Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Part II (1974) is a magisterial cinematic work, a gorgeous, stylized, auteur epic, and one of the few sequels judged by many to be greater than its predecessor. This despite the fact that it consists largely of meetings between aspiring 'Godfather' Michael Corleone and fellow gangsters, politicians and family members. The meetings remind us that the modern gangster's success is built upon inside information and on strategic planning. Michael and his father Vito's days resemble those of the legitimate businessmen they aspire or pretend to be.
Jon Lewis's study of Coppola's masterpiece provides a close analysis of the film and a discussion of its cinematic and political contexts. It is structured in three sections: “The Sequel,” “The Dissolve,” and “The Sicilian Thing” – accommodating three avenues of inquiry, respectively: the film's importance in and to Hollywood history, its unique, auteur style and form; and its cultural significance. Of interest, then, is New Hollywood history, mise-en-scene, and a view of the Corleone saga as a cautionary capitalist parable, as a metaphor of the corruption of American power, post-Vietnam, post-Watergate.
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A study of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II in the BFI Film Classics series.
Acknowledgments
1. The Sequel
2. The Dissolve
3. The Sicilian Thing
Credits
Jon Lewis is the Distinguished Professor of Film Studies and Honors College Eminent Professor at Oregon State University, USA. He has published twelve books, including Whom God Wishes to Destroy ... Francis Coppola and the New Hollywood (2005); Hollywood v. Hard Core: How the Struggle over Censorship Saved the Modern Film Industry (2000) and Hard-Boiled Hollywood: Crime and Punishment in Postwar Los Angeles (2017); the textbook American Film History (second edition, 2019), as well as The Godfather (2010) in the BFI Film Classics series. Jon Lewis has appeared in two documentaries on film censorship: Inside Deep Throat and This Film is Not Yet Rated. Between 2002 and 2007, he was the editor-in-chief of Cinema Journal.
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