loyalty. Michael treats her with great respect and refrains from taking direct action against Fredo while she is alive.

Connie, whose first husband was among several people Michael ordered killed several years before, has just divorced her second husband. Michael is frustrated and disgusted not just by her divorce but by her desire to marry again. He behaves almost paternally toward Connie and berates her for her choices. However, Connie eventually learns to rationalize Michael's belittling and dismissive behavior toward her, particularly when her money runs out and she returns to help take care of Michael after Kay leaves.

Kay, who is actually Michael's second wife, is a modern American woman who thinks and acts independently. Since Michael does not understand her, he believes she will behave the same way his mother and sister do, and bow to his will. This leads him to disregard her wishes, break his promises about putting an end to the Corleone criminal enterprise, and truly believe there will be no consequences. When Kay leaves him and tries to take the children, it actually comes as a surprise to Michael.

One of the key reasons The Godfather Part II is considered a great film is its incisive representation of high-level corruption, from the relationship between the Corleones and the US Senator Pat Geary, to that between various heads of American business and Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Choose some key scenes where corruption is depicted and analyze them both within the context of the film and their historical context, either at the time when these events are supposed to happen or at the time when the film was released.

Depending on what you choose to write about, there are some key scenes to consider here. For one, you can focus on the complex relationship between the United States government, organized crime, and the Cuban government under the rule of Fulgencio Batista, a US-backed dictator. The fantastic Havana scenes in this film are ripe for analysis about the play between powerful men who toe the line between law and crime and the everyday people whose lives they affect. Those people end up enacting a revolution that deposes Batista. For historical context, dig into the history of the Cuban revolution and read Coppola's Playboy interview where he talks about U.S. meddling in foreign governments.

You can also talk about the relationship between Senator Pat Geary and the Corleones, tracing his early meeting with Michael and Tom at the First Communion Party through the brothel scene and up until the Senate investigation against Michael. For historical context here, look into the early development of Las Vegas, particularly the involvement of Meyer Lansky (who some suspect the character of Hyman Roth is based on).

Some studio executives at Paramount were concerned about the fact that much of the dialog in The Godfather Part II would be in Italian with English subtitled, but that didn't seem to deter critics or audiences from adoring the film. Discuss the significance of the subtitled sections of the film and the specific ways that Coppola uses on-screen action to balance the reliance on subtitles in these scenes.

Since both of the main narratives in this film take place in the past—Michael's in the 1950s and Vito's in the early 1900s—the subtitled sequences act to encapsulate a flashback and make it clear that we're watching a story much further in the past. The Italian spoken also gives us a good sense of place in these scenes, be that in the baking hot Sicily or the crowded streets of Little Italy. We know that even if Vito raised his family in America, it was a very different America, and part of the joy of watching this film is seeing a representation of what that immigrant experience looked and felt like.

Of course, some of the most gripping scenes in the film occur in the Italian-language section, and even if they are subtitled, they are a lot faster-paced than Michael's sequences. Consider the San Bruno festa when Don Fanucci is shot, or the opening funeral sequence, or the scene when Vito and Clemenza steal the rug.

Where does The Godfather Part II fit in the history of American cinema? For this, you can bring in obvious touch points for Coppola, such as silent cinema. You can also discuss the New Hollywood era that created circumstances where Coppola could release a slow, three-and-a-half hour film with significant subtitling and have it be a smash hit.

The significance of the New Hollywood era is difficult to overstate, either in terms of Coppola's career or in terms of American film history. It was an odd period that began roughly with the release of Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and ended with the release of Star Wars (1977), during which directors were given free reign to make daring and artistic films, and some of the greatest films in Hollywood history were made. In this directors-focused era, Francis Ford Coppola thrived as an auteur, and you can discuss the production history of this film (and the prior Godfather film) to trace exactly how he accrued so much power in the system and to what ends he used it.

You may also want to discuss the conscious tendency of many directors of the era to align themselves with what they considered to be other high-art movements or historical eras in film. Coppola's use of silent film language in his Vito flashback scenes, for instance, is key. Consider the influence of silent auteurs such as D.W. Griffith or F.W. Murnau in relation to these sequences.