Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci features a clear Godfather 2 reference with Al Pacino that proves the success of the film’s campiness. Based on the true story of the Gucci family dynasty, House of Gucci stars Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, and Jared Leto in some of the most outrageous dramatic and comedic performances in recent cinema. The performances of the actors have been highly praised, particularly with Lady Gaga as Patrizia, Adam Driver as Maurizio, and Al Pacino hamming it up as Aldo Gucci. While the film tries to find a proper balance in its campiness, one scene in particular proves it’s exactly where it needs to be.
The campy nature of House of Gucci has been both praised and criticized, with many divided on whether it’s too campy to accomplish its conflicts or not campy enough to earn its stature as “fun.” It’s extremely difficult to understand Ridley Scott's House of Gucci being interpreted straight, with nearly every aspect of the movie geared at outrageousness and ridiculous portraits of a Godfather-esque dynastic family. Leto is essentially Luigi from Super Mario Bros., Gaga and Driver are on screen to look great in Gucci fashion, Jeremy Irons is there to cast judgment, and Pacino is playing a hammy caricature of himself as a Gucci don. House of Gucci is crafted as a fun time with its seriousness less prioritized, and its comparisons to The Godfather are what proves it to be in on its own joke.
Jared Leto’s character Paolo is the black sheep of House of Gucci's titular family, an heir to the dynasty whose characterization is almost heartbreaking when considering he truly believes in his fashion talents and optimism while surrounded by cut-throat mercenaries. After trying to scare Aldo by revealing his American tax evasion, Paolo ends up sending Pacino’s character to prison. Upon Aldo’s release, he and Paolo are confronted with one another as his son desperately apologizes. In a scene reminiscent of The Godfather 2, Aldo embraces Paolo after his betrayal, simply telling him he’s an idiot, but he’s his idiot. If House of Gucci wasn’t an excessively humorous portrayal of a fashion Godfather, audiences would have been waiting for Pacino to say “I know it was you, Paolo” before ordering a hit on his son. Because Ridley Scott’s controversial movie perfectly lets loose the ridiculousness of its dynamics, Paolo is instead an idiotic Fredo caricature, telling viewers that House of Gucci knows it’s not actually trying to be The Godfather.
Both Pacino and Leto fully embrace the campiness of House of Gucci, and Al Pacino's dual presence in The Godfather cements their tonal differences. Pacino is essentially playing an aging, excessively fashionable Michael, even getting to go full Pacino in a few scenes. The performances in House of Gucci are big, which can also be said about The Godfather. The difference is that Gucci’s actors are purposefully trying to go all the way and more, and it only makes it more enjoyable the more flamboyantly they dive into their characters' oddities. The Godfather doesn’t rest on the outrageousness of the Corleones, they need to be level-headed and conniving or they don't survive. House of Gucci’s characters are always scheming and trying to be one step ahead of each other, but none of them are competent in their power dynamics - which is exactly why Fredo and Michael contrasted with Paolo and Aldo makes Scott’s movie a masterpiece of absurdity.
House of Gucci played straight doesn’t work, and some serious moments give it the illusion that it is. That is, until you have all of the characters in the same scene - it almost seems like all the actors are in different movies. When they’re all together, it’s an eccentric and enjoyable trainwreck. The Godfather is a serious, dramatic take on crime, family, and power, and House of Gucci’s direct Godfather 2 pseudo-dramatic character comparison takes an enjoyably off-the-rails aesthetic for a similar story. For House of Gucci’s campy take on the subject, the Aldo-Paolo betrayal scene is what most obviously establishes its fun take on Coppola's Godfather movies.