Brock Landers
11-29-2000, 02:33 PM
I hope I don't seem too serious...these films are just so complicated that they must be broken down to fully understand the greatness within...Brock...
With the film "The Godfather Part III", Francis Ford Coppola gives us a somber, riveting King Lear-like tale that is far from perfect and represents storytelling a few levels below the first two "Godfather" films...
Still, it's painfully genuine, the most corrosive film since Akira Kurosawa's equally bleak "RAN", which shares the common link to "King Lear". True, some of the details of the story are blurry, but I felt Coppola's full investment on an emotional level...
Al Pacino's Michael Corleone is Coppola's sick and tragic king. The year is 1979 and Michael, the weight of his immoral choices graven into the fallen flesh of his face like the imprints of paws in the snow, is seeking escape from the "guilt" of his past (notably the murder of his brother, Fredo) in the bosom of the Catholic Church... The film opens at one of those ironic family celebrations that marked the first two films, where honest joy and dirty business go hand in hand with the rhythms of the party...
Michael attempts to bribe his way into heaven by thrusting huge amounts of cash on the Vatican, and for his efforts is awarded a high church decoration, which is the cause of the party. However, he has still not lost his business savvy. In exchange for the donations, he expects Vatican support in his plan to take over a European conglomerate, which will completely remove the Corleone family from the nasty trade that earned them their power...
The film has three acts:
1. Michael forestalling the challenge of a flashy mid-level gangster named Joey Zaza, very well played by Joe Mantegna...
2. Michael retreats to Sicily to recover his health (he's diabetic) and to contemplate the obstacles to his course...
3. Michael moves swiftly and with authority to destroy his oppressors, but at tragic cost...
Similar to the first two films, the plot throws in some events from the real world, notably the financial scandal that rocked the Vatican in the late 1970's and the short reign of Pope John Paul I...
Some themes, which were expressed more forcefully in the first two films, reappear...the visionary Godfather opposed by a seemingly unworthy enemy who actually fronts for a much slyer and more sophisticated opponent...the terrifying calculus in determining what is "family" and what is "business"...the coming of a swift young hero out of nowhere, his rise, and at what expense...the development of tender young love, and its betrayal...but "Godfather III" is never quite as sharp as its predecessors...its plot is muddled...the complex financial conspiracy that underlies the story never becomes clear...and it never acquires the urgency of the first two films...
Pacino is simply magnificent...without him ther is no film...he provides more than enough charisma...Andy Garcia as Vincent Mancini, Sonny Corleone's illegitimate son (we saw his vertical conception in the opening moments of "The Godfather"), is a star as he shifts from angry street punk to smooth choreographer of family business. Garcia is like fire & ice, he has Sonny's toughness and temper, but he learns, over the movie's three hours, Michael's gift for control...Diane Keaton, Eli Wallach and Talia Shire all do fine...Sofia Coppola, who replaced Winona Ryder, is not a professional actress and it shows in her awkwardness. Some people let this ruin the film for them, I did not...the cinematography is gorgeous and the stately rhythms remain intact from the previous films...
"The Godfather Part III" is a mixed emotion...dark and light...the darkness being crime, conspiracy and bitter failure...the light being art, humanity and the pulse of life itself...
With the film "The Godfather Part III", Francis Ford Coppola gives us a somber, riveting King Lear-like tale that is far from perfect and represents storytelling a few levels below the first two "Godfather" films...
Still, it's painfully genuine, the most corrosive film since Akira Kurosawa's equally bleak "RAN", which shares the common link to "King Lear". True, some of the details of the story are blurry, but I felt Coppola's full investment on an emotional level...
Al Pacino's Michael Corleone is Coppola's sick and tragic king. The year is 1979 and Michael, the weight of his immoral choices graven into the fallen flesh of his face like the imprints of paws in the snow, is seeking escape from the "guilt" of his past (notably the murder of his brother, Fredo) in the bosom of the Catholic Church... The film opens at one of those ironic family celebrations that marked the first two films, where honest joy and dirty business go hand in hand with the rhythms of the party...
Michael attempts to bribe his way into heaven by thrusting huge amounts of cash on the Vatican, and for his efforts is awarded a high church decoration, which is the cause of the party. However, he has still not lost his business savvy. In exchange for the donations, he expects Vatican support in his plan to take over a European conglomerate, which will completely remove the Corleone family from the nasty trade that earned them their power...
The film has three acts:
1. Michael forestalling the challenge of a flashy mid-level gangster named Joey Zaza, very well played by Joe Mantegna...
2. Michael retreats to Sicily to recover his health (he's diabetic) and to contemplate the obstacles to his course...
3. Michael moves swiftly and with authority to destroy his oppressors, but at tragic cost...
Similar to the first two films, the plot throws in some events from the real world, notably the financial scandal that rocked the Vatican in the late 1970's and the short reign of Pope John Paul I...
Some themes, which were expressed more forcefully in the first two films, reappear...the visionary Godfather opposed by a seemingly unworthy enemy who actually fronts for a much slyer and more sophisticated opponent...the terrifying calculus in determining what is "family" and what is "business"...the coming of a swift young hero out of nowhere, his rise, and at what expense...the development of tender young love, and its betrayal...but "Godfather III" is never quite as sharp as its predecessors...its plot is muddled...the complex financial conspiracy that underlies the story never becomes clear...and it never acquires the urgency of the first two films...
Pacino is simply magnificent...without him ther is no film...he provides more than enough charisma...Andy Garcia as Vincent Mancini, Sonny Corleone's illegitimate son (we saw his vertical conception in the opening moments of "The Godfather"), is a star as he shifts from angry street punk to smooth choreographer of family business. Garcia is like fire & ice, he has Sonny's toughness and temper, but he learns, over the movie's three hours, Michael's gift for control...Diane Keaton, Eli Wallach and Talia Shire all do fine...Sofia Coppola, who replaced Winona Ryder, is not a professional actress and it shows in her awkwardness. Some people let this ruin the film for them, I did not...the cinematography is gorgeous and the stately rhythms remain intact from the previous films...
"The Godfather Part III" is a mixed emotion...dark and light...the darkness being crime, conspiracy and bitter failure...the light being art, humanity and the pulse of life itself...