the godfather part 2 movie review

"This is the business we've chosen."

Robert De Niro in his Oscar-winning role as the young Vito Corleone.

The musical score plays an even greater role in "The Godfather: Part II" than it did in the original film. Nostalgic, mournful, evoking lost eras, it stirs emotions we shouldn't really feel for this story, and wouldn't, if the score were more conventional for a crime movie. Why should we regret the passing of a regime built on murder, extortion, bribery, theft and the ruthless will of frightened men? Observe how powerfully Nino Rota 's music sways our feelings for the brutal events onscreen.

At the end of Francis Ford Coppola 's masterwork " The Godfather " (1972), we have seen Michael Corleone ( Al Pacino ) change from a young man who wanted to stand apart from his family to one who did not hesitate to take up the reigns of control. In "Part II" (1974), we see him lose his remaining shreds of morality and become an empty shell, insecure and merciless. If the score evokes pity, it is Michael's self-pity. In attempting to fill the shoes of his father, Michael has lost sight of those values that made Don Corleone better than he had to be and has become a new godfather every bit as evil as he has to be. If Rota's score had been energetic and pounding, we might see him as more closely paralleling Tony Montana in a better film, Brian DePalma 's " Scarface " (1983). But the score is sad, and music can often evoke emotion more surely and subtly than story. Consider how deeply we are moved by certain operatic arias that are utter nonsense.

The devolution of Michael Corleone is counterpointed by flashbacks to the youth and young manhood of his father, Vito ( Robert De Niro ). These scenes, taking place in Sicily and old New York, follow the conventional pattern of a young man on the rise and show the Mafia code being burned into the Corleone blood. No false romanticism conceals the necessity of using murder to do business. Such events as Vito's murder of the minor-league New York godfather have their barbarism somewhat softened as Coppola adopts Vito's point of view and follows him as he climbs rooftops to ambush the man and successfully escapes. It is a built-in reality that we tend to identify with a film's POV. Here the murder becomes another rung on Vito's ladder to success.

To be sure, the life of young Vito helps to explain the forming of the adult Don Corleone, and to establish in the film the Sicilian code of omerta. As Michael changes, we see why he feels that he must. He must play the game by its rules. But I am not sure the flashbacks strengthen the film. I would have appreciated separate films about young Vito and the evolution of Michael. Never mind. What we have are two compelling narratives, two superb lead performances and lasting images. There is even a parallel between the deaths of two elderly dons. Revenge must be obtained.

Coppola is at the top of his form in both films, and if I disapprove of the morality of the central characters, well, so do we all. We agree people should not kill one another, but that doesn't explain why these films are seen again and again, entering a small worldwide canon of films just about everyone seems to have seen. They are grippingly written, directed with confidence and artistry, photographed by Gordon Willis ("The Master of Darkness") in rich, warm, tones. The acting in both films is definitive. We can name the characters in a lot of films (Harry Lime, Scarlett O'Hara, Travis Bickle, Charles Foster Kane) but from how many films do we remember the names of six or more characters? Brando, Pacino, De Niro, Duvall, Cazale, Caan, Diane Keaton , Lee Strasberg , Talia Shire , Michael V. Gazzo and others are well-cast, well-used, gifted and correct for their roles.

Simply as a story, the Michael scenes in "The Godfather: Part II" engage our emotions. I admire the way Coppola and his co-writer Mario Puzo require us to think along with Michael as he handles delicate decisions involving Hyman Roth (Strasberg), the boss of Miami; Fredo (Cazale), his older brother, and the shooting of Sonny ( James Caan ). Who has done what? Why? Michael floats various narratives past various principals, misleading them all, or nearly. It's like a game of blindfolded chess; he has to envision the moves without seeing them.

But finally it is all about Michael. Even the attack on the night of his son's first communion party is on his bedroom, not our bedroom. His wife, Kay (Keaton), leaves him, and his focus does not waver: He will keep his son. Tom Hagen (Duvall), the most trusted confidant of father and son, considered a brother, is finally even suspected. In Michael's life, paranoia is a useful defense mechanism.

Coppola shows Michael breaking down under the pressure. We remember that he was once a proud war hero, a successful college student, building a legitimate lifestyle. But on their wedding day, Kay first began to fully realize what an all-controlling cocoon the Corleone clan was. There would always be things she could not be told about, could not be trusted with. Finally Michael has no one to tell or trust except his elderly mother ( Morgana King ). Michael's desperation in that intense conversation explains everything about the film's final shot.

So "Part II" is finally a sad film, a lament for loss, certainly. It is a contrast with the earlier film, in which Don Corleone is seen defending old values against modern hungers. Young Vito was a murderer, too, as we more fully see in the Sicily and New York scenes of Part II. But he had grown wise and diplomatic, and when he dies beside the tomato patch, yes, we feel regret. An age has closed. We feel no regret at Michael's decline. The crucial difference between the two films is that Vito is sympathetic, and Michael becomes a villain. That is not a criticism but an observation.

The "best films" balloting on IMDb.com lacks credibility because popularity is the primary criteria. But hundreds of thousands do indeed vote, and as I write the top four films, in order, are " The Shawshank Redemption ," "The Godfather," " The Dark Knight " and "The Godfather: Part II." Of all of the reviews I have ever written, my three-star review of "Part II" has stirred the most disagreement. Sometimes it is simply cited as proof of my worthlessness. I've been told by many that "Part II" is a rare sequel that is better than the original. Have I changed my mind? No. I have read my review of "Part II" and would not change a word.

Then why is it a "great movie"? Because it must be seen as a piece with the unqualified greatness of "The Godfather." The two can hardly be considered apart ("Part III" is another matter). When the characters in a film take on a virtual reality for us, when a character in another film made 30 years later can say "The Godfather" contains all the lessons in life you need to know, when an audience understands why that statement could be made, a film has become a cultural bedrock. No doubt not all of the gospels are equally "good," but we would not do without any of them.

"The Godfather: Part II" then becomes a film that everyone who values movies at all should see. And as I write this, it can be seen in astonishingly good prints. The "Godfather" trilogy has been painstakingly digitally restored by Robert Harris , a master in his field. I have seen the restored "Godfather" in the new 35mm print and "Part II" in the new Blu-ray DVD. Having first seen both at their world premieres, I would argue that they have never looked better. For films of such visual richness, that is a reason to rejoice.

And now I come back to the music. More than ever, I am convinced it is instrumental to the power and emotional effect of the films. I cannot imagine them without their Nino Rota scores. Against all our objective reason, they instruct us how to feel about the films. Now listen very carefully to the first notes as the big car drives into Miami. You will hear an evocative echo of Bernard Hermann's score for " Citizen Kane ," another film about a man who got everything he wanted and then lost it.

Note: The newly restored 35mm prints of the first and second parts will be screened at the Music Box, 3733 N. Southport. "Part I" plays today through Oct. 9 (except Monday), and "Part II" plays Oct. 10-16. A Blu-ray set of the trilogy is now available.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

The Godfather, Part II

• Diane Keaton as Kay
• Robert DeNiro as Don Vito Corleone
• John Cazale as Fredo Corleone
• Lee Strasberg as Hyman Roth
• G.D. Spradlin as Senator Geary
• Talia Shire as Connie
• Michael V. Gazzo as Frankie Pentangeli
• Bruno Kirby as Young Clemenza
• Abe Vigoda as Tessio

Screenplay by

Directed by.

• Francis Ford Coppola

Produced by

• Gray Frederickson

Cinematography by

• Gordon Willis

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‘the godfather: part ii’: thr’s 1974 review.

On Dec. 20, 1974, Francis Ford Coppola unveiled the mafia epic in wide release. 

By John H. Dorr

John H. Dorr

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On Dec. 20, 1974, Francis Ford Coppola unveiled The Godfather: Part II in wide release. The Paramount film claimed six Oscars at the 47th Academy Awards, including for best picture. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below: 

Part two of Francis Ford Coppola’s filmization of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather is an admirable, responsible production, less emotionally disturbing than its predecessor, but a grand historical epic studying the nature of power in the United States’ heritage. 

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'good night, and good luck': thr's 2005 review, 'shaun of the dead': thr's 2004 review.

But it is intellectually daring and marks an important breakthrough in the growing up of the Hollywood film. Coppola’s screenplay, written with Mario Puzo , builds itself around the events of the earlier movie, intercutting between a late ’50’s crisis in the regime of a young godfather Michael Corleone (Al Pacino ) and flashbacks to the early 1900’s tracing the rise to power of Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro ), the character played in the original by Marlon Brando. 

The personal side of the story plays variations on the family love versus business violence ironies that were well explored in the first screenplay. Here the Pacino character finds out and admits to himself the realities that the audience knew about him at the end of the first film. Without the first film, there’s little to sympathize with in this cold, ruthless, ego-tripped and power mad character. 

Pacino is not shown as a romantic character, but as a man under a great evil burden throughout. His scowl and guilty eyes constitute a heavy performance. 

This film is the ultimate case for production values. The incredible amounts of money spent are fully visible on the screen. The large historical re-creations work more as social comment than mere spectacle or backdrop. It is morally important to Coppola to show the political consensus of large groups of people in a single frame. 

The arrival of immigrants past the Statue of Liberty, more gigantic Corleone estate parties, a flesh pit visit to pre-Castro Havana on the eve of the revolution (shot in Santo Domingo), the streets of New York’s Little Italy in the early 1900’s, and a hearing into Mafia activities in the Senate Caucus Room — all are remarkably evoked through the masterful work of production designer Dean Tavoularis, with costumer Theadora Van Runkle, art director Angelo Graham, and set decorator George Nelson. 

Cinematographer Gordon Willis, in another major achievement, veils Pacino’s world with darkness. The visual style is austere, with hard lenses and little camera movement. To the credit of editors Peter Zinner, Barry Malkin and Richard Marks, the 3-hour 20 minutes running time, while demanding, is well paced and justified. 

Lee Strasberg is equally ruthless and durable as Pacino’s primary enemy in the struggle to maintain power. Mariana Hill is excellent as an embarrassing in-law for the family. 

Prominent also are Michael Gazzo as an old New York mafia figure, G.D. Spradin as a corrupt senator, and Gaston Moschin as De Niro’s first victim. 

Also in the cast are Troy Donahue, Fay Spain, Harry Dean Stanton, Phil Feldman, and producer-director Roger Corman who gave Coppola his start in the business. 

Co-producers were Gary Frederickson and Fred Roos engineering locations at Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, New York, Miami, Washington, Trieste, Rome and Sicily. — John H. Dorr.  

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The Godfather, Part II Reviews

The storytelling is leisurely and masterful; Coppola at the very peak of his powers.

Full Review | Dec 29, 2023

If you like your drama on a low-key level with excellent acting all around, then Godfather II is where it's at. I wasn't a great fan of the original but this sequel succeeds in unraveling the saga of a simple Mafia family.

Full Review | Jun 27, 2023

Through a compelling dual character study, the sequel explores the intertwined yet distinct paths of its protagonists. The result is a breathtaking display of filmmaking leaving us in awe of its expansive scope, attention to detail, and sheer perfection.

Full Review | Jun 8, 2023

The finest example of when a sequel is superior to its predecessor. The Godfather Part II is one of the best films of all-time. A masterpiece. It's that simple. Full review in Spanish

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 27, 2022

Lauded in some corners (although not this one) as being superior to its predecessor.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 26, 2022

The Godfather films have set home-video standards for decades, and that trend continues with Paramounts astonishing 4K restorations.

Full Review | Mar 18, 2022

It’s an epic vision of the corruption of America.

Full Review | Mar 8, 2022

One leaves the theatre stunned by the cold, ruthless violence of which men who are so otherwise civilised (they, have nice homes, wear nice clothes, love their families and friends dearly) are capable.

Director Francis Ford Coppola furnished a fully-fashioned gangster melodrama in the first film: in this one he stretches his talent to encompass a genuine American tragedy.

Seldom has a motion picture captured the feel and texture of novel form as this film does.

What particularly impresses me about the film is the way it conveys the feeling of being a young immigrant in the land of opportunity.

What is so good about the film is the sympathetic way that Coppola has treated such unsympathetic characters, machismo-minded males still worshiping at the god of tribal virility.

The Godfather, Part II grows more impressive by the minute.

Full Review | Mar 7, 2022

This ideal is achieved perfectly in The Godfather: Part II, which to me is the best of the series.

Full Review | Apr 13, 2021

The cinematography is the third major element in Godfather, Part II, ranking with Coppola's direction and its major acting successes to create its convincing epic quality.

Full Review | Apr 6, 2021

All the performances are fine, especially Lee Strasberg as a despicable Meyer Lansky hood; Diane Keaton, as Michael's despairing wife; Robert Duvall, as his lawyer; and Robert De Niro, as Vito Adolini, nee Don Corleone.

Acknowledgement should be given the film for its sweep and scope and a style so distinctive that Coppola must be credited with creating something entirely fresh and inimitable -- the hallmarks of a first-rate artist.

Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Part II is an even richer, more spellbinding work than its wholly successful predecessor.

The new sequel to The Godfather, titled The Godfather, Part II, permits us a second look inside that room, inside that world. At times the vision is as beautiful, as harrowing, and as exciting as the original.

The Godfather, Part II really has no reason for its lavish existence other than the greediness of its makers. And that is the kind of avarice that a godfather appreciates.

• Cast & crew

User reviews

The Godfather Part II

Breathtaking in its scope and tragic grandeur....

• Nazi_Fighter_David
• Mar 9, 2001

A masterpiece that can never be beaten...

• umunir-36959
• Aug 8, 2019

The Greatest Film Ever Made

• May 6, 1999

To call it a sequel is a travesty

• May 8, 2001

One of the greatest films ever made.

• AgustinCesaratti
• Oct 5, 2019

The Greatest Sequel During the Cinema's History

• Oct 12, 2001

Great ensemble acting, great story, greatest sequel ever made.

• Jan 31, 2000

"Michael, I Never Wanted This For You."

• Feb 21, 2009

Terrific continuation of the "Godfather" series; to call it a "sequel" almost seems insulting...

• MovieAddict2016
• Aug 22, 2003

"The Godfather Part II is the greatest sequel ever made, one of the greatest films of all time and possibly finer than its superb predecessor *****"

• Dec 30, 2005

One of the greatest sequels ever made

• OriginalMovieBuff21
• Sep 11, 2004

Poor Fredo! We still miss John Cazale!

• Oct 13, 2002

Sorry, but it just didn't deliver

• RichardKleiner
• Nov 16, 2007

I feel totally disconnected...

• Nov 1, 2006

Best gangster dramas of all time arguably

• Feb 22, 2020

An Insult To Call It A Sequel

• alexkolokotronis
• Jun 29, 2008

Masterpiece - best film ever

• Oct 3, 2023

A Masterpiece

• JoshtheGiant
• Oct 14, 2005

One of the greatest movies ever made.

• Sleepin_Dragon
• Jun 23, 2023

I prefer the first film, but this compares well

• mentalcritic
• May 7, 2005

A must for everyone

• Mar 12, 2019

The best movie ever made?

• nripeshdhungana-43780
• Jan 10, 2019

As good as the original...

• newfiesailor
• Apr 26, 2006

It's-a not so good.

• BA_Harrison
• Mar 6, 2016

Over ambitious over long and over rated.

• son_of_cheese_messiah
• Jun 11, 2010

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‘the godfather ii’ is a grand, courageous drama: 1974 review.

In “The Godfather,” Vito Corleone used his daughter’s wedding as an excuse to do business. In the quiet of his study, he listened patiently to those who sought special favors, granting audiences as imperiously as any reigning monarch.

In, “The Godfather PART II,” at Loew’s Tower East, Loew’s State I and II, Loew’s Cine and Orpheum, it is again a family party, an absurdly lavish celebration of his son’s First Communion, that gives Michael Corleone, now the head of the family, the opportunity to hold court in the study of his Lake Tahoe estate. Like his father before him, Michael coldly examines the faces of treachery.

The Corleone empire, with its power structure based on the power structure of the Roman empire, has grown and is now firmly entrenched in Las Vegas. Michael is dealing in the big leagues, even holding confabs with the U.S. senator.

But he still uses the same methods of insuring his strength as his father. He still has his “buttonmen,” tough-looking hoods who are poised and ready to wipe out his enemies the moment he gives the signal. Those who fail to show respect for his authority, like Nevada senator who insults his family, can be certain they will feel his wrath in one way or another.

Both father and son cannot escape their Sicilian heritage. They are doomed to live by the Sicilian code of honor, an eye for an eye, and their blood run hot whenever they or a member of their family are threatened. It is a kind of a curse, and ultimately it is their tragedy.

Director Francis Ford Coppola has decided to tell of this tragedy in one grand, sweeping melodrama. Moving both forward and back in time, he interweaves the story of Vito Corleone’s rise to power with the story of what Michael Corleone did with that power.

For Vito Corleone it is a matter of rising above his humble origins. Forced out of Sicily at the age of 9 by the Mafia, he arrives at Ellis Island, a frightened, sad-eyed child.

Years later, he has married and found himself a job as a clerk in a grocery story. For a while that satisfies, until he notices a man (Gaston Moschin) strutting about the neighborhood, demanding protection money from the local businessmen. Vito is suddenly aware of the power this local “boss” has and eventually he decides to acquire it for himself, all for the sake of his growing family.

Michael already has power, although he has not quite been able to go “legitimate” and become respectable as he had hoped. In hopes of solidifying his empire, he plans an alliance with the financial wizard of the underworld, an aging Jew and a character obviously suggested by Meyer Lansky.

An attempt is made on Michael’s life, causing him to further isolate himself and to be bitterly distrustful of almost everyone. He goes to Havana to cement a hotel deal with the Lansky-type character, on the even of the Castro revolution. The deal falls through.

Back home, he is called before the Senate crime committee investigating the underworld. He neatly avoids prosecution but the power the Corleones had fought for with so much bloodshed backfires.

In Michael’s case it has cost him the love of his wife, the respect of his friends. Even longtime family retainer, Tom Hagen, played so well by Robert Duvall, wants to desert him. His children fear him. He is all alone, having built a wall around himself as a defense against his emotions.

“The Godfather PART II” is the most ambitious American movie in terms of size and scope in recent memory. It goes much deeper than “The Godfather” in analyzing the twisted mentalities of these men who pervert the capitalist system for their own gain. The film is richer in texture and gives more evidence of social awareness.

Coppola is a master of detail and a master of the “crowd scene.” The narrow streets of Little Italy come boldly to life, the sidewalks jammed with pushcarts and bursting with people. Havana is a lush, tropical paradise, feverishly gay. The Senate hearings are full of unexpected humor.

It is difficult to play a man who is already dead inside, but Al Pacino plays Michael as he should be played, with barely a trace of emotion and a brooding sense of menace about him. Robert De Niro, speaking mostly in Sicilian dialect, his cheeks puffed out to suggest Marlon Brando (who played Vito Corleone in “The Godfather”), is, inevitably, more appealing for he does display some human feeling.

Gaston Moschin is wonderfully flamboyant, strutting through the streets of Little Italy. Lee Strasberg, feigning feebleness as the world-weary Hyman Roth, gives a particularly notably performance. Then there is John Cazale as poor Fredo Corleone, a bitter, weak man who turns traitor mostly to call attention to himself.

Fredo win our sympathy but the others do not. It is not like the original film where we found ourselves rooting for the Corleones. The strength of this film is its honesty, its keen sense of morality. This time, thanks to Coppola’s courage and brilliant artistry, we are truly repulsed by the Corleones and everything they stand for.

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The Godfather Part II Review

01 Jan 1974

200 minutes

Godfather Part II, The

The Godfather is a more important film; of course it is. But The Godfather Part II is a better film. It's more ambitious, it's more elegiac, it delves deeper into the soil of Italian-American myth – plus, what were they thinking, trying to match the critical and commercial dynamite of the first film? The Godfather Part II was, from conception upwards, an insane project. But it worked.

When The Godfather premiered in New York on March 14 1972, co-screenwriter and novelist Mario Puzo had already started work on the sequel. That's how sure Paramount were that they had a monster hit on their hands, despite some exhibitors turning up their noses at a preview screening. Too little action, too much talking, and too long — proof that in no way are exhibitors a bunch of popcorn-selling philistines. After two days of release, cinema managers were being offered bribes by punters desperate to get to the front of the queues which busted the proverbial block. There was something of the Mafia about the way in which Paramount doubled ticket prices for weekend shows to squeeze extra revenue from their new cash cow.

The sequel, announced on April 16 with the working title 'Don Michael', was a commercial inevitability ("When you've got a licence to make Coca-Cola, make Coca-Cola!" said Charlie Bluhdorn, head of Gulf & Western, who owned Paramount). The Godfather grossed $101 million in its first 18 weeks, and nobody was going to stop the studio having another cake and eating it. But Francis Ford Coppola, the young director whom the studio had almost fired from The Godfather but who was now feted by Hollywood and the world, wasn't that interested. So they offered him a million dollars. plus a huge 13% of the profits and total artistic control. Altogether, now: it was an offer he couldn't refuse.

The Coppola-Puzo masterstroke was to develop the saga in two directions, forwards through the Faustian ascendance of Don Michael, and backwards into the early 1900s, tracing Vito Andolini's first steps into Mafiahood.

Thus, out of this sticky climate of money-grabbing corporate opportunism, did cinema's greatest Part II emerge. Pub debates about the diminishing returns of the sequel usually collapse at the mention of its name. So why does it work? Why isn't it Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment ? Much of it has to do with the unique power of its own Part I , which established its family of characters so vividly. Audiences were gagging for more of Michael, Tom, Kay, Fredo and Connie. But the Coppola-Puzo masterstroke was to develop the saga in two directions, forwards through the Faustian ascendance of Don Michael, and backwards into the early 1900s, tracing Vito Andolini's first steps into Mafiahood (he earns the surname Corleone — the name of his home village — through a mix-up at Ellis Island's immigration control).

As with all of Coppola's best work, the casting was inspired – and as with The Godfather , fans can while away hours mulling over who might have been cast. Try this one: dying Miami mobster Hyman Roth —played with precision by acting coach Lee Strasberg in the film — could have been Laurence Olivier, Elia Kazan or blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. Robert De Niro, plucked from the "rising star" racks after Mean Streets , seems born to play the young Marlon Brando. Pacino, Coppola's wild card in casting The Godfather , grows into the central role of Michael in perfect parallel with his character, and Diane Keaton proves the quiet lynchpin (which is no mean feat in this necessarily male dominated film).

Everything that was majestic and mythic about The Godfather is more so in Part II , with scenes deliberately matching the original. Author of the essential Godfather Book , Peter Cowie, describes the two-part saga in musical terms – as "Coppola's suite", with bass lines, motifs and rhyming patterns. "As a whole," Coppola said, "the first film ought to haunt the second like a spectre." So instead of constantly reminding us that the first film is better, Part II builds on its operatic sweep and cranks up the drama, both narratively and visually. Cinematographer Gordon Willis goes into sublime sepia overdrive for the flashbacks. Production designer Dean Tavoularis tops his own evocative 1940s New York streets with a living, breathing Italian immigrant community circa 1912 (actually the Ukrainian quarter). The epic 26-minute wedding scene that opened Part I is echoed in Part II by the altogether tackier confirmation party at the new Corleone compound in Lake Tahoe (the lake itself claiming the life of Michael's own brother in Part II 's chilling climax).

Actually, claiming Part II 's superiority over Part I is like saying Lennon's better than McCartney. One cannot now exist in isolation from the other. They must be watched by anyone who loves American film consecutively – and not in the form of 1977's seven-hour TV omnibus, which, though Coppola-curated, puts the story into chronological order for dimwits. Apparently, they made a Part III too.

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