On December 20, 1990 The Godfather Part III premiered in Beverly Hills. Nowadays The Godfather Part III is a forgotten mob flick thats never ends up on any best of mafia movie lists, ours included.
First, I should say this article contains spoilers, I don’t usually feel bad about spoilers for movies turning 30 in a year but so many people have slept on this movie I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone.
The Godfather Part III is widely considered the bastard child of the cinematic family known as The Godfather Trilogy; “The Fredo” if you will. Here’s Carmela Soprano talking about watching The Godfather movies on their new (stolen) DVD player to Father Phil in the pilot episode of The Sopranos:
Carmela: Tony watches Godfather II all the time. He says the camerawork looks just as good as in the movie theater.
Father Phil: Yeah, Gordon Willis… Tony prefers Two not One?
Carmela: Yeah, he likes the part where Vito goes back to Sicily. Three was like, ‘What happened?’
OK I can’t talk about Godfather references in the pilot episode of The Sopranos without showing this:
Because The Experts Know Everything
The first two Godfather films are regarded as masterpieces. The Godfather Part II became the first movie sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and it’s precursor, The Godfather won best picture as well. Even though the third installment fell short of the ultimate prize for a movie, it wasn’t considered dogshit by most critics at the time.
Aside from Pauline Kael who didn’t write the most glowing of reviews in The New Yorker and The Washington Post calling it a “failure of heartbreaking proportions” the Academy liked it enough to nominate The Godfather Part III for seven nominations, including Best Picture. It lost to Dances with Wolves but earned more votes than Goodfellas. Roger Ebert even gave III a higher ranking than The Godfather Part II.
While giving The Godfather III a second look with my wife (her first time watching it), she turned to me and said, “This is my favorite Godfather movie.” Actually, no wait. She said “This is my favourite Godfather movie,” I have to add the frivolous ‘u’ in there because she’s Canadian. Now I will note, I still think the second Godfather is superior but that doesn’t necessarily make three a train wreck. At least it’s not Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull bad.
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
The trilogy centers around Michael, and in the second and third Godfather movies he’s like a figure in a Greek tragedy falling from grace. Michael tells Kay “the Corleone family will be completely legitimate” in the first and second movies.
Here, in the third film Michael finally get’s complete legitimacy. What he’s always been striving for. The Holy See has named Michael a Commander of the Order of Saint Sebastian for his charitable works (a fictitious chivalric order in the Holy See, here’s some real one’s it may be based on).
But now that his goals of complete legitimacy are within his grasp who does he have to share it with? He’s all alone. Kay married another guy, his son wants nothing to do with him, and his daughter’s not the best actress. (Sofia Coppola to be fair, played the role of the directors daughter beautifully – I liked her acting better in Part I though).
He tries to rid himself of his gangster past but not only do the other mobsters in New York take his reluctance to work with them as a snub, the Vatican officials at the bank are fleecing him and planning his assassination. The Vatican Bank turns out to be bigger gangsters than the gangsters, Michael says it best.
The higher I go the crookeder it becomes
Michael Corleone
Time is a Wheel
The Godfather Part II is two stories that are photo-negatives of the other. I said this in our favorite gangster movies article but in II we see the rise of Vito Corleone and the falling apart of Michael’s criminal and actual family. Godfather III is a mirror of I with echos of II throughout.
After the ceremony at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral we have a party at the Corleone homestead. In Godfather Part I it’s a wedding, in Part II it’s Anthony’s First Communion, in Part III it’s Michael joining a Holy Order. Always a sacrament preceding a party with multiple people singing. In I you have an old guy and Mama Corleone sing Luna Mezz ‘O Mare (Lazy Mary).
In II Frank Pentangeli is like Henry Hill in middle America at the end of Goodfellas ordering spaghetti with marinara sauce and getting egg noodles with ketchup.
Lastly in III Connie sings Eh Cumpari! and they’re rudely interupted by Joey Zasa. I will say one thing that I was bumping on in III was Connie being a part of the family business all of a sudden. That’s not her character at all. Also I apologize for the terrible quality of this video, it’s slim pickin’s for The Godfather Part III clips, like I said nobody watches it.
Also in this opening scene you have Michael pulling Vincent Mancini (Sonny’s kid conceived at Connie’s wedding in I ) into the family picture just like Michael did with Kay in I. Enzo the baker brings a cake, just like he did for Connies wedding. And finally Michael dances the Godfather Waltz with his daughter Mary like Vito did with Connie at her wedding.
The whole movie is a mirror. When they go to Sicily we’re reminded of Michaels first wife Apollonia again and again, especially through his daughter Mary. Vincent Mancini is much like his father Sonny, a hothead who like’s to shoot first and ask questions later. And then there’s this hit on Joey Zasa, and like I said 29 year old spoilers.
Is The Godfather Part III better than the other two? No. But I think you should give it a second (or first) look. It’s like calling a Quarterback in the NFL “slow.” On that field, with some of the best athletes in the world sure, maybe he’s slow. But he’ll still beat you in a foot-race no doubt.
I enjoyed The Godfather Part III for what it is, a nice sendoff to a great trilogy.
