The Godfather 2

The Godfather Part: II The Godfather Part: II was released in 1974 to great critical acclaim, some even deeming it superior to the original. It was building on the already brilliant original to create a tragedy of colossal proportions. Similar to its prequel, the sequel remains a highly influential film in the gangster genre. It was ranked 32nd greatest film in American film history in 1997, and kept its rank ten years later. The Godfather Part: II stands out because the film does an excellent job showing the parallel rise to power for both Michael and his father, Vito. Techniques used in the film to show this parallel include the director’s use of flashback and lighting. The film continues the main story line, which centers on Michael Corleone, the new Don of the Corleone and a series of flashbacks following his father, Vito Corleone from his childhood in Sicily to 1901 and the founding of the Corleone family.
The narrative juxtaposition between Vito’s rise to power in America from 1901 through the mid-‘20s and Michael’s rise of that power in 1957-58 represents how their stories run parallel. The film emphasizes that correlation between Michael and Vito through flashbacks. Michael was said to resemble his father most in terms of intelligence, personality, and cunning. Both Michael and Vito are soft-spoken and contemplative yet, their actions are equally brutal. Vito Corleone kills Don Fanucci for extorting the Sicilian community in New York and out of personal annoyance of being affected by the mobster’s clutch over the community. As Vito fires the gun, the gunshots were drowned out by a religious celebration. This alludes back when Michael devised a plan to kill the five family heads. Michael was at his nephew’s baptism in which he becomes the godfather to him. Both religious events symbolize the rising point of their power. Both characters started out trying to make an honest living, but deviates from that path after the murders.
Lighting has manipulated