Thirty years after its release, “The Godfather: Part III” – long dismissed as the Fredo of the trilogy – becomes “The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone,” as Francis Ford Coppola joins the long list of directors who have discovered that in the age of digital and streaming, nothing is ever really finished.
Aside from the new title, which more closely reflects the tone that he and novelist/co-screenwriter Mario Puzo originally intended, Coppola has tinkered with the beginning and end, rearranging and editing some scenes. He has also trimmed 13 minutes from the movie, which still runs a characteristically epic two hours and 37 minutes.
Receiving a limited theatrical run in advance of a digital and Blu-ray release, the modestly revised film can’t fix everything that ailed the original, beginning with the casting of Sofia Coppola, the director’s daughter, in a pivotal role; and the absence of Robert Duvall, who opted not to return as consilgiere Tom Hagen due to a salary dispute. (George Hamilton filled the void, unremarkably, and seems to make a somewhat clearer contribution in this incarnation, if memory serves.)
“The Godfather” and its first sequel remain in the discussion among the greatest movies of all time, and the chronologically arranged “Godfather Saga” serves as a showcase of how neatly the latter’s flashbacks of a young Vito Corleone (played by Robert De Niro) expanded the story.
The third movie, on the other hand, came 16 years later, and despite the kick of Al Pacino reprising the role of Michael Corleone and Andy Garcia’s ferocious performance as Vincent, his brother’s out-of-wedlock son, pales by comparison. It’s by no means a disaster, but with expectations understandably sky high, not the final chapter for which one might have hoped.
Without breaking the two down shot for shot, Coppola’s editing feels as if it accentuates ties to the earlier films. Yet there’s only so much that can be done by rearranging pieces, and it’s not the sort of significant makeover associated with celebrated “director’s cuts,” a la “Blade Runner” or “Brazil.”
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of “The Godfather, Coda” is undertaking such an exercise – one for which nobody was clamoring – even with the film’s 30th anniversary as an excuse. The decision reflects the entertainment industry fascination with brand-name equity that has launched a thousand reboots and revivals, paired with an unquenchable demand for content that recently transformed Zack Snyder’s upcoming cut of “Justice League” from an internet meme into a reality.
Coppola’s latest swipe at “Godfather III” also has a special tinge of irony, since the movie’s central theme involves the question of whether it’s possible to escape the past. That’s embodied by the movie’s most memorable line, when Michael, having labored to go legitimate and shed his family’s ties to organized crime, laments, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
While crime pays in “The Godfather” movies, the benefits don’t come without sacrifice. That’s evident not only in Michael’s narrative arc, but his demand of Vincent in exchange for taking over the family business: “Give up my daughter. That’s the price you pay for the life you choose.”
Ultimately, the changes to this “Godfather” don’t feel significant enough to wholly justify the exercise, but it’s still interesting revisiting a movie that – unlike its predecessors – isn’t repeated constantly on AMC, both for its overlooked strengths as well as its much-discussed weaknesses.
From that perspective, Michael’s complaint about the past’s vexing gravity does possess an element of truth: Even when you think you’re out, the studios find ways to pull you back in.
“The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone” premieres in select theaters Dec. 4 and on Blu-ray and digital on Dec. 8.
