Review #1,341: 'The Godfather Part III' (1990)

The status of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II as two of the greatest movies ever made meant that Part III, made 16 years after the previous instalment, was always going to be in for a rough ride if it turned out to be anything other than perfection. Of course, it wasn't, and the film has since been considered as something of the deformed runt of the litter ever since. 28 years have now passed since director Francis Ford Coppola and writer Mario Puzo drew the curtains on the Corleone family legacy, which is ample time to set aside the anger and frustration generated after the original viewing and reevaluate it objectively. Is it anything near as bad as the film's reputation would suggest? No, not at all.

The story picks up in 1979, with Don Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) seeking legitimacy for his family business and moving out of the murky criminal underworld he has spent most of his adult life dwelling in. To do this, he strikes a deal with Archbishop Gilday (Donal Donnelly) to pay off his astronomic debt in exchange for shares in an international real estate company, making him the largest shareholder as a result. Meanwhile, the bastard son of Michael's brother Sonny, Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia), has returned home to offer his services, and to justify his beef with the ambitious boss of the Corleone's New York operations, Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna). Michael agrees to take the young hot-head under his wing, but Vincent starts to develop feelings for his cousin - and Michael's daughter - Mary (Sofia Coppola).

Many of the complaints aimed at the film usually involve the overly bleak tone, a confusing and slow-moving plot, and the performance of Sofia Coppola, and these are all completely justified. Coppola and Puzo's decision to move the main action away from the mob's dirty dealings and their individual attempts to grab power to rambling conversations and business speak with the Catholic Church understandably isolated a huge chunk of the core fan-base. An already-dull story isn't helped when it's difficult to grasp exactly what's going on. And Sofia Coppola really is terrible. Her decision to make the switch from actor to director was the best decision she could have made, and we've had the pleasures of The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation as a result. Her relationship with Vincent is key to the movie's themes, but their scenes play out in spectacularly bland fashion.

Yet there is still plenty to savour in The Godfather Part III.  Where it fails in the quieter moments to make its central story involving corruption within the Church remotely engaging, the set-pieces are still immaculately crafted, something of a Godfather staple. The climax gradually builds the tension to an unbearable level, and there's a nice moment during a crowded street festival involving Vincent and Joey. There's also the other performances, with Pacino delivering one of finest of his career, and Talia Shire and Diane Keaton injecting real emotion in their roles of sister and ex-wife, respectively. This is Michael at his most guilt-ridden and tortured, as he reflects on a life built on the blood of others during his savage quest for power, including of course, his own brother Fredo. Pacino really excels here, as he portrays a man distracted by melancholia and seeking any kind of redemption for his past actions. This will always be the unwanted stepchild of The Godfather trilogy, but go into it with an open mind and you may find that it's much better than you remembered.


Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, Sofia Coppola, George Hamilton, Bridget Fonda
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #428: 'The Misfits' (1961)

On August 5th 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found dead in bed. She died of an overdose, which is often viewed as suspicious. That was 50 years ago, and her complexity as a woman, and her image endures without any abate. It is the fact that she was such a complex and damaged person that her screen icon status still adorns the walls of many people, and her perplexed beauty still has the power to beguile en-masse.  The Misfits was her last completed film, - she never completed the filming of George Cukor's remake of My Favourite Wife (1940), Something's Got to Give, which has been subsequently released as a short - and I feel that it captures much of what made Norma Jean Mortensen, Marilyn Monroe.

She plays Roslyn, a newly divorced woman, who meets up with a couple of older men, Guido (Eli Wallach) and Gay (Clark Gable - this was also his last film), and escapes with them to a country house. The men are besotted with this naive, sexy blonde who seem's to have a certain verve for life. They meet with Montgomery Clift's rodeo rider, Perce, as they venture out to the desert first for rodeo, then to catch some Mustang's (horses, not the car). When Roslyn discovers that the men plan to sell the horses for dog meat, her attitude towards the men, and their dying practises changes.

Set in Nevada, the film engenders the idea that the cowboy, the working man, is something of the past. Modernity is taking over the landscapes of America, and this ethereal blonde figure enters the three men's lives to emasculate them from the barbaric ways of the past. But she is not there only for the purpose of altering the outlook of these gruff men, or to push modernity into the plains. Like the real Marilyn, Roslyn craves the attention of men, - Norma Jean never knew who her real father was, and her mother was less than interested in her - and especially is needy for a father figure; a man she can fully trust and rely on.

This collusion of Marilyn's real-life and the character in The Misfits is no accident of course. The screenplay was written specifically for her by her then husband, playwright Arthur Miller, and he clearly knew her need for that elusive father figure, and her need to soak up attention, and wear her body (and image) as a mask to her internal pain, and tragic sense of abandonment.

Whilst certainly not her best film (director John Huston had stated that she was difficult, and the decision to shoot in black and white was due to her bloodshot eyes - caused by alcohol and prescription drugs), that surely would go to Some Like it Hot (1959), but this is absolutely her greatest, and most revealing role. The Misfits also tells of the damaging effects of modernisation, and the nostalgia of the past.


Directed by: John Huston
Starring: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter, Eli Wallach
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Marc Ivamy