The Godfather Part II is a 1974 American epic gangster film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, loosely based on the 1969 novel The Godfather by Mario Puzo, who co-wrote the screenplay with Coppola. It is both a sequel and a prequel to the 1972 film The Godfather, presenting two parallel dramas: one picks up the 1958 story of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), the new Don of the Corleone family, protecting the family business in the aftermath of an attempt on his life; the other covers the journey of his father, Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro), from his Sicilian childhood to the founding of his family enterprise in New York City. The ensemble cast also features Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Morgana King, John Cazale, Marianna Hill and Lee Strasberg.
Following the first film's success, Paramount Pictures began developing a follow-up, with many of the cast and crew returning. Coppola, who was given more creative control, had wanted to make both a sequel and a prequel to The Godfather that would tell the story of Vito's rise and Michael's fall. Principal photography began in October 1973 and wrapped up in June 1974. The Godfather Part II premiered in New York City on December 12, 1974, and was released in the United States on December 20, 1974. It grossed $48 million in the United States and Canada and up to $93 million worldwide on a $13 million budget. The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and became the first sequel to win Best Picture. Its six Oscar wins also included Best Director for Coppola, Best Supporting Actor for De Niro, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Coppola and Puzo. Pacino won Best Actor at the BAFTAs and was nominated at the Oscars.
The Godfather Part II is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time, as well as a rare example of a sequel that rivals its predecessor. Like its predecessor, Part II remains a highly influential film, especially in the gangster genre. In 1997, the American Film Institute ranked it as the 32nd-greatest film in American film history and it retained this position 10 years later."Citizen Kane Stands the Test of Time" . American Film Institute. It was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1993, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Pauline Kael wrote: "The Godfather was the greatest gangster picture ever made, and had metaphorical overtones that took it far beyond the gangster genre. In Part II, the wider themes are no longer merely implied. The second film shows the consequences of the actions in the first; it's all one movie, in two great big pieces, and it comes together in your head while you watch."
The Godfather Part III, the final installment in the trilogy, was released in 1990.
Plot
Vito In 1901, nine-year-old Vito Andolini escapes from Corleone, Sicily, in the Kingdom of Italy to New York City after mafia chieftain Don Ciccio kills the rest of his family. An immigration officer accidentally registers him as Vito Corleone. By 1917 Vito is married in Little Italy and has an infant son, Sonny. Black Hand extortionist Don Fanucci preys on the neighborhood, costing Vito his grocery store job. He begins stealing for a living with his neighbor Peter Clemenza and has three more children: Fredo, Michael, and Connie.
Vito, Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio sell stolen dresses door-to-door. Fanucci demands payoffs of $200 each from Vito and his partners. Vito doubts Fanucci's muscle and decides to offer less. He meets Fanucci and offers $100, which Fanucci grudgingly accepts. Emboldened, Vito tracks Fanucci back to his apartment and shoots and kills him. Vito's reputation spreads, and neighbors ask him to defend them from other predatory figures.
In 1922, Vito and his family travel to Sicily to start an olive oil importing business. He and business partner Don Tommasino visit an elderly Don Ciccio. He obtains Ciccio's blessing for their business, then reveals his identity and slices Ciccio's stomach, killing him and avenging the Andolini family.
Michael In 1958, Don Michael Corleone has several meetings at his Lake Tahoe compound during the first communion of his son Anthony. Johnny Ola, representing Jewish Mob boss Hyman Roth, promises support in taking over a Las Vegas casino. Corleone capo Frank Pentangeli asks for help defending Bronx territory from two Roth affiliates known as the Rosato brothers. Michael refuses, frustrating Pentangeli. Senator Pat Geary demands a bribe to secure the casino license and insults Michael's Italian heritage. That night, Michael and his pregnant wife Kay narrowly escape an assassination attempt. Suspecting a traitor in the family, Michael puts consigliere Tom Hagen in charge and leaves the compound.
Michael separately tells Pentangeli and Roth that he suspects the other of planning the hit, and arranges a peace meeting between Pentangeli and the Rosatos. At the meeting the brothers attempt to strangle Pentangeli. A police officer drops in, forcing the brothers to flee. Hagen blackmails Geary into cooperating with the Corleones by having him framed for the murder of a prostitute.
Roth invites Michael to Havana to invest in his activities under the Batista government. Michael expresses reservations, given the growing Cuban Revolution. Later Roth becomes angry when Michael asks who ordered the Rosatos to kill Pentangeli, reminding Michael he did not question his order to kill his friend, Moe Greene. Michael and Ola attend a New Year's Eve party where Fredo pretends not to know Ola but later slips. Michael realizes that Fredo is the traitor and orders both Roth and Ola killed. He sends an assassin to the hospital where Roth resides to suffocate him with a pillow. The assassin fails and is killed by Roth's guard. Batista resigns and flees amid rebel advances, and Michael, Fredo and Roth separately escape Cuba as the communist rebels seize Havana. Back home, Hagen tells Michael that Kay miscarried.
Roth uses his connections to arrange a Senate committee on organized crime to investigate the Corleone family. Pentangeli agrees to testify against Michael and is placed under witness protection. On returning to Nevada, Fredo tells Michael that he did not realize Roth was planning an assassination, then lashes out over being excluded from the family business. Michael disowns Fredo but orders that he should not be harmed while their mother Carmela is alive. Michael attends the committee hearing with Hagen and Pentangeli's brother Vincenzo. Pentangeli, upon seeing Vincenzo, retracts his testimony, and the hearing dissolves in an uproar. Kay tells Michael that she actually had an abortion and intends to leave him and take their children. Michael strikes her in rage and banishes her.
A year later, Carmela passes away. At her funeral, a mourning Fredo embraces Michael and befriends Anthony over fishing, seemingly being forgiven. While Michael is away, Kay visits her children with Connie's help but she takes too long to leave and is discovered by Michael; he coldly closes the door in her face without a word. Roth returns to the United States after being refused entry to Israel. Corleone capo Rocco Lampone assassinates him at the airport and is shot dead trying to escape. Hagen visits Pentangeli at the army barracks where he is held and remarks that conspirators against a Roman emperor could commit suicide to save their families. Pentangeli is later found dead in his bathtub, having slit his wrists. Corleone enforcer Al Neri takes Fredo fishing on the lake and shoots him as Michael watches from the compound.
A flashback depicts Vito's 50th birthday party on December 7, 1941. While the family waits for Vito, Michael announces that he has dropped out of college and joined the Marines, angering Sonny and surprising Hagen. Only Fredo supports his decision. When Vito is heard arriving, Michael remains at the table while the others welcome him in surprise.
In the present, Michael sits alone by the lake at the family compound.
Cast
Production Development
Mario Puzo started writing a script for a sequel in December 1971, before The Godfather was even released; its initial title was The Death of Michael Corleone. Francis Ford Coppola's idea for the sequel would be to "juxtapose the ascension of the family under Vito Corleone with the decline of the family under his son Michael... I had always wanted to write a screenplay that told the story of a father and a son at the same age. They were both in their thirties, and I would integrate the two stories... In order not to merely make Godfather I over again, I gave Godfather II this double structure by extending the story in both the past and in the present". Coppola met with Martin Scorsese about directing the film, but Paramount Pictures refused. Coppola also, in his director's commentary on The Godfather Part II, mentioned that the scenes depicting the Senate committee interrogation of Michael Corleone and Frank Pentangeli are based on the Valachi hearings and that Pentangeli is a Valachi-like figure.
Production, however, nearly ended before it began when Al Pacino's lawyers told Coppola that he had grave misgivings with the quality of Puzo's script and was not coming. Coppola spent an entire night rewriting it before giving it to Pacino for his review. Pacino approved it, and the production went forward. The film's original budget was $6 million but costs increased to over $11 million, with Varietys review claiming it was over $15 million.
Casting
Several actors from the first film did not return for the sequel. 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 then rewrote the scene that same day. Richard S. 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, though this claim was disputed by Castellanos widow in a 1991 letter to People magazine. The part in the plot originally intended for the latter-day Clemenza was then filled by the character of Frank Pentangeli, played by Michael V. Gazzo.
Coppola offered James Cagney the role of Hyman Roth, but he refused as he had retired from acting. 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. Among the actors depicting Senators in the hearing committee are film producer/director Roger Corman, writer/producer William Bowers, producer Phil Feldman, and actor Peter Donat.
Filming The Godfather Part II was shot between October 1, 1973, and June 19, 1974. The scenes that took place in Cuba were shot in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic."Movie Set Hotel: The Godfather II ", HotelChatter, May 12, 2006. Charles Bluhdorn, whose Gulf+Western conglomerate owned Paramount, felt strongly about developing the Dominican Republic as a movie-making site. Forza d'Agrò was the Sicilian town featured in the film.