Godfather is said to be one of the best film series in America. godfather 2 is mainly talk about how mike deteriorated after he took over the title godfather from his dad
The film is a two line story .one is about mike's father ,how he manage to strengthen the family ,one is about mike,how the family is ruined..well, it is not only the sharp comparision of the family's future, moreover, it is also a camparision of the extinct characteristic of the two godfather. The transition of the sceen in this film is quite natrual. At the beginning of the film ,it is through caption letting audience understand the time ,At the middle part of the film , it just gets rid of the caption and uses cross-dissolve.after mike got to know that kate had a miscarrige ,the camera take a midum close up of mike who was smoking ,and it naturally dissolve to the same gesture of mike's father. From this sceen, the film starts to focus on two godfather 's different life and different characteristic when facing the similar situation..
The first transition is after the sceen of a crowed happy new year when the old godfather starded to build the colin family, the director straightly cut to the sceen of mike crossing a huge range of snow , quite a sharp comparision !!and this implies the downhill of mike's family
The second transition is after mike sighing that time has changed .the cross-dissolve is smartly used here. Mike was arranged on the left side of the picture while his father was arranged in the right.their face towards the opposite position just as a implication of their opposite life track.
The third transition is after a huge quarrel between mike and kate. This time diredtor doesn't use any special effect .just cut to a medium-long shot of a moving train with lively sound ,at first it brings a dubious feeling(was it the kate who brings the kids away?) ,when keep seeing ,audience got to know it is a sceen of the old godfather who ger together with his family after a succesful revenge..the director arrange a sililar revenge of mike afer this section, what's different is that the revenge is to his own brother and the people who used to be mike's friends
The revenge part is really good , the director use montage to edit three episodes of revenge together, the fist shot is a medium long shot, inside,dark. Mike was totally soaked in the dark and had a long distance between the camera. It brings a feeling of indifferent.then cut to the second shot of his brother who was going fishing .with the ship slowly drifted towards the see, a stressfull music began to play in the background like the sin underneath.after a seriers of shot stating the situation .camra is back on the earth ,follows the waves of leaves as moaning guity.the third shot cut to the medium-long shot of the endless sea,but the color is cool . his brother's lonely ship floated up and down..afterwards the camera turns to another sceen,after the sound of gun,his enemy died.then ,it is back to his brother .with the camera zooms in ,the tune repeates giving us a kind of feeliing that danger is approaching .after his brother's last words “pray for sinners”, the director didn't take a direct shot of how he died but take a shot of mike who was standing behind the window implying that he is the killer .than a medium-long shot ,gun fired,mike bowed his head.
The film didn't end here ,the director use cross dissolve stretch audience back to a family party many years ago(to celebrate mike's father's birthday ) ,at that time ,the family was integregate .it was at this party that mike decided to be a godfather. There is a one shot quite interesting: all family members went to the living room to bless their father, only mike stayed at the dining room smoking alone .the background sound was continual laughing ,but the picture was mike's serious face .from that time ,from so many years ago ,from the time mike chose this way , he is doomed to be lonely .
I think this film has a perfect comparision to tell the different characteristic. the old godfather though made a lot of mistake himself, he is always true to his family to his friends. Mike can betray anything for revenge, maybe that's why he is so lonlely .The
film 's last
shot is a zoom in to mike's face ,like enlarging his rotten heart.(pay attention to the close up of the ring on his hand ,it also symbolize power.)the power is all he had Advance: zoom in
panorama medium long shot
close up close up
overlay cross-dissolve
screen fade in fade in
fade out fade out
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