The Godfather Coda: The Death Of Michael Corleone (1990)

Sixteen years after the previous film (The Godfather Part II) in this saga won him Oscars for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Picture...Oscar-winning legend Francis Ford Coppola (Apocolypse Now, Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Conversation) returned to both co-write and direct this final entry in the beloved sage of The Corleone Family.  And this time around even though the film was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, it didn't win any.....and the consensus was that it was below the quality for the first two despite including acclaimed performances by its three main stars including Al Pacino (who returned to play Michael Corleone), the late, great Diane Keaton (who returned to play Kay Corleone), and Oscar-nominated Andy Garcia who played Michael's nephew Vincent.  Infact, it was considered by many to be by far the weakest film in the trilogy.  So thirty years later during an extended COVID lock-down, Coppola decided re-edit Part III and by the end of 2020, a newly reworked version was released to both theaters and streaming.  Celebrating The Godfather Part III's 35th Anniversary, we will review this latest version to find out how or IF it improves upon the original version released on Christmas of 1990.   

Host: Geoff Gershon
Edited By Ella Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon

Transcript

THE GODFATHER PART III – 1990

THE GODFATHER CODA: THE DEATH OF MICHAEL CORLEONE - 2020

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Starring Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Andy Garcia, Talia Shire, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton, Bridget Fonda, Raf Vallone, Franc D’Ambrosio, Donal Donnelly, Richard Bright, Don Novello, and Sofia Coppola

Genre: Crime Family Epic (Audio clip)

I always kinda liked Part III...no not as much as the first two but at least as much as I would have been open to further sequels continuing Andy Garcia's (best performance in the movie) story as the Don. I also LOVED the extended opera climax, and I really enjoyed the scenes of Michael and Kay together. There was so much good filmmaking there from Coppola, it was always hard to dismiss it. 

But it did get VERY convoluted - so many Don's and Cardinals and bankers to keep track of that the stakes of the story weren't always clear

And it pleases me to say that this new version resolves SOME of those issues - the Vatican/Immobilare plot is much more carefully laid out...a couple of added scenes developing all of the major players and some crafty voice-over during the third act DO seem to make quite a difference! What definitely helps is that we spend a bit more time behind the scenes with Archbishop Gilday - Donal Donnelly just plays him so venally that he presents a lot of menace just in the way he holds his cigarette, it's an underrated performance. There's also some more connective tissue added to the mentoring relationship between Michael and Vincent - in this version, Michael comes off as less passive and I appreciated that this is HIS story at the end of the day. 🙂 

The daughter stuff...pretty much the same, well it didn't seem to dominate the movie as much this time but I honestly couldn't tell if Coppola trimmed any of her scenes or if he just punched up the other stuff. This version is roughly the same length as the '90 version so it might have come down to editing if nothing else....that awkward gnocchi scene with her and Vincent seems a bit LESS awkward this time around because there seems to be more context given to how Vincent is uncomfortable with this whole thing. 

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film):

Now unfortunately since he passed away in 1979, it just wasn’t in the cards for Nina Rota to return to compose the score and his music for those first two is ICONIC.  Francis’s father, the late great Carmine Coppola who himself was a celebrated composer and musician….HE took over the reigns of conducting the score this time around.  And honestly it’s a pretty seamless transition as Carmine himself DID perform music for those first two films.  It’s a strong, effective score and he of course brings back some recurring themes… (Audio clip) 

Though for me, the musical highlight HAS to be the haunting classical theme which closes out the film….RIGHT from the initially silent image of Michael screaming above his lungs on those steps at the opera theater all the way through that FINAL image of Michael now significantly older….sitting alone….putting on his glasses.  Now the ending for THIS version is different actually SIGNIFICANTLY different for what we don’t see….and that’s all based upon a few editing choices.  And I think that works very much due to the usage of this particular song which comes from the late, great Italian composer Pietro Mascagni.  Originally hailing from Livorno, Italy, Mascagni singlehandedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian opera AND one of his more famous operas IS featured during the climax of the movie…which we’ll get to in just a bit.  The track we hear over the ending is the actually the Prelude to this opera and if it sounds familiar….well Coppola wasn’t the first major filmmaker from his generation to use it so prominently.  This SAME song was also used for the GORGEOUS opening credits sequence for Raging Bull just ten years prior…..hey Coppola and Scorsese were friends and they loved some of the same music.  Anyways this haunting piece of orchestral music is simply titled, “Intermezzo.” (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

Now BACK to the daughter stuff and POOR Sofia Coppola.  Look it's clear that she was an very inexperienced actress and her father bringing her on at the last minute was clearly a bad decision. But honestly as written, I don't know if this character would have been much better even with a peak Winona Ryder playing her. All of her scenes with Vincent are just underwritten, there's just nothing there to chew on romantically.  Yes some of her line readings are awkward and  her character IS the weakest aspect of the film but does it SINK it?  Not at all….and in the end, I feel like Sofia still had the last laugh as she has gone on to become ONE hell of a director including previous episodes Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette – she just wasn’t meant to be an actress, most folks aren’t EVEN when they hail from cinema royalty. (Audio clip) 

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

Now about that aforementioned extended opera climax…..WOW.  The Corleone’s are in Italy attending THE first stage performance of Anthony’s first big-time stage performance as a performer….the opera is “Cavalleria Rusticana” composed by…wouldn’t you know it….the aforementioned Mascagni and it’s being held at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Sicily.  Virtually EVERY one who seems important seems to be attending including Don Altobello and Archbishop Gilday….well I THINK he’s attending.  Regardless, this is a grand production, every one is dressed to the nines, and apparently this show provides ample opportunity for what I believe are about FOUR different sides within this conflict to try to take each other out.   It kicks off at around the two hour mark and what follows is about 25 minutes of intricate Hitchcockian suspense…. (Audio clip)

Coppola is just pulling out ALL the stops here to grip the audience into thinking that NOBODY IS SAFE….not even Anthony himself on stage as there are sequences featuring other characters using both knives and guns.  And what’s even nuttier is that there are SO many players involved on the various sides that we ARE treated to quite the variety of kills regardless – we see folks hung, shot, strangled, dropped from tall heights, stabbed in the neck with eyeglasses, and even fatally poisoned via cannoli.  It all plays out methodically and it all caps off with that now OBLIGATORY money shot which HAS to be near the end of EACH Godfather movie….the quick montage of every major figure who has been murdered.  (Audio clip)   

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

I swear as I was writing this, I was pretty much set on Francis especially with just how well he orchestrated that climax.  However….upon thinking about, it really IS Pacino who carries this movie.  Looking back now thirty-five years later, it’s ACTUALLY kind of an underrated performance as this was the ONLY time he played Michael without receiving an Oscar nomination AND he was still nominated for Best Supporting for his over-the-top though very fun performance as Big Boy Caprice in previous episode Dick Tracy that SAME year.  Now I LOVED Dick Tracy and his performance in that movie….but Dick Tracy over THIS?  This is the culmination of his character, the epilogue of Michael Corleone’s tumultuous life….which is very epitomized in a genuinely stirring scene when Michael gives his confession to the Bishop around the half-way point in the movie. (Audio clip) 

This film simply doesn’t work if he doesn’t NAIL that scene and it’s a genuinely tricky scene which on paper could come off as mawkish…but he helps make it feel urgent to THIS story playing out right now.   Not only that but he pretty much nails EVERY scene.  His anxiety feels authentic, his torment feels earned, and his pain is always bubbling under the surface….and he’s doing all of this under a ton of make-up no less.  It’s a great performance, one of his best even if it seems to fall a bit below the first two….which IS setting a very high bar to be fair.  For truly delivering the CODA to one of THE greatest trilogies in the history of cinema, Al Pacino is the MVP. (Audio clip) 

Final Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5

The beginning and ending scenes are changed a bit though in a way I kinda found ironic given the revised title for this version - overall it's a tighter movie and in my opinion it probably goes up half a star.  Happy 35th Anniversary to a solid conclusion for an amazing trilogy!

Streaming on Paramount Plus, fubo, & crunchyroll

And that ends another IRREDEEMABLE review!