Crime will never let you escape

Rating: 1/10 (19 July 2013)

The Godfather: Part III continues the theme of Family from the first two movies. In The Godfather, Michael had undergone an internal arc to go from outsider to Don of the family, dropping most of his morals along the way in order to protect the family. In The Godfather: Part II, this idea of the ends justify the means is taken to its logical extreme as Michael tears the family apart in order to protect it.
In Part III, Michael tries to make the family legitimate in order to redeem himself. Unlike the first movie, where Michael's internal change happens on screen, and unlike the second movie, where Michael's does not change at all, this movie has Michael shifting gears to try to pay for his past sins. But this change does not take place on screen. Michael starts the movie regretting his distance from his children and spends the whole movie trying to make up, his internal compass does not change through the movie.
So all we are left are two external plot lines: Michael's efforts to legitimize being constantly thwarted and his failure to protect his family because of his past sins keep catching up to him.
The movie seems to be about something like "Crime will never let you escape". But the movie doesn't really prove this because so much of what Michael is paying for is offscreen and in the past two movies. The whole movie just feels like a confession for past sins and the filmmakers showing us that bad deeds will always catch up to us. The idea is not proved by action and choice of the characters on screen. This movie is a necessary but not a worthy tribute to the first two films, it probably shouldn't have been made at all.
My Story Chart of the movie is at storycharts.ca.