The Godfather Part II movie poster
Poster © Paramount Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
GenreCrime & Drama
RatedNot rated yet
Runtime3 hr 22 mins
ReleasedDecember 20, 1974
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorFrancis Ford Coppola
StarringAl Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton

The Godfather Part II (1974)

movie.guru URL: https://movie.guru/the-godfather-part-ii-movie-review
The Godfather Part II's Details
GenreCrime & Drama
RatedNot rated yet
Released12/12/1974 (Loew's Astor Plaza Theatre); 12/20/1974 (United States)
StreamingSee Where to Watch on this page.
Running Time3 hr 22 mins
Budget$13M (reported)
Box OfficeUpdated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below.
Based OnThe Godfather by Mario Puzo
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish, Sicilian
The Godfather Part II's Interests
GeneralLake Tahoe, Ellis Island, First Communion parties, very serious handshakes.
MusicNino Rota, with extra music by Carmine Coppola. Yes, the director's dad.
MoviesThe Godfather (1972). Mandatory pregame. Heat (1995) if you want Pacino and De Niro in one scene.
TelevisionThe Offer. The true story of getting the first one made. Also chaos.
HeroesTom Hagen. The most patient lawyer in movie history.
The Godfather Part II's Crew
DirectorFrancis Ford Coppola
WritersFrancis Ford Coppola, Mario Puzo
ProducersFrancis Ford Coppola
CinematographyGordon Willis
MusicNino Rota
Edited ByPeter Zinner, Barry Malkin, Richard Marks
ProductionParamount Pictures, The Coppola Company
Distributed ByParamount Pictures
The Godfather Part II's Trailer
Official Trailer • Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers
How The Godfather Part II Performed
movie guru's TLDR

Two hundred and two minutes, and the movie still makes you wait way too long between the Robert De Niro scenes. That’s the sharpest knock I’ve got. Coppola cuts between two stories, young Vito building something in Little Italy and Michael losing everything while winning, and every cut away from De Niro feels like getting pulled out of a good dream. The other knock: a stretch of Senate hearings and casino business talk that plays like a very tense board meeting. Then you notice what Al Pacino is doing. He barely moves. He barely talks. His eyes do all of it, and it’s the coldest performance in any crime movie I know. De Niro, speaking mostly Sicilian, makes young Vito gentle and frightening at the same time. It made only $47.8 million at home, which is wild. A 9.4 because it’s a little looser than the first one and somehow even sadder. $603 says you lower your voice in the next family argument and somehow win it.

What works: Al Pacino’s frozen, frightening stillness and Robert De Niro’s quiet young Vito, paired so each story deepens the other.

What doesn’t: The Senate hearings and casino business talk drag, and cutting between timelines sometimes kills the momentum right when a story heats up.

Who it’s for: People who finished the first one and want the darker, sadder second half of the story.

Spoilers

Michael learns his brother Fredo helped set up the attack on his home, and by the end he has Fredo killed out on the lake. The last image is Michael sitting alone, having beaten every enemy and pushed away everyone who loved him.

Guru’s Take
9.4/10
Elite
The Godfather Part II's Blurbs
About me:

Two stories, two generations. In 1958, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) runs the family business from a lakeside compound in Nevada, with lawyer Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) at his side, a casino deal brewing with Florida money man Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg), and old New York loyalist Frank Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo) pushing for a fight back home. Then someone comes after Michael inside his own house, and he goes looking for answers. Meanwhile, in the early 1900s, young Vito Corleone leaves Sicily, comes through Ellis Island alone, and grows into a quiet, careful man (Robert De Niro) in Little Italy. Francis Ford Coppola directs. Two hundred minutes, two Corleones.

Who I'd like to meet:

Family only. Friends close, everyone else closer.

The Godfather Part II's Cast (in credits order)
Al PacinoMichael Corleone
Robert DuvallTom Hagen
Diane KeatonKay Adams Corleone
Robert De NiroVito Corleone
John CazaleFredo Corleone
Talia ShireConnie Corleone
Lee StrasbergHyman Roth
Michael V. GazzoFrank Pentangeli
G. D. SpradlinSenator Pat Geary
Richard BrightAl Neri
Gastone MoschinDon Fanucci
Tom RosquiRocco Lampone
Bruno Kirbyyoung Peter Clemenza
Frank SiveroGenco Abbandando
Morgana KingMama Carmela Corleone
Marianna HillDeanna Corleone
Leopoldo TriesteSignor Roberto
Dominic ChianeseJohnny Ola
Troy DonahueMerle Johnson
Giuseppe SillatoDon Francesco 'Ciccio
Joe SpinellWilli Cicci
Danny AielloTony Rosato
Carmine CaridiCarmine Rosato
Amerigo TotBussetta
Full cast and crew on IMDb.
The Godfather Part II's Edit History
Every change to this page, newest first. Movie data updates are logged like any other edit.
  • (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +360 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $48.2M; Domestic box office $47.8M; Profit / loss (est.) +$4.6M; Rotten Tomatoes 96%; box office chart updated; RT 96% (129 reviews); Metacritic 90 / 100; IMDb users 9.0 / 10 (1,519,277 votes); movie.guru score 9.7.
  • (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.