Date: October 5th, 2026 3:31 PM Author: Irate forum
Looking for earnest discussion of FILM. To me the story and pacing and tension of Godfather 1 (not to mention the writing itself -- several moments in Godfather 1 are hilarious) are so clearly superior I have a hard time steel-manning the argument for why Godfather 2 would be considered the better film.
Date: October 5th, 2026 4:11 PM Author: claret diverse center gaping
fag or not, he's a great actor. or he was, anyway. although it always kinda irked me that he's utterly incapable of speaking in anything but a nyc/brooklyn accent. even when he plays a jew from chicago (casino) or a dood from philly (silver lining playbook). as good as he is, you'd think he could affect a different accent. at least in casino, pesci tried (he pulled it off sometimes, but slipped out of it a bunch of times)
Date: October 5th, 2026 4:17 PM Author: Irate forum
Didn't really ring true for me Idk. Maybe if they devoted 3 hours to young Vito they could have better fleshed out his rise to power. But otherwise it was like "Oh here's the existing leader, Clemenza gives Vito the lay of the land, Vito kills powerful guy, then everyone magically falls in line."
Date: October 6th, 2026 9:50 AM Author: insanely creepy dark point
i think he became a psycho by having his father get almost murdered, almost getting murdered a second time, having to murder the guys who did both, finding out via mail that his brother was murdered and eventually figuring out that his brother in law was behind it, figuring out that one of his most trusted guys, the entire organization and LV faction was out to get him, then having to murder all of them only to run off to Vegas anyways and give up NYC which kind of makes no sense.
but yea, spending a few months in Sicily playing with perky dago titties really caused him to go loco
Date: October 6th, 2026 9:57 AM Author: Irate forum
He was thunderboalted for Apollonia (love marriage in TT's parlance) who was exploded in front of him thereby making it all the more tragic that he would never again partake of the perky dago titties and instead would only have shrill frigid harpy "Kay" for the rest of time
Date: October 5th, 2026 11:18 PM Author: Spruce chapel prole
both are great (obv) but they feel very different and i prefer 2. largely an aesthetic judgment but I’ll try to explain:
1 feels more “epic,” but it feels more like a sympathetic and idealized portrayal. characters are bits in service of the epic. the tragic aspects are pretty easy to stomach and mean close to nothing.
2 is more genuine. it opens with the dark (and meaningless) self replicating peasant violence of the sicilian mafia rather than a gangster in his glory. instead of cheap satisfaction, the two revenge kills are in a way meaningless, with two old dying men meeting a violent death that exchanges a young man’s life. Fredo timeline in general is 180. alienation and pain in general saturate the movie. opening with an injustice also makes the whole film and family situation feel more appropriately tragic. and the isolation comes through in a lot of the visuals. the movie is a lot deeper.
Date: October 6th, 2026 10:42 AM Author: Irate forum
Ty. I wonder what it is about Michael that leads to that isolation and alienation. Vito was just as ruthless and saw just as much violence up close, and yet he is a big familymo and looks down on men who don't honor their family. Is there an argument to be made that Michael is ultimately a scared lil bitchboi (rich and powerful but fleeing NYC and acting like a bull in a china shop, drawing public attention and incurring powerful political enemies in a way Vito warned against). Or is the alienation an inevitable consequence of the growth and success of the family business, i.e., Vito could afford to be all about family until he got rich and powerful enough that he bumped against other families and business interests, but then Vito died and it was up to Michael to deal with the fallout of that huge success.
I think that would be Michael's excuse but the truth is, he's good at the exercise of power but he's a bad leader. They kind of both are, Vito and Michael. Vito dadded around Clemenza early on but inspired decades of loyalty. But still didn't spread the wealth enough to keep Tessio happy (and then Godfather 2 had kind of a mess with Pentangeli's character which I think is a horrible miss). And super cunning Michael who is always 10 moves ahead somehow can't recognize that Fredo just wants to belong, constantly pushing him away and into the arms of his enemies.
Date: October 6th, 2026 10:25 AM Author: mint exhilarant pistol
2 is better for the reasons stated above but it really misses Sonny. You need a crazy hothead in a mob movie. I suppose that’s Vito in the flashbacks but it’s not the same.
Date: October 6th, 2026 10:42 AM Author: sadistic international law enforcement agency
Gf pwns gf2. Really wanted him to kill his bitch wife. The Fredo thing was redundant after killing Carlo in the first. Hyman Roth plot line was inferior to the bad guys from one. Only cool part was deniro slicing that guy.
Date: October 6th, 2026 11:57 AM Author: appetizing filthy address liquid oxygen
Godfather 1 is better but if you’re a Film Loser who’s watched them both a number of times, 2 gets better because it’s more Intellectual. If you try to rewatch 1, some parts don’t really land that well like seeing the horse head or some other shit makes it a bit 😴
The actual story of Michael trying to escape his destiny but getting pulled into it out of necessity because his father is in trouble and his brothers both suck for different reasons, then killing everyone for Revenge, is brilliant. Because it makes the whole story about family instead of guinea Scum crime shit.
Date: October 6th, 2026 12:00 PM Author: mint exhilarant pistol
The plot is a little hard to follow in 1 which is weird for a gangster movie. I always have to read the Wikipedia article to remember who was plotting against who and when.
It’s not that hard, they do it with exposition. If you don’t phone poast it’s easy.
Vito tells Michael that he will have someone whom he absolutely trusts try to setup a meeting with someone. At that meeting, he’ll be assassinated. Tessio tried to setup a meeting with Barzini.
Also Tattaglia is Bald and looks like Danny devito so he’s meant to be a whoremonger, whereas Barzini is more intellectual. Phenotype tells the story. Tattaglia is killed when getting laid. Barzini is killed on the Steps of some important building.
Date: October 6th, 2026 1:04 PM Author: Ruby indecent lodge
The plot is based around the idea that the other crime bosses in New York want to move into the heroin trade but Vito thinks this is a social ill and he refuses to get involved. The other mob bosses need him because Vito has the most corrupt politicians in his pocket who would turn a blind eye. Since he won't go along with it they try and kill him.
Meanwhile Michael gets sucked into the family business because he's competent. His brothers are either incompetent goons with a track record or they die doing something stupid
Michael's evolution from clean cut war hero to mobster begins when the family choose him to commit a revenge murder because no one would suspect him because he has no reputation for crime.
In the end Vito dies, Sonny is dead, Robert Duval goes to law school, Fredo is an idiot which is expanded on in Pt II and Michael accedes to the throne.
Date: October 6th, 2026 7:23 PM Author: Ruby indecent lodge
Classic case of if you want to do something right you've got to do it yourself. He proved his capability. That's what the whole movie is about. It's about being useful. It's a perfect Film 10/10.
Pt II is a solid 7/10 that gets inflated by people who don't really understand Films. It's decent but not amazing. It really drags in parts. De Niro stole the show but it's a side story.
Date: October 6th, 2026 9:00 PM Author: Ruby indecent lodge
It was part of the calculus ok I didn't re-watch it yesterday. Ofc it was Michael's idea but the whole family reluctantly endorsed it even if they were initially trying to talk him out of it. They all realized he was the only one who could pull it off due to his reputation for neutrality.