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All Movie Info
Starring:
Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Andy Garcia, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton, Talia Shire, Sofia Coppola, Eli Wallach, Don Novello, Bridget Fonda, John Savage, Al Martino, Raf Vallone, Donal Donnelly, Richard Bright, Helmut Berger
Directed By:
Francis Ford Coppola
Written By:
Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola
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The Godfather, Part 3 (1990)
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Movie Review by AJ 
April 13th, 2006
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Last we saw Don Michael Corleone (Al Pacino, of course, in his best and most signature role), he possessed a dangerous stare, wielded the most menacing kind of power imaginable, and was a self-made empire of everything he never wanted. He was a bi-product of his own sadomasochistic violence, as well as his fears, insecurities, and obligations toward his family. The first time we see Don Michael Corleone in The Godfather: Part III, he is geriatric, seems to suffer from years of diabetic misfortune, and occasionally tends to walk with a funny little stoop. He still likes to stare, yes, but gone is any sense of menace, replaced by goofy wide-eyed parody. He feels less like a believable, complex character and more like a complex character who was unwillingly taken off his shelf, dusted off, and put back to work to turn a quick buck before permanently retiring. To quote the character himself, "Just when I think I'm out...they pull me back in." Time has not been kind to Michael Corleone...nor, for that matter, director Francis Ford Coppola.
This last filmic record of the Corleone saga begins in 1978, twenty years after the events in The Godfather: Part II. Each installment in the Godfather series opens with an elaborate family event...the original with a wedding, Part II with a funeral, and this one with an elaborate reception where Michael's daughter, Mary (Sofia Coppola, Francis Ford's daughter, as well as the gifted filmmaker who thirteen years later would make the beautiful film Lost in Translation), gives a check for $100 million to the Roman Catholic Church. This sets the tone for the rest of the film; religion intertwined with politics, politics intertwined with the Corleone "family business," and Michael's attempt at redemption through the Church. None of this turns out well for our anti-heroes.
Amidst all of the betrayal, political doublecrossing, and intricate backstabbing (which scripters Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola manage to work the mysterious real-life death of Pope John Paul I into), there are of course the smaller family dramas that make the Corleones such interesting people. Here, though, they are not underscored by the "evil" inner-workings of the family's position in the Mafia...here, they are just simple soap opera excuses to bring our favorite characters back for one more go. The one which should've been the most compelling, Kay Mitchelson's (Diane Keaton) return to Michael's home, doesn't really have anything new to say and instead gives us a lot of Kay crying and Michael swearing the family's going to go legitimate any day now. We've heard this all before, guys, and in a better film. Another of these character dramas introduces a new character, the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone (James Caan in the first film), Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia). Vincent is reckless and c*cky, a fascinatingly oddball persona, whose vivid presence is unfortunately immediately turned into a Daddy-doesn't-approve love interest for Mary. And, might I add, Michael has good reason not to approve...they're cousins. There are several bewildering scenes of incest that feel completely out of place and added by the filmmakers as filler because, of course, a Godfather movie has to run at nearly three hours or more. What is an incestuous relationship between cousins doing in a Godfather film? Sadly, all of the rich Mafia history and lore, like "Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes" or "going to the mattresses," has been sidestepped for woeful overacting and uninteresting bouts of kissin' cousins.
The Godfather: Part III was reportedly made by Coppola as a way of saving his American Zoetrope studio from bankruptcy, and it seems that Coppola has not gone out of his way to hide this fact. Part III is filmed in the same yellowish-brown hues as the first two chapters, but upon revisiting the original films, they feel fresh and alive, driven by an epic visionary scope, the browns and yellows used to highlight Puzo's and Coppola's romanticism with the Mafia. In Part III, though, the yellowish-brown look makes it feel like an aged roll of parchment, weathering and cracking as the film goes on. The Godfather: Part III is essentially a cheapened antique version of the first two films, which feel far fresher than this one, which is rather surprising considering they are 18 and 16 years older, respectively.
None of the actors do their best work here. Al Pacino is good enough, but succumbs to overacting in a scene of high emotional tension near the end of the movie as he does in most of his later roles, Diane Keaton has had her role reduced from a complex voice of reason to a soggy housewife, and Talia Shire simply does not do much. The new cast additions do not fare much better.
--Full review at REELPICKS.CJB.NET--
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 | Jessica
Jan 31, 2007 10:35 PM
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| I thought all of the Godfather's sucked !!! |
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