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Title: Godfather, Part III, The
By: Francis Ford Coppola
Released by: Paramount Pictures
Released on: 1990
Rating (out of 10): 7
Date: 01/03/2002

Al Pacino, Andy Garcia, Talia Shire, Diane Keaton

The Story Continues

The Godfather Part III is at least two, and possibly three, separate movies all shoved together to create an ill-explained mishmash. Some parts escape the mess relatively unscathed, while others are buried or made unintelligible by this need to jam eight or nine hours of needed screen time into 171 minutes.

I place most of this disaster at the feet of Francis Ford Coppola, who as the director seemingly was unable to discipline himself to tell one story. He and Mario Puzo, as co-writers, were clearly working at cross-purposes; Puzo had said for ages how tired he was of the Corleone Family (he'd been writing them for twenty-five years!). He wanted to write a wider story, something to include questions of politics and religion. Coppola, still clearly fascinated with the world's most famous fictional Sicilians, penned another Corleone story. How these two conflicting desires were (badly) combined is the most obvious flaw in Godfather III.

So which stories is Coppola trying to tell here? First, there's the family story of Michael Corleone trying to make peace with his children and ex-wife before he dies, hoping for understanding from the kids and forgiveness from the ex. (The earlier two Godfather films made it clear, at least to me, that forgiveness was needed on both sides in this bad marriage, but this movie shows Michael as the former jerk and Kay as the victim.) Their first conversations, after eight years apart, are quite nasty.
"Oh, God...God...You hate me."
"I don't hate you. I dread you."
As time goes by, however, these two formerly married people, who've hurt one another since 1947 or so, come to an understanding. There's still love there, and friendship—enough to stand together for their children and to be kind to one another.

As for the coming together of Michael and his children, that's a story that Coppola brings up a few times, but it never gets properly going. We see the rebellion of Anthony (who has, oddly, gone from an Italian-looking kid in the second movie to a WASP-y, looks-like-Mom white guy in this one) and the adoration of Mary, but neither relationship really gets explained. There's too much going on.

The second story in Godfather III is that of Vinnie Mancini (later Corleone). He's the bastard son of Lucy Mancini (Remember her? the slutty bridesmaid at Connie's first wedding?) and the late Sonny Corleone. Godfather III is the tale of Vinnie's maturation from a street tough to a wiseguy, from a thug to a Godfather, from a black leather jacket to a tailored Armani suit.

The story of Vinnie is also one of the two glaring instances of plot continuity problems. Think this one over, everyone: Sonny Corleone was gunned down on the Jones Beach Causeway in 1947. Supposedly Lucy Mancini was pregnant with Vinnie when Sonny died. Sooo...Vinnie was born in '47 or early '48. The film begins in '77. It takes thirty years for the supposedly close-knit Corleone Family to take the boy in? His name isn't even on the guest list for family parties?! Besides, thirty years old is rather an advanced age to begin to rise in a Family. Finally, his romance with his cousin Mary brings forth visions of statutory rape; she's supposed to be in her mid-to-late teens; he's at least thirty, maybe a little older.

As an oddity, too, Jeanie Linero, who played Lucy Mancini in the original Godfather is back in the same role here. She looks nearly the same now as she did twenty years ago! I'm impressed with her ability not to age, but she needs to look at least fifteen years older than she does in order to make anybody believe she's the mother of a thirty-year-old man. Linero and Garcia look like sister and brother rather than mother and son.

Last, and most likely least, Godfather III is the story of the Vatican political and financial scandals of the late '70s. We have a Michele Sindona character (Kienzig), a crooked Archbishop in charge of the Vatican Bank who bears an exact resemblance to His Excellency Paul Marcinkus, a murdered Pope (Lamberto in the movie, Luciani in real life), shadowy mentions of P2, Italian mobsters who control huge international conglomerates and Masonic Lodges (Lucio Gelli becomes Don Lucchesi), and a dozen other direct lifts from late 70's Italian politics. This stuff is fictionalized, but just barely. The movie makes some questionable assumptions about the activities of these nearly real people—the bad guys (read: enemies of the Corleone Family) are shown being murdered at the end, just like in the first Godfather movie, though in real life most of these men either committed suicide or went to prison or died naturally.

None of these circumstances and people are explained in any depth; this is all superficial as hell. For those who're familiar with the Vatican Bank scandals and Papal politics of the 70's, this stuff will make perfect sense, since they can mentally fill in the blanks. For those to whom Italian finance and politics are either boring or foreign, all this will be incomprehensible. Again, had this been two or three different movies, these unexplained references could have been given enough time to delve into them.


Characters and Acting

Let's face it. Al Pacino has been playing Michael Corleone his entire adult life. Who knows if he's good or not; we have nothing to compare him to. He is Michael. I will say the gruff, smokes-too-much voice throughout the movie is a bit grating. The character is written a bit differently than before; there's a humility in Michael there never was before. The opening juxtaposition of the Archbishop's prayer and that of the murdered Fredo Corleone is a little heavy-handed in its portrayal of Michael's newfound sense of guilt, but it sets the tone for Michael's current personality. Pacino, as always, makes the new Michael his own.

Diane Keaton has been playing Kay Adams Corleone for as long as Pacino's been Michael. She's still lousy; I consider her the most overrated actress ever to win an Academy Award. Keaton is a pro-strength whiner; she's always made of Kay a miserable woman and wife. Here she snivels from start to finish, proving herself once again the most grating leading lady in major motion pictures. Special note to her crying scene as she and Michael make their peace in a Sicilian farmhouse; she's so irritating, I want to punch her and give her something to really cry about.

The determined girlishness of Talia Shire's earlier work is gone now, thank goodness, replaced by a bitter dignity. She plays Connie Corleone, alone now, as a black widow of a woman. She still doesn't do emotion too well, but as the sort of person Connie's grown up to be, she seldom has to. Connie's tough now; she takes full part in business discussions, a situation which may or may not be realistic in the Mafia. She gives orders and is obeyed, and even Michael, after a moment's shock at the discovery of his sister's involvement, accepts her as a trusted counselor. Vinnie kisses her hand in the Italian gesture of a subordinate to a superior, cementing their alliance (though at the end, it's he who's in charge and she who gently leads Michael away, showing the other side of the character's personality.) Strangely enough, there's a Mommy Mobster side to the character as well as the deadly criminal, and Shire pulls off this tender and loyal act very well. This is by far her career best performance.
Connie: "Now they'll fear you."
Michael: "Maybe they should fear you."
Andy Garcia comes off solid as Vincent ("Vinnie") Mancini, Michael's illegitimate nephew, who's slated to take over the Corleone Family. Smooth, funny, and with a sense of power to him, Garcia is fabulous. It's nice to see the man I consider the finest actor today in a Godfather flick—that's good for being remembered forever. One small complaint: As a Cuban, the small bits of Italian he speaks are oddly accented.

Joe Montegna appears as a detective on A&E movies nowadays and does quite well for himself. Here, as Joey Zazza, he seems to be in a role tailor made for him. He gives the movie's best performance, especially given the limitations of the part. He's vulgar and open about his life, mean, less a mafioso than a cheap street tough dressed in a flashy suit, cutting a bella figura. Word to Francis Ford Coppola: John Gotti was convicted and is doing life in prison.

Montegna: "Yes, I take the blacks, the Spanish into my Family because that's America."
Pacino: "And you guarantee they don't deal drugs in those neighborhoods?"
Montegna: "I don't guarantee that. I guarantee I'll kill anyone who does."


Donal Donnelly, as Archbishop Gilday, does a fine job as the ratty Irish Churchman running the Vatican Bank. His thin lips and nervous mannerisms, as he bargains with all and sundry to save his career and life are spectacular.
"We're (the Catholic Church) a company like any other company.We have directors, we have rules...We have very old rules...Play for time....a habit borne of a long contemplation of eternity."
Why is Bridget Fonda here? What a waste of talent! Did she only take this empty role to be eternally part of the Godfather saga? I don't know if there was originally more to this character than made it to the screen, but Grace Hamilton could disappear—as she does half an hour into the film—and it wouldn't make any difference. She could have been Kay Adams for the new generation, but the character's a zip. Fonda does what little she can to be noticed, but...

After a long dead spot on his resumé following light hits like Love at First Bite, the ever-tanned George Hamilton does a stand-up job as the Family's contracts attorney and gopher,BJ Harrison. Like with so many actors here, I get the feeling Hamilton could have done more if his character had been more. He's often a joke in the entertainment world, but he does very well here with the little he has.

Another two characters (and actors)who get shortchanged badly here are Franc D'Ambrosio as Anthony Corleone and John Savage as Fr. Andrew Hagan, the late Tom Hagan's boy. D'Ambrosio gets some licks in during a great confrontation scene between him and Pacino early in the film. He has the young-Al Pacino act down cold. The tilt of the head, the hand movements, the vocal tone—it's a perfect impression of how much fathers live on in sons. Savage has even less to do than Fonda and Hamilton; there's no point to his character at all.

Special mention to Al Martino, who plays for the third time Johnny Fontaine, in a wonderful, though short, performance reminisient of Sinatra's later years. He sings the lovely ballad, "To Each His Own." Nice joke about Tony Bennett, reminding us all about Bennett's alleged Mob connections.

OK, Sofia Coppola has taken a lot of abuse from the critics for her portrayal of Mary Corleone, adolescent daughter of Michael and Kay. All the criticism is justified. This girl sucks shit, and not well.

Her first scene, as she giggles with her friends and smokes a cigarette, is hysterical. Watching her, it's clear she's never smoked a cigarette in her entire life. From her first speaking scene, trying to flirt with her cousin Vinnie, her performance is painful. Where on earth did she get the idea Mary Coppola should be a Valley Girl? Her death performance is the funniest I've ever watched; her blank, "Dad?" is no more real than anything else she says—she sounds like she's gonna ask to borrow the Maserati instead of dying gut-shot. Her only good scene is the one in which she just smiles while handing out presents to the poor kids in Sicily. She comes off like what she is: a good-natured spoiled rich girl.

In her defense, she is given the weakest lines in the movie. "Dad, I want this to bring us closer together," "Why are you doing this? Why am I doing this?" and "How could you do this to me?" are so hackneyed, you wonder how writers the caliber of Coppola and Puzo came up with them. That he made his daughter actually say them should get Coppola a child-abuse charge.

As a side note, Garcia and S. Coppola have no chemistry whatsoever. She comes on to him like a dimwitted high school tramp, while he looks like his mom forced him to take her best friend's ugly daughter to the prom. Even a man as sexy as Andy Garcia can't make sparks with a zombie, and S. Coppola has no clue how to behave like a woman in the throes of her first true love. In all their scenes together, Garcia looks most animated at the opera house, when he's breaking up with her.

Great scene:
Sofia Coppola's death scene on the steps of the Opera House is fabulous. Not because of her; she does a crappy job as always, but because of the wonderful reaction shots of the other characters. They're all superb. Talia Shire's look of anguish as she slowly covers her head with her shawl is priceless, as is the horrible silent howl from Al Pacino as he strokes out. Garcia gives good shock as his eyes widen and his mouth drops open. Given the circumstances—that her character's daughter has just been shot down like a dog—Keaton's histrionics, for once, make sense.

Music

As if the casting of his sister and daughter weren't enough, Francis Ford Coppola hired Carmine Coppola to do the music for Godfather III. The guy does his job competently, though it's hard to tell how much he's actually responsible for. The old music from the previous Godfather flicks come up over and over again.

The film opens with the same muted, vaguely Italian music we all remember from the earlier movies.
There's some nicely done religious music throughout the film; the best is that which concludes Michael's investiture as a Knight of St. Sebastian. The Sicilian folk music at the celebration is authentic, and Talia Shire is a better singer than I would've given her credit for.
The later folk music in Sicily is different; the sadness and longing in that music has nothing to do with celebration and everything to do with Sicily's long tradition of pain and loss. (It sounds nearly Arabic in its tone, though the two cultures are nearly unrelated.)
Lastly, the Cavellaria Rusticana is beautifully arranged; Enrico Caruso, who made famous this particular opera, is happy wherever he may be. Franc D'Ambrosio does the singing himself, and he's a spectacular tenor; though his part as Anthony may be undeveloped, he sure makes himself noticed in a positive way in the Palermo Opera House.


Costumes

Milena Canonero has the easiest job a costume designer can have: Dress actors in contemporary clothing, or nearly so. Most of this stuff is dark, as befits the dark story and shadowy sets. Since the majority of the actors are dark haired, eyed, and skinned, this goes over well, but for Diane Keaton, it's a disaster. The beiges, olives, and browns turn her positively green.
A few things are worth mentioning:
1) Garcia looks out of character in a black leather jacket, even early on when it is his character. The fact that the jacket doesn't fit him well may have something to do with that.
2) Sofia Coppola wears a drop-dead gorgeous gold taffeta-skirt and black-bodice dress at Michael's knighthood celebration. It's a beautiful dress, and the warmth of the gold does nice things with her skin and eyes.
3) At the end, however, the gold mylar and lamè crinkle fabric gown is horrendous. The gold is more metallic looking, and that metallic base really jangles with her coloring. Besides, the gown itself it hideous, and S. Coppola doesn't have the bust to pull it off. Surely Canonero had enough money to either get a dress that suits her romantic heroine or to adjust this one so it's not so bad. I look at S. Coppola in this rag, and I feel bad she has to do a Big Important Death Scene in such ugliness.

Sets

Fabulous sets! The inside of the homes look like real places to live, with personal mementoes and nice homey wood paneling. This is nice!

The casinos are perfect too. The Commission meeting was filmed at Caesar's Palace in Atlantic City, as evidenced by stuff like the bust of Caesar and the valet parking area, which I recognize from having lived there for many years. I also recognize the meeting room that gets shot up during Joey Zazza's helicopter attack on the Commission. Beautifully done—with one exception: The quickie board covering up the name on the front of the casino that says "Palazzo" looks a bit cheesy.

Also exceptional are the location shots of the Palermo Opera House, inside and out. Gorgeous old playhouse.

Bagheria, Sicily, looks like the western United States, down to the sagebrush on the mountains. The old columned building is a painting, I think, CGI'd onto the scenery. There's a faint black-line effect there.


Oddities and More Continuity Problems

Neri, who started the Godfather series as a simple hit man wearing his old cop's uniform, has moved up the ranks. In Godfather II he seemed to hold some indetermininate position—higher than a capo, lower than a consigliere. This go-round, he's part of a triumvirate made up of himself, Vinnie, and Connie. They seem to be the guardians of Michael and of the Family. My question is this: With his history of loyal service to his Family, why isn't he even considered for the position as Don to replace the aging and sickly Michael? In the real Mafia, an election would be held, and the guy with the longest service and greatest experience would probably be elected. Here, nobody seems to question Vinnie's elevation; that's just the way it goes, because Michael says so.

Anthony Corleone is such a well-trained tenor he can open in the lead of a difficult opera in the Palermo Opera House, for goodness sakes, but his father doesn't know he's any good? He says in the beginning, "What if you fail (in your attempt to be a great singer)?" Is it possible he has no idea his son's a professional singer? This from a man whose only supposed comfort is his kids?

Atlantic City only approved gambling in 1976, but by two years later the movie has the Corleone Family selling the casinos and handing out share cash for each of the Families. They have it as twenty years later—meaning New Jersey legalized gaming in '57. That's way off.

Great ending--probably leading to The Godfather Part IV—which hearkens back to the first movie:
"Tonight the Corleone Family settles its accounts.
Kienzig, that little Swiss banker fuck. He's been swindling everyone from the beginning...Don Lucchesi, my friend—Carlo will pay him a visit. Neri, take a train to Rome, and light a candle for the Archbishop."
...along with Don AltoBello and his poisoned canolis, a birthday present from his loving goddaughter, Connie.

Sounds to me like another Godfather film is on its eventual way, friends.

It all comes down to personal preference with this one. Sure, it's not the great commercial success of The Godfather. It's not the Great Art of The Godfather Part II. It has a lot of wasted talent and tons of unexplained points. Still and all, it's a good movie, and as a Godfather film, you simply must see it. Buy a copy; it's only right.



© Copyright CultureDose.com 01/03/2002

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