Spoilers abound for the entire trilogy.
Despite its age, The Godfather trilogy has cemented itself as a cultural mainstay since its cinematic inception in 1972. The image of Marlon Brando’s cotton-cheeked mafia patriarch Vito Corleone has permeated pop culture and remains one of the most recognizable images of all time, whether or not you have seen the film. To this day, The Godfather Part ll is widely hailed as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, sequels of all time. The franchise jumpstarted the careers of Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Diane Keaton, some of the most acclaimed performers of their generation. The first two entries in the series left a lasting mark on cinema back in the 70s, and have continued to remain relevant for the past five decades. However, the third and final film, 1990’s The Godfather Part lll, has more of a tarnished legacy behind it and is not discussed near as much as its predecessors.
Perhaps, for the film’s 35th anniversary, it’s time to go back and shine a little light on it.
To recap up to this point, a failed hit on the life of Don Vito Corleone puts him out of commission for several months, causing his oldest son Sonny (James Caan) to take over the family business and retaliate for the assasination attempt, sparking a lengthy mob war. Eventually Sonny is killed in a coup and Vito’s youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino), who never wanted any part in the business, is forced to take control and eliminates the four other mafia Dons in New York, causing the Corleones to become the most powerful crime organization in the country. Part ll depicts Michael continuing to expand and solidify his reign (from New York to Las Vegas), eventually ordering the death of his older brother Fredo (the middle brother of the family, played by John Cazale) after he aided mobster Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg) in multiple attempts to assassinate Michael. By the time Part lll rolls around, Michael is a shell of his former self; a man haunted by the horrific acts of violence he has ordered and tired of ruling through fear. The film tells the story of Michael attempting to do good, primarily by donating millions of dollars to charities, when the head of the Vatican Bank comes to him, hoping that he can help alleviate the massive debt the Church has accumulated. Michael ends up striking a deal that puts him in charge of one of the most powerful corporations in the world, but naturally, this leads to other Dons attempting to unseat him due to his ever-growing power, and Michael must turn to his daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola) and his nephew Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia) to continue the family legacy.
One of the most interesting aspects of the trilogy as a whole has to be the various production stories. Nowadays, films with troubled productions end up being failures, or box-office disappointments, but the original Godfather is famous for its difficult and strenuous production process. Part ll faced issues with losing actors, including Marlon Brando, who was set to appear in a singular scene, but failed to show up the day he was set to film. Yet Part lll has an interesting story, because director Francis Ford Coppola was still reeling from several failures throughout the 1980s (both Godfathers in the 70s wound up being runaway successes despite their troubles), and decided to direct and co-write Part lll in order to make back some of the money he had lost. As with the previous entries, the film faced troubles with casting, including the loss of Robert Duvall (who played Tom Hagen in Parts l and ll), who faced a reduced payrate from Paramount and eventually turned down the role. Coppola planned to cast Winona Ryder as Mary Corleone, but Ryder left the cast for various reasons, and Coppola, needing an actress quickly, cast his daughter Sofia (who appeared in Parts l and ll as a child). The inclusion of her in the film quickly became one of its most infamous elements, with critics and audiences alike lambasting her performance. Unfortunately, the then-18 year old made for an easy target for criticism, delivering a controversial performance in a franchise iconic for its star-making roles, and that aspect of the film has not aged too well.
Other performances, namely from Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire (all three reprising their roles from the previous two films), Andy Garcia, and Eli Wallach are all worth praise, although Pacino’s performance has faced criticism from some critics and audiences. The climactic scene on the steps of the Palermo opera house is a searing moment for Pacino’s Michael, but some viewers might find his performance a bit too intense for what the moment requires. Overall, it is a well-acted film, though perhaps it does lack some of the extra oomph having a standout performance like Brando in Part l or De Niro in Part ll.
By today’s standards, The Godfather Part lll feels like an early version of a modern ‘legacy sequel’, returning to a set of characters later in their lives to explore their relationships with the new generation (Michael recruiting his nephew Vincent into the family business is a major plot point). Perhaps the biggest issue with the film is that it follows a very similar template to the first film, albeit with different ideas, but it centers heavily on the ascension of a new Don and the struggles of the aging patriarch to keep everything from crumbling around him, which is very similar territory to the story told in the 1972 release. It takes a few notes from the political intrigue surrounding Part ll, as well as adding in some dandy first-cousin relationship drama (!) so that it’s not quite a 1:1 comparison, but in a way it functions as a greatest hits reel of the previous two.
The hardest aspect of the film to criticize are the technical aspects – The Godfather, Part lll is an absolutely gorgeous looking film, from the set design, to the on-location Sicily scenes, to the painterly, golden-hued cinematography by DP Gordon Willis. This is all easy to say when it is the only entry in the trilogy to be nominated for a cinematography Oscar (although the visuals are equally impressive in the previous two, and many critics consider their lack of inclusion in that category to be snubs), but the film does support its claim to having an excellent visual language and atmosphere through its shot setup and lighting.
Despite the criticisms, The Godfather Part lll is worth watching, 35 years after its polarizing release. It provides a reasonably satisfying epilogue to one of the most important and iconic sagas in the history of American cinema (and perhaps cinema itself), though it fails to reach the heights of its predecessors. It is not quite a failure, as there are plenty of things it does right, and the inclusion of Sofia Coppola does not completely tank the film. However, it tries to effectively follow up a perfect coda to the franchise (the ending of Part ll) and cannot quite stick the landing, no matter how loudly Al Pacino wails and we see first hand how “all the power in the world cannot change destiny”, reaffirming how his decision at the end of the first film has and will continue to haunt him.
It has its merits, but is an ultimately unnecessary third chapter.
1990 R Streaming on Paramount+ Available on DVD/Blu-Ray
