47th Academy Awards · 1975
The Godfather Part II
Directed byCooked up by Francis Ford Coppola
“The rise and fall of the Corleone empire.”
“A sequel that's better than the original? Rare W unlocked 🏆”
The storyThe lore 📖
In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.
Two timelines in one movie, which is very ambitious 🕰️. In the past, young Vito Corleone leaves Sicily for New York and builds his family's power from nothing. In the 1950s, his son Michael tries to grow the family business into Las Vegas and Cuba while trust issues tear his own family apart. Vito's rise vs. Michael's lonely fall hits different 😶.
What critics & audiences sayThe receipts 🧾
Tomatometer
96%
Fresh
#17 of 98 winnersFamous linesLines living rent free
My father taught me many things here. He taught me in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close but your enemies closer.
I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. … You broke my heart!
Michael, we're bigger than U.S. Steel.
Senator... we're both part of the same hypocrisy. But never think it applies to my family.
If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it's that you can kill anyone.
Fredo... you're nothing to me now. You're not a brother. You're not a friend.
You should let me wet my beak a little.
My father's name was Antonio Andolini, and this is for you!
I don't feel I have to wipe everybody out, Tom. Just my enemies.
I'm your older brother, Mike, and I was stepped over!
Quotes via Wikiquote
Filming locationsWhere they shot it 📍
-
Santo Domingo
Dominican Republic
Stood in for Cuba in all of the film's Havana-set scenes.
-
Forza d'Agrò
Sicily, Italy
The Sicilian hill town was again the village featured in the film.
Fun factsFacts that go hard 🤓
- Marlon Brando agreed to return for the birthday flashback but, feeling mistreated by Paramount's board, failed to show up for the single day of shooting, so Francis Ford Coppola rewrote the scene that same day.Wikipedia · Casting
- The Godfather Part II was the first sequel to win Best Picture, and it and The Godfather remain the only original-and-sequel pair to both win the top prize.Wikipedia · Accolades
- James Caan agreed to reprise Sonny in a single flashback scene only if he was paid the same amount he had received for the entire first film, and he got it.Wikipedia · Casting
- Coppola made it the first major American film to use 'Part II' in its title despite Paramount's objection, and its success began the common practice of numbered sequels.Wikipedia · Filming
- The senators questioning Michael Corleone include producer-director Roger Corman, and Coppola said the hearings were based on the real Valachi hearings.Wikipedia · Casting
- Coppola met with Martin Scorsese about directing the sequel, but Paramount Pictures refused.Wikipedia · Development
- Production nearly ended before it began when Al Pacino's lawyers said he had grave misgivings about Mario Puzo's script and wasn't coming; Coppola rewrote it in a single night and Pacino approved it.Wikipedia · Development
- Coppola offered James Cagney the role of Hyman Roth, but Cagney refused because he had retired from acting.Wikipedia · Casting
- Mario Puzo began writing the sequel in December 1971, before The Godfather was even released, under the working title The Death of Michael Corleone.Wikipedia · Development
- Only three weeks before release, critics and journalists pronounced Part II a disaster for crosscutting too often between Vito and Michael, and Coppola could not finish recutting it in time.Wikipedia · Filming