The Godfather: Part II [Blu-ray] [1974] [Region Free]

Bought it to replace a broken disc in a box set. Lable even matched.

The Godfather wasn't really a gangster film. It was always a family film. The first installment was about Vito Corleone and his family. The second installment was about Vito Corleone and his family. The second installment was also about Michael Corleone and his family. The third installment was about Michael Corleone and his family or what was left of Michael Corleone's family. Michael Corleone is the man born into a mafia family who doesn't want to be a Don. Michael takes the role of Don because he loved his father and his family. I thought the ending of the third installment was pretty sad. Michael Corleone sick, depressed, slumps over in a chair and dies. Puzo was trying to show that family is everything and that without family you have nothing. I think there is also an underlying message about God being the "Ultimate Don." No matter how much a person can escape the law's punishment, a person can never escape God's punishment. In a lot of the scenes where killing takes place there is some kind of church scene or Catholic religious scene concurring at the same time. The films show the mafia as human beings that are human. They have families. They struggle to earn a living. They come from a foreign land. They helped to make America what it is today. It is kind of a brutal world where it's kill of be killed. The Dons remind me of kings residing over kingdoms. You kill one of mine. I kill one of yours. I kill one of yours. You kill one of mine. I want to stay in power so I kill you. He wants to stay in power so he kills me. And so on. There is a lot of revenge killing as well. They do also eat a lot of good food.

Truly a classic. Disc arrived on time and in perfect condition. Good job.

Fantastic movie. Great acting. Incredible scenes. Love it when they show parts of Italy & Sicily. Wish they made more of these. They definitely found the perfect actors to play the parts. Highly recommend this movie.

It might be hard to believe that a sequel to The Godfather could surpass its progenitor, but Part II does. As the great film critic Pauline Kael wrote, the sequel both widens and deepens the original story, and it punishes audiences for growing so comfortable with the fundamentally monstrous deeds of the primary characters. To be fair, Part II is not a standard sequel; it's really a seamless extension, in opposite temporal directions, of the original story, combining both movies into one epic history of a particularly violent American family. And actually, it's more than an epic - it's a screen opera. It begins in Sicily right at the turn of the 20th century, where young Vito Corleone's father and older brother have been murdered by Don Ciccio, the local warlord. It then follows Vito to America, where he grows to young manhood, and it depicts his transformation from quiet family man to avenger and then to Godfather. At the same time, the story follows Michael Corleone's struggle to maintain control over his family despite an assassination attempt and a dangerous rivalry with Jewish mobster Hyman Roth (played by the legendary acting teacher Lee Strasberg). Sequel or not, this is one of the truly great American movies. It stands after nearly 40 years as Coppola's masterpiece, a savage portrait of a family gone horribly wrong. In fact, it's so skillful that the final scene, which contains no violence, is probably the most shocking of all, because it confronts the audience with the magnitude of the tragic journey the Corleones have undertaken in less than two decades. [Technical note: This was the last movie ever to be shot in the classic Technicolor process, and although its colors are subdued, they are unfaded by time. Today, digital processing can maintain and restore colors, but Technicolor was a glorious and unique resource, and anyone who saw movies in this format in theaters will never forget them.] Phil's Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime (2014 edition)

Honestly, a great movie and great sequel to Godfather I. The ultimate struggle/tragedy of this one is Michael learning he isn’t his father. To me, it doesn’t beat what the first one did, but that doesn’t make me disappointed either

One of the greatest movies of all-time! A definite recommend!

If you haven’t seen it, you must change that. Long movie but definitely a must see.