After the success of The Godfather in 1972, the second novel in the original series was quickly put on the film's agenda.
The unprecedented success of "The Godfather" has made the unknown Coppola time famous, and at the same time won the recognition of both audiences and investors.
Coppola, who once again took the lead in "The Godfather 2", had more freedom of play and financial budget than when he produced "The Godfather", and his talent and ideas were more brilliantly presented in "The Godfather 2".
In a film contest many years later, "The Godfather 2" was named one of the few successful sequel films in Hollywood history, and it won widespread recognition from the audience while achieving box office breakthrough progress.
After the release of the film, many media comments unanimously said that compared with the previous work, "The Godfather 2" has more epic movie-like reality and solemnity.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="01" > about production</h1>
The first part of "The Godfather" cost only six million US dollars, but it paid investors $245 million at the box office, bearing in mind that "The Godfather" was released in 1972, when a dollar was worth more than it is now.
The ultra-high rate of return made Paramount determined to give Coppola more shooting budget and creative space in the sequel film.
For a commercial film, the production cost of thirteen million US dollars was the top configuration in Hollywood in the seventies.
Thanks to the generous budget cost, Coppola was able to hire some of the stars who were already well-known in the sequel movie.
After Marlon Brando, due to paramount's previous poor treatment, completely refused to make a cameo appearance in Vito Corleone in the sequel, Coppola had to re-find an actor to play the old godfather of his youth.
Robert De Niro, who had a great performance in "Poor Streets", was eventually selected by Coppola as the actor of Vito Corleone because of chance.
Also starting from "The Godfather 2", most of Robert De Niro's acting career was inseparable from the role of gangster criminals.
In addition to genre films with traditional gangster or criminal elements such as "Once Upon a Time in America", "Casino Storm", "The Line of Fire", and "The Irishman", Robert De Niro also reconstructed the gangster movie elements in "The Boss Pulls Over" and "Meet your father-in-law".
Of course, these are all afterwords.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="02" > the reversal of human nature between space-time interlaces</h1>
Back to the main topic, the generous shooting budget and excellent cast are determined, and the next step is the script of the film.
The success of The Godfather put enormous pressure on the original author, Mario Puzo, and Coppola.
Their first question is how to closely connect the storyline of "The Godfather 2" with "The Godfather", maintaining the integrity of the story while at the same time conducting a deeper ideological discussion.
In the end, the film decided to adopt a two-line narrative structure, with the protagonist of one story line being the young Vito Corleone, and the protagonist of the other story line being Michael Corleone, who had undergone the baptism of blood and successfully transformed into a second-generation godfather.
The two story lines are both independent of each other and interconnected at the same time, and in the repeated switching, they gradually form a sense of fatalism that repeats and continues to live.
If the life of Vito Corleone in his youth is full of accidents, then the fate of Michael Corleone's life presents a cruel inevitability.
Without the blockbuster act at the beginning, perhaps Vito Corleone would have embarked on a completely different path in life.
In the same way, Michael Corleone, who finally chose to return to the family in a difficult life choice, had to make cruel and ruthless decisions for the sake of the interests of the family and the individual, and the united family and warm family affection naturally disappeared.
The relativity of necessity and chance in the film constantly intersects across time and space, colliding fiercely, and gradually giving birth to a sadness in the cold wind.
Michael shows a rich and delicate arc of life in two films, and from the change in his attitude towards his wife and brother, the audience can deeply feel the transformation of this character, and the inevitable wear and tear of the light of human nature puts a sad veil on the whole story.
At the beginning of the "Godfather" movie, Michael, dressed in military uniform and talking and laughing with Kay, is full of awe-inspiring righteousness and family warmth of dedication to the country.
However, after drawing a gun to shoot the drug lord and the black police for the survival of the family, his bright side gradually faded.
Then he harvested love in Sicily, and when he lost love, he completely lost his trust in people and became cold and determined.
It can be said that it is this cruelty that makes Michael maintain distance and suspicion even in the face of his wife Kay and his brother Fredo.
For his wife, at the wedding at the opening of "The Godfather", when the whole family was photographed, Michael pulled Kay, who was standing on the side, into the group photo, which can be said to be a manifestation of his unreserved love.
In "The Godfather 2", Kai, who finally chose to leave her husband, deliberately chose to secretly visit the children when Michael was not at home, but accidentally encountered Michael at the door.
At this time, Kai is full of panic, sadness and unconcealed love, if Michael makes even a very general intimacy at this time, then the cold relationship between the two is likely to melt in an instant, and Kai is likely to put aside all previous differences and return to Michael's side.
However, Michael remained silent, coldly closed the door, and rudely shut Kai out.
Two films, two simple actions but profoundly depict the changes in the relationship between the two people, Michael, who has experienced loss and betrayal, has been sentenced to the past.
On the one hand, Kai deeply loves Michael in the past, the hot-blooded officer who has nothing to do with the family business, on the other hand, he is helpless to the cruel and indifferent man in front of him, it is not difficult to imagine that when Kai leaves, he is full of contradictions and inner entanglements.
As for what kind of ending his brother Fredo should have in the film, Puzo and Coppola had a huge disagreement when writing the script.
Puzo insisted that Fredo should eventually be killed by Michael, and Coppola eventually compromised, but in order to make this ending more reasonable, Coppola chose to stage the roommate after Michael's mother died.
In "The Godfather", Fredo not only did not resolutely support Michael's decision to move the family business to Las Vegas, but also wanted to be a peacemaker without opinion, which made Michael resent him.
Of course, the presence of brotherhood prevented him from being completely murderous towards Fredo.
However, Fredo later went against Michael's wishes for his own benefit and betrayed him, so that Michael almost died.
Michael could have abandoned Freido on the spot, but the brotherhood still led him to forgive and even suggest that Freido go with him.
But the real thoughts hidden under Freydo's cowardly side completely infuriated Michael, who eventually decided to execute his mother after her death.
In the face of affection and interests, his complex and difficult choices make Michael in stark contrast and contrast with his father, and the troubles brought by loss and betrayal make him unable to be as happy as his father Vito.
Although suspiciousness and caution have made him wise and cold, the indelible heartache has been vaguely tripped by his past and future.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="03" > rich political metaphor</h1>
The two-line narrative of "The Godfather 2" finally makes "The Godfather" and "The Godfather 2" skillfully combine to form a large narrative closed loop, and the two films are full of various metaphors for reality, politics, and life.
The most important of these is the political metaphor of the film.
If we look at the changes of the Corleone family from a microscopic point of view, it represents the difficult road for many immigrants who have just arrived in the United States but are at the bottom of society to realize the American Dream, and it is also a satire on the mainstream ideological values of the United States.
If you look at the changes of the Corleone family from a macro perspective, then this family represents more of the development of the United States.
From a microscopic point of view, "The Godfather 2" uses a parallel two-line narrative to outline in detail the history of vito Corleone and michael Corleone's inheritance and development of the family, and presents the "struggle" of two generations of a family in front of the audience in detail.
At the beginning of the movie, there is such a plot, countless immigrants who have crossed the ocean can't help but look up at the towering Statue of Liberty.
Coppola hints at this to a typical American dream story, and when you wake up, you are faced with a harsh reality.
If you look at it from a macro perspective, the Corleone family symbolizes the development of the United States.
Didn't Vito Corleone's experience of being forced from Europe to travel to the United States correspond to the first immigrants in the United States?
Protestants persecuted by the authorities risked their lives to start a new life on the other side of the ocean, take root and settle down, and then step by step establish a state and move towards independence.
Just as Vito eventually returned to Sicily to hand-blade the enemy, the United States eventually defeated and replaced Britain.
Vito Corleone established a family power from scratch, but it was not enough to dominate the party, so the old godfather showed a tolerant and inclusive side, of course, under tolerance, there was still a fierce side.
After Michael Corleone became the "godfather", with the prosperity of the family's power, he killed decisively and constantly showed a solipsistic momentum.
Michael represents the rising United States after World War I, just as Michael won the gang war at the end of The Godfather, and the United States won the First Station and Then World War II.
Michael completely eliminated dissidents in The Godfather 2, gradually turned the family business into a legitimate industry, and strengthened the family's power.
The United States, which won World War II, also succeeded in bringing down the Soviet Union and ending the Cold War.