The Godfather Part II

The first sequel ever to win Best Picture, and the rare one that indicts its predecessor. Francis Ford Coppola runs two stories in parallel: Robert De Niro's young Vito Corleone building a family in 1910s New York, and Michael Corleone methodically dismantling that same family half a century on. The structure is the argument - every warm scene of the father is cut against a colder one of the son, until the myth the first film built reads as an alibi. It is longer, slower and far more punishing than The Godfather, closing not on a coronation but on a man sitting alone at Lake Tahoe having ordered his own brother killed. Six Oscars, including Director for Coppola and Supporting Actor for De Niro - who won playing a role Marlon Brando had already won for.