THE GODFATHER: PART III – A Retrospective Review

Preface

The Godfather, released in 1972, tells the story of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), a war hero who wants to disassociate himself from his family’s criminal empire. However, he’s forced to step in and take control when his father, Mafia Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), is gravely wounded in an assassination attempt. Michael’s brother Sonny (James Caan) is later killed in an organized hit.

The tragedy of the story is that Michael wants no part of this world. Yet, circumstances compel him to get involved. Subsequently, he masterminds the elimination of his enemies and becomes an underworld don. Michael does this even though these choices transform him from an idealist into a cold-blooded killer. It also costs him his marriage to Kay (Diane Keaton).

The one hope that Michael Corleone holds onto is that he can somehow extricate his family from the criminal underworld. He also wants to legitimize their business holdings. He thinks that if he can do this, his own children won’t have to face the same pitfalls he did, or be forced into a criminal life. In return, Michael can finally become the man that he always wanted to be.

Despite this aspiration, Michael grows increasingly cold-hearted throughout The Godfather: Part II (1974). He becomes a victim of the decisions he makes and feels the paranoia of being the hunted one. The idealism is now gone. Taking its place is cold pragmatism and brutal relentlessness. He wants to consolidate his empire and ensure that threats are eradicated. Michael achieves this, but at the cost of any remaining humanity.

The Godfather: Part III

Director Francis Ford Coppola completed his Godfather trilogy with the release of The Godfather: Part III (1990). When we rejoin the Corleones in this final installment, Michael is still desperately pursuing his same dream. His children are now adults. Anthony (Franc D’Ambrosio) wants to become an opera singer. Mary (Sofia Coppola) runs the family’s legitimate foundation.

Michael’s plan to liberate the family, and thus himself, is ambitious, to say the least. As the patriarch of this iconic family, he makes a 600-million dollar contribution to the Vatican Bank. This is to cover up their losses in exchange for a promise he’ll be able to head the Vatican’s profitable international real-estate business.

Enter into the picture Vincent (Andy Garcia), Sonny’s hot-headed illegitimate son. Michael decides to mentor Vincent, which is a strange choice as Vincent is already a street hood. Given Michael’s desire to ensure his children, and the family, leave the business, it’s unusual that he has no problem with Vincent becoming his avatar.

Obstacles

Naturally, there are obstacles to Michael’s goals. Rival dons make an attempt on Michael’s life and Vincent rescues him. However, most of the mob commission is eliminated. Ruminating on the true power behind such an audacious hit, Michael has a diabetic stroke and ends up in hospital. Vincent takes temporary command of the family and oversees retaliation on their obvious enemies. Vincent also develops a relationship with Mary, even though they are first cousins.

The story moves to Sicily where Michael plans to see his son’s operatic debut while trying to ensure his Vatican deal goes through. As a side plot, Michael also tries to romance Kay and reconcile with her. All of this is Michael’s belated effort to try and find that legitimacy that has eluded him for so long. He wants to claim the one thing he has desired most, that which was denied of him – normalcy.

An Uneven Film

When The Godfather: Part III came out, it was maligned as being uneven. Sofia Coppola was drawn into the movie at the last minute to replace Winona Ryder as Mary. As a result, she was castigated for her acting performance. Coppola’s daughter became the lightning rod for criticism. The film wasn’t as good as the two prior installments. However, is it really that bad?

Francis Ford Coppola must’ve thought that it was problematic because he decided to release a director’s cut in 2020. This version focused more on the Vatican deal and Michael’s battle for his soul and redemption. Still, the re-release doesn’t play that much better. This is because the fundamental issues remain, and they have nothing to do with Sofia Coppola’s acting.

The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II show Michael doing whatever it requires to guarantee his family’s survival, regardless of how much it costs him. He’s a much-better tactician than his oldest brother Sonny, who aspires to that life, but is too impetuous. His other older brother Fredo (John Cazale) is weak and temperamental. Both stories come at an emotional and spiritual cost for Michael.

In The Godfather: Part III, Michael is still trying to escape underworld life. However, he’s forced back into the same battle for survival. Due to a stroke, his age, and his lack of willingness to fight, he relinquishes control of the family to Vincent, who masterminds the same coup de grace Michael does in the first two movies. Vincent’s not entirely successful, though, and the devil finally comes calling to claim the heftiest price from Michael.

A Sequel?

After mixed reviews of The Godfather: Part III, Coppola planned a sequel that focused on Vincent dealing with the repercussions of Mary’s death. It also involved the political maneuvering required to be a don. Just as The Godfather: Part II did, the story would be intercut with a previous timeline exploring a younger Sonny’s life. The younger Sonny was allegedly going to be played by Leonardo Di Caprio. However, when co-developer Mario Puzo died, Coppola decided not to go ahead.

This planned sequel sounds interesting because it attempts to layer Vincent. We get none of that in The Godfather: Part III. Vincent is the biggest problem with this story, and because he’s so integral to the plot, everything else collapses into the same vacuum. Vincent is a simple character, a facsimile of Sonny, but without Sonny’s depth.

Vincent’s misguided and incestuous romance with Mary is an attempt to create vulnerability in his one-dimensional character. This is something that he’ll have to sacrifice for the life that he’s chosen. Otherwise, his character and arc are bland and predictable. The only thing that makes him appealing is that he’s played by Andy Garcia.

Decisions and Choices

Michael has no choice but to make the decisions he does. Without them, his family will be slaughtered. He’ll be killed. The “family” itself will be erased. The tragedy of it all is that Michael becomes a victim of his own growing power. He loses himself in his choices and justifies their rationale as part of his survival. Essentially, he damns himself.

The tagline for The Godfather: Part III was, “Real power can’t be given. It must be taken.” Yet, the film does exactly the opposite. It hands the power to Vincent, a volatile street hood who somehow becomes the heir apparent. This is done even though several of his choices, from dating Mary to organizing a hit, should scream at Michael that he’s neither ready nor equipped for this role.

Vincent doesn’t have to win an empire or consolidate it, as Michael does. He simply needs to defend it. Vincent is not an unwilling participant as Michael was. However, he hungers for it. The story tries to give him stakes by saying that this power will come at a cost, his relationship to Mary. Yet, this is hardly a significant counterpoint given that the relationship is already illicit.

A Flawed Premise

Regardless of how Francis Ford Coppola cuts The Godfather: Part III, nothing can be done to renovate Vincent’s part of the story. As a result, it’ll always be built on this flawed premise of Michael ceding power to a very willing Vincent. This fundamentally contradicts the tragedy and relatability behind what makes these stories so powerful: sacrifice and damnation.

We like and relate to Michael because he’s doing whatever he needs to so he can protect his family. Also, we mourn for him because he loses his humanity. We also lament the horrible way he treats Kay, and how that impacts his children. While our own circumstances might be different, we can empathize with a simple fact: sometimes life gives you almost impossible hands to play, and you need to make difficult decisions.

In The Godfather: Part III, the images of Michael staring at the family albums with longing and regret are powerful. This is because he is a man who tried to have it all, but could never escape his circumstances, or the monster he not only became but in some part relished. Michael Corleone could never really reconcile these two worlds, or dedicate himself wholly to one.

Shortcomings and Guilt

Can we really connect to Michael’s surrender of power? Even with the guilt that’s gnawed away at him for years, can we really accept he’d just step aside? Especially when the well-being of his family is at stake? Is this really the man we’ve grown to know over two movies? Would Michael really hand the reins to an unqualified hood who’s shown he’s nothing but volatile, impetuous, and short-sighted?

Even as far as that’s concerned, Vincent’s shortcomings are just labels. His blow-ups are clockwork to remind us this is who he is. Vincent is meant to be so volatile that he could blow at any moment. Does he? Sonny’s temper cost him his life. With Vincent, Michael has a quiet word with him, and that’s it. Vincent’s temper and relationship with Mary are done. Just like that. He then just becomes a copy of Michael.

Comparisons

Compare Vincent’s journey to Tony Montana in Scarface (1983). Tony Montana is just a street hood. He masterminds an ascension, and while his street cunning helps him for a little while, his short-sightedness, possessiveness (of his sister), and his weakness (for addiction) lead him to one bad decision after another. Ultimately, it costs him his life.

As pulpy as Scarface is, you can still on some level relate to Tony Montana. He’s excess personified, a man who is out of control. Also, he’s somebody who flagrantly ignores all the rules and rebukes authority figures. He’s also a fantasy figure that we can relish and secretly hope, that at least once or twice in our lives, we’ll manifest. That’s what makes him attractive and enduring. Vincent has none of this.

Michael’s temperament and questionable judgment should’ve contributed to the tragic conclusion, instead of having no real bearing on it. Mary’s plea to her father is just an indirect happenstance. The story would’ve worked better had Vincent’s strategy to eliminate the Corleones’s enemies been flawed, resulting in splash-back. This is both an indictment on him as a leader, and Michael for the choice he makes.

Arguably, what would’ve been best of all would’ve been Vincent trying to wrangle that power from Michael. Or, perhaps, Michael surrendering the reins only to realize he couldn’t step away and meddling to his own detriment. Anything here would’ve worked to give Michael agency back in his own story and to create conflict that lived up to the tagline.

Conclusion

Potentially, Puzo and Coppola should’ve mirrored the original, and made Vincent, not Michael’s nephew, but his son. It would’ve been far more powerful and tragic. Having Vincent been afforded every opportunity in life – upbringing, education, career opportunities – only to have his lust for this criminal life. This would have been the opposite of Michael’s journey.

That sets up so many more interesting possibilities in terms of the family and family dynamics. Not to mention the conflict between Vincent and Michael. Michael wants his children to have respectable vocations. He rallies because his son Anthony wants to sing opera. Imagine the potential for drama if his son wanted nothing more than to follow in Michael’s footsteps. That’s a whole story in itself.

The Godfather: Part III is an enjoyable movie, arguably unfairly maligned, but these are issues that no amount of tinkering in the editing room can address.

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