Talk about a tough follow-up act. The original Godfather is one of the most celebrated, decorated, revered films ever made, and when Hollywood first inquired about a sequel, director Francis Ford Coppola balked at the thought of it. Too much pressure, with too many bad, lingering memories of creative meddling during the first production. As replacement, he suggested a budding young Martin Scorsese (not what the studio wanted to hear) before Paramount agreed to make certain concessions and limit certain bigwigs' involvement, drawing Coppola back to the table.

That return partnership resulted in another rich, character-driven epic, a second chapter to rival the first. Or rather, a captivating prologue and a fitting epilogue, all rolled up into one. Told in conjunction, the twin fables of father Vito's early-century rise to power and son Michael's desperate bid for 1950s consolidation dovetail beautifully. Cultivated by tragedy, young Vito was a rough, hardened man, but not a harsh or unfair one. He held himself to a high standard, despised those who wouldn't do the same, but also valued loyalty and community above everything. When Vito lifted himself out of the gutter, he did the same for everyone around him. He may have operated outside the law, but he was far from lawless. From this, we see how Michael learned by his father's example and drew a number of flawed conclusions. Where Vito was stern but flexible, Michael is hard to a fault. He sees disrespect everywhere, considers forgiveness akin to weakness, and slowly chips away at his own support structure until he's isolated from the things the old man valued most. If Vito lived to enrich his family, his boy's sole purpose is to maintain its name. Even if the spirit behind that moniker has withered and decayed.

Though they're only separated by forty years, the two periods represent a major change in the appearance and operation of western culture. When Vito immigrated at the turn of the century, New York was still a place of lofty dreams and ample opportunity. America hadn't quite worked out the bugs from its system, enabling hard-working nobodies like young Mr. Corleone to build empires. By the mid '50s, that had changed. In such a short period, ivory towers were built, rules changed, offices occupied. Now the game isn't about the climb, it's about absurd growth and total domination. Both generations of Corleone men embody these attitudes; one warm-hearted, the other ice-cold; one deeply concerned for his people, the other exploiting his connections to boost a brand. Vito trusts his partners to chase a mutual goal, while Michael only sees them as potential rivals. This fuels their antithetical behavior: where one builds, the other whittles away.

These rich, reverberating messages are all written, acted and filmed with incredible skill. Layers upon layers of context and meaning, loaded conversations, subtle machinations and fine details. However, by comparison to the first, this pensive, reflective story struggles to pace itself. That may be its only weakness, but it's a significant one, and the main reason I consider it a step below the original. I'm willing to forgive excessive running times in big, sweeping epics like this, when necessary. There's no good reason for this one to stretch out for as long as it does, particularly in Michael's story, which drags on forever and ever. That's where I think the dramatic character losses of the first film hurt the sequel - this plot needed a big personality like Sonny, and it has plenty to choose from in Vito's story. In Michael's case, we have to make do with Fredo.