The Godfather Part III
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| 'The Godfather: Part III' | |
|---|---|
 The Godfather: Part III Theatrical Poster |
|
| Directed by | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Produced by | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Written by | Mario Puzo Francis Ford Coppola Vincent Patrick |
| Starring | Al Pacino Diane Keaton Andy Garcia Talia Shire Sofia Coppola Eli Wallach George Hamilton Joe Mantegna Bridget Fonda Richard Bright |
| Music by | Carmine Coppola |
| Cinematography | Gordon Willis |
| Editing by | Lisa Fruchtman Jane Jenkins Roger Mussenden |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 25, 1990 |
| Running time | 162 minutes |
| Language | English Italian |
| Budget | $54 million USD |
| IMDb profile | |
| Ratings | |
|---|---|
| United States: | R |
The Godfather Part III (1990) is the third and final film in the Godfather trilogy written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, and directed by Coppola. It completes the story of Michael Corleone, a Mafia godfather who tries to legitimize his crime empire. The movie also weaves into its plot a fictionalized account of real-life events — the mysterious 1978 death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal of 1981-1982 — and links them with each other and with the affairs of Michael Corleone. The film stars Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton, Bridget Fonda, and Sofia Coppola.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The movie begins in 1979. Tom Hagen is now dead and the Corleone compound at Lake Tahoe is abandoned. Michael has returned to New York, where he is pursuing his quest to make the Corleone family legitimate. He creates a charity, the Vito Corleone Foundation. At a ceremony in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Michael is awarded a medal of the Order of St. Sebastian.
Kay, who has remarried, sits with her and Michael’s children, Anthony and Mary. At the lavish party following the ceremony, Anthony tells his father that he is dropping out of law school to pursue a career as an opera singer. Kay supports his choice, and she and Michael argue in private about Anthony’s future.
Vincent Mancini, Sonny Corleone’s illegitimate son, shows up at the party. He is embroiled in a feud with a mafioso named Joey Zasa, under whose stewardship the old Corleone neighborhood in New York has become lawless. In a room away from the party, Vincent and Zasa tell Michael about their feud. The discussion grows violent and Vincent bites off part of Zasa’s ear. Vincent asks Michael if he can work for him, and Michael agrees to take his hot-headed nephew under his wing. That night, two men break into Vincent’s home. Vincent kills one, frightening the other into revealing Zasa as the man who sent them. The scene closes with Vincent shooting the second man.
Michael wants to buy the Vatican's shares in Immobiliare, an international real estate holding company that is controlled by the Vatican. He negotiates a transfer fee of $600,000,000 with Archbishop Gilday, who has plunged the Holy See into tremendous debt through his poor management and corrupt dealings as head of the Vatican Bank. At Vatican City, however, Michael learns that some people oppose the deal. Ratification will be more complicated than he had expected.
Don Altobello, an elderly New York mafioso, tells Michael that his old New York partners want in on the Immobiliare deal. A meeting is arranged in Atlantic City, and Michael appeases most of the mafiosi with generous payoffs from their casino days. Zasa gets nothing. Furious, he declares that Michael is his enemy, and tells everyone in the room they must choose between him and Michael. Zasa storms out of the meeting. Minutes later, a helicopter hovers outside the conference room and sprays a barrage of bullets through the ceiling windows. Almost everyone present is killed, but Michael and Vincent escape, with Vincent acting as his uncle’s human shield. Back at his apartment in New York, as Michael considers how to respond to this hit, he suffers a diabetic stroke, and is hospitalized.
Though they are cousins, Vincent and Mary begin a romantic relationship. Vincent plans revenge on Zasa. During a street fair, Vincent and his accomplices murder Zasa and his bodyguards. Michael, still hospitalized, berates Vincent when he finds out, but Vincent insists that he got the go-ahead from Connie, who has become deeply involved in family affairs. Michael insists that Vincent end his relationship with Mary because Vincent’s involvement in the family puts Mary in danger. Vincent agrees, however, in Sicily, where the family moves to pursue the Vatican deal and attend Anthony’s opera debut, the relationship continues.
Michael tells Vincent to speak with Altobello and, in order to see where the old man’s loyalties lie, to pretend that he is thinking of leaving the Corleone family. Altobello supports the idea of Vincent switching allegiance, and introduces Vincent to Licio Lucchesi, the man behind the plot to prevent Michael’s acquisition of Immobiliare.
Michael visits Cardinal Lamberto, a well-intentioned and pious priest, to speak about the Immobiliare deal. Lamberto convinces Michael to make his first confession in thirty years; among other sins, Michael confesses to ordering the killing of his brother Fredo. It is an extremely emotional moment for Michael, and it troubles him. Touring Sicily with Kay, who has arrived for Anthony’s performance, Michael also asks for her forgiveness. As both admit that they still love each other, Michael receives word that Don Tommasino, his Sicilian friend, has been killed, signaling that a new round of violence is about to begin. Cardinal Lamberto is elected Pope John Paul I, which means that the Immobiliare deal will likely be ratified.
Vincent tells Michael what he has learned from Altobello: Lucchesi is behind the plot against the Immobiliare deal, and an assassin, the same who killed Tommasino, has been hired to kill Michael. Vincent wants to strike back, but Michael cautions him, saying that if he goes ahead with such a plan, there’ll be no going back. Vincent insists on revenge, and Michael relents. He makes Vincent head of the Corleone family, the new Godfather. In exchange for the promotion, Vincent agrees to put an end to his relationship with Mary.
The family travels to Palermo to see Anthony perform the male lead of Cavalleria Rusticana at the renowned opera house Teatro Massimo. Vincent’s plans for revenge go into effect. Interspersed with scenes from Anthony’s performance are the brutal murders of Lucchesi, Altobello, Gilday, and their associates, who have already poisoned the new pope. This scene also mirrors the scene at the end of Part I, when Michael had orchestrated the deaths of his enemies. An assassin, sent to kill Michael, lurks at the opera house. The assassin kills several of Vincent’s men, but the opera ends before he has the chance to shoot Michael. The assassin retreats to the opera house façade’s staircase, and tries to shoot Michael there. Mary is confronting her father about the forced breakup with Vincent when two shots ring out. The first hits Michael in the shoulder, he reels away and the second hits Mary, who was behind him, in the chest and she dies. Michael screams in pain and rage. His sister Connie and ex-wife Kay look upon Michael's distraught reaction, almost in surprise, presumably only now realising how truly dear his family were to him. The scene dissolves to a short montage of Michael's memories, the first being his dance with Mary from the party that opens the film and the last that of his ex-wife, taken from part II. The film ends with a white-haired and aged Michael, seated in the front yard of his Sicilian villa, in the year 1997. He collapses in his chair and dies, alone.
[edit] Themes
As with all the Godfather films, Part III deals extensively with family. Salvation also plays an important role, as Michael's attempts to redeem the family business involve the Corleones with the Vatican. In confession, Michael reveals that he had ordered his brother Fredo's murder (in the previous film), and states that this is one sin that is too heinous to be forgiven. The cardinal replies that "it is just that you should suffer" for this sin, but there is an implied misunderstanding; Michael interprets the cardinal's comment as confirmation that God will not forgive him for Fredo's murder, but the cardinal may be referring to the Catholic belief that one must ask for forgiveness in order to receive it (and must promise not to repeat the sin), something Michael as a "Don" is unable to do.
[edit] Casting and the script
Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, and Talia Shire reprised their roles from the first two movies. According to Coppola's audio commentary on the film in The Godfather DVD Collection, Robert Duvall refused to take part unless he was paid the same salary as Al Pacino. When Duvall dropped out, Coppola rewrote his screenplay to portray the Hagen character as having died before the story begins. Coppola created the character "B.J. Harrison", played by George Hamilton, to replace the Hagen character in the story. The director further states that, to him, the movie feels incomplete "without [Robert] Duvall's participation." According to Coppola, had Duvall agreed to take part in the film, the Hagen character would have been heavily involved in running the Corleone charities.
Coppola felt that the first two films had told the complete Corleone saga. It was only his perilous financial status, after the failure of a big-budget movie, that compelled him to take up Paramount's long-standing offer to make a third installment.
He further comments that before he was brought on board, Paramount had already had a script prepared (in fact, Dean Riesner had written a first draft screenplay for the film in 1979), centering on the Vincent character, with a plot revolving around the "new kind of wiseguy" (in Coppola's words) of the '70s and '80s, and involving the drug cartels.
Coppola says that he felt The Godfather saga was essentially Michael's story, one about how "a good man becomes evil," as the writer/director puts it on the same commentary track referenced above. Coppola says he felt that Michael had not really "paid for his sins" committed in the second film, and wanted this final chapter to demonstrate that. In keeping with this theme, Coppola completely re-wrote the script; he also wanted to subtitle the movie, "The Death of Michael Corleone," but Paramount balked.
Sofia Coppola, the director's daughter, was given the role of Michael Corleone's daughter when Winona Ryder dropped out of the film at the last minute (supposedly due to illness). Her much-criticized performance resulted in her father's being accused of nepotism, a charge Coppola bitterly refutes in the commentary track, asserting, in his opinion, that critics, "beginning with an article in Vanity Fair," were "using [my] daughter to attack me," something he finds ironic in light of the film's denouement when the Mary character pays the ultimate price for her father's sins. However, the accusations of nepotism may be construed as having traction when one considers that Talia Shire is Francis Ford Coppola's sister. In addition, several other actors related to Francis Ford Coppola have had their careers propelled, including Nicolas Cage, Jason Schwartzman, Roman Coppola and Robert Carmine.
As recently as April 2006, an article in Entertainment Weekly (owned by Time Warner, owner of many of Paramount's rival movie studios) continued the attack on Sofia Coppola's performance in this film.
As an infant, Sofia Coppola had played Michael Corleone's infant nephew in The Godfather, during the climactic baptism/murder montage at the end of that film. (Sofia Coppola also appeared in The Godfather, Part II, as a small immigrant child in the scene where the 9-year-old Vito Corleone arrives by steamer at Ellis Island.) The character of Michael's sister Connie is played by Francis Coppola's sister, Talia Shire. Other Coppola relatives with cameos in the film included his mother, father (who wrote and conducted much of the music in the film), and granddaughter, Gia. Michele Russo, who plays the son of the assassin "Mosca," is also a distant Coppola relative, from the same town as Francis Coppola's great-grandmother. In addition, Coppola cast Catherine Scorsese, mother of Martin Scorsese, for a bit part.
[edit] Awards
The Godfather Part III was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Andy Garcia), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Song (for Carmine Coppola and John Bettis for "Promise Me You'll Remember") and Best Picture. Sofia Coppola won a Golden Raspberry for worst supporting actress.
[edit] Historical background
Parts of the film are very loosely based on real historical events concerning the ending of the Papacy of Paul VI, and the very short Papacy of John Paul I in 1978, and the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano in 1982. Like the character Cardinal Lamberto, who becomes John Paul I, the historical John Paul I, Albino Luciani, reigned for only a very short time before being found dead in his bed with a just-completed report about the Jesuit order nearby.
Journalist David Yallop argues that Luciani was planning a reform of Vatican finances and that he died by poisoning; these claims are reflected in the film. Yallop also names as a suspect Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, who was the head of the Vatican bank, like the character Archbishop Gilday in the film. However, while Marcinkus was noted for his muscular physique and Chicago origins, Gilday is a mild Irishman.
The character of Frederick Keinszig, the Swiss banker who is murdered and left hanging under a bridge, mirrors the fate (and physical appearance) of Roberto Calvi, the Italian head of the Banco Ambrosiano who was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982 (it was unclear until very recently whether it was a case of suicide or, as the Italian idiom has it, "being suicided." Courts in Italy have recently ruled the latter). The character of Licio Lucchesi, who moves between the church, organized crime and Italian politics, recalls Licio Gelli, head of the Propaganda Due Masonic lodge. The character of Joey Zasa bears many similarities to the flashy John Gotti.
[edit] Soundtrack
The soundtrack for the movie, The Godfather Part III (soundtrack), received a Golden Globe nomination for best score. Also, the film's love theme "Promise Me You'll Remember", sung by Harry Connick, Jr., received an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination for best song.
[edit] Trivia
- The motif of oranges, which represent death or a foreshadowing of it, that was established in the first two films, continues in this chapter. When the helicopter descends on the hotel at the beginning of the ambush, a bowl of oranges is toppled; when Michael visits the cardinal in the Vatican, he asks for orange juice to control his diabetes (and fresh-squeezed orange juice instantly appears); and when Michael dies at the end of the film, the orange he was holding drops from his hand.
- The character of Joey Zasa (based on the real-life John Gotti) was one of the inspirations for Fat Tony, the resident mob boss on The Simpsons. Both are portrayed by Joe Mantegna. In addition to this, The Godfather Part III is recurringly parodied on the series with jokes such as "This movie is worse than The Godfather III!" [in reference to a film co-produced by Homer Simpson and Mel Gibson], and a secret bootleg videotape whose cover reads "The Godfather III: The Good Version." One especially significant reference, since it is made by Mantegna's Fat Tony character, occurs when Fat Tony weeps openly, saying, "I haven't cried like this since I paid to see Godfather III!"
- Early in the film Joey Zasa presents Michael Corleone with the "Italian American of the year" award (in New York, from where he originally tried to escape), this is a refference to James Caan receiving the actual award (possibly "Italian of the Year in New York") in 1973 for his portrayal of Santino 'Sonny' Corleone in the original; James Caan is Jewish by birth.
- The character of Vincent Mancini is said to be the son of Sonny Corleone and his mistress, Lucy Mancini (their affair are seen in the first film.) In the original novel (Mario Puzo's The Godfather), Lucy Mancini never has a child with Sonny Corleone. After Sonny's death, Lucy moves to Las Vegas to work at a Corleone family hotel and eventually marries a doctor named Jules Segal, the doctor who fixes Michael's disfigured face after his return from exile in Sicily. According to Mario Puzo's novel, the Vincent Mancini character should never have existed.
- After the adverse critical response to her performance, Sofia Coppola largely abandoned acting in favor of directing.
- According to Francis Ford Coppola (see Director's Commentary track) Paramount Pictures was briefly controlled by the Vatican Bank. He states that, on one occasion when he went to see Charles Bluhdorn, then chief of the Gulf & Western conglomerate during the filming of the first Godfather film, he actually rode in the same elevator as Roberto Calvi — fictionalized as "Frederick Keinszig" (played by Austrian-born actor, Helmut Berger) in this film.
- This was the only Godfather film that didn't win the Academy Award for Best Picture, for which it was, however, nominated. (The 1990 winner was Dances With Wolves, directed by Kevin Costner.)
- The character Dominic Abbandando, Don Corleone's public relations man and media coordinator, is played by Don Novello, the actor better known as Father Guido Sarducci, his alter ego character from Saturday Night Live.
- The character Al Neri, Michael Corleone's bodyguard, (played by actor Richard Bright), appears in all three Godfather films. This gives him the distinction of being the only minor character (apart from Theresa Hagen) played by the same actor to survive the entire trilogy (as opposed to characters appearing in archive footage used for flashback sequences, or children who were subsequently played by different actors).
- Former New York City police officer Al Neri, in uniform, kills crime boss Barzini in the first film. Vincent Mancini is uniformed as a NYPD mounted officer when he kills Joey Zasa.
- The trailer of the film shows a scene where Vincent, at the opera, spits at Don Altobello and proclaims to him "I'm a Corleone". This scene was never shown in the film, nor any other release of it.
- During the scene showing the election of Pope John Paul I, 11 votes are cast for a "Siri" — the real-life Cardinal Siri has been rumored to have been elected Pope (but declined to accept) in 1958 and 1963, and the early leader in both 1978 conclaves.
- Michael is never shown smoking throughout the film. This is of course due to Al Pacino giving up smoking some time prior to the film
- Is referenced on Seinfeld when George says,"Everytime I want out, they pull me back in!", and in Friends when Joey says; "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"
- The final scenes of the film were filmed at the opera house Teatro Massimo in Palermo.
- See also: The Godfather films in popular culture
[edit] Bibliography
- Rupert Cornwell, God's Banker: The Life and Death of Roberto Calvi, Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1984.
- David Yallop, In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I, Corgi, 1987
- Director's Commentary track on The Godfather Part III DVD by Francis Ford Coppola; included in the The Godfather DVD Collection
[edit] External link
| The Godfather series | The Godfather (1972) | The Godfather Part II (1974) | The Godfather Part III (1990) |
|---|---|
| 1960s | Battle Beyond the Sun (with Aleksandr Kozyr and M. Karzhukov) | The Bellboy and the Playgirls (with Fritz Umgelter and Jack Hill) | Tonight for Sure | Dementia 13 | You're a Big Boy Now | Finian's Rainbow | The Rain People |
| 1970s | The Conversation | Apocalypse Now |
| 1980s | One from the Heart | The Outsiders | Rumble Fish | The Cotton Club | Peggy Sue Got Married | Gardens of Stone | Tucker: The Man and His Dream | New York Stories (with Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese) |
| 1990s | Bram Stoker's Dracula | Jack | The Rainmaker |
| 2000s | Youth Without Youth |
| Productions | The Junky's Christmas (1993) | Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) | Don Juan DeMarco (1995) | Lanai-Loa (1998) | The Florentine (1999) | The Virgin Suicides (1999) |
