The godfather part 2

Journal on Godfather II I was pleased to see the movie Godfather II, a sequel to a multi-awarded mystery and suspense drama film. Its being acclaimed as an art film cannot be questioned, but there appears a drawback. Viewing the three hour long movie which did not build to any climax can have a dampening effect. This would seem rather strange since the film was well crafted and its Oscar awards prove its superiority in terms of acting, direction, screenplay, music, art design, etc. It bore the essential elements of an epic movie.
There can be various reasons for the audience to feel estranged. Attention can be lost as the viewer is straddled to-and-fro two episodes, those of Vito the Godfather and Michael the second Mafia don. Portraying the two main heroes across decades made the scope of the movie too stretched out. Various mafia characters were depicted with undue presumption that they are known to the ordinary viewer. Splitting the movie into two separate films could have been plausible. Instead, loose parallelism made the movie porous and disconcerting. Full camera shots for a documentary-like effect in recreating Sicilian, Nevada and Havana locales fit an epic format. There was, however, not sufficient angling and close-ups for audience affinity with the main characters. Total effect was that of a vintage film shot on a one-camera set-up.
In sum, Godfather II is a highly intellectual art film, but it is like a Picasso painting which the ordinary onlooker would find distant and strange.
Reference
Godfather Part II. Web 22 Oct. 2012. < http://www. rottentomatoes. com/m/godfather_part_ii/>