It’s already the 1950s when, after Vito Corleone’s death, his son Michael becomes godfather, and in addition to the treachery in his own family, he must stand against hardened competitors from the underworld, as well as the heightened interest of the increasingly powerful organs of justice. Thus the young man, who long refused to act the tough boss, inevitably becomes an even more ruthless master than his father. But Michael isn’t just a killing machine. Played by the mesmeric Al Pacino, sorrow is etched in the lines of his face as if he knew from the start that, after all the victories that toppled his adversaries, a great loneliness would await him in the end. In a subplot flashing back to 1920s New York, Robert De Niro excels as a young Vito who is building his position from the ground up. Coppola has everything perfectly under control, from imposing, high-profile situations in which the plot develops on several planes at once, down to minute details such as the Sicilian dialect, employed to perfection in Vito’s early scenes.

The film is being presented on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of John Cazale's birth.