Hello everyone. I have been coming here for many years, but its the first time I'm posting her, so I hope my comments here will be seen openly minded and won't be taken aback because of it being my first post. I intended some time later to open a similar thread, but after seeing this topic and especially after reading Ricardo's post below, I though I could continue as well..

I completely agree. Over the years, I personally (and many others I understand) have noticed most people's dislikeness, or rather unease with the third part of the Corleone trilogy. THE GODFATHER was an epic masterpiece of Shakespearen porpotions, portraying the tranformation of Michael from a naive, soft and innocent American citizen to a brutal, merciless, vengefull and powerhungry Don, showing also Vito's persistance on keeping the Family business clean from any dangerous involvement (ie drugs), resulting to the aforementioned transformation, and when coming back to his senses, understands the vanity of things and accepts his son's fate. The film was as good as it was due to Francis Ford Coppola's persistance to tell a good story based on a great novel (and wisely not showing Jonny Fontane's and Lucy Mancini's backstories), with a brilliant cast (glorious and undeniably all-time-classic Marlon Brando, delightfull James Caan, scene-stealing Robert Duvall, sweet Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Richard Conte, Abe Vigoda, Al Lettieri and at the top of the cake, flawless Al Pacino in possibly the role of his life) that the studio felt was innapropriate (particularly with Pacino) and the best crew possible (Gordon Willis as the cinematographer, Dean Tavoularis with the production design, Nino Rota and his father Carmine as the composers, and a number of others..). The film is brilliant, as it examines the life of mafia in way that is very parallel to the situations and events of the time. In the end, all of Coppola's decisions were on the money, and the producers a couple years later offered him a sequel. THE GODFATHER PART II was also an epic masterpiece, with the same crew and most of the cast back for more. What this second film succeeded, is unbelieveable. It expanded and deepened its original like no other sequel before it (ever since, there a few instances of a good sequel, but this one will always remain THE great one), by chronicling the family storyline both before and after the original film, providing excellent background for the original film by showing Vito's begginings and also showing Michael's further corruption of power and his extended cold-like approach that uses upon all things (which he will regreat in PART III as you know). The cast again was brilliant (Actor's Studio legend Lee Strasberg, brilliant John Cazale, bitter Diane Keaton, bitch angry Talia Shire, scene-stealer Robert Duvall (yet again), Robert De Niro brilliantly portraying Brando's legendary character adding to it a great deal of character personification, and of course Al Pacino in his best ever performance in the trilogy, and perhaps his entire career) as well as all crew-related aspects of the film. It is also more ambitious, with a larger scope than the last one and at times too dark and moody. Yet the film succeeds not only because it tells a back-to-back parallel story (which I think is One of the reason it received an Academy Award), but because it bonded with the original movie, so strongly, that it almost feels like an extension of the original movie rather than a sequel, and I think I understand why FFC did that, and why he wanted the third Godfather to NOT be called PART III. The way I see it, and probably the way Coppola sees it, as I recently discovered on the DVD (I am a relatively new fan), the first two Godfathers are essentially ONE film, telling one single story, which is Michael Corleone's transformation from a good to an evil man and the consequences that come from choosing a certain destiny, while THE GODFATHER PART III (originally called THE DEATH OF MICHAEL CORLEONE, a much better title than PART III, although not the best) is merely an epilogue, the final chapter to a story already told, the rise of Michael Corleone, the Godfather.

TEH GODFATHER PART III is not a bad film though, not in any case. In fact, its downright brilliant, with a cunning cast (reconsiled Diane Keaton, matriarch Talia Shire, scene-stealer Eli Wallach, cool Joe Mategna, captivating Donal Donelly, satisfying Franc D'Ambrosio, mediocre Sofia Coppola, useless Bridget Fonda, garbege George Hamilton, brilliantly multi-layered Andy Garcia and of course, Al Pacino as the older, regretfull Don, in another captivating and downright ecellent performance), great production values and a storyline that is decidedly different from the other two, simply because the story here is Michael's unsuccessfull attempts to "buy" his redemption and to clear his Family from all criminal past, ties and current involvement, again unsuccessfully. It was a more personal dramatic movie than the other two, and it shows. But, for all the film's goods (which include FFC's excellent direction, proving that his amazing vision and imagery as a director is the one thing, among others, that truly remained the same in all three films), it still had problems, and most of them refer to its script, which is the weakest of the Godfather films (the weakest, which means "GREAT", but not "Godfather GREAT") and some questionable casting choices..

Specifically, the reasons for the drop of quality from the previous flicks are numerous, and they all most contribute to the fact that the film was simply made in very tight circumstances (won't say rushed, though I would say sloppiness. First and of more important factor to the film's uncomfort is the absence of Robert Duvall, who actually may not be in the same league of great actors like Pacino, Brando or DeNiro, he certainly brought alot of charm, familiarity, continuity and delight to the previous two pictures (less though in the second). Second factor could be the unfortunate situations that prevented quite a number of actors (who could possibly be better for the main roles) to be cast, like Julia Roberts (Coppola's top choice) and Winona Rider (exhaustion) for the role of Mary, Chazz Palminteri for the role of Joey Zaza, a number of actors (including Alec Baldwin, Nicola Cage, Val Kilmer etc.) for the role of Vincent Mancini and a few more. Add to that the death of the Willie Chichi actor and you get a porton of the script out. Third, Coppola was stripped of 6 months of shooting, and rushed production to finish the film for a December release. That actually shows that both Coppola and Puzo had little time to work on positive improvements and and worked hard to produce a quality picture from the material and time he had.

Anyway, given that the above flaws kept the film from becoming as great as the previous Godfathers, the film STILL did amazingly well given the circumstances. Could have been better, BUT not like the other two parts. Simply because it was a new story, not continuing from the second because both first two parts had a similar style and moodiness that was largely absent from the third film because the third film was intended to be darker, broodier and far more melancholic, as Michael questions his judgement over the years.

So, I suggest we try and collaboratively re-write THE GODFATHER PART III by inserting lost plot scenerys and characters that we would like to have seen in the film. NOT change the film utterly, but rather modify it to our expectations. I suppose one thing all would like to add is Tom Hagen.

Anyways, I think we could actually create a "game" out of it, where every and any member of this board (and I mean any) can post their ideas on how the existing THE GODFATHER PART III could be improved. With a few steps and a couple of nots, we can have a great script...

First step I suggest to be suggest characters and plot points that you would want to have seen in the film.
Second step suggest to be change the title of the film from THE GODFATHER PART III to a title that accomodates its main theme (ala THE DEATH OF MICHAEL CORLEONE), so we keep it clear that the film is not the third part of the same story, just the third film with the Corleones.
And the third and most important step, is to have someone re-write the script, with JGeoff's THE GODFATHER PART III TRANSCRIPT as the basis of the re-write.

Remember, you cannot:
1) change the Vatican-Immobiliaire storyline (but you flesh it out better)
2) change Anthony's profession (otherwise why woulkd they go to the opera house?)
3) change the Mary-Vincent love storyline (Coppola was very persistant on this, but you could find ways to expand it and improve it, and possibly end their relationship in another way)
4) the treachery of the family that lead to the Atlandic City hit and Michael's stroke
5) delete scenes that are PIVOTAL to the storyline and
6) be a jerk


Wow, now that was a long writing. I am very, very sorry if I bored you, or tired you, but I though we could have some fun with the re-write, and also, improve on the material that exists and realize the film's enormous potential. Afterall, Coppola was able to work out a great film with a relatively weaker script (note that it is not weak, but flawed) from the other corleone scripts, so you know that the ideas could've been realized in another reality.

I hope we can begin this "game" soon, and I will post my suggestions shortly thereafter.

Hope you have fun.

See ya...