The Godfather, Part III

Starring:Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton, Bridget Fonda, Sofia Coppola, Raf Vallone, Franc D'Ambrosio, Donal Donnelly, Richard Bright, Helmut Berger, Don Novello, John Savage, Franco Citti, Mario Donatone, Vittorio Duse, Enzo Robutti
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Studio: Paramount
Product Type: DVD

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Sixteen years after Francis Ford Coppola won his second Oscar for The Godfather II (his first was for the 1972 Godfather), the director and star Al Pacino attempted to revive the concept one more time. Despite an elaborate plot that involves Michael Corleone seeking redemption through the Vatican while simultaneously preparing his nephew (Andy Garcia) to take over the Corleone family, the film fails to take shape as a truly meaningful experience in the way the preceding movies do. Still, Pacino is very moving as an elder Michael, filled with regret and trying hard to make amends with his wife (Diane Keaton) and grown children (one of whom is played, and not all that well, by the director's daughter, Sofia Coppola). --Tom Keogh

Description

In this third film in the epic Corleone trilogy, Al Pacino reprises the role of powerful family leader Michael Corleone. Now in his 60's, Michael is dominated by two passions: freeing his family from crime and finding a suitable successor. That successor could be fiery Vincent (Andy Garcia)... but he may also be the spark that turns Michael's hope of business legitimacy into an inferno of mob violence.

Customer Reviews:

The One To See.......2007-04-05

I'm sort of a late-comer to the Godfather movies and while I enjoyed part 1, enjoyed part 2 a little more, I was blown away by part 3. It's also the one I've seen the most. Of course, this it at the beginning of the era in Al Pacino's career where I think he did his very best work: GIII, Glengarry Glen Ross, Scent of a Woman, and Carlito's Way. To me, this Godfather movie serves as a far better character study because it allows the reflection and depth that only an older Michael can show. And better than ever does he display the anger that gives way to frustration that is simmering beneath the surface. No, I suppose it isn't much like 1 and 2. Pacino's range here is riveting, from his heart attack to his confession to Cardinal Lamberto, which almost brought tears to my eyes. To all the awful things he says he's done, the Cardinal simply replies to a man who thinks he is beneath forgiveness, "Gone. It is gone." Michael sinks to the ground in tears because of a sugar attack and asks for orange juice - a mighty man brought to his knees by old age, diabetes, and sin. Extremely powerful, coupled with the grace and gentleness of the Cardinal. Very powerful. The raw, fierce display of emotion at the end when tragedy hits harder than ever was fitting. While I enjoyed 1 and 2, no way I could get wrapped up in them like this.

The plot is actually rather simple. To start, Michael takes care of what I call "old business." He reconciles with those he has made rich, essentially trying to go out on top and sincerely get away from crime. So what he does is by way of a back-against-the-wall Archbishop, Michael agrees to take on and relieve a Vatican holding company of an exhorbitant debt. But in exchange Michael wants majority control over the company's board of directors. Fine. Well... until, because the company is both very old and very European, the deal brings in a host of shady, threatening, and powerful people, such as Don Lucchesi and Don Altobello. It is not in the interest of these people that Michael should get control. The new Pope (interestingly, an Italian who chooses the name John Paul I) attempts to "clean house" and among many other things, get the company out of shady hands. So the Pope finds himself on the wrong side of some of these characters, and the Mafia is indeed implicated in the death of the fictional John Paul I. The real-life John Paul I only held the office from August 26 to September 28, 1978, when he died suddenly. Wild rumors had spread about a poisoned coffee. Francis kind of takes some of that and runs with it a bit. It's quite a unique story, actually.

In reality, this movie is about things coming full circle, people paying for what they've done, and as Michael says, the new overthrows the old. There is a scene in the back of a car where Michael's face distinctly passes in and out of deep shadow as the car travels down the road, sort of representative of his life. Had Scorcese done this it would have been 50 times more gruesome and had others done it it would have probably involved the Illuminati and who knows what else, but Francis finds the perfect balance between story, fictional realism, and the violence, which is necessary but not at all shocking or overly brutal.

It should have ended with Godfather 2.......2007-03-01

I don't hate this movie, it has several strong points, but in truth I can't say it's a great end to the Godfather series. I've come to the conclusion that Godfather II should have been the last Michael Corleone film. That's because every time I watch it I get chills during those last few moments, a piece of perfect and haunting cinema history. Somehow those last seconds sum up everything Michael might have had and everything he might have been - they are utterly heartbreaking. And they are enough. The message didn't need to be carried into a third film explaining about Michael's regrets - from the end of part 2 we already knew! Michael has had his brother killed and is emotionally dead, so we don't really need to see his physical death and deterioration in Part 3.

So what did I like about Part 3? Several scenes stick in my mind. When Vincent killed Joe Zaza there was a flash of Vito / Sonny / Michael from the old days. When Michael told Kay he'd always loved her and she said it back, I couldn't hold back the tears, although it did feel a little contrived since Kay had remarried and we weren't given a sense of who her new husband was. The ending was the best bit, symbolic and achingly sad. Al Pacino's final moments were heartbreaking, as I knew they would be.

The performances are generally good, particularly from Al Pacino, although his character unfortunately no longer requires him to use his remarkable quiet voiced anger that he displayed so chillingly in the first two films. I thought Andy Garcia was only OK as Vincent, his character wasn't really fleshed out enough to be truly compelling. Talia Shire's character, Connie, seemed to be a completely different woman, and it was strange how Michael suddenly let her sit in on business meetings. The main problem I had was that Mary, Michael's daughter, and Vincent, did not have any chemistry between them so it was impossible to see how they had fallen in love. Their romance was unrealistic because they never acted 'in love', there were no intense glances as there were between Apollonia and Michael in Godfather 1, for example. The whole 'forbidden romance between cousins' plot seemed unneccesary and a bit of a strange choice. I also would have liked more closure on Michael's first marriage to Apollonia, it wasn't clear if he ever told Kay before or how she found out or how she (or their children) felt about it, they didn't even seem surprised which didn't seem quite right.

Overall, the Godfather III is a difficult movie to review. It isn't a classic like part 1 and 2, but it's not terrible either. I just question whether it was ever needed in the first place. Perhaps 'Part 3' should have been left up to our imaginations, with Al Pacino's dark-eyed intensity from the final scenes of Godfather 2 forever etched in our minds.

The Sins of the Fathers..........2007-01-10

I consider this movie a fitting endpiece to the saga of the Corleone Family. I think it is the best and most deeply moving piece of the Trilogy.

It is about the end game of the quintessential idealist, Michael Corleone.
Whereas his father (Marlin Brando) was the honor bound pragmatist, his brother Sonny was the violent loose cannon, his brother Freco was the gutless whiner, Michael was moved by his ideals and what he considered was right.

In Godfather 1, we see him throwing away his ideals for Family protection, and in Godfather 2, we see him turned to stone by his own actions. This is stressed in the Birthday party scene at the end of Godfather 2.

In Godfather 3, we see a sick and dying Godfather haunted by the once idealistic Michael Corleone he was. The idealism is returning to him, and of neccesity there had to be recompence for the earlier sins he did. Yet the Sins of the Father affected all of his attempted repentance. He paid the ultimate price at the end by the death of his daughter being part of the neccesary attonement. And after all that, in the end, he has visions of dancing with the most important women in his life, all which he threw away by his behavior. He died totally alone and unloved.

My favorite caracter was Joe Montagna (Joey Zasa) When Vince blew him away, I cheered! Could that caracter be based on John Gotti? Hmmmmm...

By far the best, the mafia and the future.......2007-01-10

The third part is nearly the most interesting because we finally have
these Corleones in the modern world. They have sold their casinos and
gambling institutions, they have never been in drugs or prostitution
and the new Godfather, Michael Corleone, wants to get respectable,
recognized by the catholic church and world influential. So he tries to
donate big quantities of money to the Vatican bank in exchange of a
majority share in the Vatican's real estate institution. He fails at
first but goes on and tries to find the invisible ways into the
labyrinth. So he makes friends with as many people as possible in the
financial, religious and political circles around the church. He finds
out he has to go to Sicilia to get in touch with an important cardinal
who is actually elected Pope, but does not last more than a few months.
They have special teas that make you sleep very long in the Vatican.
But this third part shows a great evolution of the Sicilian-American
and Italian-American communities in the US. Violence is becoming less
and less easy in the US. They have to respect the law and law-enforcing
institutions are too strong and powerful for them to be neglected or
under-evaluated. Then there is a shift in that mafia violence. The
Corleones going to Sicilia, among other things to take part in the
first operatic production of Michael's own son who is an opera tenor,
violence catches them up and Sicilia becomes the theatre of what they
can't do in the US any more. And once again Michael goes through and is
well protected by the men of his nephew who he has just appointed his
successor, and also by chance. The final gun directed at him cannot be
prevented from firing, though the assassin will be shot back on the
spot by the new Don Corleone, but Michael is once again lucky and the
bullet does not reach him. For more details rush to the DVD. Thus the
third part ends in drama, even melodrama. But it is definitely clearer
than the second that is too long and too complex and entangled. We seem
though to be living the last powerful years of this family that has to
accept the challenge of becoming legal and respectable. In other words
the world is changing and the mafia along with it.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of
Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

Not really all that bad.......2006-09-18

"You know, Michael; now that you're so respectable, I think you're more dangerous than ever. I liked you better when you were just a common Mafia hood."

I have finally seen all three entries in The Godfather trilogy. Part III is widely considered a bad film and has been named one of the worst sequels of all time. But after finally seeing all three movies I can justly say that this movie is not deserving of the bad rep it gets.

In the final installment of the Godfather Trilogy, an aging Don Michael Corleone seeks to legitimize his crime family's interests and remove himself from the violent underworld but is kept back by the ambitions of the young. While he attempts to link the Corleone's finances with the Vatican, Michael must deal with the machinations of a hungrier gangster seeking to upset the existing Mafioso order and a young protégé's love affair with his daughter.

This movie was probably not necessary but its here and although it is leagues behind Parts I and II, its still a great movie. I think that's it greatest fault too, that its predecessor's were so great that it couldn't help but be inferior. Al Pacino gives us an aged Michael Corleone but, at least to me, he wasn't as believable as he was in the previous two. Here he was Al Pacino and lacked the intensity and, well, believability of the character he showed previously. Maybe that's because of the character's age and he's so different than what we have perceived him as in the other two movies. But, you eventually accept him again as Michael and Pacino gives another stellar performance. Talia Shire returns as Connie, Michael's sister only this time she tries to pull some strings and get into things. Shire's performance is good but the problem is that this is unbelievable for the character. In the previous two Godfather films she was there, not involved in the business in any way and suddenly here she's thrown herself into the fray. Andy Garcia plays Vinnie, Sonny's illegitimate son. He plays Pacino Sonny's role in the original Godfather and it seems he's trying to imitate James Caan's presence instead of being his son. It works in the long run but it feels like he could have done something more with the character. Diane Keaton is Michael's ex-wife Kay. She doesn't really do much until near the end of the movie and seems like she is only there to further the ending of the movie. Her role is very detached from what she did in Parts I and II where she was Michael's loving wife whom he was trying to hold on to. Here, she's married to another man and doesn't have an impact on Michael until, as I said, the ending and even there her role isn't vital. Sofia Coppola is Mary Corleone, Michael's daughter, and she completely slaughters the character. Did she know that this film wasn't a comedy? She doesn't speak in the movie, she awkwardly yells and is reminiscent of the stereotypical bad actor that reads their lines monotonously. And George Hamilton takes over Robert Duvall's role as B.J. Harrison. George Hamilton? Whoever the hell decided to replace Duvall after he refused to reprise his role should be shot but then to go and cast George Hamilton was just wrong. He sticks out and I was waiting for him to rip open a bad of Baked Ritz crackers and start munching on them. I'm sorry but I just couldn't take him seriously. The rest of the cast does their job well and their really isn't a weak link outside of Sofia.

I personally didn't think the music was as good as it was in the previous two installments. There wasn't anything memorable outside of the "Godfather Waltz". That's not to say it was bad, because it wasn't. The music perfectly complemented each scene it was used in. It's just that it wasn't as good as previous efforts.

I don't think this should have been called The Godfather Part III, it should have been titled The Godfather: The Musical because after every few scenes another musical piece would pop up. This, accompanied with the editing, made it feel like a TV movie. At the end of 97% of each scene the transition was a fade to black. I was honestly expecting a commercial to pop up one of these times. There were just too many musical pieces in the film as well. We get a long one at the beginning, a few shorter ones scattered throughout the middle and another long one at the end. The whole final movement of the film in which two intrigues are inter cut with Anthony performing in an opera are supposed to be suspenseful, but they're not. They're so confusing that we don't even know where the hell one of the intrigues is taking place. Is it in Rome? Sicily? London? I don't know.

The whole of the movie is a tad convoluted and hard to believe. Michael is trying to go legit with...the Vatican? This only adds to the confusion of the movie. This entry is easier to grasp and understand what's going on than Part II was but you are left scratching your head at some points. This will definitely require a second viewing just as Part II does. Another problem is that this feels like a sequel unlike Part II, which felt like a natural continuation of the original. You're also just thrown into this world without so much as an introduction or a re acquaintance to some characters so you're left to figure it out on your own which can be pretty annoying when you're trying to do that and follow the complex storyline all at once. But one of the biggest eyebrow raisers is the incest plotline. That's right. Vinnie and Mary are first cousins but are in love with each other. The movie even acknowledges that this is wrong but it's still kept. At the it is supposed to hit us hard due to the circumstances but it just doesn't because you didn't believe in it in the first place because it is wrong. That plotline was unneeded and came out of left field. That was probably the worst addition to this film next to Sofia herself.

But what really brings this movie together is its spectacular ending. The whole scene on the steps is superbly shot and you really feel the raw surge of emotion that's going on in that scene. You feel for Michael because of everything he did to try and right his wrongs thus far. But directly after that is the death of Michael Corleone which is tragic yet fulfilling. He is 77 years old and retired to Sicily, alone and distraught when he dies from a stroke. Before he dies he thinks of the women he loved and ultimately lost due to his choices in life. We feel for this character and when he dies, at least with me, a surge of emotion came over because you think back to the journey we went through with this man and here is the end of a legacy. The whole way it is shot and presented struck a chord with me and was the highlight of the movie Michael is alone with nobody left because they are either dead or have left him. It's a sad way to go but perfectly executed here. The music that accompanies it is superb as well. It isn't an original piece conducted for the movie but it works amazingly well. It adds so much to the scene and is a great listen on its own. I cannot say enough good things about this ending. Its just superb and a truly great way to end this monumental series.

The Godfather Part III is a great movie. It isn't up to snuff with its predecessors but it can't be expected to be. It is wholly undeserving of the bad rep it gets because underneath, there is a great movie that has just gotten flack for being inferior and a sequel. Despite some rough edges and lacking in areas that the original two excelled in, The Godfather Part III is very worthy of bearing the Godfather name.

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