- Year: 1990
- Director: Francis Ford Coppola
- Starring: Al Pacino, Andy Garcia, Diane Keaton
Alright, we’ve had enough unsatisfying TV follow-ups, so let’s talk about this one instead. The Godfather Part III is one of the most divisive sequels of all time, with some considering it one of the worst ever made, while others find it a misunderstood and satisfying conclusion to the series.
The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are both near-universally ranked among the greatest films ever made, and many (including myself) consider the second film to be ever better than the first. A follow-up sixteen years later excited fans, but even though Francis Ford Coppola returned to direct, he wasn’t the same Coppola he was in the ’70s. After nearly dying while making Apocalypse Now (still a smashing success) and declaring bankruptcy after the total failure of One from the Heart, Coppola made smaller, more personal films. However, in 1990 his financial straits were so dire that he opted to make The Godfather Part III, even though he felt the story was already complete.
I’m not going to criticize a director for making a “money” film, because obviously you need to keep working to survive and make the movies that really matter to you. Heck, Coppola made The Godfather Part II so he could work towards the film that was really important to him, Apocalypse Now.
The most noticeable omission from Godfather III is Robert Duvall, and that’s a complicated matter with different stories from the opposing sides. Apparently, the film originally involved a falling out between Michael Corleone and Tom Hagen. According to Coppola, Duvall wanted an equal salary to Pacino’s, while Duvall has stated many times he only wanted a fair salary in comparison to Pacino’s. Anyway, the point is Duvall doesn’t return, so the story had to be changed with Hagen having died before the film starts. His character is replaced with a new consigliere B.J., played by George Hamilton, who isn’t even remotely memorable.
Coppola wanted to call the film The Death of Michael Corleone to show that this was not another Godfather film proper, but rather an epilogue to the Michael Corleone character. In theory, I prefer this approach. Again, it’s sixteen years later, and it’s unlikely you’re going to make another film in the same vein. The story has been told, and without some brilliant ideas, it will just feel like a retread. However, the studio vetoed this idea, and the film became The Godfather, Part III.
So what? The film is still an epilogue right? Well, yes and no. If this in fact just trying to be an epilogue, why does it have things like
- A near-three hour run time
- A young man’s rise to power
- Two family friends betraying Michael
- A whole load of new characters
- A kill montage at the end?
You can call it what you want, but these things make it feel like another Godfather film. Sure, we get focus on Michael Corleone’s later years, but we sure get a lot of other stuff too.
I’m so split on this film, which in and of itself speaks volumes, because the original two films are pretty much perfect. That said, there is a lot of good here, so let’s start with some of that.
The Good: The Returning Actors
Some criticize Pacino’s performance here as too over-the-top, and while I see their point, I disagree. It’s not the naive-to-evil performance of the first or the total hardening-of-heart of the second, because Michael is a different character two decades later. He’s tried to somewhat clean up his own act, letting others run the criminal side. Instead of being ruthless and cunning, often internalizing things, he has created this slightly flamboyant persona to get into the public’s good graces.
In this scenes with Kay, his children, or the future Pope, Michael sheds this and is incredibly human and vulnerable. He’s divorced from Kay, having given her complete custody of the children years ago, knowing what’s best for them. Diane Keaton is great in her scenes too, showing the happiness that once was shared between Kay and Michael. Their scenes together fit more with the epilogue concept Coppola was going for here.
Talia Shire returns as the only other remaining Corleone sibling, Connie. Interestingly, she has now become Michael’s second-in-command, and she seems colder than he is at this point (understandably, considering the horrible things that happened to her in the first two films). Al Neri (Richard Bright) is still around as Michael’s top enforcer as well, and despite being mostly silent, he makes an impression.
The Good: Andy Garcia and Joe Mantegna
In the film’s opening scenes, we meet Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia), the son of Sonny Corleone and his mistress Lucy Mancini. He definitely has his father’s hot-headed nature, but is far more restrained about it. Although Michael would rather Vincent take a legitimate place in his family, he would rather work his way up the criminal ladder. Garcia makes Vincent a slightly naive but still intelligent character who we genuinely care about, even in spite of some of his actions. I wish the subplot of him being in love with Michael’s daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola) had been kept out, but trust me, we’ll get to that.
There’s a great scene where Vincent fights off attackers in his apartment, showing both his cunning and his ruthlessness. It feels like something out of one of the earlier films, and really gets us invested in his character.
Vincent has gotten himself into a feud with Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna), the charismatic head of the family’s criminal dealings. Ugh, Joey Zasa, why couldn’t you have been the main villain of the film? In a movie that adds a lot of boring old guys to the story, why couldn’t this younger cocky guy be more prominent? Anyone who’s studied the mob will know he’s fairly obviously inspired by Joe Colombo, being a guy who publicly speaks against Italian-American stereotypes while in fact working for the mob himself. It creates an interesting hypocrisy, and Mantegna brings the right amount of charisma and menace to the role.
Joey Zasa makes a big move in one of the most controversial scenes. All of the mafia leaders are meeting with Michael Corleone, who is finally ready to end all his criminal business, paying them accordingly. Then, after Zasa announces how spited he feels, he leaves and helicopters attack from above, killing almost everyone present, with Michael and Vincent of course getting out alive.
People hate this scene, because it just doesn’t feel like something out of The Godfather. It’s loud and feels like something more out of a war or action movie. I’m very split on it personally, because while I get that it’s not very-Godfather, we have to understand the character it comes from. Zasa is loud and boisterous, and not of the old school at all. He allows people of different races into his crews, which very much goes against the classic beliefs. If he had just killed them all in their homes like in the other films, it would have felt like old hat. I’m not saying this helicopter attack is the best storytelling device, but I understand it. Plus, for better or for worse, it’s totally unexpected. Sure, we expect Zasa to take revenge, but not in this way.
In one of the film’s best scenes, Zasa is gunned down by Vincent at an Italian-American pride parade, his two worlds colliding as his life ends with his hypocrisy on full display. It also shows how Vincent and Zasa aren’t really all that different, both charismatic leaders who tend to act without fully thinking through something. With Zasa gone, Michael allows Vincent to become the head of the criminal operations.
The Bad: Mary Corleone
I’ll be quick about this, because it seems to be the only thing people say about Godfather III. No, Sofia Coppola doesn’t give a great performance as Michael’s daughter Mary. People tend to blame nepotism for casting, which isn’t entirely fair, as Winona Ryder was supposed to have the role until she dropped out at the last minute. I would have liked to see what she would have done with the role, but I’m sorry, this character just isn’t that well-written.
Mary is Michael’s daughter who’s kind of intrigued by the myth of the mob, which is fine, but falling in love with her first cousin Vincent? Weirdest of all, no one (except Michael once) freaks out at the issue that there’s major incest going on, but rather it’s just treated as “Don’t date that bad boy.” Why does no one have a problem with this?
I’ve seen reviews that seem to say this would be a great movie with a better actress in this role, but that’s not really fair. Sofia Coppola doesn’t give a good performance, but she doesn’t single-handedly kill the movie either. She is probably to blame for the emotionless delivery in her death scene, when she’s hit by a bullet aimed at Michael, but the character just should have been written better.
That said, although he’s a minor character, I like seeing Michael’s son Anthony (Franc D’Ambrosio) having no interest in Michael’s lifestyle, while still loving his family regardless. He is instead an opera singer, who makes his debut in the film’s climactic scenes.
The Bad: The Convoluted Story
The first two Godfather films have complex stories, thanks to the large numbers of characters, but it’s always easy to follow what’s going on, even if first-time viewers may not know who every character is. Here, after Zasa is gunned down, it’s revealed that he was probably working with Don Altobello (Eli Wallach), or at least will be now.
Altobello is tied to Don Lucchesi (Enzo Robutti)…
Who is tied to a corrupt Vatican Archbishop (Donal Donnelly)…
Who opposes the Vatican bank that Michael donates to. The Archbishop is behind the assassination plot on the newly appointed Pope John Paul I (Raf Vallone), and the Corleone family is ultimately too late to stop it.
What’s disappointing is this really could have been an interesting plot, having one corrupt Italian organization going up against another corrupt Italian organization, but it’s often just that thing going on in the background. It doesn’t help that the actors playing the villains in this story line aren’t that interesting. I love Raf Vallone as the pure Pope John Paul I, and the scene where Michael confesses to him is touching. The new Pope intends to immediately bring down the bank corruption, and that’s what gets him killed.
As for the rest of these actors…well I like the Archbishop enough. He’s not great or anything, but he just gives off this vibe that he won’t say much but don’t mess with him. I don’t remember one thing about Lucchesi except the way he died, but most surprisingly of all is Eli Wallach. He just brings nothing to this film. He’s written as this old friend of the Corleone family, which is honestly kind of ridiculous, seeing as how he’s never been mentioned before. Sure, the antagonist of Part II and man-suing-his-parents-over-that-first-name Hyman Roth was introduced in the same way, but that was different. Michael was still new at running the family in the first film, so he obviously didn’t know all of his father’s friends, but this guy is introduced as Connie’s godfather! Surely he would have been mentioned. Also, Hyman Roth was an interesting character with quirks and a terminal illness, while Altobello is just… old. He dies eating a poisoned cannoli, which is just kind of silly. I think this guy could have been written out entirely, so we could give more time to the intricacies of the Vatican plot.
When we get to the kill montage at the end, which goes on for a long time, you might be asking yourself “And who’s this guy?” more than “Oh, glad they’re dead.” There are assassins on both sides, but there are so many characters without much development that it’s easy to forget who’s working for who.
If it wasn’t for that convoluted plot, I think the final scene of Mary getting killed would have packed more punch. It still works, but not like it should. I also wish Coppola wouldn’t have muted Michael’s scream when Mary dies, because it comes off as over-dramatic. Apparently, Pacino led out such a primal, horrifying scream that he felt he had to cut it, but would ’70s Coppola really do that? He would have loved to have something so horrifying in his film. This was a big mistake.
The Ugly: Eli Wallach
Ugh, too easy. But seriously…
The Ugly: That Final Scene
For some reason, after the story has ended, Coppola feels the need to show us that Michael Corleone will die alone in a garden in Italy. As if we didn’t get the message from the rest of the film that Michael will not be redeemed, we have to get this unsubtle death. It’s a painfully clear contrast between Vito’s death in the first film, as he died playing with his grandson in a garden, while Michael dies alone. While the first two films were subtle, this is painfully overdone.
Maybe this was an attempt to say “No, there will never be another Godfather film,” but apparently there were talks of a fourth one focusing on Vincent, so who knows? For me, this scene almost ruins the whole film. It makes me realize that this entire story has already been told before. Everything that this film tries to accomplish with Michael’s story has been done before in one scene at the end of Part II.
Michael sits alone, hair grayed and a receding a bit. The leaves have changed color to reflect his aging, and there’s an expression of both anger and remorse on his face. He may regret what he’s done, but he knows he can’t escape it. He’ll be alone, because this is the life he has chosen. In just a few wordless seconds, Coppola accomplishes everything he attempts to in the third film, and that’s why Part II is a masterpiece and Part III is just a good film.
It’s a small thing compared to all these others, but I just never get the overall Godfather experience from the third film. The camerawork is still good, but I never get a sense of time or place like I did in the others. Nothing oozes 1979 about this film like the other films did with their decades. The music is mostly just re-used cues from the previous films, and it’s obvious a lot of the dialogue was dubbed in post. This just needed more time to be completed.
Ultimately, The Godfather III should have picked a direction. Either it needed to be an epilogue to Michael’s story and trim the fat, or it needed to be a full-fledged Godfather film and expand on this Vatican plot. I would have been fine with either, as the scenes with Michael and Kay are truly touching, and the Vatican plot would have been interesting with more focus and better characters. As it is, it’s a mixed bag, a mostly good one, but obviously nowhere near the greatness of the other two.
Story (18/30 Points)
The ideas presented are interesting, and a lot of this could have been interesting, but the third act makes you realize what a missed opportunity so much of it is. I like the Joey Zasa subplot, and Michael’s personal journey is the most interesting story line.
Returning Characters (10/15 Points)
This would be a higher score, if I didn’t technically have to count Mary Corleone in this category. Michael and Kay are great, and it’s interesting to see how Connie has risen up in the family. I also like seeing how Anthony has become a genuinely good person, even knowing that Michael killed his beloved Uncle Fredo.
New Characters (10/15 Points)
Zasa and Vincent are both fascinating characters, but we just get so many new characters who don’t add much. Eli Wallach in particular is a disappointment as Altobello.
Experience (13/20 Points)
There were multiple times I was taken out of this film by the dubbing in post. It’s surprisingly unprofessional. The music is mostly repeated, and while Gordon Willis’ camerawork is as good as ever, the film just never feels like the others did.
Originality (12/20 Points)
The Vatican angle could have been interesting, as could the epilogue angle, but it ultimately just feels like someone writing a lesser Godfather film. Altobello is a Hyman Roth-clone, and all of these ideas were effectively communicated at the end of the second film.
FINAL SCORE: 63%
It’s not the travesty it’s often made about to be, and it’s worth the time if you know what you’re getting into. It’s still written and acted with care, but it just happened to come out the same year as Goodfellas, a far more groundbreaking mafia film.
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