I just re-watched this movie, there’s a few problems.
[ul]
[li]Awful helicopter scene[/li]
[li]The sets don’t look out of place in 1990’s NYC (When it was filmed)[/li]
[li]Joey Zaza [/li]
[li]Michael Corleone swearing[/li][/ul]
I think the only saving grace is when Michael cries because his daughter is shot dead.
Why was it so spectacularly bad?
nice spoilers bro
NM. Sorry.
That movie is 25 years old.
I loved it. It made a nice ending to the trilogy.
I was always hoping for GF4 - with Andy Garcia as the new GF.
I liked the Vatican angle.
Supposedly that would have happened, writing was in progress, but Mario Puzo died and the project was folded.
The GF part 3 tries to do too much, with too many confusing themes. It is all about Michael’s last act-he dies forgotten and unloved…his life went from being an idealistic young man to a cynical old crook, with no redemption possible. It also attempts to show the rise of the "modern " Mafia (money laundering, entanglement with the Vatican), with another tragedy 9the murder of Michael’s daughter). The movies would have been much better if it just stuck to one theme.
Michael Corleone swearing was probably the only thing in the entire trilogy that actually made me feel like I was watching a movie about the mafia.
It could have been good, but I don’t think they were ready for production. The script needed some work and the casting was obviously very poor, especially using his daughter. George Hamilton also feels out of place and they should have used an unknown in that role.
I know Francis Ford Coppola needed money, but it would have better with even more pre-production.
I liked it. It had a different feel from the first two, but I don’t think there was anything wrong with it. It just suffered from an unfair comparison to two classics.
I thought that was its strength. Michael had spend his reign being in control. It was in a simpler time that allowed him to stay ahead of trouble. But as he got older and his family got diluted technology caught up with his strongarm tactic abilities.
He tries to remain in control of his empire while keeping up with his changing and complicated world. In the meantime he has his children (who are now on their own and making their own decisions) to protect. I feel the movie is showing us Michael’s inability and frustration to juggle all of these competing forces.
He is ultimately unable to do so and must pay the price, health-wise and personally.
If I and II didn’t exist, III would have been remembered as a very good movie. But when compared to two masterpieces, it just doesn’t fare very well. I thought it was done well enough, the end with Michael dying a dog’s death was a fitting end to the trilogy. The plot wasn’t as compelling as the other two and Sophia Coppola didn’t do particularly well with her part but still, I’ll watch it again and again.
This. Had it just been a mob movie unrelated to the prior two, it would have been acclaimed as a classic, despite its flaws. Labeling it with the name “Godfather” created a level of expectation that it just couldn’t meet.
Good news for fans of GF I and II (only). HBO will be showing next Sunday (Jan 17) the entire Godfather Epic (usually called the Godfather Saga). The old TV version with the two movies spliced together in chronological order. The real prize are the extra scenes. Several are fairly illuminating. Unfortunately, it was for network TV in the 70s so there was some censorship. I don’t know if this version restores those parts.
Note that the Saga has appeared on cable from time to time, but in a shortened form. Looking forward to it.
It does not appear to be on the list of usual HBO endless repeats, so be sure to catch it the first time.
Watch Genco’s deathbed scene! The surprising origins of the Godfather Theme! Clemenza eating lunch! (Well, maybe not that one.)
The “Epic” is the shortened version of the “Saga.”
I thought Don Thomasino’s house looked a lot better than during GF1.
A big part of it was only a vague sense of “time.” It took place in the late 70s… but nothing felt of the time. Everything looked like it was filmed in 1989…which it was so it seemed lazy.
Wasn’t the original plot a “war” between Tom and Michael, but Duvall wanted equal billing and more money? I wonder if that would have been better.
Dagnabbit.
It’s still six and a half hours of Godfather, in chronological order, with some extra scenes.
Because of the absence of Robert Duvall.
Seriously, no offense to Pacino, he gave Part III the ole’ college try, but the dynamic between the two of them (and between Duvall and James Cann in Part I) was the heart and soul of the movies.