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Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 sequel to The Godfather is an audacious tour de force believed by many critics and movie fans to be superior to the original film -- and with good reason. Coppola resisted the urge to make a conventional sequel; instead he crafted a film with dual story lines that bookend the events of the first Godfather. In one narrative Al Pacino returns as Michael Corleone, now deeply entrenched as the leader of a Mafia “family” whose influence extends to the lavish casinos of Eisenhower-era Las Vegas. Locked in a desperate struggle with shrewd Jewish mobster Hyman Roth (played brilliantly by veteran acting teacher Lee Strasberg), Michael also clashes with those closest to him, including wife Kay (Diane Keaton) and brother Fredo (John Cazale). The alternate plot features Robert De Niro as Michael’s father, Vito -- the character played by Brando in the first movie -- who is seen as a young man coming to New York from Sicily and locking horns with a fellow countryman, the neighborhood crime boss. Coppola develops the parallel stories with equal vigor and intensity, although the showdown between Michael and Roth, quite properly, forms the film’s unforgettable climax. More atmospheric and introspective than The Godfather, Part II is less a slam-bang gangster film than a Greek tragedy in contemporary settings. Michael Corleone grapples with the consequences of his decision to lead the family “business,” sacrificing his most intimate relationships -- and even his very soul -- to the compulsive desire to retain power and destroy his enemies. With their dual-story concept, Coppola and co-writer Mario Puzo make certain we realize that Michael’s fate was, to a large extent, sealed by the choices his father made decades before. Thirty years after it was made, this extravagant, epochal sequel remains vital and gripping, and it may well be the greatest film Coppola has ever made. Ed Hulse

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Derided by some as upon its theatrical release in 1990, the second Godfather sequel has weathered the intervening years quite gracefully, and it no longer seems as contrived or overwrought as its detractors maintained. The story begins in 1979, as Michael Corleone (Al Pacino again), having divested himself of his illegal operations, finds himself being honored by the Catholic Church for his various charitable contributions. Michael hopes to repair his fractured relationships with ex-wife Kay (Diane Keaton) and daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola, daughter of writer-director Francis Ford Coppola), but he gets sucked back into the vortex of Mob mayhem thanks to the machinations of ruthless Joey Zaza (Joe Mantegna), whose minions include Vincent (Andy Garcia), the illegitimate son of Michael’s late brother Sonny. Also involved in the intrigue is an old Italian don played by Eli Wallach, and the film’s third act brings Michael and family to their ancestral homeland for an extended confrontation that climaxes explosively against the backdrop of a colorful ballet performance. Pacino, not unexpectedly, is magnificent as the aging Godfather -- weary, physically ill, but still very much a force to be reckoned with. Despite his cold-blooded ruthlessness, Michael has finally become a sympathetic character, and Coppola takes pains to make him a tragic protagonist whose last great triumph occurs simultaneously with his most heartbreaking defeat. Garcia, whose trademark intensity rivals Pacino’s, hasn’t got all that much to do, but he acquits himself handily and contributes several memorable moments. The film’s only weak link -- and the one mentioned by critics in review after review -- is Sofia Coppola, whose performance as Mary is hopelessly inadequate. But a single supporting character doesn’t mean all that much in a movie of such epic scope, and Part III brings the Corleone saga to an altogether satisfactory conclusion. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Popularly viewed as one of the best American films ever made, the multi-generational crime saga The Godfather is a touchstone of cinema: one of the most widely imitated, quoted, and lampooned movies of all time. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino star as Vito Corleone and his youngest son, Michael, respectively. It is the late 1940s in New York and Corleone is, in the parlance of organized crime, a "godfather" or "don," the head of a Mafia family. Michael, a free thinker who defied his father by enlisting in the Marines to fight in World War II, has returned a captain and a war hero. Having long ago rejected the family business, Michael shows up at the wedding of his sister, Connie (Talia Shire), with his non-Italian girlfriend, Kay (Diane Keaton), who learns for the first time about the family "business." A few months later at Christmas time, the don barely survives being shot by gunmen in the employ of a drug-trafficking rival whose request for aid from the Corleones' political connections was rejected. After saving his father from a second assassination attempt, Michael persuades his hotheaded eldest brother, Sonny (James Caan), and family advisors Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) and Sal Tessio (Abe Vigoda) that he should be the one to exact revenge on the men responsible.

After murdering a corrupt police captain and the drug trafficker, Michael hides out in Sicily while a gang war erupts at home. Falling in love with a local girl, Michael marries her, but she is later slain by Corleone enemies in an attempt on Michael's life. Sonny is also butchered, having been betrayed by Connie's husband. As Michael returns home and convinces Kay to marry him, his father recovers and makes peace with his rivals, realizing that another powerful don was pulling the strings behind the narcotics endeavor that began the gang warfare. Once Michael has been groomed as the new don, he leads the family to a new era of prosperity, then launches a campaign of murderous revenge against those who once tried to wipe out the Corleones, consolidating his family's power and completing his own moral downfall. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winning for Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay, The Godfather was followed by a pair of sequels. Karl Williams

Product Details

• UPC: 097361386447
• Source: PARAMOUNT
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Language: Français
• Editions: Subtitled, Slip Sleeve, Dubbed, Mixed Media Set, Restored
• Time: 14:00:00
• Sales Rank: 5,242

This set contains DVDs which may be available separately:

• The Godfather
• The Godfather Part II
• The Godfather Part III

Features: