Don’t like the new long film title. Probably won’t see it in the cinema but will get the media version.
I disagree. I think it's the half-baked script that had a few different main plots and at least three different themes, and none of them meshed. So the movie feels like three different movies haphazardly jammed together. Those being - Michael's guilt and needing redemption, passing the torch of the family business, and the tragic quasi-incestuous love story between Michael's daughter and nephew. I've always wondered what movie we could have gotten if the studio hadn't rushed Coppola, and I'm really curious if he manages to make it work better after revisiting decades later.
I agree it's dreadful. My own take: (1) Pacino's hair; (2) Pacino's apparent laryngitis; (3) Sofia Coppola; (4) The script, the editing, the acting, and everything else. I didn't like Andy Garcia. Actually I didn't like anything about the film. He should never have made it.
Great observations. Yeah ... Andy Garcia ( though I really like him in other films ) Al’s hair & throat department.
This movie had a great angle to it for those of a certain age and who may have been paying attention. Because a pope died after only 33 days a new pope, total surprise, helped to bring down communism. Unfortunately, no peace dividend ever truly arose and we just found new enemies. Rather quickly. This is the era of the new Mass, and all kinds of ethnic Catholics losing their identity as they were shot like Puffed Rice from cannons out to the suburbs. By 1979, the film's beginning, that operation is over and people are hanging out with others based on the type of house and car they have rather than their ethnic/religious identity. There really was a banker from Cicero that was dirty. A bishop, or some other high ranking Vatican Works official, really did hang from Blackfriars Bridge around that time. Copolla rightfully poked the bear, but he might have been a little too polite and afraid to offend. In the end, Michael is not too quick to give up the criminal underworld. It was the Donkey he managed to ride in on to complete legitimacy, for him, and his family after all. But unfortunately, the Gospel doesn't end on Palm Sunday either. There is still a ways to go.
Who else could have stepped in if Winona wasn't going to save the film? Time to go back and check out the hot ladies of the time. Jennifer Connelly? Probably not Italian looking enough. Valeria Golino? Hmm, Monica Bellucci would have been 25 back then... Definitely going to see this new cut though. I'm intrigued!
I had heard that Coppola wanted to do new edit of the film and make it a bit shorter and re-arrange some scenes. Honestly, I think this was a pretty good movie that was only disappointing because it failed to live up to the impossibly high standards of the first two movies. Having said that, I think Coppola could improve the movie by cutting or trimming some of the weaker scenes(Almost everything with Sofia) and also a few scenes that were an embarrassing effort to imitate the first two movies. I often wondered how much extra footage/scenes were left on the cutting room floor in 1980. While I agree that making the movie a little shorter could be beneficial to the pace and energy of the movie, I've also wondered if some of scenes that were cut could be used to replace others in an attempt to change the narration. New beginning and ending? Maybe that will help, but there was several weak scenes in the middle that could be trimmed or cut out completely. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with.
Things to get rid of in ' The Godfather Part 3 ' : - the helicopter attack - Eli Wallach -Andy Garcia ( at least that whole I-love-you -cuz subplot ) -Diane Keaton ( She was great in the first two movies but here adds nothing other than telling Michael he's more evil than ever )
Restoring the subtitle “The Death of Michael Corleone” doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. The movie is not about Michael’s death or the events leading up to it. Yes there’s an awkward epilogue showing him dying, but it’s clearly taking place many years later... so many that I’m surprised the idea of a fourth Godfather with Pacino hasn’t been floated more often. I suppose Coppola might have meant his spiritual death... but then Godfather I and II were also about that.
If this is as awesome as adding back the plantation scene in Apocalypse Now then it is still going to suck.
The impossibly high standards of I and II notwithstanding, I thought III was at best, average. Its ironic that the same thing happened to Puzo as well (IMHO). The book The Godfather is one of the best American novels of the 20th century (again IMHO). I have read mostly everything else Puzo wrote, and the best of them was mediocre. He wrote that one classic. I will wait the reviews on this new one.
I thought she was brilliant. The problem was her scenes with Garcia. They presumably didn't screen test them together, so the collision of acting styles was brutal. BIG fan of hers.
I agree. There was nothing wrong with that scene or the montage of Michael's aging. That is some of the good stuff in a bad movie. Things I like in the movie: All the scenes with the Sicilian assassins -even Eli stopped hamming it up for these scenes Connie -Talia was given some nice lines and scenes and played them all well! Joe Montagna -did a good job for an underwritten part The killing of Sofia and aging montage Nothing else stands out in a positive way, unfortunately.
I literally have not seen this film for almost 30 years now, but I do remember liking Pacino's scenes with Keaton in Italy. 100 bucks sez that Coppola reveals that Mary Corleone is in fact Emperor Palpatine's grand-daughter.
While I think it was a mistake for Francis to cast an actress with no experience for such an important role(Mary Corleone), I think some critics have been a little unfair to her. Yes, many of her scenes were awkward, but she was a beautiful young girl who played Mary as innocent and vulnerable, which made the final scenes very heartbreaking. Coppola can improve the movie and cast Sofia in a better light by cutting and trimming her scenes, but will he have the heart to cut her screen time?
I like The Godfather Part 3 despite its flaws. Yes, it has flaws, but it also has much that is moving and brilliant. I could detail chapter and verse, but there's not much point in doing that here. The film has been under rated since the day it was released. Detractors overstate their case. Coppola is an artist I admire immensely. Everything he does is, at the very least, interesting. I've missed new work by him on the theatrical screen the last twenty years. I look forward to Coppola's new edit.
How about Bridget Fonda and Sophia Coppola swapping roles? I thought BF's reporter was going to be a significant character but she disappeared after about 45 mins.
