Review of The Godfather Part III (1990) by Overreachthis — 16 Aug 2015

This film has SO MUCH to dislike in it, you can get lost before you realize what is the central flaw. Coppola got away pretty much with not recasting Brando or Richard Castellano ("Clemenza") in GF, but those avoidable failures did not mean he could just skip Robert Duvall in III to save a few more bucks. The first scenes didn't work for me, and Diane Keaton's Bronze-ish angered-wife costume looked bad.

Inadequate performances were by goofy Eli Wallach, wooden George Hamilton, the guy playing Tom Hagen's son, even Mantegna, and Cuban-American Andy Garcia didn't quite pull off the Italian thing. Much-criticized Sophia C. was okay to me, but many people couldn't deal with it.

The Church mumbo jumbo was for the birds. And this guy is worth a billion dollars or so and he lives in a sub-average suburban little house? The helicopter attack on a conference room was completely ridiculous - nothing in any way like that happened in the whole history of the mafia.. And murder-by-eyeglass frames was a groaner.

But hat was really wrong was the central premise: Don Corleone the mass murderer wants redemption and to live a church-goer's life? OMG, please! Coppola's on video asking if the Don's heart betrayed him, didn't protect him? Heart smart for Chrissake, this is supposed to be a gangster movie! The old Michael and this Michael don't even seem to be relatives.

I am reminded of a line from Barton Fink where the studio boss get's angry at the misguided director: "We don't put Wally Beery in some fruity movie about a guy wrestling with his soul!" Similarly, Paramount Pictures don't put some fruity movie about a guy wrestling with his soul in the Godfather franchise! Moralizing Coppola's so far off track wringing his choir-boy hands because he ignored the main lesson: It's not a story about you and It's not personal, Francis. It's only business, movie business gone terribly wrong.