Rehash, Retread! Oh, to be at the 1st Script Reading!

Rating: 6/10 (21 June 2002)

Coppola is very gifted. That said, place some blame where it belongs and that's Paramount. Puzo took over 3 years to research and write The Godfather; then several months with Coppola to write the screenplay, ..it shows. In Godfather PART II, Coppola had only 3 months, but had obviously wanted to make some statements with the 1st movie, so some of those ideas had been simmering for 2 years (plus Puzo already had the background story written of Vito's rise to power) and that high quality shows too. Now Part III! Coppola and Puzo wanted 6 months to write, and release at the end of 1991. Paramount allowed only 6 WEEKS, and demanded a release for the 1990 year-end holiday season. So...the writing team had to take a "if it ain't broke don't change it" attitude, and THAT shows too.
One can only speculate (humorously) how that 1st script reading went when they gathered all the principles together: (SPOILERS from all 3 movies)
COPPOLA: "Welcome everybody to our first reading of The Godfather Part III. (Applause) Now during this run-thru, I'd like everyone to stay in character, so I'll be referring to everyone by their character names. Ready??? This is how Part III will be fresh and different. First off, this movie is going to begin...With a Celebration!" MICHAEL: "But I thought that's how we started 1 & 2? " COPPOLA: "That's right! But in the first one I was trying to show the family warmth under Vito's regime and in the second one I was showing how it was getting colder under Michael's regime." MICHAEL: "So what's different?" COPPOLA: "Well this time we're going back to the warmth, cause last time it was cold." MICHAEL: "Oh!" COPPOLA: "Then we're going to do a family portrait with everyone posing. And just before the photographer clicks..." KAY: "I know! I know! Michael's going to say 'Wait a minute', walk over to where I'm standing, grab me and walk me back so I can be in the photo too." COPPOLA: "No-ooo... I said this was going to be different! This time Michael will say 'HOLD IT!', grab Vincent so HE can be in the photo." KAY: "Oh!" COPPOLA: Then we're going to have Tom Hagen say to Michael that Luca Brasi wants to see him and Michael will be kinda nervous and sort of stammer 'Is this necessary?'" MICHAEL: "I just talked to Tom yesterday and he says he can't be in the movie cause the pay ain't high enough. And Luca's dead! And do I have to say that line cause Vito already said that in the first movie when Tom told HIM about Luca being at the wedding." COPPOLA: "Alright! then we'll have Al Neri say that Joey Zaza wants to see you and you say, 'Do I have to see him?' Is that better?" KAY: "A Dance! We gotta have a Dance!" COPPOLA: "That's right! And in this one the Don is going to dance with his daughter." CONNIE: "But Vito already danced with me at the end of my wedding in the first one. And we danced to the 'Godfather Waltz'. Remember??" COPPOLA: "That's right! But in this one, Don Michael, not Don Vito, will dance with his daughter Mary." MICHAEL: "Are we going to play the same waltz that was played 35 years ago?...cause they've had some good dance tunes during the past few years you can really danc..." COPPOLA: "No-ooo...we're going to play the same waltz because it will remind the audience of what a great time they had watching the first movie. And we're going to stretch it by playing the waltz over and over while I show the chandelier." MARY: "Why do we need to show the chandelier?" COPPOLA: "Because this movie has STYLE and I want to show that Mary is the light of Michael's life." MARY: "Oh!" COPPOLA: "And I want all the guys to wear black suits and all the girls to wear deep red or gold gowns." CONNIE: "But Francis, this is 1979, nobody wears all the same colors anymore. In fact, they didn't even wear the same colors in the two other movies. There's this word I saw in the dictionary called 'variety'; I read it, and it means..." COPPOLA: "Anyone not wearing their assigned colors will not be allowed in the party. We already had variety in the other movies and I said this would be different." CONNIE: "Oh!" COPPOLA: " Now, later on Michael will send Vincent to go undercover to visit Don Altobella because he wants to find out what he's got under his toes." MICHAEL: "WAA-AAI-IT A MINUTE! Didn't Vito try that little trick when he sent Luca over to the Tattaglias to find out more about the turk Sollozo? And they figured that scheme out kinda quick because, correct me if I'm wrong, Luca ain't with us today because of that little stunt. And besides! The proper term is to find out what he's got under his fingernails, not toes. Why would you have me send Vincent to check out the guy's toes for????" COPPOLA: "Alright...FINGERNAILS!! Ya happy?? Then we're going to have Vincent 'make his bones' on Joey Zaza, and it will be during a Catholic parade and there'll be a police officer involved and..." MICHAEL: "Hold up Francis! If I remember right, Vito 'made his bones' on Fanucci during a Catholic parade; and I 'made my bones' on Capt McCluskey who was a police officer. Am I right or am I right? COPPOLA: "That's right! But this time 'Vincent' is the police officer and the last time the parade was going east and this time it will be coming from the west." MICHAEL: "But if the parade is coming from the west, then it's STILL going east" COPPOLA: "Then we'll shoot it so people will think it's going west, but they'll be reminded of the parade from the second movie and remember what a good time they had watching it." B J HARRISON: "Jeeszee Francis...sounds like we're going over familiar ground here" COPPOLA: "What's YOUR beef? What have you been in the last 10 years? If we paid Tom the money he asked for, you wouldn't even be sitting here. Oh! That reminds me! Vincent... can you ride a horse? VINCENT: A Horse???? In Brooklyn?? Why would I have wanted to take the time to learn how to ride a horse for??? I'm a Corleone outcast! I grew up in a concrete jungle in a tough neighborhood...not out west! They've got some modern inventions in New York called subways and taxis and cars, and they can get me to wherever I want to go faster than any horse I know. And where do I find a poopie scooper big enough to pick up the kind of mess THEY leave behind? And besides... I don't remember you asking Michael to jump on a horse and go chasing after Sollozo. And what about Sonny? I think my dad would've looked kind of assinine gallopping after Carlo and telling HIM to get out of town. And what's with this 'Yippee-kai-yea'? I gotta say 'Yippee-kai-yea' while I'm shooting Joey Zaza?? COPPOLA: "Alright! Just say his name once or twice...then shoot him." KAY: "But the new stuff? When do we get to the new stuff?" VINCENT: (under his breath) "This horse thing sounds kinda new to me." CONNIE: "But we had a horse in the first movie." COPPOLA: "Nooo...we had PART of a horse in the first movie. This is different!" VINCENT: (still under his breath) "Yeah...REAL different!" KAY: "But some GOOD new stuff! When do we get to the GOOD new stuff? And what about me? What do I get to do?" COPPOLA: "Well I was coming to that...but first we've got to have a scene in Italy with Don Tommasino inside the villa." MICHAEL: "The same villa where the car blew up?" COPPOLA: "That's right! And in this scene we'll give Vincent an orange." VINCENT: (irritably) "What for??" COPPOLA: "Because the orange is a symbol of evil and we need to show it to the audience." VINCENT: "So what do I do with it?" COPPOLA: "I don't know! Sniff it!" VINCENT: "But I KNOW what an orange smells like." COPPOLA: "Well after you sniff it, bounce it up in the air a couple of times and catch it one handed." VINCENT: "Com-on Francis! It's gonna be hot. I'll be hungry. Why don't I just eat it." COPPOLA: "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard. Do you want the audience to look at a mutilated half-eaten orange? The whole symbolic evil thing will go right out the window." VINCENT: "But oranges can be slippery. When I catch it, can't I use two hands?" COPPOLA: "Now I've heard everything! You want to be the new Don? You want to learn underworld business, double crosses, billions of dollars of legal and illegal revenue?...and you don't want to take 10 minutes to learn how to catch an orange one handed. VINCENT: "Well I don't remember Michael or even Vito having to learn to catch an orange one handed. How come I'm getting all this new stuff?" COPPOLA: "Alright, we'll get you a kitten. Vito had to handle a kitten in the first movie at Connie's wedding. And a kitten moves. And it makes noise. And it has claws. Is that what you want? You want to be bouncing a kitten up in the air while you're talking to Don Tommasino? Cause if you catch it wrong I don't want to be within a hundred yards of you and some teed off kitten." VINCENT: "Alright, I'll learn this orange thing, but I gotta tell you, all this new stuff keeps getting worse." KAY: "Me!!What about me!! COPPOLA: "I'm getting to that. Now Michael, I've been watching you rehearse your last scene. You're falling out of the chair okay, but you're not dropping the orange right." MICHAEL: "That's cause I don't want to hit the puppy." COPPOLA: "Then keep one eye open so you miss the puppy." MICHAEL: "You want me to gasp my last, drop the orange, slump over, fall out AND keep one eye open. Won't the audience see I have one eye open?" COPPOLA: "No, because just before you slump, put your sunglasses on." KAY: "But me!! How about me?? What do I get to do?" COPPOLA: "Well Kay, when you go to visit Michael at the hospital, I want you to walk DRAMATICALLY into his room." KAY: "You mean walk dramatically up to his bed??" COPPOLA: "No...pretend you're walking around the block to get to your next door neighbors' house, because I'm trying to show that there's still some distance between you and Michael." KAY: "Like this?? You want me to walk dramatically like this???" COPPOLA: "Let's keep it down everybody! People in the back...no more snickering out loud while Kay works on her dramatic walk." MICHAEL: (from the back) "Hey Francis! I hear Johnny Fontaine is coming to the party to sing another love song like he sang at my sister's wedding." COPPOLA: "That's right!" MICHAEL: "Who is he going to sing to this time?"
For me, the end of the story will always be the last scene in Godfather PART II that shows Michael contemplating the consequences of his actions. That haunting image says more in 10 seconds than anything that followed in Part III.
Conclusion: They tried! Vatican sequences was intriging. But you can't take a pint to fill a gallon container. The Godfather and The Godfather PART II will always be a milestone in movie history and Part III will never take that away. I'll wait till they put the uncensored Godfather Novel For Television in chronological order on DVD (without Part III) before I buy it...or not buy it at all!