The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone – Premium Classics

While the first two films of The Godfather series are typically considered masterpieces, The Godfather, Part III has always had the reputation of being the film that was “not as good.” However, that didn't stop Francis Ford Coppola from celebrating the film's 30th anniversary by releasing a new Director's Cut of the film and restoring his originally intended title of The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. However, having never previously seen the third Godfather film, I decided to check out this new version of the film.

It is 1979 and an ageing Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) is desperate to leave the mafia world behind and is preparing a deal with Archbishop Gilday (Donal Donnelly) to deposit $600 million in the Vatican bank, in exchange for shares in Internazionale Immobiliare. However, Michael soon finds that a life of crime is a hard one to leave behind, especially after he takes his hot-tempered nephew Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia) under his wing, who is also having inappropriate relations with Michael's daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola). After an attempt on Michael's life in Atlantic City, things come to a head for Michael after he travels to Sicily to see his son Anthony's (Franc D'Ambrosio) debut as an opera star.

I suppose that I will start by talking about what exactly Francis Ford Coppola changed in The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Having never seen The Godfather, Part III, I did some research after the fact and found that very little was changed in the large scope of things. The biggest difference is that scenes were reordered or trimmed to give the film a new opening and ending, with the film as a whole being about 5 minutes shorter than the original. The new cut also features some new technical improvements, including a more modern looking colour-scheme.

Moving on to the actual plot, I had always heard over the years that The Godfather, Part III wasn't a particularly good film, despiting having been nominated for (yet not winning) the Academy Award for Best Picture, with the only other trilogy to see all three films get nominated being The Lord of the Rings. Perhaps it's partially a result of the changes Francis Ford Coppola make to this new cut, but I have to admit that The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone is still a pretty solid film, even if it can't be placed on as high a pedestal as the previous two films. Probably the biggest thing the film has going against it is that it was produced 16 years after The Godfather, Part II and doesn't feel as strongly connected as the first two films were. Indeed, as stated in the introduction he gives to The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, Francis Ford Coppola always considered this story to be an epilogue to the first two films.

Probably one major criticism about the film that is not entirely unfounded is the casting of a then 19-year-old Sofia Coppola as Mary Correlone, coming in as a last-minute replacement for Wynonna Ryder. Accusations of nepotism aside, it is quite evident throughout the film that Sofia Coppola didn't really have the strongest acting skills. Then there's the somewhat uncomfortable incestuous subplot of Mary developing a romantic relationship with her cousin Vincent Mancini, which is probably more an issue of the script by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzzo. At the very least, there can be a sense of relief that Sofia Coppola's career would rebound a decade or so later when she would decide to follow in her father's footsteps and become a filmmaker herself.

Despite the lengthy amount of time between the second and third films, most of the surviving cast members returned for this third chapter, with Al Pacino being joined by Talia Shire as Michael's sister Connie and Diane Keaton as his ex-wife Kay. They are joined by some new faces, including Eli Wallach as New York mafioso Don Altobello and Joe Mantegna as new rival Joey Zasa. It is also interesting to note that the plot of The Godfather, Part III has fictionalized depictions of real-life events, such as the 1978 death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal of 1981–82.

Francis Ford Coppola has never been a stranger to recutting his films, as evidenced by his multiple director's cuts of Apocalypse Now, however even though this was my first viewing of the film, I can say that The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone is a cut that ultimately seeks to improve the legacy of the final chapter of this franchise.