The Godfather Part II released

The Godfather Part II Released: December 20, 1974 Studio: Paramount Genre: gangster/epic drama Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 57.30 Worldwide: 88.00 Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: 214.30 Worldwide: 329.12

Directing: Francis Ford Coppola Screenwriting: Francis Ford Coppola, Mario Puzo Starring: Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, John Cazale, Michael V. Gazzo Review: The Godfather Part II functions both as a sequel and prequel to its 1972 Best-Picture-winner predecessor. With “its meditations on family, the past and the corruption of America’s soul, melds historical sweep with searing personal intimacy” TV “the continuing saga of a Mafia family and dynasty” FS is, by some accounts, “considered superior to the original.” FS It is the only sequel to win an Oscar for Best Picture. The “hypnotic multigenerational saga” TV “intertwines and compares the lives” VD of Michael Corleone (Pacino) as the present-day leader and “De Niro, in a remarkable, uncommonly subtle performance,” TV as his father, Vito Corleone, before becoming “the ‘don’ of old.” VD “The film’s extended flashback sequences” A07 follow Vito as he “immigrates to America from his native Sicily at the turn of the century and maneuvers his family to power in the ghetto of Little Italy.” FS As the new godfather, Michael struggles “to bring his family into the modern age.” A07 He “confronts a second generation of criminal and family affairs in Vegas, Cuba, and in a Senate hearing on organized crime. After eliminating all rivals and enemies, he is a brooding” FS and “spiritually-broken” TV “character, alienated from his wife (Keaton), and the murder of own brother Fredo (Cazale).” FS “Aside from establishing its cast (Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall, to name a few) as the premier actors of their generation…Coppola’s masterpiece is the cinematic equivalent of an un-put-downable book: Just try watching for only a few minutes. Impossible.” TV “Along the way are some of the most memorable, disturbing and affecting scenes in all of cinema: Vito’s first vision of the Statue of Liberty, his first murder, the attack on Michael’s Lake Tahoe estate, his quiet ruthlessness as he shuts the door on his estranged wife (Diane Keaton). And then there’s the lonely execution of Michael’s pathetic brother (John Cazale) as he fishes on a lake, a sequence so elegantly photographed and perfectly timed that every film school should offer a course on it.” TV Sources: A07 American Film Institute (2007). “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition” FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films” TV TV Guide (August 8-14, 1998 issue). “50 Greatest Movies on TV and Video” VD Video Detective (1997). “Top 100 Films of All Time”

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 6 – including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (De Niro), Best Original Dramatic Score Nominations: 11 – including Best Actor (Pacino), Best Supporting Actor (Gazzo), Best Supporting Actor (Strasberg), Best Supporting Actress (Shire) Other Lists/Honors: Critics’ Picks: Leslie Halliwell/John Walker Leonard Maltin First posted 8/9/2019; last updated 6/3/2023.

Chinatown released

Chinatown Released: June 21, 1974 Studio: Paramount Genre: drama/mystery/thriller Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 29.20 Worldwide: ? Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: 139.40 Worldwide: ?

Directing: Roman Polanski Screenwriting: Robert Towne Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston Review: “Undoubtedly one of the great films of the ‘70s.” T95 “Director Roman Polanski, at the peak of his considerable powers, dipped from the well of classic film noir to create a film that was at once an homage to and an improvement over its forebears.” TV The movie offers an “atmospheric, subtly-paced, superbly-made neo-noir mystery about a hard-nosed detective uncovering urban corruption in late 1930’s Los Angeles.” FS Screenwriter Robert “Towne based his wonderfully intricate tale…on historical fact;” TV it also served as the “definitive allegory of the Watergate era.” RS He took $25,000 to write it after turning down “$125,000 to pen the script for The Great Gatsby…[because] he felt he couldn’t do the novel justice.” MSN The result was a script “heralded as one of the finest ever written.” MSN “Jack Nicholson became a superstar, Faye Dunaway continued the winning streak she began with Bonnie and Clyde, and John Huston virtually personified political and personal rot.” TV “Polanski has an effective cameo as the sadistic hoodlum who gives Nicholson the most famous nose job in Hollywood film history.” TV “Nicholson inhabits the skin” T98 of Jake Gittes, a “world-weary gumshoe” FS who specializes in infidelity. He’s hired by Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) “to investigate the infidelities of her alleged husband, the water commissioner for the drought-stricken city.” FS He “gets in way over his head in a case involving” FS “deception, greed, and murder” VD involving “water rights, land deals and corruption.” A07 “After original, complex plot twists, the film ends in an unsettling” FS but “thrilling shootout in Chinatown.” VD The movie also boasts one of cinema’s greatest reveals when we find out “sinister millionaire Noah Cross (Huston)” FS and his “prominent family’s scandalous, long-hidden dark secret.” FS “The last scene and the last line (‘Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown’) give off an indelible chill.” RS Sources: A07 American Film Institute (2007). “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition” FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films” MSN MSN Entertainment (7/19/2018). “100 Best Movies” by Shahnaz Mahmud RS Rolling Stone (12/30/1999). “100 Maverick Movies of the Last 100 Years” T95 Time Out (1995). “Centenary Top One Hundred Films” T98 Time Out (1998). “Readers’ Top 100 Films” TV TV Guide (August 8-14, 1998 issue). “50 Greatest Movies on TV and Video” VD Video Detective (1997). “Top 100 Films of All Time”

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 1: Best Original Screenplay Nominations: 11 – including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Actress (Dunaway), Best Cinematography Other Lists/Honors: Critics’ Picks: Roger Ebert Leslie Halliwell/John Walker First posted 8/19/2019; last updated 6/3/2023.