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Film · The only sequel in this conversation · Take No. 005

Godfather or Part II?

The original invented the modern crime epic. The sequel is the one film critics keep insisting is better. Both won Best Picture. Only one gets to be the Godfather.

The case for each side, then the verdict. Then the floor is yours.
The case for

The Godfather (1972)

Coppola · Brando · Pacino · Caan · Duvall

  • 3Oscars, including Best Picture and Brando's Best Actor. It was the highest-grossing film ever at the time.
  • 1Story, one family, one arc: Michael walking into the restaurant and out of his old life.
  • ∞Quoted lines. An offer he can't refuse. Leave the gun. It's not personal. The cannoli.
vs
The case for

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Coppola · Pacino · De Niro · Duvall · Keaton

  • 6Oscars, including Best Picture and Director. The first sequel ever to win Best Picture.
  • 2Stories told at once: young Vito's rise and Michael's rot, each lighting the other.
  • 0Spoken words in the final shot. Michael alone in the chair, and the saga's true ending.

Cast your take

——
The verdict

It's Part I. Part II is the deeper film; Part I is the better one.

Part II is more ambitious, more formally daring, and its De Niro half is close to perfect. Film-school answers are not wrong. If the question were "which is the greater achievement," the sequel might take it.

But a film has to work as a film, and the original is a single flawless story with no seam. Nothing in it is slack. Part II needs Part I to mean what it means; Part I needs nothing. The original, by a horse's head.

Disagree? That's what the buttons are for.

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