In a perverse way GFIII was perfect. It reflected the world of the 80s and projected the way the characters might have become. GF was very romanticized, and GFII was a slap-in-the-face reality check. GFIII was a very real, reality check. Think of Sopranos and you have GFIII; pyschological dissection, self-centered gratification, the "me" generation with money and egos to burn. It wasn't a fun movie. It showed us how f'd up the Corleones had become.......like the Gotti's had become.
That's interesting because I think Godfather III and The Sopranos couldn't be more different. In Godfather III you had Michael Corleone paying out $600 million like it was nothing to the Vatican Bank to take majority control of an international real estate company. You had intrigue that reached all the way up to the Pope, a helicopter attack that wiped out the whole Commission, etc. In The Sopranos you have a mob family in North Jersey involved in local rackets like bookmaking, card games, loansharking, extortion, stock fraud, truck hijacking, and construction kickbacks. Godfather III was much like the first two as far as being very romanticized and larger than life. The Sopranos was more like Goodfellas, down and dirty and more realistic.
