This series of deaths illustrates that Michael has, in an ultimate way, chosen “His Family” over his family. Fredo says a Hail Mary again, just before he is murdered. This last death is the most telling because Fredo had earlier explained that he was the best at catching fish out of all the brothers-accomplishing this feat by saying a Hail Mary before each fish. (2:42:23)Ī montage of violent assassinations: Hyman Roth is murdered in broad daylight, Frankie Pentangeli follows orders by committing suicide in prison, and Fredo is killed by a family friend during a fishing trip. But she calls him blind, revealing she had an abortion, so the evil of this family would not continue. Asking forgiveness for inadvertently causing her to miscarry, he explains that now he will change.
He apologizes for the stress of the assassination attempt and trial. Plot Point 2 occurs after the midpoint of Act 2. The Godfather By Mario Puzo 2 Book One Chapter 1 Behind every great fortune there is a crime Balzac Amerigo Bonasera sat in New York Criminal Court Number 3 and waited for justice vengeance on the men who had so cruelly hurt his daughter, who had tried to dishonor her. Usually, the Inciting Incident which is followed by Plot Point 1 occurs in Act 1. For a typical 120-page screenplay, Act 1 is 30 pages long (or 30 minutes), Act 2 is 60 pages (60 minutes), and Act 3 is 30 pages (30 minutes). He manages to elude the allegations and maintain the family, but Kay threatens to leave him and take the kids with her. Basically, Act 1 is the beginning of the story, Act 2 is the middle, and Act 3 is the end of the story.
(01:27:56)Īfter the Cuba debacle where Fredo ran away and Roth survived the hit that Michael ordered on him, Michael must face a new crisis-he is put on trial for being the head of The Mafia. Michael knows now-Fredo, his own brother, is the traitor. (00:39:01)ĭuring a business trip, Michael overhears his brother Fredo (John Cazale) explain that Roth’s man Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese) showed him a good time on his last trip to Cuba but when Michael had first introduced the two that evening, they both acted as if they had never met before. This relieves Michael from the day to day responsibilities of Don so that he can track down the traitor that allowed this attack to happen and protect his family with all the tools available to him. Michael appoints his adopted brother Tom Hagen (Robert Duval) as the new Don. (00:31:44)Īfter the party, Michael and his wife Kay (Diane Keaton) barely escape with their lives when massive gunfire explodes through the bedroom window as they’re preparing for bed. Frankie follows Michael’s orders, but he loudly states that Roth is not to be trusted. Michael explains he has business with Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg), and he doesn’t want to mess things up by retaliating against the gangs that Roth controls. Frankie, who runs things in New York for the Corleones, isn’t pleased that Michael chooses inaction in the face of attacks against the family. The project’s ambition did not go unrecognised: like the first film, it won best picture at the 1974 Academy Awards.Ĭoppola completed his chronicles of the Corleone family sixteen years later, with The Godfather Part III (1990).During the party for his son’s confirmation, Don Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) has a heated discussion with Frankie Pentangeli (Michael V. When oppola intercuts a christening with a mass assassination, The Godfather brings us into the worldview of the wicked, where there is no God, only godfathers.
Ranging over multiple locations, Coppola’s film ambitiously intertwines two time periods: the story of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) becoming increasingly consumed and isolated by his new power as head of the family, and flashbacks to his father Vito Corleone’s (Robert De Niro) arrival as an immigrant in New York, and his gradual ascent to power. Godfather is the way it depicts how atholicism oper-ates in the orleone universe as salvation and cover for evil. Sequels had not yet become the Hollywood norm when Francis Ford Coppola signed up for a continuation to his hugely successful 1972 adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather, but this second film set a high standard for follow-ups in the way that it enriches and deepens the Corleone family narrative. “The whole picture is informed with such a complex sense of the intermingling of good and evil that it may be the most passionately felt epic ever made in this country.”