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The Godfather Part II at 50: Francis Ford Coppola’s sprawling masterpiece

After the recent release of his misbegotten saga Megalopolis, the anniversary of his crime drama sequel serves as a perfect reminder of the director’s abilities

This is thanks in part to a terrifically coiled performance from Pacino; so much of his work in the film consists of quietly watching and strategizing that when he has a late-movie blow-up opposite Diane Keaton as Michael’s fed-up wife, Kay, it feels especially chilling, desperate and unhinged. Though Ebert ultimately makes a compelling case for the superiority of the first film, and is entirely correct that the movie becomes convoluted at times, especially with Michael’s dealings in Cuba, I don’t agree with his assertion that the Vito flashbacks amount to a sentimentalization of the character as the “right” kind of criminal. Some years later, the ambition and scale of peak American 70s film-making would wobble and collapse, after some big-budget epics failed to pay off and blockbuster sequels – a little like The Godfather Part II, but maybe not so dark, not so long, not so downbeat – became even more enticing.

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