The Godfather - Part II

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Movie
German title The Godfather - Part II
Original title The Godfather Part II
Country of production United States
original language English , Sicilian , Spanish
Publishing year 1974
length 202 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Francis Ford Coppola
script Mario Puzo ,
Francis Ford Coppola
production Francis Ford Coppola
music Nino Rota ,
Carmine Coppola
camera Gordon Willis
cut Barry Malkin ,
Richard Marks ,
Peter Zinner
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
The Godfather

Successor  →
The Godfather III

The Godfather - Part II is an American mafia film directed by Francis Ford Coppola from 1974 and the sequel to the hit film The Godfather . He tells the past of the Corleone family in flashbacks and at the same time Coppola depicts contemporary history and America as the setting. The author of the original for the first part, Mario Puzo , is again responsible for the script. The film is considered an exceptionally successful sequel and, like its predecessor, one of the best films of all time.

The sequel The Godfather III closes the trilogy.

action

The film is made up of two storylines. In addition to the portrayal of the present, which describes another chapter in Michael Corleone's life as Don, the second strand of the film is devoted to the youth of his father Don Vito, now played by Robert De Niro .

After the death of his father and his eldest brother Santino, Don Michael Corleone reluctantly became the godfather and head of his “family”, even though he originally wanted to lead a law-abiding life. He is supported by his older, somewhat simple-minded brother Fredo, his adoptive brother Tom Hagen as consigliere and the Capi Al Neri and Rocco Lampone. The film begins in 1957, on the day of his son's first communion in the Sierra Nevada , when Michael takes care of various family affairs. The Corleones turned their backs on New York a while ago ; Michael now wants to expand the family's activities and gain a foothold in casinos in Las Vegas and Havana , but he encounters resistance. For his business in Las Vegas he needs the approval of the US Senator Patrick Geary, who, however, expresses his contempt for the Corleones and makes the granting of further concessions dependent on high bribe payments, which Michael refuses. At the same time, Michael has secret conversations with Hyman Roth, a powerful Jewish gangster from Miami who is modeled on Meyer Lansky . He wants to ally himself with this and buy the shares in several hotels from him and with his help gain a foothold in Havana. Michael's ultimate goal is to move the Corleones business into legal fields and to turn his back on organized crime.

On the evening of the celebration, Michael and Kay were shot at through the window panes of their bedroom, but they survived the attack unharmed. He quickly realizes that Hyman Roth was behind the attack and that a member of the closest circle of his family must be a traitor who gave the assassins crucial information. In order to track down this traitor, he tries to deceive Roth and continues to treat him as his business partner and friend. While Roth intrigues against Michael behind the scenes, Michael develops a counter-plan that reaches its first climax in Cuba : Michael tries to have Roth killed by his bodyguard, which is prevented by the coincidence and turmoil of the Cuban Revolution , which also the planned Mafia investments on the island thwarted. In Cuba, Michael also finds out that it was his brother Fredo who betrayed him. He lets Fredo know this ("I know that it was you, Fredo. You're breaking my heart!"), Who then goes into hiding, scared.

Back in the USA, Michael can only think of revenge. But before he can forge new plans, he faces a new danger: Frankie Pentangeli, New York governor of the Corleone family, feels that he has been mistakenly betrayed by his godfather Michael after an assassination attempt on him, which was in fact caused by Hyman Roth makes himself available to the law enforcement authorities as a key witness . Michael has to answer to a congressional committee . Fredo returns and reveals to Michael that Roth bribed the committee chairman. He explains his betrayal of Michael by saying that he did not know that Roth was planning an assassination attempt; In addition, he felt humiliated and ignored because it was not he but the younger Michael who ran the family. Michael cannot forgive Fredo the betrayal and orders his bodyguard not to harm his brother, but only "as long as my mother is still alive".

Michael only now learns that Pentangeli, who was believed to be dead, is still alive and is to appear as a key witness. He succeeds in getting Pentangeli's brother from Sicily and briefly showing it to the committee. Pentangeli is reminded of the tradition of omertà and the associated danger for his family through the appearance of his brother at Michael’s side and then revokes his statement; Michael is acquitted for lack of evidence. Tom Hagen visits Pentangeli in prison and tells him that he now has to kill himself to save his family from the Corleones' revenge. Pentangeli obeys.

After surviving the court hearing, Michael's marriage ends up breaking, because his wife Kay no longer wants to endure mafia life. She realized that Michael will never manage to lead a legal life contrary to his promises. Michael tries to keep them with renewed promises, which he has repeated too often to seem credible. When Kay also confesses to him that she did not lose his third child, a son, but had an abortion, the final break occurs. He forbids his wife to see the children and withdraws completely.

On the other hand, business is going better for Michael. Roth is on the run, and the stubborn Senator Geary had previously been entangled in a Corleones intrigue that made him so susceptible to blackmail that he became an ally of the Corleones. The fleeing Roth, who actually wanted to emigrate to Israel , has to return to the USA. Upon his arrival in Miami, he is liquidated by his Capo Rocco Lampone on Michael's orders, who is then shot by the police. After the death of his mother, the humanly completely embittered Michael causes the murder of his brother Fredo by the Capo Albert Neri; previously he had taken Fredo back at the request of their sister Connie and apparently forgave him.

Michael mercilessly killed all his enemies and achieved his business goals, but lost his humanity and his family, in whose name and for whose good he originally wanted to act. At the end of the film, he sits alone in a chair and remembers a scene from his past in December 1941, when he had given his brothers his voluntary report on the war effort in World War II : in this way he had tried in vain to get away from the crimes To separate one's family and to go one's own way.

The other storyline (which essentially processes the parts of the original novel that were not used in the 1972 film adaptation) shows how decades before the nine-year-old Vito Andolini from the Sicilian village of Corleone had to see his father, brother and mother are murdered by the local landowner and mafia godfather Don Ciccio. Acquaintances help him to flee to America, where he enters New York in 1901 after a misunderstanding at the immigration counter under the name Vito Corleone and grows up there. His rise from simple worker to the most powerful mafia godfather in New York is recounted in several flashbacks. The last look back ends with Vito finally taking bloody revenge for the death of his family on the aged Don Ciccio after many years in Sicily.

synchronization

The Godfather - Part II was dubbed for the first time in 1974 at Berliner Synchron under the direction of Ottokar Runze . In 2008, the same company commissioned a new German version for a restored DVD release.

role actor Voice actor 1974 Voice actor 2008
Michael Corleone Al Pacino Lutz Mackensy Lutz Mackensy
Kay Adams Diane Keaton Traudel Haas Traudel Haas
Young Don Vito Corleone Robert De Niro Christian Brückner Christian Brückner
Fredo Corleone John Cazale Jürgen Thormann Olaf Reichmann
Tom Hagen Robert Duvall Norbert Langer Tom Vogt
Santino "Sonny" Corleone James Caan Thomas Stroux Oliver Stritzel
Frankie Pentangeli Michael V. Gazzo Gottfried Kramer Jürgen Kluckert
Connie Corleone Rizzi Talia Shire Katrin Miclette Alexandra Wilcke
Carmela Corleone Morgana King Tilly Lauenstein Kerstin Sanders-Dornseif
Senator Pat Geary DG Spradlin Hellmut Lange Bodo Wolf
Albert Neri Richard Bright Joachim Kerzel Andreas Hosang
Merle Johnson Troy Donahue Claus Jurichs Oliver Siebeck
Johnny Ola Dominic Chianese Edgar Ott Lutz Schnell
Willi Cicci Joe Spinel Michael Chevalier Jan Spitzer
Young Genco Abbandando Frank Sivero Manfred Lehmann Björn Schalla
Young Peter Clemenza Bruno Kirby Stefan Behrens Marco Kroeger
Signor Roberto Leopoldo Trieste Wolfgang Spier Hans-Jürgen Dittberner
Sal Tessio Abe Vigoda Heinz Petruo Engelbert von Nordhausen

Locations

The film locations were in California , Nevada , New York , Florida and the Dominican Republic . Vito Andolini's childhood scenes in Corleone were filmed in the Sicilian seaside town of Taormina , while his young adult years were set on 6th Street in the East Village . Nearby on 7th Street is the Horseshoe Bar, where the attack on Pentangeli was filmed. This bar was also used in the films Crocodile Dundee and Angel Heart . The Fleur du Lac property, located on the West coast of Lake Tahoe in California, was the residence of Michael . Michael's visit to Roth could actually be filmed in Miami and took place on North Hibiscus Drive in North Miami . The scenes in Cuba were filmed in the Dominican Republic, with Hotel Occidental El Embajador serving as the resort that Roth bought. For the sequence of the New Year's celebration in the palace of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista was Palacio Nacional in Santo Domingo used.

criticism

“Compared to the first part, the garish, spectacular effects have been greatly reduced. The brilliantly staged and excellently played film combines social reflection and exciting entertainment in an appropriate way. "

- Lexicon of international film

“The only thing remarkable about Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Part II is the haunting way in which he reminds us how much better his original film was. [...] It is a second film that was made largely from the fragments of Mr. Puzo's novel that did not fit into the first. It's a Frankenstein monster that was sewn together from leftover pieces. It talks. It moves sporadically, but it has no mind of its own. "

- New York Times , December 13, 1974

background

  • The second plot framework about the young Vito Corleone was also used by Puzo in the novel The Godfather . The plot in the present was redesigned for the film by him and Coppola .
  • In some wacky scenes, the actors wore zippered pants . A musician on set pointed out that this hadn't even been invented at the time the film is set, so some scenes were re-shot.
  • Lee Strasberg played one of his few film roles in this film. He is particularly well known as the founder of method acting . His students included, among many others, Al Pacino , Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro , all three actors in the Godfather films.
  • Coppola insisted on the title "The Godfather: Part II", which Paramount initially rejected, because sequels were basically given a different name at that time. Coppola was finally able to prevail, which was not least due to his great success in the first part.
  • Coppola initially did not want to serve as a director himself, which is why he suggested Martin Scorsese .
  • Marlon Brando, who had already played the role in the first film, was originally intended for the role of the young Vito Corleone. But after he fell out with Paramount, the role was taken over by Robert De Niro.
  • The sentence whispered by Hyman Roth to the godfather, “We are more powerful than US Steel ”, goes back to the summary of a tape recording when the FBI monitored Meyer Lansky after his return from Cuba.
  • Most of Robert De Niro's spoken text was in Sicilian , a language he did not understand.
  • In 1977, Coppola published a four-part television version, consisting of the first and second part and additional, previously unseen scenes under the title The Godfather: The Saga .

Awards

The Godfather was the first film whose sequel also received the Oscar for best picture.

Academy Awards 1975

Also nominated for:

Golden Globe Award 1975 nominated in the categories:

British Film Prize - 1975 Award

Also nominated in the categories:

Directors Guild of America

  • Awards to director Francis Ford Coppola, unit production manager Michael S. Glick and assistant directors Newt Arnold and Henry J. Lange, jr. in the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures category

Writers Guild of America

  • Awards to the authors Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola in the category Best Drama Adapted from another Medium

Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award

  • Award to Francis Ford Coppola for best director

National Society of Film Critics Award, USA

  • Award to Gordon Willis for best camera
  • Award to Francis Ford Coppola for best director

The American Film Institute sees The Godfather - Part 2 as one of the 100 best American films (32nd place). In 1993 he was accepted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress .

literature

Web links

Wikiquote: The Godfather II  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for The Godfather - Part II . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2014 (PDF; test number: 47 577 V).
  2. ↑ Synchronkartei.de , accessed on April 7, 2019
  3. ↑ Synchronkartei.de , accessed on April 7, 2019
  4. ↑ Tony Reeves: The Godfather Part II. From : movie-locations.com, accessed on August 28, 2018 (English).
  5. ↑ The Godfather - Part II. In: Lexicon of international film . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  6. ^ 'Godfather, Part II' Is Hard to Define: The Cast
  7. ^ Gene D. Phillips: Godfather: The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola . University Press of Kentucky , Lexington, Kentucky 2004, ISBN 0-8131-2304-6 , pp. 129 ( online ).
  8. ^ Film awards for The Godfather: Part II (1974). In: IMDb . IMDb.com, Inc., accessed August 2, 2010 .