The Godfather: Part III (1990)

Director:

Francis Ford Coppola

Writers (WGA):

Mario Puzo (written by) &
Francis Ford Coppola (written by)

Release Date:

25 December 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

All the power on earth can't change destiny.

Plot:

In the midst of trying to legitimize his business dealings in 1979 New York and Italy, aging mafia don Michael Corleone seeks to vow for his sins while taking a young protégé under his wing.

Plot Keywords:

Mafia Don | Vatican | Mafia | Gangster | Stabbing

Awards:

Nominated for 7 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

Al Pacino	...	Don Michael Corleone
Diane Keaton	...	Kay Adams Michelson
Talia Shire	...	Connie Corleone Rizzi
Andy Garcia	...	Vincent Mancini
Eli Wallach	...	Don Altobello
Joe Mantegna	...	Joey Zasa
George Hamilton	...	B.J. Harrison
Bridget Fonda	...	Grace Hamilton
Sofia Coppola	...	Mary Corleone
Raf Vallone	...	Cardinal Lamberto
Franc D'Ambrosio	...	Anthony Vito Corleone
Donal Donnelly	...	Archbishop Gilday
Richard Bright	...	Al Neri
Helmut Berger	...	Frederick Keinszig
Don Novello	...	Dominic Abbandando

Also Known As:

Mario Puzo's The Godfather: Part III (USA) (complete title)
The Death of Michael Corleone (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and language.

Runtime:

162 min | USA:169 min (video version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Italian | German | Latin

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby SR (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia) | Iceland:16 | Canada:14A | USA:R (certificate #30195) | Brazil:14 | South Korea:18 | Philippines:R-18 | Portugal:M/12 | New Zealand:M | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:15 | Israel:PG | Japan:PG-12 | Norway:15 | Peru:18 | Singapore:PG | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | Poland:15

Filming Locations:

Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

'Robert Duvall (I)' wanted $5 million to reprise his role as Tom Hagen in this film. They turned him down and the part was recast and altered for George Hamilton to play the new lawyer character B.J. Harrison. A line of dialogue now says that Hagen died years before.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The final scenes of the film were filmed in the Opera House "Teatro Massimo" in Palermo. But this Opera House was closed in 1974 to complete renovations required by updated safety regulations, and it remained closed for twenty-three years, finally re-opening on 12 May 1997, so a playing of the "Cavalleria Rusticana" was not possible at the beginning of the 1980s in that Opera House.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Michael Corleone: [voiceover] My dear children: It is now better than several years since I moved to New York, and I haven't seen you as much as I would like to. I hope you will come to the ceremony of papal honors given for my charitable work. The only wealth in this world is children; more than all the money, power on earth, you are my treasure.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Middleman: The Pilot Episode Sanction (#1.1)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

LOVER

Not as bad as everyone says – but suffers from the pressure of the first two

Michael Corleone has sold his illegal business in an attempt to win back his family. However he must still contend with up and coming mobsters such as Vincent, who wants to work for him and Joey Zasa, who wants to fully take over the Corleone family's territory. When the Corleone family begin to deal with the Vatican and plan to buy out their share of an multinational corporation he finds that the Vatican is just as corrupt as his illegal operations were. Despite his best efforts he finds himself sucked back into the world he has tried to leave behind.

Easily one of the most hated films ever made – or at least you'd think it was by the critical mauling it got for a raft of reasons. However watching it now it isn't that bad and really it only suffers from comparison with the two films before it. But lets be fair, Coppola has made 3 or 4 of the best films ever made – did we really expect another one from him?

The film has a reasonable plot and brings the trilogy to a logical end. The plot however does have it's weaknesses – for example it starts well with Michael's attempt to `get out' being hampered by other families on their way up. But when it starts to get involved with money laundering through the Vatican and the corruption therein, it starts to lose it's way and it's focus on Michael.

The main weakness comes in the characters. Would Michael really go straight just to get his family back – and how come he managed to do it so easily up till the time of the film? Worse still is Connie who seems to have become some sort of Mafia widow when that was not part of her character in the previous films – would she really have got that twisted or influential? Little problems like these just bugged me and they also fed into the performances.

For such a great cast the acting was very average. Pacino is good but I sensed he didn't see Michael turning out this way and he didn't convince occasionally. Keaton has little to do and again I felt that her approach to Michael was too forgiving, although maybe I'm not allowing for time. As I Siad before Shire was doing some sort of `Bride of Frankenstein' act as Connie and I didn't buy it for a moment. Garcia was OK and faces like Wallach, Hamilton and the like helped. The two worst performances were sadly two of the main ones. First Joe Mantegna…..now it wasn't that it was bad – it was more that I've seen him do so much better. Here all I could think of when I watched him was how his character and his acting was very like his Simpsons' character of ` Fat Tony'. Bare in mind Fat Tony is meant to be a spoof of the Mafioso characters and you'll see why I didn't like it.

The worse performance was Sofia Coppola. Now she was vilified at the time for her role – a bit unfairly and cruelly but she was still bad. She has this strange scowl on her face for most of the film and she acts like a spoil little girl. She also has no realism in her voice and speaks in the same constant tone – that Vincent would fall for her was just a leap of faith too far to accept. The cast does have others who are unused or underused – Fonda being the best example. Why did she bother with that role!?

Overall, this is miles behind the other two Godfathers and it has plenty of weaknesses. However at it's heart it's a good try as the concluding part and the story is watchable. It's not bad, it just is average and it feels like the director and large sections of the cast felt they just had to turn up to make a third classic film.