Editing Francis Ford Coppola (section)

==== ''The Godfather Part II'' (1974) ====
''[[The Godfather Part II]]'' is both [[prequel]] and [[sequel]] to the first film, telling parallel stories of the rise of young Vito Corleone and the fall of his son Michael. After its five-hour-long preview, George Lucas told Coppola, "You have two films. Take one away, it doesn't work." Coppola claims it was the first major motion picture to use "Part II" in its title; he was influenced by [[Sergei Eisenstein]]'s two-part [[Ivan the Terrible (1945 film)| ''Ivan the Terrible'']].<ref>{{cite news| title=Francis Ford Coppola apologizes for starting Hollywood sequel trend| last=Karr| first=Mary| date=December 2, 2024| work=[[The A.V. Club]]| url=https://www.avclub.com/francis-ford-coppola-sequel-trend-godfather-part-2}}</ref> Paramount was initially opposed to his decision to name the movie ''The Godfather Part II''. According to Coppola, the studio's objection stemmed from the belief that audiences would be reluctant to see a film with such a title, as the audience would supposedly believe that, having already seen ''The Godfather'', there was little reason to see an addition to the original film. However, the success of ''The Godfather Part II'' began the Hollywood tradition of numbered sequels.<ref>{{cite news| title=Francis Ford Coppola Has Found Himself Outside Hollywood. He's okay with that.| date=December 2, 2024| newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2024/12/02/francis-ford-coppola-kennedy-center-honors/}}</ref>

The movie received tremendous critical acclaim, with many deeming it superior to its predecessor. Kael wrote: <blockquote> Coppola has plunged us back into the sensuality and terror of the first film. And, with the relentlessness of a master, he goes farther and farther. The daring of Part II is that it enlarges the scope and deepens the meaning of the first film ... The first film covered the period from 1945 to the mid-fifties. Part II, contrasting the early manhood of Vito (played by [[Robert De Niro]]) with the life of Michael, his inheritor (AI Pacino), spans almost seventy years. We saw only the middle of the story in the first film; now we have the beginning and the end. Structurally, the completed work is nothing less than the rise and decay of an American dynasty of unofficial rulers ... Part II has the same mythic and operatic visual scheme as the first; once again the cinematographer is Gordon Willis. Visually the film is, however, far more complexly beautiful than the first, just as it’s thematically richer, more shadowed, more full. Willis’s workmanship has developed, like Coppola’s; even the sequences in the sunlight have deep tones — elegiac yet lyrical, as in [[The Conformist (1970 film) |''The Conformist'']], and always serving the narrative, as the Nino Rota score also does.<ref>{{cite magazine| last=Kael| first=Pauline| author-link=Pauline Kael| title=Fathers and Sons| date=December 23, 1974 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]]| url=https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/movies/the-godfather-part-ii-fathers-and-sons-review-by-pauline-kael/}}</ref></blockquote> 

In addition to Pacino, Cazale, Duvall, Keaton and Shire reprised their roles from the first film. Newcomers included [[Michael V. Gazzo]] and Pacino's mentor [[Lee Strasberg]]. ''The Godfather Part II'' was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won six, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director.<ref>{{cite web| title=The 47th Academy Awards| date=October 6, 2014| url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1975}}</ref> De Niro won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Vito, making him and Brando the first actors to win Oscars for playing the same character. The film ranked at No. 32 on AFI's inaugural 100 Years...100 Movies list, maintaining its position ten years later.<ref name="afi"/> It  is ranked No. 1 on ''[[TV Guide Magazine|TV Guide]]''{{'s}} "50 Best Movies of All Time"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.filmsite.org/tvguide.html |title=50 Greatest Movies (on TV and Video) by TV Guide Magazine |access-date=October 18, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331175627/http://www.filmsite.org/tvguide.html |archive-date=March 31, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> and at No. 7 on ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'''s list of the "100 Greatest Movies of All Time".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.filmsite.org/ew100.html |title=100 Greates Movies of All Time by Entertainment Weekly |access-date=October 18, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331185517/http://www.filmsite.org/ew100.html |archive-date=March 31, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> Together, the two ''Godfather''s placed at No. 4 on ''[[Sight & Sound]]''{{'s}} 2002 list of the ten greatest films of all time.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.filmsite.org/sightsound.html |title=10 Best Films of All Time Polls by Sight & Sound Magazine |access-date=October 18, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101118083212/http://www.filmsite.org/sightsound.html |archive-date=November 18, 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> Thomson writes that "it exhibited a mastery of so many periods and locations as to be entrancing."<ref name="Thomson"/> It was one of the last major American motion pictures to be filmed in [[Technicolor]].<ref>{{cite web| title=The 70s and Technicolor| work=The Technicolor Group| url=https://www.technicolor.com/about/history/the-70s-and-technicolor/}}</ref>