Introduction
Narrative movies are films that portray different style of filmmaking. This style shows believable narratives through its characters in order to convince the viewers that the subsequent scenes are real. The success of a narrative film depends on the camera movement and lighting, along with other cinematic effects, which make them very essential. In this writing, we will discuss the chosen narrative film along with its significant features as to why it can be considered a successful narrative movie. The purpose of this paper is to provide critiques to the movie “The Godfather II” in terms of its narrative structures. We argue that this film is a success as it was able to achieve the overall narrative goal to convince its audience.
Critical Analysis
It is conceivably showing the obvious to mention that the issues relating to law and order may have been the tradition as well as the central subject of many crime movies and gangster films in particular. In fact that is what the movies are about. They portray characters operating against the law to which the narratives embrace their connections with law enforcement agencies. These are all the traits that encompass in the movie “The Godfather II”.
The movie was produced and directed by Francis Coppolla. The film portrays a serious action tone that happened in a business-like theme. The way that the characters speak through understatement ways made the overall tone as euphemistically film. This has helped the film to portray its tone and to emphasize the highlight of the story, which is to hide the violent realities of what the characters are doing from the public.
This overall tone has been constantly done in all of the movie’s succeeding parts, which many of its followers appreciated. Unlike this film, other narrative movies had different changing tones within the storyline, which made them somehow inefficient because some viewers may have been confused as to what the movie was really trying to portray. That is why; establishing the overall tone is essential even from the start of the movie scenes.
There are many scenes in this film that show how it was structured. One of the parts in the story is when it shows how the power is transferred Vito, Michael, and then to the Godfather. This type of scene represents a linear structure of the film. This structure also shows that the director, Coppolla, was able to assist the audience times have passed between the scenes. In addition, the linear structure of the film was supported by the sounds, which is one of the crucial elements in the “The Godfather II” movie structure.
During the time that this film was created, the movie genres were not as much as what we have today. The film’s genre embraced the gangster genre to which the movie was successful in interpreting. In fact, its genre became its own icon due to different scenes that may have been adopted by other later films. Thus, its genre is regarded as the descendant of other gangster-themed movies.
The actors have greatly contributed to the success of this film. In fact, three of the main actors have stood out throughout the film’s story. Al Pacino, who portrayed as Michael Corleone, can be regarded as the film’s interpreter or the one who has the skill to take the material and then apply their signature act on it, which can be the reason of his launched career when he played Mr. Corleone. On the other hand, both Diane Keaton and Robert De Niro were also of the same classification as they were able to apply their own capabilities to make their characters to be effective in the movie. The supporting roles of the other casts were also able to contribute to the overall cinematic experience of the movie. They were able to portray each of their roles in accordance with what the story would like to narrate.
The film represents a glamorous style to which the movie depicted in most of its scenes. Thus, the nature of the movie’s style represents irony. This has been evident as the movie was created in an epoch when sincerity and authenticity were suddenly become the main new values. Another style of this film is its nostalgic style of direction. During the time when this film was created, its style may have been the emerging niche of the movie industry, which followed by the succeeding gangster-themed movies.
The film’s setting is somewhat a combination of stylized and realistic. That is because; there were scenes that used stylized setting in order to emphasize the specific event of the scene itself. On the other hand, the film used more of its realistic setting so as to help in narrating the whole story.
One of the stylized parts of the film is when it used a blocking to emphasize the Godfather’s supremacy. This is a stylized setting that supported the scene’s depiction of main character’s power and authority. Through appropriate lighting, camera angles and its movement, many of the scenes were distinct to emphasize the combination of style settings of the movie.
There were major themes that were shown in the film. Primarily, it interprets the clear line concerning public and private. This was evident when it shows that the Corleone family has a business known to public. However, there were private discussions about illegal transactions that happen behind the closed doors. Also, the theme of power is another notable theme of the film such as Mr. Corleone’s character. In relation to the power is the loyalty that was also present in the film’s theme. Within the Godfather’s world, showing loyalty means currency. This was evident when Bonasera seek the Godfather’s help to make revenge against his daughter’s enemies, which Corleone responded is exchange of his loyalty. This theme also shows that betrayal means death.
These themes were perfectly portrayed by the characters of the movie. That is why; it achieved many different comments and reactions from the audience. Many people during the time of its launch gave their comments about their overall experience with the film. Even in today’s time, people still discuss about the movie’s success. Many people said that it was overflowing with realities. Thus, positive reactions were also brought up regarding the actors’ and the director’s exceptional work.
The major element that made the “The Godfather II” movie successful is its foundation of gangster-themed, crime movie setting. Its story may be regarded as the starter of succeeding similar films. Additionally, the element of showing the possibility of a person doing both legal and illegal activities at the same time served as a wake-up call for people during the time when the film was shown. On the other hand, I did not see any negative elements that somehow made it unsuccessful. In fact, every minute of the movie provided entertaining scenes. The actors were very effective; the overall narration of the story was created accordingly. Thus, it is an acclaimed film that did not provide any disappointment.
