Could Have Been as Good as the First Two Parts of the Trilogy

Rating: Null/10 (12 March 2009)

The idea of basing Godfather III around the conspiracy of the assassination of a Pope was a powerful choice and one that would have brought the trilogy to an even more amazing close had all things worked out. This is especially exciting when given the long held real-life suspicions about the death of the "30-day Pope".
I'm assuming that the original storyline with Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) was more potent and up to the standards of the prior Godfather films. Apparently Coppola himself was not very happy with the last minute changes he had to make when Paramount refused Duvall's salary demands. The storyline as is moved quite slowly in parts. This was especially so with the scenes involving Michael's re-courting of Kay. Both Pacino and Keaton are amazing actors; but they suffered with rather trite dialogue and a difficult circumstance to make believable. It seemed like filler dialogue to me. The same scenes rewritten more believably might have worked with these two fine actors; but they came off like bad soap opera scenes. Also the scenes with Vincent (Andy Garcia)and Mary (Sofia Coppola)this was also in part due to writing but also because of Sofia's lack of experience as an actress. Being the daughter of the director, she was raked over the coals for her performance. This was a bit unfair as the final choice rested with her father, not her. I can't believe that there were not a large number of very good actresses out there known and unknown that could have pulled the part off. Sofia as we know is not without talent. She has become quite an amazing filmmaker herself. Bridget Fonda, who's part was pretty much gratuitous, would have made a fine Mary.
The other problem with the film are the lack of layers of excellent supporting players. Instead of the likes of actors of the caliber of Duvall, Sterling Hayden, Richard Castellano, Joe Spinell and Richard Conte in supporting roles, we have the likes of George Hamilton and Don Novello who are talented actors. who although were capable in their roles were not up to the gold standard of the previous films.
I think had more time been spent on the central plot of Michael Corleone's desire to finally go straight through the recognition and partnership with the church and the resulting conspiracies this would have made for a better film even with the existing cast and script changes. However such are the ways of Studio filmaking where deadlines ended up putting too much pressure on Coppola to come up with last minute changes that would have perhaps preserved the greatness of the film.