| | | The Coppola Restoration.
Features: DVD, Widescreen
This brilliant companion piece to the original The Godfather continues the saga of two generations of successive power within the Corleone family. Director Francis Ford Coppola tells two stories in Part II: the roots and rise of a young Don Vito, played with uncanny ability by Robert De Niro, and the ascension of Michael (Al Pacino) as the new Don. Reassembling many of the talents who helped make The Godfather, Coppola has produced a movie of staggering magnitude and vision, and undeniably the best sequel ever made. Robert De Niro won an Oscar; the film received six Academy Awards, including Best Picture of 1974.
"A rare sequel that surpasses its classic source." Carol Cling, Las Vegas Review-Journal
"...breathtakingly beautiful, in all its component parts and as a collective entity." David Pickup, Movie At Home
"They said it couldn't be done, but cowriter-director Coppola made a sequel that's just as compelling." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"A rare sequel to a great film that recaptures and expands upon the mastery of its predecessor." Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star
"A rarity: a sequel as great as its A+ predecessor. A powerhouse film." Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com
"Al Pacino again is outstanding as Michael Corleone, successor to crime family leadership." Variety
"A mesmerizing sequel that explores the parallels in the life of father and son." Wesley Lovell, The Oscar Guy
Editor's Note
The sequel to THE GODFATHER tells the story of both a young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro), newly arrived in America, and his son Michael (Al Pacino) 40 years later, running the family empire. On the streets of Hell's Kitchen in 1917 New York City, Vito is initiated into the ways of the local Cosa Nostra by his friend Clemenza (Bruno Kirby). After killing the local mafioso in a towel-wrapped gun, Vito becomes the new man to be respected and feared. Meanwhile, a dour Michael Corleone negotiates with business partner Hyman Roth (legendary Method-acting teacher Lee Strasberg in his first film role) in Cuba and testifies in front of a Washington Senate committee. Robert Duvall (Tom Hagen), Diane Keaton (Kay Corleone), Talia Shire (Connie Corleone), and John Cazale (Fredo Corleone), reprising their roles from THE GODFATHER, are outstanding as the people forced to watch the new godfather's moral destruction. De Niro, speaking in Italian, captures the mannerisms of Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone from the first film brilliantly. THE GODFATHER PART II is one of the only major sequels ever made that might just surpass the original.
Plot Summary
Francis Ford Coppola's compelling sequel lives up to--and even eclipses--the brilliance of THE GODFATHER, contrasting the life of Corleone father and son. In parallel story lines the movie traces the problems of a matured Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in 1958 and that of young immigrant Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) in 1917's Hell's Kitchen. Vito is introduced to a life of crime by two-bit hood Clemenza (Bruno Kirby) while Michael survives an attempt on his life, familial betrayals, and Senate hearings...but at a cost. De Niro, speaking almost completely in Italian, is charismatic as the young Don, a Robin Hood-type figure.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Paramount |
| Release Date: 9/23/2008 |
| Original Release Date: 1974 | | Catalog ID: 132924 | | UPC: 00097361329246 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
British Academy Awards (1976) |  | Al Pacino, Winner, Best Actor | |
Oscar (1975) | | | Al Pacino, Nominee, Best Actor in a Leading Role | | Dean Tavoularis, et. al., Winner, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration | | Francis Ford Coppola, Winner, Best Director | | Francis Ford Coppola, et. al., Winner, Best Picture | | Francis Ford Coppola, Mario Puzo, Winner, Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material | | | Michael V. Gazzo, Nominee, Best Actor in a Supporting Role | | Nino Rota, Carmine Coppola, Winner, Best Music, Original Dramatic Score | | Robert De Niro, Winner, Best Actor in a Supporting Role | | | Talia Shire, Nominee, Best Actress in a Supporting Role | | | Theadora Van Runkle, Nominee, Best Costume Design |
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| | Professional Reviews | Chicago Sun-Times
"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...." 10/02/2008ReelViews 10 of 10
A companion piece in the truest sense of the term, The Godfather Part II garnered as much adulation as its predecessor, if not more. Receiving twelve Academy Award nominations, and again winning Best Picture (and this time Best Director for Coppola as well), the second installment has been rightfully hailed as the best sequel of all time...The Godfather Part II is a more ambitious production than the original since it attempts not only to tell a pair of completely disconnected stories, but to do so in parallel...As the beginning of Part II echoes the opening of The Godfather, so too does the end. Because of the manner in which circumstances are handled and considering the people involved, the impact here is more forceful. The tragic flaw has accomplished its poisonous, inevitable designs. Coppola punctuates both movies with a gut-twisting exclamation point...Combined, The Godfather and The Godfather Part II represent the apex of American movie-making and the ultimate gangster story. Few sequels have expanded upon the original with the faithfulness and detail of this one. Beneath the surface veneer of an ethnic period piece, The Godfather is not so much about crime lords as it is about prices paid in the currency of the soul for decisions made and avoided. It is that quality which establishes this saga as timeless. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
Moving through the deep shadows and heavy glooms of his vast estate, Michael Corleone presides over the destruction of his own spirit in "The Godfather, Part II." The character we recall from "The Godfather" as the best and brightest of Don Vito's sons, the one who went to college and enlisted in the Marines, grows into a cold and ruthless man, obsessed with power...Coppola seems to hold a certain ambivalence toward his material. Don Vito Corleone as portrayed by Marlon Brando in "The Godfather" was a man of honor and dignity, and it was difficult not to sympathize with him, playing with his grandchild in the garden, at peace after a long lifetime of murder, extortion, and the rackets. What exactly were we supposed to think about him? How did Coppola feel toward the Godfather?..."The Godfather, Part II" moves both forward and backward in time from the events in "The Godfather," in an attempt to resolve our feelings about the Corleones. In doing so, it provides for itself a structural weakness from which the film never recovers, but it does something even more disappointing: It reveals a certain simplicity in Coppola's notions of motivation and characterization that wasn't there in the elegant masterpiece of his earlier film...The stunning text of "The Godfather" is replaced in "Part II" with prologues, epilogues, footnotes, and good intentions. - Roger Ebert
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