Actors - The Godfather Part III

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	Actors - The Godfather Part III

The Godfather, Part III (1990) is the third film in the Godfather
trilogy. It completes the story of Michael Corleone, a Mafia godfather who tries to legitimize his crime empire. The plot also weaves into its plot a fictionalized account of real life events--the mysterious 1978 death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal of 1981-1982--and links them with each other and with the affairs of Michael Corleone. The film stars Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton, Bridget Fonda, and Sofia Coppola.

The movie was written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, and directed by Coppola.

Unlike its predecessors, Godfathers Part I
and II
, Godfather Part III was not as widely critically acclaimed on release, and critics and fans remain divided on its legacy to this day.

Plot synopsis

The final chapter of the Corleone saga begins in 1979. Michael Corleone is now in his sixties, his children are grown (his son does not want to be a lawyer in the family business) and he has not seen his ex-wife Kay (now remarried to a judge) in eight years. Tom Hagen is dead; Tom's son Andrew (John Savage) has become a priest. Feeling that he may have made the wrong choices in life, Michael seeks to legitimize the family business. But these plans are upset by Vincent Mancini (Michael's illegitimate nephew) and his nemesis Joey Zaza. There is also a subplot regarding corruption in the Vatican and how Pope John Paul I's short reign and suspicious death was tied to the Mafia.

Casting

Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, and Talia Shire reprised their roles from the first two movies, but Robert Duvall, who played Tom Hagen in the first two films, refused to take part. According to Coppola's audio commentary on the film in The Godfather DVD Collection, Duvall refused to take part unless he was paid the same salary as Al Pacino. This did not happen and Duvall refused to participate, forcing Coppola to rewrite his screenplay to portray the Hagen character as having died before the story begins. Coppola created the character "B.J. Harrison", played by George Hamilton, to replace the function of the Tom Hagen character in the story. (Coppola had gone through a very similar process in the making of The Godfather, Part II. In that film, Richard Castellano, who had portrayed the capo regime or lieutenant "Peter Clemenza" in the first Godfather film, had refused to participate. Coppola responded by writing Clemenza out of the story as having died and replaced the character with a new character, "Frank Pentangeli", played by the late actor/playwright Michael V. Gazzo in an Academy Award-nominated performance.) The director further states that, to him, the movie feels incomplete "without Duvall's participation." According to Coppola, had Duvall agreed to take part in the film, the Hagen character would have been heavily involved in running the fictional Corleone charities.

Coppola further comments that before he was even brought on board, Paramount had already had a script prepared, centering on the Vincent Mancini character, the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone, with a plot revolving around the "new kind of wiseguy" (in Coppola's words) of the 70s and 80s and involving the drug cartels. The Vincent Mancini character was portrayed by Andy Garcia who was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Coppola says that he felt the Godfather saga was essentially the story of Michael, how "a good man becomes evil" as the writer/director puts it on the same commentary track referenced above. Coppola says he felt that Michael had not really "paid for his sins" in the second film and wanted this final chapter to demonstrate that. In keeping with this theme, Coppola wanted to subtitle the movie, "The Death of Michael Corleone," but Paramount balked.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Godfather Part III ]

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