I saw The Godfather from beginning to end for the first time (I’d seen bits and pieces of it here & there for twenty years) a few weeks ago. I thought it was one of the great movies of a generation and all that. Horribly violent, but the violence wasn’t gratuitous so whatever.
I saw Godfather II yesterday. Bleah. Too long, too hard to follow, quite upsetting, and it ended on a real downer.
I want to know how things turn out for the Corleone family, but I don’t want to sit through another three-hour ordeal like Part II.
If you though that about Part II then don’t even consider trying to sit through Part III! All those things are true times 1000 in the third one.
Only saw it once. And that was, like, 14 years ago (in the theater). Let’s see:
[ul][li]Its set in 1978[/li][li]Robert Duvall has turned into George Hamilton[/li][li]Michael has sold all the casinos etc. and is trying to go legit[/li][li]Nobody wants to let him[/li][li]Michael has a diabetic stroke[/li][li]Vinnie Mancini-Corleone (Sonny’s illegitamit son) takes over for awhile and kills a few trouble makers (namely Joe Montegna)[/li][li]Michael recovers and is pissed about that but lets it slide[/li][li]The family is involved in some kind of shady business deal with the Vatican (something called Immobilairé)[/li][li]There’s an excrutiatingly long opera house assasination piece.[/li][li]Michael survives but his daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola) is killed[/li][li]Her death scene is unintentionally hilarious[/li][li]For some reason the Corleon family has the pope assasinated[/li][li]Michael is shown many years later suddenly dropping dead like his father, broken and alone (except for his puppy)[/ul][/li]Make sense?
Or come to think of it, the new pope was in the Corleon’s pocket. So he was assasinated by someone else.
Also, Joe Montagne, as a John Gotti-esque crime boss, tries to assasinate Michael and the heads of the other families with a helicopter gunship. Kills a bunch of them but Michael & Mancini escape.
No, the new Pope was killed by the Corleones’ enemies (Keinzig, Lucchese, Altobello, etc.) because he was going to blow the lid off the conspiracy.
(Yet another reason this movie doesn’t quite work–too much complicated high finance stuff.)
One of Michael Corleone’s enemies gets killed when the hitman takes the glasses off of the guy’s face and jams the temple of the glasses into the guy’s ear.
I still don’t think that this is an effective technique for killing someone.
That makes more sense. Still, you gotta think you want to try for a 100% sure killing technique. IIRC, it was believed that that particular guy would be the hardest to kill and they were only going to have one chance.
GODFATHER mavens have commented on the fact that oranges are always around when somebody is about to get whacked…how come they aren’t in evidence when Michael finally shuffles off his mortal coil?
Actually, Michael’s death is probably the only thing in GF III that makes sense…the whole movies is such a muddle of different plots…you have:
-Sonnie’s bastard son killing people (and biting the ears off people)
-Kay getting together with Michael
-Joey Zaza trying to kill everybody!
-the Vatican going broke
-the murder of the Pope
-Michael’s daughter getting whacked
Oh, and george Hamilton still has a pre-cancerous suntan!
Question: Will the “Gencopuro Olive Oil Company” STILL be around for GFIV?
GF3 was a very thinly veiled fictionalization of the real Vatican Banking scandal with stand-ins for many historical figures (rather like Moe Greene stood in for Bugsy Siegel and Johnny Fontane for Frank Sinatra in GF1). There were some major changes to real figures (most notably that the real John Paul I was a Venetian cardinal while GF3 made him Sicilian); the quasi-mystic Catholic European crime syndicate of the movie was based on the actual organization P2 which was/is, if anything, more diabolical and powerful than portrayed in the movie. Most of the killings during the opera are based on actual suicides/murders associated with the bank scandal (including JP1, who though there is no proof he was murdered has long been a martyr to many conspiracy theorists, and the bridge/briefcase hanging).
The major flaw in the movie other than Sofia Coppola (about whom believe everything you’ve read so long as it’s negative- sucked like a Hoover Upright with an outboard motor and her dad just didn’t and, on the DVD commentary, still doesn’t see it) is trying to weave the NJ/NYC mafia (Las Vegas is totally out of it in this one as Michael has divested his interests) with the Vatican and essentially Michael’s attempt to take over the European organized crime empire. It just doesn’t work.
Best parts of the movie: Michael & Kay’s love-hate chemistry is excellent and believable (perhaps because of the age of the actors and the fact they had a long term turbulent relationship in real life), Connie’s metamorphosis from the victim of GF1 and lush of GF2 into a Mafia Madame Nhu, the opening party scenes (in which Coppola was so anal he actually rounded up the child actors from the party scenes of GF1 and GF2 to add continuity), the gratuitous but beautiful shots of Sicily (where roughly half the movie is set) and the shocking flashbacks twixt old/weathered Michael and Michael from GF1. Pacino did some marvelous acting during the diabetic stroke mentioned above when he loses his usual reserve and vents his emotions, rage, terror, etc. (Fredo being almost Banquo’s ghost in the room).
Worst parts (other than Sofia Coppola, who again cannot be underestimated): an overdose of “Yeah, right, that would happen” plotlines (yeah, lots of guys don’t become opera singers until they’re in their early 30s and then begin by playing the lead in a major European opera house), the pointless addition of Vincent Mancini as a Corleone (why make him Sonny’s bastard or Lucy Mancini’s [whose vagina was a weird focal point of the novel and precluded the possibility of her having had a child]? why not either one of Sonny’s legitimate kids or just an up-coming tough?), the absence of Robert Duvall (as felt as the absence of Clemenza was from GF2) and a general sense of Coppola trying way too hard to be artistic.
PS- I’m currently reading The Godfather Returns and the author has already mentioned oranges in connection with the doomed several times. The book’s purpose (other than to milk a cash cow one more time) is to connect GF1 to GF2 and fill in some blanks. A few minor characters from the movies (such as Sonny’s daughter Francesca [one of the twins]) are elevated and given back stories and sideplots while Fredo’s character is majorly developed. Generally the book is a pleasant waste of time.
I started a thread about The Godfather Returns a while back. It didn’t get much response. I’d have to agree with you about the book’s purpose… especially since it was written by MARK WINEGARDNER who is making money by writing a story about characters created by Mario Puzo.
By the way, do I get some type of award for that thread, since NOT ONE PERSON REPLIED TO IT?
Michael gets sick with diabetes and Connie pretty much starts running the show.
Sophia Coppola bones her cousin and gets blown away at the end. Michael dies sitting on the beach.
She ruined that movie, if I were you I wouldn’t bother watching it.
More or less a whole roomful of bosses is wiped out when a helicopter gunship strafes them. Michael escapes when someone shoots the door open with a shotgun.
It’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen.
Except Sofia Coppola I mean COME ON! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
