Francis Ford Coppola produced and directed The Godfather Part II, a 1974 American epic crime movie featuring Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro, Talia Shire, Morgana King, John Cazale, Mariana Hill, and Lee Strasberg, based on a script co-written with Mario Puzo.
The Godfather II is the sequel to The Godfather. The movie serves as both a sequel and a prequel to The Godfather, presenting parallel dramas: one picks up the 1958 story of Michael Corleone (Pacino), the new Don of the Corleone family, protecting the family business in the aftermath of an assassination attempt; the other covers the journey of his father, Vito Corleone (De Niro), from his Sicilian childhood to the founding of his family business in New York City.
It has been compared to The Godfather and has been regarded superior by some. Part II, like its predecessor, has had a huge impact, particularly in the gangster genre, and is often regarded as one of the best movies of all time.
It was named 32nd greatest film in American movie history by the American Film Institute in 1997, and it remained in that place ten years later. It was chosen for preservation in the Library of Congress’s United States National Film Registry in 1993 after being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important.” In 1990, The Godfather Part III, the third and final installment of the trilogy, was released.
