The Godfather Part II
| The Godfather Part II[1] | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster | |
| Directed by | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Screenplay by | Francis Ford Coppola Mario Puzo |
| Produced by | Francis Ford Coppola Gray Frederickson Fred Roos[2] |
| Starring | Al Pacino Robert Duvall Diane Keaton Robert De Niro Talia Shire Morgana King John Cazale Marianna Hill Lee Strasberg Michael V. Gazzo |
| Cinematography | Gordon Willis |
| Edited by | Barry Malkin Richard Marks Peter Zinner |
| Music by | Nino Rota Carmine Coppola (additional music) |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 200 min |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | English Sicilian |
| Budget | $13 million |
| Box office | $193,000,000 |
The Godfather Part II is a 1974 American epic crime drama film that Francis Ford Coppola produced, directed, and co-wrote with Mario Puzo, starring Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, and Robert De Niro. Partially based on Puzo's 1969 novel, The Godfather, the film is in part both a sequel and a prequel to The Godfather, presenting two parallel dramas. The main storyline, following the events of the first film, centers on Michael Corleone (Pacino), the new Don of the Corleone crime family, trying to hold his business ventures together from 1958 to 1959; the other is a series of flashbacks following his father, Vito Corleone (De Niro), from his childhood in Sicily in 1901 to his founding of the Corleone family in New York City.
The film was released in 1974 to great critical acclaim, some even deeming it superior to the original.[3] Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and the first sequel to win for Best Picture, its six Oscars included Best Director for Coppola, Best Supporting Actor for De Niro and Best Adapted Screenplay for Coppola and Puzo. Pacino won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Like its predecessor, the sequel remains a highly influential film in the gangster genre.[citation needed] It was ranked as the thirty-second greatest film in American cinematic history by the American Film Institute in 1997 and it kept its rank 10 years later.[4] It was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1993.[5]
A sequel, The Godfather Part III, was released 16 years later in 1990.
Plot
- In 1901 Corleone, Sicily, nine-year-old Vito Andolini’s family is killed after his father insults local Mafia chieftain Don Ciccio. He escapes to New York and is registered as "Vito Corleone" on Ellis Island.
In 1958 Nevada, Don Michael Corleone, with his caporegimes Al Neri, Rocco Lampone and consigliere Tom Hagen, meet Senator Pat Geary during the First Communion party of Michael's son Anthony. Geary is rebuffed when he insultingly demands a high price from Michael for a new casino license. Johnny Ola, on behalf of Jewish gangster Hyman Roth, tells Michael that Roth is supportive. Meanwhile, Michael attempts to manage his depressed sister Connie and older brother Fredo. The Rosato brothers are encroaching on the New York territory controlled by capo Frank Pentangeli, who is furious that Michael will take no action. That night, Michael survives an assassination attempt at his home and puts Tom in charge, reassuring him of their fraternal bond.
- In 1917, Vito Corleone, (Robert De Niro) now married and living in a tenement with his wife Carmela and son (Santino), works in a New York grocery store owned by the father of his close friend Genco Abbandando, who looked after him after he came to New York. The neighborhood is controlled by a member of the Black Hand, Don Fanucci, who extorts protection payments from local businesses. Abbandando Senior is forced to fire Vito and give his job to Fanucci's nephew. One night, Vito's neighbor Peter Clemenza asks him to hide a stash of guns for him, and later, to repay the favor, takes him to a fancy apartment where they commit their first crime together, stealing an expensive rug, which finishes up in Vito's home.
In Miami, Michael tells Roth that Pentangeli was behind the assassination attempt and tells Pentangeli that Roth ordered it; he asks Pentangeli to cooperate. Pentangeli meets the Rosatos but their men, claiming they act on Michael's orders, garrote him. Geary is compromised when he finds himself in Fredo's brothel with a dead prostitute and has to accept Tom's offer to cover it up.
After witnessing a rebel suicide bombing in Havana, Cuba, Michael becomes convinced of their resolve to overthrow Dictator Fulgencio Batista. Fredo brings Michael the money for a deal with Roth. Instead of turning over the money, Michael asks Roth who gave the order to have Pentangeli killed. Roth avoids the question, instead alluding to the murder of his old friend and ally Moe Greene – who Michael ordered to be killed years previously – saying, "This is the business we've chosen. I didn't ask who gave the order because it had nothing to do with business!" At a New Year's Eve party, Fredo lets slip that he knew Johnny Ola despite his previous denial. Dismayed, Michael embraces his brother, revealing that he knows he was behind the plot on his life, and a frightened Fredo flees in the chaos. Michael's bodyguard strangles Ola but is killed by police before he can finish off the ailing Roth. Back home, Hagen informs Michael that Roth is recovering in Miami and that Kay has miscarried.
- In New York, in 1920, Don Fanucci has become aware of the partnership between Vito, Clemenza and Sal Tessio. He collars Vito in his delivery truck and tells him that he knows the trio has recently committed a robbery. He demands that they "wet his beak" or the police (on Fanucci's payroll) will arrest Vito, and his family will be ruined. Clemenza and Tessio agree to pay, but Vito - guessing that Fanucci's grip on his ghetto was only one man deep - asks his friends to allow him to convince Fanucci to accept less money, telling them, "I make him an offer he don't refuse. " Vito manages to get Fanucci to take one hundred dollars instead of the original six hundred he had demanded ($50 from each of his friends, but holding his own back - money he took back after killing Fanucci anyway). Immediately afterward – despite having earned Fanucci's respect and an offer of employment – Vito shoots him dead in a darkened stairway outside Fanucci's apartment during a neighborhood festa, and escapes across the rooftops. Michael is born.
In Washington, D.C., a Senate committee investigating the Corleone family cannot find evidence to implicate Michael until a surprise witness is called. Pentangeli, ensconced in FBI witness protection and ready to avenge the attempt on his life, is prepared to confirm accusations against Michael until his Sicilian brother attends the hearing at the Don's side; Pentangeli denies his sworn statements and the hearing dissolves in an uproar.
- In New York, in the early 1920s, Vito has become a respected figure in his community. He confronts a landlord who is evicting a widow. Vito offers him extra money to let her stay. He refuses, saying he has promised the apartment to another and becomes angry when Vito demands that she also be allowed to keep her dog. A few days later the landlord, having learnt with whom he is dealing, returns terrified and assures Vito that the widow can stay, along with her dog, at a reduced rent.
Michael and Hagen observe that Roth's strategy to destroy Michael is well planned. Fredo has been found and persuaded to return to Nevada, and in a private meeting he explains his betrayal to Michael; he was upset about being passed over to head the family, and helped Roth, thinking there would be something in it for him. He swears he was unaware of their plan to kill Michael. He tells Michael that the Senate Committee's chief counsel is on Roth's payroll. Michael disowns Fredo and instructs Al Neri that " nothing is to happen to him while my mother's alive." Afterwards, Michael violently prevents Kay from leaving with their children; she retaliates with the revelation that her miscarriage was actually an abortion.
- In 1923, Vito, together with his young family, visits Sicily for the first time since leaving for America. He is introduced to the elderly Don Ciccio by Don Tommasino as the man who imports their olive oil to America, and who wants his blessing. When Ciccio asks Vito who his father was, Vito says, "My father's name was Antonio Andolini, and this is for you!" He then plunges a large knife into the old man's stomach and carves it open, thereby avenging the deaths of his father, mother and brother. In the ensuing gun battle, Tommasino is shot, confining him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Michael's mother dies. At the funeral, a reformed Connie implores Michael to forgive Fredo. Michael relents and embraces Fredo, but glances at Neri. Roth is refused asylum and even entry to Israel. Over Hagen's advice, Michael makes his plan. Hagen visits Pentangeli and offers to spare his family, reminding him that failed plotters against the Roman Emperor took their own lives.
As he arrives in Miami to be taken into custody, Hyman Roth is shot in the stomach and killed by Lampone, who is immediately shot dead by FBI agents. Frank Pentangeli is dead in his bathtub with slit wrists. Neri shoots Fredo while they are fishing on Lake Tahoe.
- The Corleone family gathers to surprise Vito for his fiftieth birthday. Sonny introduces Carlo Rizzi to Connie. Tessio comes in with the cake, and they discuss the attack on Pearl Harbor earlier in the month. Michael announces he has left college to enlist in the Marines, leaving Sonny furious, Tom incredulous, and Fredo supportive. Vito is heard at the door and all but Michael leave the room to greet him.
Michael sits alone by the lake at the family compound.
Cast
- James Caan agreed to reprise the role of Sonny in the birthday flashback sequence demanding he be paid the same amount he received for the entire previous film for the single scene in Part II, which he received.
- Marlon Brando initially agreed to return for the birthday flashback sequence, but the actor, feeling mistreated by the board at Paramount, failed to show up for the single day's shooting; Coppola rewrote the scene that same day.
- Richard Castellano, who portrayed Peter Clemenza in the first film, also declined to return, as he and the producers could not reach an agreement on his demands that he be allowed to write the character's dialogue in the film. Clemenza's role was subsequently filled by Frank Pentangeli.
- Troy Donahue, in a small role as Connie's boyfriend, plays a character named Merle Johnson, which was his birth name.
- Two actors who appear in the film played different character roles in other Godfather films; Carmine Caridi, who plays Carmine Rosato, also went on to play crime boss Albert Volpe in The Godfather Part III, and Frank Sivero, who plays a young Genco Abbandando, appears as a bystander in The Godfather scene in which Sonny beats up Carlo for abusing Connie.
- Among the Senators in the hearing committee are film producer/director Roger Corman, writer/producer William Bowers, producer Phil Feldman, and science-fiction writer Richard Matheson.
Production
The Godfather Part II was shot between October 1, 1973 and June 19, 1974, and was the last major American motion picture to be printed with Technicolor's dye imbibition process until the late 1990s. The scenes that took place in Cuba were shot in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.[6] Charles Bluhdorn, whose Gulf+Western conglomerate owned Paramount, felt strongly about developing the Dominican Republic as a movie-making site.
The Lake Tahoe house and grounds portrayed in the film are Fleur du Lac, the summer estate of Henry J. Kaiser on the California side of the lake. The only structures used in the movie that still remain are the complex of old native stone boathouses with their wrought iron gates. Although Fleur du Lac is private property and no one is allowed ashore there, the boathouses and multi-million dollar condominiums may be viewed from the lake.
Unlike with the first film, Coppola was given near-complete control over production. In his commentary, he said this resulted in a film that ran very smoothly, considering that it was shot in multiple locations and told two parallel stories within one film.[7]
It was the last major American motion picture to be filmed in Technicolor. In the director's commentary on the DVD edition of the film released in 2002, Coppola states that this film was the first major motion picture to use "Part II" in its title. Paramount was initially opposed to his decision to name the movie The Godfather Part II. According to Coppola, the studio's objection stemmed from the belief that audiences would be reluctant to see a film with such a title, as the audience would supposedly believe that, having already seen The Godfather, there was little reason to see an addition to the original story. The success of The Godfather Part II began the Hollywood tradition of numbered sequels.
Production nearly ended before it began when Pacino's lawyers told Coppola that he had grave misgivings with the script and wasn't coming. Coppola spent an entire night rewriting it before giving it to Pacino for his review. Pacino approved, allowing shooting to go forward.[7]
In the documentary The Godfather Family: A look Inside, Coppola stated that three weeks prior to Part II being released, film critics and journalists pronounced the film a disaster, claiming the parallel stories between Vito and Michael were uncomfortably fast, not allowing enough time for the stories to leave a lasting impression on the audience. Coppola stated that he and the editors returned to the cutting room to change the film's narrative structure, but could not complete the full re-arrangement in time, leaving the final scenes of the film poorly timed.
Coppola shot The Godfather Part II shortly after The Conversation, which was released eight months earlier. Both films earned Coppola nominations for Best Picture of 1974, with Part II winning.
Additional/deleted scenes
For both The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, many scenes that were shot were not shown in the original theatrical runs but were included in the television adaptation The Godfather Saga (1977) and the home video releases The Godfather 1901-1959: The Complete Epic (1981) and The Godfather Trilogy: 1901–1980 (1992). To date, there has not been a single release that contains all of this footage together in one collection. [citation needed]
A limited time-reduced version with roughly thirty minutes of the film removed was later released. [citation needed]
Box office
While not to the extent of the original, The Godfather Part II was very successful commercially, grossing $193 million on a $13 million budget. It was Paramount's highest grossing film of 1974 (ahead of The Longest Yard, Murder on the Orient Express and Chinatown) and was the fifth highest grossing picture in the US that year.
Reception
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| All critics | Top critics | ||
| The Godfather Part II | 98% (58 reviews)[8] | 83% (6 reviews)[8] | 71/100 (7 reviews)[9] |
The Godfather Part II ranks among the most critically and artistically successful film sequels in movie history, and is the most honored. It, like its predecessor, is widely considered as one of the greatest films of all time. Many critics praise it as equal, or even superior, to the original film (although it is almost always placed below the original on lists of "greatest" movies). The Godfather Part II:
- Is featured on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list, even though Ebert's original review of the film granted it only three out of four stars.
- Is ranked the #7 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the "100 Greatest Movies of All Time. "
- Is featured on movie critic Leonard Maltin's list of the "100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century. "
- Received only one negative review on Rotten Tomatoes and a "98%" approval rating, 2 percentage-points less than The Godfather (although it does hold a higher rating average of 9.2/10 compared to the predecessor's 9.1/10) but 32 percentage-points more than The Godfather Part III.[10]
- Was featured on Sight and Sound's list of the ten greatest films of all time in 1992 and 2002.
- Is ranked #1 onTV Guide's 1998 list of the "50 Greatest Movies of All Time on TV and Video. "[11]
- Is ranked #3 on IMDB's Top 100 Movies of all time, with its predecessor The Godfather ranked second.
Pacino's performance in The Godfather Part II has been praised as perhaps his best, and the Academy has been criticized for not awarding him the Academy Award for Best Actor, which went that year to Art Carney for his role in Harry and Tonto. Over time, it has come to be recognized by some as one of the greatest performances in cinema history. In 2006, Premiere magazine issued its list of "The 100 Greatest Performances of all Time", ranking Pacino's performance at #20.[12] [dead link] Later in 2009, Total Film issued "The 150 Greatest Performances Of All Time", ranking Pacino's performance at #4.[13] [dead link]
Awards and honors
Between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Coppola directed The Conversation, which was released in 1974 and was also nominated for Best Picture. This resulted in Coppola becoming the third director in Hollywood history to have two films released in the same year, both nominated for Best Picture. The first was Victor Fleming for his 1939 films Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. This achievement was matched by Alfred Hitchcock with his 1940 films Foreign Correspondent and Rebecca. Since Coppola, two other directors have achieved the same result: Herbert Ross in 1977 with The Goodbye Girl and The Turning Point, and Steven Soderbergh in 2000 with Erin Brockovich and Traffic. Coppola, however, is the only one to have done this with films he produced as well as directed.
The film was the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, and was the only sequel to win until The Return of the King won the award in 2003.
Honors
American Film Institute
- 1998 AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies – #32
- 2003 AFI's 100 Years…100 Heroes and Villains:
- Michael Corleone – #11 Villain
- 2005 AFI's 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes:
- "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. " – #58
- "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart. " – Nominated
- "Michael, we're bigger than U. S. Steel. " – Nominated
- 2007 AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #32
- 2008 AFI's 10 Top 10 – #3 Gangster film
- Epic film – Nominated
References
- ^ "The Godfather - Official Movie Website". Retrieved 3 April 2012.
- ^ "Gray Frederickson"
- ^ Stax (July 28, 2003). "Featured Filmmaker: Francis Ford Coppola". Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ "Citizen Kane Stands the test of Time". American Film Institute.
- ^ "The National Film Registry List – Library of Congress". loc.gov. Retrieved 2012-03-12.
- ^ "Movie Set Hotel: The Godfather II", HotelChatter, 12–05–2006.
- ^ a b The Godfather Part II DVD commentary featuring Francis Ford Coppola, [2005]
- ^ a b "The Godfather, Part II" on Rotten Tomatoes
- ^ "The Godfather: Part II". Metacritic. CNET Networks. Retrieved 2012-04-02.
- ^ The Godfather, Part II Movie Reviewers – Rotten Tomatoes
- ^ TV Guide list of 50 Best
- ^ "The 100 Greatest Performances" Premiere. com
- ^ "The 150 Greatest Performances Of All Time" TotalFilm. com
External links
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- 1974 films
- American films
- English-language films
- 1970s crime films
- 1970s drama films
- American crime drama films
- Mafia films
- American epic films
- Film scores by Nino Rota
- Best Picture Academy Award winners
- Epic films
- Films about the Sicilian Mafia
- Films based on novels
- Films directed by Francis Ford Coppola
- Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winning performance
- Films set in the 1900s
- Films set in the 1910s
- Films set in the 1920s
- Films set in the 1950s
- Films shot in Las Vegas
- Films shot in Miami, Florida
- Films shot in New York City
- Films shot in the Dominican Republic
- Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award
- Films whose director won the Best Director Academy Award
- Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award
- Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
- Gang films
- Paramount Pictures films
- Sequel films
- Interquel films
- The Godfather
- United States National Film Registry films
- Gangster films
- Films about organized crime in the United States