Call me biased. For years I thought that the original Godfather was the end-all be-all of films and that there was no way they could ever top it. After years of people crushing me to see Part II (and the heavy weight of the Oscar Gold it had won) I finally caved in, rented it, and came away from it a changed man.

It is difficult in any film to tell two separate stories that co-exist on the same level. They accomplished that. It is near blasphemous to take a heralded character in the original and watch him self-destruct in a sequel. They pulled it off. And it is unthinkable that one brother could possibly betray another. Believe it.

Part II tells the parallel stories of a Young Vito Corleone (Robert DeNiro speaking virtually no English) rising to prominence in New York's Hells Kitchen and his son Michael (Al Pacino in his best performance ever), many years after Vito's death, trying to make sense of the business he never wanted to be a part of. The Rise and The Fall of two very different, but ultimately the same, men.

Vito's inherent goodness bleeds through his performance. Once doing away with the "Black Hand" who rules the streets through terror and oppression, Vito takes control of his neighborhood through kindness and compassion. He knows the problems of his people and understands why, in some situations, they can not afford to go to the police for help. He is their Robin Hood.

However, several decades later on the banks of Lake Tahoe, his youngest son Michael has embraced the hypocrisy of his profession. He intimidates his adversaries, yanks power from his father's trusted counselor, and turns his older brother Fredo (the much missed John Cazale) into a glorified errand boy. After an attempt on his life is botched, Michael goes on an international trek to consolidate his potential enemies and turn them against one another. It is on this journey that he learns the true nature of his enemy and realizes that to overcome him, he may lose his soul.

Shakespearean to a fault, emotional as hell and one of the best (tragic) endings I have ever encountered. See this before you attempt to see Godfather Part III (it spoils the ending).