The Godfather, part III

PLOT:

The film opens with Michael Corleone sitting alone on a bench (which was the same way and where Part II ended as the last scene), thinking back to his past of people such as Fredo Corleone, Sonny Corleone, Kay Adams, Vito Corleone, with flashback scenes from both Part I, and Part II, in order, as well as showing scenes from the house that the family originally lived in in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. This is also narrated by Corleone, giving an update of what has happened since. Sometimes, the flashback scenes are not shown and therefore edited out on some televised airings of the movie.

The film then flash forwards on February 23, 1979. Michael Corleone is nearing 60 and feeling tremendous guilt for his ruthless rise to power, especially for ordering the murder of his brother Fredo two decades before. By now, he has mostly retired from the Mafia, selling the Las Vegas casinos and leaving the Corleone family’s criminal interests in the hands of former enforcer Joey Zasa. His adopted brother Tom Hagen is now dead and the Corleone compound at Lake Tahoe has been abandoned. Michael and Kay have been divorced since 1959, and Michael gave her custody of their children, Anthony and Mary. He has since returned to New York City, where he is using his tremendous wealth and power to restore his reputation via numerous acts of charity. In an attempt to break with the past, Michael creates a charity, the Vito Corleone Foundation, in memory of his father, which he has endowed with $100 million to use for the betterment of Sicily.

At a ceremony in St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, presided over by Archbishop Gilday, Michael is named a Commander of the Order of St. Sebastian. At a lavish party following the ceremony, Michael and Kay have an uneasy reunion. Anthony tells his father that he is going to drop out of law school to pursue a career as an opera singer. Kay supports his choice, but Michael disagrees, wishing that his son would either finish law school or join the family business. Anthony steadfastly refuses, stating that while he loves his father, he will never be part of the family business. Michael eventually, though somewhat reluctantly, acquiesces to Anthony’s wishes.

Meanwhile, Vincent Mancini, the illegitimate son of Michael’s brother Sonny, shows up at the party. He is embroiled in a feud with Zasa, who has involved the Corleone family in major drug trafficking and turned Little Italy into a slum. In Michael’s study, Vincent and Zasa tell him about their feud, a discussion that erupts into a fight, in which Vincent bites off part of Zasa’s ear. Zasa is escorted out and Michael scolds Vincent for losing his temper, but is nevertheless impressed by Vincent’s passionate loyalty to him, ultimately agreeing to take Vincent under his wing.

That night, as Vincent has a one-night stand with Grace Hamilton, a journalist he met at the party, two men break in and try to kill him. Vincent quickly gains the upper hand, and kills one in order to frighten the other into revealing that Zasa is the man who sent them. Once the second assassin has surrendered, Vincent kills him, too. Meanwhile, Michael busies himself with the biggest deal of his career: he has recently bought up enough stock in Immobiliare, an international real estate holding company known as “the world’s biggest landlord”, to control six of the company’s 13-member board of directors. He now makes a tender offer to buy the Vatican’s 25% interest in the company, which will give him majority control. Knowing that Archbishop Gilday, who serves as head of the Vatican Bank, has run up a massive deficit, he offers to pay $600 million to the Bank in exchange for the shares.

Don Altobello, an elderly New York Mafia boss and old friend of the Corleones (as well as Connie’s godfather), soon visits Michael, telling him that his old partners on the Commission want in on the Immobiliare deal. A meeting is arranged at an Atlantic City hotel, and Michael appeases most of the Mafia bosses with generous payoffs from the sale of his Las Vegas holdings. Zasa, however, gets nothing, and furiously declares that Michael is his enemy and storms out. Altobello follows close behind, allegedly attempting to calm him down. Minutes later, a helicopter hovers outside the conference room and sprays it with submachine gun fire. Most of the other mob bosses are killed, but Michael, Vincent, and Michael’s trusted bodyguard, Al Neri, escape. Back at his apartment in New York, Michael is told that those mob bosses who escaped the massacre quickly made deals with Zasa, and comes to the realization that Altobello supported Zasa in carrying out the hit. As Michael considers how to respond to the situation, he suffers a diabetic stroke and is hospitalized. In his delirium, Michael cries out Fredo’s name shortly before he is loaded on an ambulance to the hospital.

As Michael recuperates in the hospital, Vincent begins a romantic relationship with Mary, despite being first cousins, and also plots revenge against Joey Zasa. During a street festival hosted by Zasa’s Italian American civil rights group, Vincent’s men gun down Zasa’s bodyguards. Vincent, disguised as a mounted police officer, then murders Zasa himself. When Michael discovers this, he berates Vincent for his rashness. Michael also insists that Vincent end his relationship with Mary, because Vincent’s involvement in the family’s criminal dealings puts Mary’s life in jeopardy. Vincent agrees.

The family takes a vacation to Sicily in March 1980, in preparation for Anthony’s operatic debut in Palermo. They stay at the villa of Don Tommasino, the Mafia boss who sheltered Michael when he was on the run in the first film. Michael tells Vincent to speak with Altobello and falsely tell him that he is planning to leave the Corleone family. Altobello supports the idea of Vincent switching his allegiance, and introduces him to Don Licio Lucchesi, a powerful Italian political figure. Michael realizes that the Immobiliare deal was a conspiracy by Lucchesi, Archbishop Gilday, and Vatican accountant Frederick Keinszig to swindle him out of his money, and visits Cardinal Lamberto, the man favored to become the next Pope, to speak about the deal. Lamberto convinces Michael to make his first confession in 30 years, in which he tearfully admits to ordering Fredo’s murder.

Shortly after the meeting between Vincent and Lucchesi, Altobello travels to the small village of Montelepre, where he meets Mosca, an elderly, veteran hitman with whom he has previously done business. Altobello hires Mosca and his son, Lupe, to assassinate Michael. A few days later, Mosca and Lupe, disguised as priests, make their move, attempting to hijack Don Tommasino and force him to allow them entry to his villa. Tommasino refuses, and Mosca kills him with a lupara. Touring Sicily with Kay, who has arrived for Anthony’s operatic debut, Michael asks for her forgiveness. As they both admit that they still love each other, Michael receives word that Tommasino is dead.

After the death of Pope Paul VI, Cardinal Lamberto is elected Pope John Paul I, which means that the Immobiliare deal will likely be ratified, due to his intention to “clean up” the dealings of the Vatican. The new Pope’s intentions come as a death knell to the plot against the ratification of the Immobiliare deal, prompting frantic attempts by the plotters to cover their own tracks. Vincent tells Michael that he has learned from Altobello of Mosca’s plot on his life. Vincent wants to strike back, but Michael cautions him, saying that if he goes ahead with such a plan, there will be no turning back. Vincent insists on revenge, and Michael relents, making Vincent the new Don of the Corleone family. In exchange, Vincent agrees to put an end to his relationship with Mary.

The family travels to Palermo to see Anthony perform the lead in Pietro Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” at the renowned Teatro Massimo. Meanwhile, Vincent exacts his revenge: Interspersed with scenes from Anthony’s performance are the brutal murders of the enemies of the Corleone family:

• Frederick Keinszig is abducted by Vincent’s men, who smother him with a pillow (first having a rosary dropped on his face) and hang him from a bridge to make his death look like an apparent suicide.
• Don Altobello, also attending the opera, eats a poisoned cannoli that his goddaughter Connie gives him. He soon dies a silent death as Connie watches from her box.
• Al Neri travels to the Vatican, where he shoots Archbishop Gilday as he climbs a spiral staircase and throws his corpse down the gap between the stairs.
• Finally, Calo (Tommasino’s former bodyguard) meets with Don Lucchesi at his office, claiming to bear a message from Michael. After being thoroughly frisked for weapons, Calo stabs Lucchesi in the throat with Lucchesi’s own glasses, killing him before being shot by Lucchesi’s bodyguard.

The killings are too late to save the Pope, however. Even as Michael and Vincent’s men wipe out the plotters, His Holiness drinks poisoned tea provided to him by Archbishop Gilday and soon dies in his bed.

Mosca, still disguised as a priest and armed with a sniper rifle, descends upon the opera house during Anthony’s performance, killing three of Vincent’s men and preparing to shoot his target from a box, but the opera ends before he has the chance to pull the trigger. The assassin retreats to the opera house façade’s staircase and tries to shoot Michael there. At the same moment, Mary is confronting her father about the forced break-up with Vincent. Mosca fires his handgun twice, wounding Michael and killing Mary. As Mosca is wrestled to the ground by a group of real priests, Vincent kills him with a single shot. As Kay weeps, Michael cradles Mary’s bloody body in his arms and screams in agony.

The scene dissolves to a short montage of Michael’s memories, the first being a dance with Mary, the second being a dance with his first wife Apollonia, and the last being a dance with Kay — symbolizing the women he has lost.

The film ends with Michael as an old man, seated alone in the front yard of his Sicilian villa. After slowly putting on a pair of sunglasses, he drops an orange from his hand. He slumps over in his chair, collapses to the ground, and dies, completely alone.

REVIEW:

The Godfather, part III opens with the haunting melody that has framed the score of all three films. When you hear this, then see New York City, you know that you are in for a real treat, in terms of cinematic beauty and accomplishment.

This film picks up where The Godfather, part II left off, only years later. Michael Corleone is now an old, gray-haired man trying to turn the Corleone family legitimate. Unfortunately, it seems that at every turn, something throws a monekywrench into the plan and pulls him back in.

Al Pacino has grown as an actor since The Godfather. If you have seen the earlier two films, then watch this picture, you can see what I’m talking about (once you get past that he hasn’t aged very well).

Diane Lane plays an important, yet unimportant role in this film. In the previous pictures, she has been a major character, but in this one, she is there just as the ex-wife, which is what she is. This, however, is a waste of her talents, but I guess there are no small parts, right?

The most impressive part of the cast has to go to Andy Garcia. His Vincent Mancini (later changed to Corleone) is, as one writer put it, a mixture of the Corleones. Now that I think about it, this does sum up his character. Think about it, though. For one man to portray a mixture of all the Corleones is one major undertaking, and I have to give props to Garcia.

Sofia Coppola has been blasted for her role as Mary Corleone. This is my take on her role. No matter how good an actor you are, there is only so much you can do with the material you’re given. Mary didn’t really have much to do, except for a couple of scenes that let her shine. That being said, these scenes weren’t that great for her. She could have done much more with them than what she did.

Violence is a tad toned down in this film, as opposed to the previous films, but there is still some bloody scenes.

On the negative side of things, again, this film is a bit on the long side for my taste, but that’s a personal issue. Towards the end of the film, ti does get a bit confusing trying to figure out who is in on the plot to keep Michael from gaining power in the Illuminaire and who Vincent has sent on the job. I got lost there, but upon a second or third viewing, I may be able to keep up.

The conclusion the The Godfather saga has been ripped apart by film critics left and right. Quite honestly, I don’t see what they’re getting so up in arms about. Sure it isn’t as good as its two predecessors, but at the same time, the drop-off isn’t that far. Not to mention that we are introduced to some new characters as well as see how some others have grown over the years. Someone said that this wasn’t necessarily a sequel, as much as it was an epilogue. I can live with that. In any case, it is a fitting end and final chapter to one of the great trilogies in cinema. Don’t deprive yourself of seeing this fine film, or the entire trilogy.

4 out of 5 stars