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The Godfather Part II: The Greatest Sequel Ever Made
Francis Ford Coppola’s masterful sequel enjoys a welcome cinema rerelease.
Warning: Contains spoilers
I recently wrote this piece on Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, which is currently celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with a cinema rerelease. Also in cinemas is Coppola’s 1974 sequel, The Godfather Part II. Many, including me, consider this sequel an even better picture than the original. In fact, I consider it the greatest sequel of all time, following on from the greatest gangster film of all time.
Surely that makes Part II an even greater gangster film? Yes and no. I consider The Godfather Part II to be less a gangster film and more a study of power and corruption. It’s a fuller, deeper, more complex work, with an epic sweep that feels both bigger in scale and more intimate. Coppola and Mario Puzo derive backstory elements from Puzo’s novel and reshape them into an entirely remarkable companion piece. The film was rightly rewarded with multiple Oscars, and until The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, it was the only sequel to ever win Best Picture.
Cinematographer Gordon Willis emphasises Coppola’s ambitious scope in the near sepia tones of the early twentieth century sequences. These feature a young Vito…
