Sequels are notoriously ropy affairs - you get the awesome first in the class, then, buoyed by the huge audience and dollar signs, the makers set out to exploit the brand and follow up with a lacklustre second episode which somehow never captures the same magic quality that set its predecessor apart from the crowd. Go on, try and think of a half way decent follow up - I can think of a few, Aliens for definite, Batman Returns at a push and Jaws 2 in some respects, Godfather 2 (come back to that one). But that's about it, and for every masterpiece you get a thousand dire sequels, stuff like Jurassic Park: The Lost World, Damien: The Omen 2, Hannibal, Exorcist II: The Heretic, Predator 2, The Mummy Returns, Free Willy 2 (except the original was no better) and 102 Dalmatians.
Well, if sequels are a pretty unimpressive bunch as a whole, the point goes doubly for episode three - the original plot has been milked completely dry, the characterisations are dull and lifeless and the interest has gone - take, for example, The Godfather III...
It was an odd situation, because this particular episode came more than a decade after the fist sequel, and the common threads were limited to Al Pacino as a now aged Michael Corleone, Talia Shire as his sister Connie and a cameo appearance by Diane Keaton as Kay, Corleone’s estranged wife. Everything else was new, or at least different.
Me and Mrs D went to see The Godfather III on the big screen when it was first released, anticipating
something which could come halfway close to matching the epic glory of its two amazing predecessors, because I and II were a pair of absolute jewels, compelling, absorbing, expertly written and performed and totally wonderful. The powerful and awesome history of the Corleone Family, who left Sicily to settle in the States and became one of the most powerful Mafia families, represented a hugely impressive and seductive slab of cinematic excellence.
Unfortunately, G3 just doesn't cut the mustard, which is an awful shame - it has all the necessary ingredients, a long and drawn out tale bordering on the epic, plenty of violent conflict between the warring Mafia families, Pacino at somewhere near his best and Andy Garcia as Vincent Mancini, Sonny Corleone’s illegitimate son, a suitably thrusting and eager mirror version of the young Michael Corleone. However, the total is not even as good as the sum of its parts, there is just the absence of that special something that was there in the first two episodes.
Part of the reason is the presence of Sofia Coppola as Michael’s daughter Mary. For the film to have the power and the presence of the originals, the emotional tautness of the plot, the sexual interplay between Mary and Vincent, the conflict within Michael Corleone of The Family versus family, the role of Mary is a key one and Coppola just couldn’t cut it. She only got the part because Wynona Ryder, who was producer-director Francis Ford Coppola’s first choice, was too exhausted to take up his offer. He turned instead in a fit of errant nepotism to his daughter Sofia to fill the key role.
A monstrous conk and a twisted looking mouth would probably have been acceptable, but the lack of acting ability, charisma and emotional depth certainly leave a yawning gap in the very middle of the proceedings, irredeemably damaging the film.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
G3 kicks off in 1979, in New York, twenty years on from the ending of G2, when Michael Corleone, the head and Don of The Family, ordered his older brother Fredo’s murder after his betrayal. In that moment, Michael stepped over the line between caring family man and unpardonable, demonic hood, meaning that he could never go back, the die was cast.
Michael’s children, Anthony and Mary, are kept at arms length from The Family Business and know nothing of their father’s darker side. Michael, while still entrenched in the seamier doings of the Mafia, is attempting to take his family down a more acceptable, legitimate route, buying up the Immobiliare organisation. However, his Mafia rivals see the move as an opportunity to use the Corleone’s new venture as a means of laundering money and object violently when Michael refuses to countenance the idea.
The rest of the story revolves around the rise of Vincent Mancini’s as Michael’s adopted heir, the bitter battle with Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna), the burgeoning relationship between Vincent and Mary and a deeply woven plot involving corruption in the Vatican and the Vatican Bank, in a thinly disguised parody of real life events when a Vatican banker was found hanging in London as scandal engulfed the Pope’s bank.
In reality, however, this is just a plain and simple retelling of the original themes of G1 – Michael has now become Vito, the aged Godfather, and Vincent is the younger Michael who inherits the crown and becomes a far more vicious enemy than his mentor ever was. It’s a shame because such an obvious retread leaves G3 as a very pale and insubstantial replica with nothing of any real substance to give it any individual merit.
The plot is jointly shaped by Coppola and Mario Puzo, author of the original book, and so the blame for this unseemly mess ultimately descends on the very men who made G1 and G2 such wonderful pleasures. How the mighty have fallen!
The irredeemable Michael, however, is an ultimately evil piece of work: "I betrayed my wife. I betrayed myself. I killed men and I ordered men to be killed. Ah, it's useless... I killed -- I ordered the death of my brother. He injured me. I killed my mother's son. I killed my father's son … Never hate your enemies -- it effects your judgement." Pacino plays the role he was born for, no longer the smoth skinned and brooding young man, now a diabetic, stooping old man whose bitterness and evil is all the more nasty because of his nearness to the grave and the ultimate judgement of his vengeful God.
Even in this relatively naff film, the legend of the Corleone family and this vivid portrayal of Mafia life are extremely absorbing, mouthwatering and epic.
The Godfather is dead … Long live the Godfather….
PS Mrs D asked me to mention that the closing scene where a spent Michael breathes his last and drops the apple he was eating at his feet is a total anti climax for what was, taken as a whole, a truly epic history of modern day American life. Like this film, it was a damp squib….
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1998 - Drama - Director: Martin Brest - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Marcia Gay Harden, Jake Weber, Claire Forlani, Jeffrey Tambor
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
This is on Channel 5 on 16h April and I wanted to see what it was like first. I've seen the first one (I still didn't recognise Diane Keaton) and I'm going to watch Godfather 2 this Friday.
daveking 06.10.2001 16:35
excellent and spot on op, esp your comments on Sofia Coppolas performance.
seagulls-lost-horizon 06.10.2001 01:52
another great op, on a series of films i've yet to watch
In the final instalment of the Godfather Trilogy, an aging Don Michael Corleone seeks to ... more
legitimise his crime family's interests and remove himself from the violent underworld. Now in his sixties, Michael is dominated by two passions: freeing his famil...
![The Godfather: Part III [DVD] [1990]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78501516.jpg "The Godfather: Part III [DVD] [1990]")
Oct 5th, 2001
very helpful by (100%):
