Review of The Godfather Part III (1990) by Beata M — 20 May 2012

I've always felt like this film gets a bad rap in general. Many people act like this was Francis Ford Coppola's attempt to get one more film in in series, but lest they forget-this is actually based on a novel by Mario Puzo. And not only that, but in this finale we are given the one and only moral of the series, the one and only redeeming lesson that Michael Corleone has to teach us, and the one and only reason Puzo wanted us to bear with him all this time.

Of course, that brings us to the second biggest complaint of this film; the long, overdrawn, gimmicky and borderline obnoxious opera scene and all the excess of melodrama that accompanied it. Ok, fine, these are all legitimate complaints. However, when we examine both this film, and the series as a whole, I think it was a resounding success.

I would say as a whole this film far surpassed the others in the cinematography and score departments. More importantly though, this is the film where Michael is the most well-developed and human. In Part I, I feel like Coppola didn't capitalize on the potential to develop Michael enough, and all in all, his transition to being Godfather was a bit stiff. In Part II there was very little development the character ever made. However, in Part III, I found his transformation and remorse believable.

Also, despite being a bit ambitious; I think it's fascinating how the events were connected to the conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Pope John Paul I.