ABSTRACT
The state of American society and culture help to understand the success of Godfather II. Its producers have shrewdly capitalized on a variety of prevailing discontents. Godfather II symbolizes the successful solution of the problem of powerlessness and anonymity in modern society; he is totally autonomous, his own master, above the law and the maker of his own laws; at once a rugged individualist and part of a group and subculture, heir to a rich ethnic tradition. Godfather II is not an ordinary romanticized story of gang violence. It is rather an apotheosis of the obsession with power and its ruthless and successful exercise entwined with the nostalgia for strong family ties and a simpler way of life guided by traditional values. The success of the movie is a measure of the frustrations and moral bewilderment that pervades the life of so many Americans.
