The Godfather Part III
The Godfather, Part III (
1990) is the third film in the
Godfather trilogy. 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.
The movie was written by
Mario Puzo and
Francis Ford Coppola, and directed by Coppola.
Unlike its predecessors,
Godfathers Part I and
II,
Godfather Part III was not as widely acclaimed on release, and critics and fans remain divided on its legacy to this day.
The final chapter of the Corleone saga begins in
1979. Michael Corleone, now guilt-ridden, is in his late 50s, his children are grown, and he has not seen his ex-wife
Kay Adams (now remarried to a judge) in eight years.
Tom Hagen is dead, and Hagen's son Andrew (
John Savage) has become a priest.
The film begins with a celebration in which Michael is being honored for his donations to the Catholic church. This is actually an attempt to legitmize the Corleone business, as he has already sold off all of his casinos. His ex-wife is in attendance, but only because she wishes for him to let their son Anthony leave law school to pursue a career in music. Michael is greatly opposed to this, as he wants Anthony to complete his law degree, but his son emphatically tells him that he will never help his father in his business dealings. Anthony knows that Michael killed Fredo, and though he loves his father, he has never forgiven him for this. After Anthony leaves, Michael and Kay confront each other, and past hostilities resurface. Kay still begrudges Michael on his criminal past, while Michael tells her that everything he has done was for his family. Their argument results in a sort of truce: Kay asks Michael to let Anthony go his own way, and Michael reluctantly agrees. Kay thanks him and departs.
During the celebration, the audience is introduced to Michael's illegitimate nephew
Vincent Mancini-Corleone (Sonny's child), and his nemesis Joey Zasa. Zasa appears to want to congratulate Michael, but is really there to have Michael settle a score with Vincent. After Michael refuses to get involved, Zasa insults Vincent when he appears to "reconcile" with him, at which point Vincent bites Zasa's ear. After the incident, Michael at the behest of his sister Connie, takes Vincent under his wing and allows him to be his bodyguard. It is also revealed that Vincent has feelings for Michael's daughter Mary (Vincent's cousin). Later that night Zasa sends two hitmen to Vincent's apartment in retribution, but Vincent turns the tables and kills both of them.
Michael then reveals his interest in purchasing the European company International Immobiliare, as a way of finalizing his legitimization of the Corleones. Two men, Don Licio Lucchesi and Fredrick Keinzig, stand in his way and stall the deal (with the help of Archbishop Gilday, whom Michael considers a partner). The matter is complicated by the illness of
Pope Paul VI, whose ratification is necessary to finalize the deal.
In addition to the obstacles posed by Lucchesi and Keinzig, Michael is also pressured by the heads of the other crime families, his former business colleagues, to allow them to "wet their beaks" with his Immobiliare deal. Michael has no interest in this, as he wants the Corleone family to remain completely legitimate. As a peace offering, he asks family friend Don Altobello (Wallach) to arrange a meeting with the other Dons in order that Michael can give them the remaining money from their shares of the Corleone family businesses. While at this meeting, Zasa and Altobello try to assassinate him. Michael escapes, though the remaining Dons are killed in the attempt. That night Michael suffers a diabetic stroke resulting from the stress of his situation, and he is hospitalized in critical condition. Vincent is enraged by the attack on his uncle's life, and an equally furious Connie orders him to personally kill Zasa, which he does in a bloody massacre.
When Michael recovers from his illness, he is extremely angry that Zasa was murdered, which he did not want. He extracts a promise from both Vincent and Connie that they will never again give that kind of an order without his permission. Michael also tells Vincent that he highly disapproves of his relationship with Mary.
While Michael was in the hospital Kay came to see him and told him that Anthony was going to be making his operatic debut in Sicily. Michael goes to Sicily for this occasion to be with Anthony and also to consult his old friend, Don Tommasino. Tommasino advises him to talk with Cardinal Lamberto (
Raf Vallone), a priest who Tommasino says is a trustworthy man. Michael goes to Lamberto, and feels an immediate connection with and affection for him, and confides in him his fears about Lucchesi and Kienzig (Kienzig is head of the Vatican Bank, and was instrumental in the Immobiliare ordeal). Lamberto is in the running to become the next pope when the current one dies. He asks Michael to confess to him. Michael at first feels it would be a hopeless gesture, but ultimately tells his worst sins. As he confesses to ordering Fredo's murder, he begins to cry. Lamberto tells him that his sins are terrible, and it is just that he should suffer, but he also seems to feel that Michael is genuinely horrified by his past actions.
Don Tommasino is then murdered by a hitman that Don Altobello hired to kill Michael. Vincent comes to him and asks Michael to give him the order to kill Altobello and the men involved in the Immobiliare scam. Exhausted, Michael passes on the title of Don to Vincent with one stipulation, that he give up his relationship with Mary. A changed Vincent agrees, and Michael proclaims him to be the new Don Corleone. Vincent, now a man of high power is no longer the hotheaded individual but very similar in nature to Michael as calm and collected as can be, but still very calculating in nature. In the meantime, Pope Paul dies and Cardinal Lamberto is chosen to succeed him; he becomes
Pope John Paul I (In real life, John Paul's real name was Luciani, not Lamberto.).
The film reaches its climax at the Sicilian opera house where Anthony is appearing. Knowing that the hitman will be there waiting to kill Michael, Vincent hires two bodyguards to patrol the opera. Also in attendance is Don Altobello. Knowing of his betrayal, it is decided that he will be killed, albeit humanely and quietly. Connie accepts this responsibility herself. She gives Altobello a box of poisoned pastries, which he eats while watching the opera, and he succumbs near the end of the performance. Vincent also orders the deaths of Archbishop Gilday, Don Lucchesi, and Kienzig.
During the opera, Michael is informed that the new pope is in danger as a result of his investigation into the shenanigans at the Vatican Bank. Michael is told that there is a plot against the pope, but Michael concludes that he might be unable to do anything to save him and goes back to his box. Gilday is shot in his church, Lucchesi is stabbed to death with his own glasses, and Kienzig is suffocated and his body hanged in public. They are too late, however, to prevent the assassination of the new pope; it is suggested that he was given a cup of poisoned tea. After the opera is over Mary confronts Michael outside, hurt and angry about Michael's interference in her relationship with Vincent. The assassin attempts to kill Michael at this point, accidentally killing Mary instead. Vincent then shoots the hitman, while Michael is left crying in anguish over his daughter's body.
The film ends with an aging Michael dying in a chair, presumably from natural causes.
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 arranged for 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 right 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, something Michael is unable to do.
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. (Coppola had gone through a very similar process in the making of
The Godfather, Part II. In that film,
Richard Castellano, who had portrayed
Peter Clemenza in the first
Godfather film, had refused to participate. Coppola responded by writing Clemenza out of the story as having died and replaced the character with a new character, "Frank Pentangeli", played by the actor/playwright
Michael V. Gazzo in an
Academy Award-nominated performance.) 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 boldly states that he 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. Ironically, it was financial pressure on his
Zoetrope Studios in the early 70s, especially the commercial failure of
George Lucas' first feature
THX-1138, that led him to take the helm of the first
Godfather film.
He further comments that before he was brought on board, Paramount had already had a script prepared, 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 forced into 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.
As recently as an April
2006 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. 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.
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.
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. 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, organised 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.
The soundtrack for the movie,
The Godfather Part III (soundtrack), received one
Oscar nomination, and two
Golden Globe nominations, one for best score and two for best song, the film's love theme "
Promise Me You'll Remember".
* The character of Joey Zasa (based on the real-life
Joey Gallo) was one of the inspirations for
Fat Tony, the resident mob boss on
The Simpsons. Both are portrayed by
Joe Mantegna.
* 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 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, which it was nominated for. (The 1990 winner was
Dances With Wolves, with
Kevin Costner.)
*The character Dominic Abbandando 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 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).
*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 rumoured to have been elected Pope (but declined to accept) in 1958 and 1963 and the early leader in both 1978 conclaves.
*The entire film is partially an error. The opening scene of the movie dates the scene as occurring in 1979. The deaths of
Pope Paul VI and
Pope John Paul I all occurred in 1978, and the film takes place in chronological order.
*Fresh orange juice, as served to Michael Corleone when he is suffering a diabetic seizure, is often served with red dye in it in Italy.
*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*
The Godfather Trilogy
