Fully worthy of the Godfather name

Rating: 8/10 (11 March 2000)

What's the deal with the slagging this film has taken? Ok, so it's not as good as the first one (few films are), but it's a more than worthy wrap-up to the series, teeming with all the elements that make the Godfather saga so engrossing: strong characters, shadowy back-room negotiations, elaborate plotting and double crossing, shocking yet fantastically orchestrated violence and, finally and most memorably, an operatic finale which is a masterpiece of cross-cutting between ritual and acts of murder. If the film sags around the edges, well - that's entirely appropriate too, since Michael Corleone, its lead character, is himself now aging and frail. It is as if each of the Godfather films takes its cue from Michael's metabolism: the first is full of zest and youthful exuberance, the second is cold, hard and opaque, and the third is creaky and totters on the brink of collapse. Many take this as a fault of the film, when really it is the perfect mirror of the soul of Michael himself. As such, the weariness which pervades the entire story is poignant and heartbreaking, not the result of bad filmmaking.
The acting is all first rate, as is expected by now in a Godfather film. As Sonny Corleone's bastard son Vincent Mancini, Andy Garcia makes a strong impression and the push-pull between he and Pacino - the young hothead vs. the wisened and calculating veteran - gives the film its edge, and its unique place in the Godfather canon. It is slightly unbelievable that Michael would have no one else to turn over the running of the family to besides Vincent, a tangential relation at best, but since it works dramatically you tend to overlook the flaw in logic. Likewise, the scenes between Michael and Kay carry a special charge; though written near the level of soap opera, the fact that it is actually Pacino and Diane Keaton sitting across from each other, and that we feel we have shared so deeply in their history together, breathes a curious kind of nobility and sadness into them. Like everyone else, I missed Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, but even his absence serves, in an ironic way, to underline the theme of Michael drifting toward the end of his life, losing all his associations along the way; the loneliness and solitariness which enveloped him by the end of the second movie have not gone away, and his attempts to fight against and deny this fact is what gives his character real tragic dimension here.
Ok, just a word on Sofia Coppola as Michael's daughter Mary. No, she's obviously not a trained actress and her readings are a little flat, but you know what? It doesn't make that much difference. Her character exists more as a symbol to Michael of innocence and incorruptibility than as a true three-dimensional personage. As such, she at least has the right look and feel - I can imagine her as Pacino's daughter in a way I don't think I ever could have bought Winona Ryder (who was originally to play this role). What I'm saying here is that, while she's not great, she does what she needs to do and she in no way sinks the film - if for no other reason than that her screen time isn't large enough to do so. And for those of you who laughed at her in the climactic scene, I can only point out that this is *Pacino's* dramatic moment, not hers; if you can look upon his soul-chilling reaction and still not be moved, then I think there must be something fundamentally dead inside you.
All in all, this is a great film, with a plot line that is at times admittedly hard to follow, but not nearly as much as the one in Part II. And this one has a better cast of characters - just think of it, the Corleones getting into business dealings with the Vatican! The audacity of this storyline alone should make it beloved to all true Godfather fans. And some of the violence here - including the helicopter assault in Atlantic City, the murder of Joey Zasa on the streets of Little Italy, and most notably the new and wildly unexpected use found for a pair of reading glasses - is as brilliant and memorable as anything in the first film, and supersede the second one entirely. In short, Godfather III makes a great wrap up to the entire saga, and earns its full place in the family history; it's no mere footnote, but a great and satisfying film all its own.