The Godfather Part II is a long movie. In fact, it's significantly longer than the original, which is saying something. At nearly three and a half hours, the film is long enough that Paramount decided to span it across two discs in order to maintain high bit rates.

So what is it about this movie, a sequel no less, that justifies a running time of two hundred minutes? Well, essentially it's because The Godfather Part II is really two films in one. It continues the story of Michael (Al Pacino) and his efforts to increase the power of the Corleone family. Cut in with this story line, the film takes us back in time to before the first film and gives us a look at how Vito Corleone (played as a young man by Robert De Niro) came from nothing to create one of the most powerful Mafia families in the country.

The film opens in Corleone, Sicily with Vito as a nine-year old boy. Vito's father has just been killed by a rival family and Vito's brother, Paolo, heads out for revenge. When Paolo is killed, Vito's mother pleads with the head of the rival family to spare her only remaining son's life. He refuses, saying that Vito may be weak now, but he'll grow strong and come looking for revenge. It's better to kill him now. Vito's mother sacrifices her life to give Vito a chance to escape. Sympathetic families hide Vito, putting themselves in danger, and eventually the boy is shipped to America. He is promptly placed into quarantine due to smallpox and we leave him, a lone little boy with no family, sitting in a sparse hospital room and singing.

Flash forward to several years after the events of the first film. The Corleone's have successfully moved to Las Vegas, where they control two casinos. It is the day of Michael's son's first communion and the scene is very reminiscent of the opening of the first film. While a huge party takes place outside, Michael is conducting dark business in dark rooms. He meets with a corrupt senator trying to squeeze the Corleone's for money, he tries to prevent an inter-family war from breaking out in New York and he works on a deal to expand the Corleone influence to Havana, Cuba. The day ends with an attack on Michael's life as gunmen fire into his bedroom, barely missing him and his wife, Kay (Diane Keaton).

In essence, the two interwoven stories are on parallel tracks, but heading in opposite directions. Don Vito begins with nothing and proceeds to build an empire. Don Michael begins with that empire and proceeds to lose it.

The interesting thing is that the film doesn't cut back and forth between timelines quickly. Instead, it lingers with each story, setting up important events and seeing them through to some sort of conclusion. This is what saves the film from being confusing. Also, Coppola segues between time in ways that subtly link events together. For instance, Michael returns from Cuba to learn that Kay has had a miscarriage. As he is taking in this knowledge and starting to grieve, we hear a baby crying and the scene transitions to Vito looking on as nursemaids work to soothe Fredo's pneumonia. That the infant Fredo is so seriously ill reflects not only on the loss of Kay's and Michael's baby but also parallels Michael's worries about whether or not Fredo made it out of Cuba.

In many ways, this film has more depth and is better than its predecessor, if only because we know the family so well from the first film. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this film is made great because of the groundwork set forth by The Godfather. On its own, Part II might work, but it wouldn't be nearly as powerful. This is not a complaint, because the film is meant to accompany the first and together the two films enrich each other.

Of course, perhaps the best thing about this film is the performances. Without a doubt, the Godfather films feature some of the best actors to ever work in the business and they put in their top performances. I don't think there is anyone in Hollywood better than Al Pacino at playing quiet menace one second and explosive rage the next. This is his trademark and he excells at it here. De Niro also does an interesting thing in that he manages to make the Vito Corleone character his own while still projecting the flavor of Brando's performance. This proves to be much more effective than if he'd just tried to "do" Brando throughout the film.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, this is a long film. In fact, all of the films in The Godfather Trilogy run longer than average, but the important thing is that they don't feel long. I've seen these films a few times before and I sat through them again for these reviews and I can honestly say that I was never bored by these epics, despite knowing what was coming next. It's almost like reading a great novel -- it doesn't matter how many pages there are or how satisfying the ending is, because when it's over you still wish there was more to read just for the sheer pleasure of it.