Mental Floss - 20 Facts About The Godfather Part III
by Todd Gilchrist 21 January 2021 | Updated: 19 March 2022

The original The Godfather (1972) and its 1974 sequel, The Godfather Part II, exist on the same “unassailable” level of cinema history that's typically reserved for only a handful of other films, including Citizen Kane

These are the rare movies that carry the kind of reputation that few people would ever dare challenge. Perhaps that’s why a lot of people, especially the ones loudly declaring The Godfather's greatness, seem to ignore the very existence of The Godfather Part III

Francis Ford Coppola returned to the well of his greatest commercial and critical success in 1990 for The Godfather Part III and it promptly became an unwelcome addition to an accomplishment that by all accounts was already perfect

Much of the negative attention was directed at the fact that Coppola cast his daughter Sofia (who was not then or now an actor) in a pivotal role and generally repeated too many elements of its predecessors to comparatively hollow effect

As the film celebrated its 30th anniversary in December 2020 Coppola finally delivered The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, a version of the film that most closely approximates the director's original vision for a conclusion to The Godfather saga

But even if a new, mercifully shorter version doesn't repair all the problems that audiences had with the film in its original form, there are a lot of details that explain
1. what happened including why it was made
2. what Coppola’s original ambitions for it were
3. and why some of them didn’t pan out

Check out just a few of the behind-the-scenes stories that led to a complicated finale for one of film history’s most acclaimed series

• Item 19 - The Godfather Coda has a different ending

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