What if Godfather 3 was made around 1975 - 1976, right after Part 2? I think with GF 1 &2 since they were made only 2 years apart and had similar styles, making them great companions to eachother. On the otherhand, luckily, there would be no Winegardner books, most likely, 3 would probably take place in the same time frame.
FFC did not want to make GFIII at all, and he and Puzo saw I and II as the complete
story. While GF and GF II were born of artistic inspiration, GFIII was born of purely commercial necessity. The studio wanted it, FFC and Puzo needed the money and its air of contrivance is one of the flaws of this good but not great film.
Interesting question though, Fredo, because if they had made a GFIII set, say in the early sixites, they could have dealt with issues like why J. Edgar Hoover denied there was a mafia (did Michael blackmail him?) and the possible role of the mob in the Kennedy assassination) Like this....
Hagen - You've compromised Hoover and our people in the bureau say they a lot of dirt on the President and his brother the attorney general. Hoover has a whole dossier on them...women, drugs, you name it. I don't think this crackdown the Kennedys are promising will go beyond Hoffa.
Frankie - I hate that goddamn Hoffa. If Hoover gets him then maybe those goddamn teamsters will stop interfering in my operations.
Michael - My father taught me many things, and one of them is that once the government breaks one organization they'll go after another. Unless I'm very wrong
Hoffa is a dead man walking.....Tom?
(Hagen hands Michael a file, Michael opens it and flips through the pages)
Michael - If Tom' information here is right, Howard Hughes is heavily involved in getting Richard Nixon elected in 1968, and at the same time he's making a move against the teamsters. He'll deliver them to Nixon and put him over the top, and in the meantime they'll throw Hoffa to the wolves. That leaves us exposed. The key as I see it is to get the Kennedys out of the way.
Tom - Mikie ...you want to kill the president?
Michael - You know you surprise me Tom....as I have told you before if history teaches us anything its that you can kill anybody. Now it doesn't have to be our operation. You've got the Cubans, what's left of Hyman Roth's organization and a bunch of disaffected people in the CIA, not to mention defense contractors who will make a fortune on Vietnam if Johnson gets in. I'm not talking direct involvement here , just moving events in a certain direction, that's all.
In the final montage at the end of the movie we see both Kennedy assasinations, A headline saying "Hoffa to Serve 10 Years," Nixon's election, the removal and outing of Hoover, and as the credits roll a picture of the Meadowlands being built.
