A couple of weeks ago I watched the Godfather, and I made a mistake that I have made several times now: I decided to watch the trilogy back to back to back, including part III. You see, I think that the Godfather parts I and II are arguably the best films that have ever been made. Watching them back to back is like going to Mount Olympus. Then after such a high, I can’t stop myself, and I say: “Let me give it another chance”, referring to part III. And so I did, and it was such a highly frustrating experience (again) that I decided to write down my thoughts about it as I was watching it (good or bad, mostly bad). I wanted to do it to see if I could come up with more objective answers as to why Coppola went so off the rails with this movie. What follows next are my thoughts about the movie, written down at the moment of each scene. I decided to narrow it down to 50 (ha!). After these scene comments I write a brief summary where I try to tie them together and see if I can indeed find some of those answers.

Scene comments (the timeline is for the PAL version and may differ slightly from the NTSC version):

1. 1:25 – Love the opening scenes in Nevada… everything seems in decay… pale palette, very cool, like the coldness of Michael in part 2. (these are one of the very few scenes in the movie that feel like they belong with the first 2 movies for me).

2. 2:04 – Michael voiceover introduction… voice sounds very different… then we see a shot of the New York towers… visually this shot doesn’t fit a Godfather movie at all… elegance has been replaced with technology, the classic with the mundane.

3. 2:37 – Michael says in the voiceover that he entrusted the education of his children to their mother for their own best interests… this seems like a bit of a shock considering how things between him and Kay were at the end of part 2.

4. 2:42 – First shot of Michael… he looks so different, and not just because he is older.

5. 3:12 – Potentially an interesting idea to bring the church into this mafia story… Lots of parallels between the worlds, could be used to both create plot and give poignancy to the film.

6. 3:30 – Replay of the death scene of Fredo from part 2, good interplay with the church scenes. (John Cazale, who played Fredo, appeared in 5 films during his career, and here in his 6th posthumously… and all of them were nominated in the Oscars for Best Picture… they made a documentary about him which was based around this improbable and curious fact).

7. 6:12 – Party scene after ceremony… Connie is singing… seems like a rip off from the wedding scene in part. Later on (minute 12) she is joined by Johnny Fontaine, which is also reminiscent of part 1. I get the feeling that the whole point of the church ceremony was to have a big gathering and start the movie the same way that parts 1 and 2 started.

8. 6:39 – Vincent Mancini appears… his look jumps out at you… he is also standing next to a guy with long hair that seems so out of place in a Godfather movie… colors are perhaps too reddish, don’t like this cinematography.

9. 7:07 – Some people are arguing because Vincent is not on the entrance list… you can see that the words don’t match the rhythms/lips of the actors. It appears that the lines were changed in post production, and were subsequently dubbed (Ebert comments about this in his review).

10. 7:20 – First words from Mary Corleone (inaudible)… she takes a puff of a cigarette and does it so fast that it seems very unnatural. Looks like bad acting, basically.

11. 7:25 – Joey Zasa enters the room and joins in the singing… except, everybody stops singing almost immediately after he joins in… even the musicians stop playing their instruments! In a room full of people it would be impossible for all of them to even notice at the same time that one person joined in the singing, and it’s very unlikely (ridiculous really) for the musicians to suddenly stop playing… Obviously, Coppola wants you know that he is an important antagonistic character, but this is an awful way of showing that… (Michael later says repeatedly that Zasa is basically small potatoes, unimportant, so, why such an incredible reaction from everybody when they see him? He sings in Italian, perhaps it’s something he says that I don’t understand…?).

12. 8:34 – Bridget Fonda is… gorgeous.

13. 11:15 – Michael smiles after Mary says “don’t spend it all in one place”. With a simple gesture Coppola and Pacino have destroyed almost everything they set out to convey in part 2. The warmth that you feel in this smile can’t come from the Michael you saw at the end of part 1 and throughout the entirety of part 2. Wasn’t that the whole point? Showing how this man lost all his tenderness and compassion and became this completely rational, cold and calculating person?

14. 11:26 – Mary Corleone combs her hair with her hand for the fourth time in about as many scenes… nervous character or nervous actress?

15. 14:00 – Michael says to Kay: “You look wonderful…” By all accounts he appears to be trying to gain her acceptance/love/caring… is this the same Michael who shot the door in front of Kay after her visiting the kids in part 2 without saying a single word? All the signs point to Michael having drastically changed in the period between parts 2 and 3… perhaps it would have been more interesting to show this type of evolution throughout this film rather than giving us a completely new Michael from the get-go that is nothing like the character that was established previously.

16. 14:35 – Actress Sofia Coppola has an awkward moment trying to drink from a cup (just as it touches her lips she slightly stumbles upon it). It’s strange that they didn’t shoot another take of this scene…

17. 16:25 – Kay says to Michael that she dreads him and then goes on “you know Michael, now that you’re so respectable I think you’re more dangerous than you ever were”. It’s pretty tough to make sense of that comment since the Michael we’ve just seen appears to be a lot more mellow than the Michael of the past.

18. 23:10 – Michael asks Neri if he has to see Joey Zasa, who wants to congratulate him… This seems like an unnecessary rip off from part 1 where Vito asks Tom if he has to see Luca Brasi. (Neri is basically Michael’s main advisor now, or the closest he has to a consiglieri).

19. 24:50 – Joey Zasa offers Michael a cigarette and he declines… this Michael is also different in that he doesn’t smoke, whereas he was constantly smoking in part 2.

20. 25:53 – Vincent Mancini screams out “Right, RIGHTTTT” for no good reason… basically Coppola wants us to know he has a very short temper (to make him seem like he truly is Sonny’s son…) and ends up making a completely forced scene.

21. 28:04 – Connie looks to be stronger and more in charge than Michael… they are in his studio trying to settle the conflict between Vicent and Zasa… talk about role reversals!

22. 30:11 – Michael asks Vincent to take a picture with the rest of the family… it’s pretty much a carbon copy of the scene where Michael asks Kay the same thing in part 1 at the wedding.

23. 30:20 – Mary says to Vicent “nice jacket” but her lips clearly show her saying something else.

24. 30:54 – The guy that brings the cake tells Michael that it was sent by Enzo the Baker… Another homage to part 1.

25. 32:07 – Kay looks with warmth and delight at Mary and Michael dancing… remember that she had just told him she dreaded him more than ever, so I have no idea why seeing her daughter dancing joyfully with this man would bring out this joyful smile.

26. 4:20 – Vincent is just about to be assassinated and you realize that he doesn’t keep a gun in his room… very strange for a guy that’s basically being as sold as the “muscle type”.

27. 34:40 – One of the hitmen is holding Bridget Fonda and says to Vicent: “I’ll fucking cut her throat man”, but alas, his lips don’t even move! To make matters worse, Vicent then reveals the face of the 2nd hitman, and it’s now him that supposedly said to the other guy to cut her throat. What a mess…

28. 35:24 – Probably the most ridiculous scene you could ever have in a Godfather movie and a prime example of everything that is wrong in this film: Vincent shoots hitman number 2 in the throat and hitman 1 proceeds to basically piss in his pants and cry like a little baby in astonishment. If these are the type of men that the mafia hires to kill people, what does it say about them? Absolutely ridiculous scene.

29. 37:50 – Connie says to Michael (I assure you, I’m not making this up): “Now they’ll fear you”. She is saying that Michael will now be feared because Vincent Mancini has just killed these two (silly) hitmen that tried to assassinate him. Are you freaking kidding me? Michael Corleone ,the guy who wiped out the entire mafia in part 1 and had his own brother killed in part 2…?? What the hell happened to Michael between parts 2 and 3?

30. 39:24- A shot of church next to a skyscraper… obviously they could have just shot the church, so they wanted to include the skyscraper for a reason… Did I say that I don’t think these shots of tall buildings belong in a Godfather movie?

31. 45:59 – Mary asks Michael if her work in the foundation is legitimate… it’s painful watching Sofia trying to make her character appear confused and innocent.

32. 56:32 – Michael tells Vincent that “you can see him coming from a mile away”, referring to Joey Zasa. The audience has already seen that Zasa is coming. Vincent has seen it. Connie has seen it. Basically, the only one that doesn’t see him coming is Michael, and Coppola is emphasizing this point by including this line just before the killings at the meeting. So, apart from being a lot more warm and caring, this new Michael is apparently a lot less smart…

33. 1:04:54 – Vincent says: “I say we hit back and take Zasa out”, to which Michael replies: “Never let anyone know what you’re thinking”. An homage, of course, to the scene in part 1 where Vito tells Sonny “Never let anyone outside of the family know what you’re thinking again”. Only problem is that here the only other person present is Al Neri, Michael’s main guy and to whom he then says: “Our true enemy has not yet shown his face” and “Ok, let’s send a message to Joey Zasa”. Really, it’s impossible to make sense of this stuff.

34. 1:06:09 – Love the line “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”.

35. 1:07:00 – Michael says “Bullshit! You deceitful old fuck! Altobello you fuck! This is Pacino making his best Tony Montana impersonation… errrrrr I thought this was the Godfather.

36. 1:10:07 – Shot of Kay in the hospital room where Michael is being treated… this is a perfect example of why this movie looks outdated… who was it that decided on these ugly sofas??

37. 1:13:56 – More dialogue from Mary (she is with Vicent in his bar) that doesn’t match her lips.

38. 1:16:47 – Street march / celebration scene with Joey Zasa. Very quickly you realize that it’s a very similar scene to the one with Fanucci and Vito in part 2 and that Zasa is soon going to be killed. Homage or rip off, take your pick.

39. 1:24:47 – Michael tells Altobello “let’s see more of each other”. This is after he has figured out that Altobello was behind the hit at the meeting. This is the type of homage that I like, because it’s subtle… it’s paying homage to the phrase that Michael says in part 2, which he learned from his father. The famous phrase is: “keep your friends close, but your enemies closer”.

40. 1:34:20 – Michael tells Vincent to betray him with Altobello so that he can find out how high he is connected with the Vatican people. This is similar to part 1 where Vito tells Luca Brasi to infiltrate the Tattaglias by telling them he was unhappy with the Corleones.

41. 1:37:12 – Altobello meets Vicent and introduces him to Luccessi (the guy from the Vatican/Immobiliare pulling the strings from behind the scenes). Previously in the film Altobello had told Michael that he didn’t know any of the people that were involved in the deal. Also, Altobello tells Luccessi that it was Vincent who killed Joey Zasa and praises him for it, later adding “if we’d known of his existence we wouldn’t have backed Joey”. What does this amount to? Well, Altobello has basically told Vincent that he is Michael’s enemy… he said he backed Joey Zasa and he has shown Vincent that he is friend’s with Luccessi, which is in contradiction to his claim that he didn’t know any of those people. Furthermore, by saying “we wouldn’t have backed Joey” he means that both him and Luccessi backed Joey, when Luccessi, as an outsider, shouldn’t have had anything to do with that. So, he has just told Vicent that Luccessi is deeply involved in the mafia dealings in America, and specifically, that he is against Michael. Now, I ask, WHY would Altobello reveal all of this to Vincent, in the first meeting alone with him? It seems rather silly for him to do that. And Vincent didn’t even say to him that he had intentions to betray Michael. So basically, this is a message from Altobello to Michael saying “hey, it was me!!”.

42. 1:39:57 – Michael asks the Vatican priest whom he confesses to for something sweet for his diabetes but his words don’t match his lips.

43. 1:52:16 – Michael shows his son Anthony the drawing he made when he was a kid (the one with Michael in the car and the question “Do you like it? – yes no”. The problem with this particular scene is that this same scene (with Mary also present) was shown at least some days earlier in the movie’s timeline. Since this movie is being told chronologically, this means that they decided to insert this scene at another point in post-production. This is not problematic, unless, as is the case here, you do show another part of the same scene a while earlier in the film. Showing the actors with the same exact clothes, in the same exact place, as you saw them days earlier in the film, is certainly not the way to go in a completely linear film, like this one is.

44. 1:53:12 – Michael surprises Kay as the chauffeur of her car, and says “buongiorno Signora, at your service”. I think this is a charming moment in the film. Later there is a lovely shot of the car in the distance going up a mountain, and combined with the music, you finally get the sense that you are watching a Godfather film. Where most of movie feels dated, this part has the more classic feel to it. This whole part with Michael and Kay is perhaps the best section of the film.

45. 2:03:19 – Don Tomasino’s man (Calo) tells Michael that his boss has been killed and that blood calls for blood… Michael takes him aside and says “Some day you may have to do a difficult service for me…”. This is a Coppola “homage” that feels very lame because it just doesn’t fit the moment and comes off as nothing more than an attempt to connect this film with the previous ones. Later it becomes even more lame when Calo goes on a suicide mission to get his revenge (no favor will be returned “some day” if you commit suicide).

46. 2:06:31 – Michael, while sitting next to Don Tomasino’s casket in his funeral, says: “Goodbye my old friend. You could have lived a little longer, I could be closer to my dream. You were loved Don Tomasino. Why was I so feared and you so loved? What was it? I was no less honorable. I wanted to do good. What betrayed me? My mind? My heart? I think the words are good, but somehow this scene doesn’t have the emotional impact that it should. The choice for music is also extremely odd… when he is saying “Why was I so feared and you so loved?” there is some kind of suspenseful music playing, rather than something dramatic. Very strange.

47. 2:12:08 – Vincent Mancini becomes Vincent Corleone, sits in a chair and people start kissing his hand. This is reminiscent of the last scene in part 1 when Michael becomes the Godfather.

48. 2:16:07 – Connie gives Altobello cannoli as a gift. He, obviously suspicious, asks her to take a bite first. She puts it to her mouth, but doesn’t take a bite, not even a little one. This seems to be enough for him, and he starts eating it. Of course, unless he is blind, or just very stupid, he has to realize that she didn’t eat anything. It’s one thing if she had at least taken a little bite, but this is silly.

49. 2:35:01 – Calo goes to kill Don Luccessi. It’s a suicide mission, because he can’t bring any weapons (he will be searched) and he’s going to kill Luccessi with his bodyguard(s) present. He goes to his office and tells him he needs to whisper Corleone’s message to his ear. The bodyguards nods to say he has been searched. He then takes Luccessi’s glasses, breakes them, and kills him by piercing his throat with one of the broken pieces. I had seen Coppola talk about wanting to have unique kills in his movies, but this is ridiculous. I mean, Calo went to Luccessi’s place with a plan. Am I to believe that it was decided beforehand, “hey, why don’t we kill him with his own glasses??” I can believe that if all hell has broken loose and you fight with whatever you find that could happen… but that someone devised a plan to take someone’s glasses, break them, and then kill him with one of the resulting broken pieces? …

50. 2:39:58 – Mary has been killed and Michael is screaming in anguish. At first the sound is muted, which I find to be a brilliant touch and makes it that much more powerful when you finally hear his screams. This is followed by flashback scenes of Michael dancing with the women of his life (Kay, Mary and his Italian wife) and finally with and old Michael dying alone. This is a very powerful moment that gets me every time I see it. This man didn’t want to be in the mafia. He got involved to protect his family, and later on by being and doing what he thought was necessary to protect his family he got his own daughter killed. Michael tried to do well, but he couldn’t achieve the life he longed for. Whether this was his fault, the fault of being born in a mafia family or whatever else, is, IMO irrelevant. The real tragedy of this story is that Michael tried but that ultimately trying wasn’t enough. This has all sorts of parallels with people in the real world. When people “fail”, sometimes blame is assigned to the person, sometimes to outside circumstances, maybe to a combination of things, but in the end, no matter wherever the blame really lies, there is deep tragedy in knowing that a person has tried, maybe with all that they have within themselves, and has not been able to overcome. The Godfather plays with these far-reaching themes and brings them to great closure with this ending.


Summary:


After re-reading my comments, I think that the problem with this movie lies in 3 main areas:

(1) Coppola was working with an unfinished/raw script when he shot the movie. There is evidence of this in: (a) Scenes where they had to change the spoken words in post-production (9, 23, 27, 37, 42); (b) Scenes that were shot for a specific timeline in the movie but were later inserted someplace else (43); (c) Faulty logic / plain ridiculous scenes (25, 28, 29, 33, 41, 48, 49); and (d) Lack of subtlety (11, 20). While faulty logic, ridiculous, and lack of subtlety can also come from finished scripts, I think that in this case they point towards people trying to create a busy story but not taking the time to tie everything together and make it work as whole.

(2) Too many homages/tributes/rip-offs of parts I and II (7, 18, 22, 24, 33, 38, 39, 40, 45, 47). It’s one thing to pay tribute / tie in part III with parts I and II, but Coppola just went overboard with it. It would have been better if he did with more subtlety and less often. I suspect that part of the reason was lack of clear ideas for this third installment. Instead of creating, he was recreating.

(3) Michael. If there’s one thing that Coppola wanted to express in part III it was Michael’s repentance and attempts at redemption. That in itself could make for a powerful film. However, and I don’t have any idea why, Coppola decided to present us with a completely new Michael from the beginning of the film. There’s almost no way to connect Michael from part III with Michael from part II and the end of part I (see, for example, 3, 13, 15, 19, 32). By giving us this new Michael from the first moments of the film, Coppola takes away most of the power that this film could have had. Michael form part II repenting and asking for forgiveness could have made for something extraordinary. But that Michael is nowhere to be found on part III. The most interesting parts of the story seem to have taken place between part II and III, and we never got to see them. IMO, this was a terrible mistake.

There were many stories written that Coppola agreed to do the Godfather part III because he had serious money problems at the time. If that was true, then it certainly explains a lot of things. You don’t feel that Coppola had something deep to say in this film, like for example, in part II, where he was playing with powerful themes between father and son, parallel lives, and so forth. The little that it seems he did have to say, he almost completely killed it by what he did with the character of Michael. By filming it with an unfinished script, he just added insult to injury, especially when you think about how much time he had between parts II and III to come up with a good story. Of course, if he never wanted to make it, but changed his mind at the last moment because of money problems, then it does make sense.

The Godfather part III is not a horrible film, but when you put it next to parts I and II, it becomes pretty bad indeed.

Luis