"Godfather Part III"

Title: "Godfather: Part III"
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Producer: Francis Ford Coppola
Editing: Lisa Fruchtman, Jane Jenkins, and Roser Mussenden
Composer: Carmine Coppola (F.F.'s Dad)
Starring:
- Al Pacino as Don Michael Corleone
- Andy Garcia as Vincent Mancini
- Eli Wallach as Don Altobello
- Talia Shire as Constanzia "Connie" Corleone
- Diane Keaton as Kay Corleone
- Joe Mantegna as Joey Zasa

There's no sense in me trying to explain to you the plot lines from the first two "Godfather" films. If you've not seen the first two (don't worry if you haven't, I watched them for the first time just recently) you can follow these links to excellent Wikipedia articles on both films:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather_Part_II

Plot and Critical Review: The film begins in 1979. Michael Corleone is now 59 and feeling tremendous guilt for indulging in his ruthless ambition over the years, especially for ordering the murder of his brother Fredo almost two decades ago. Although his previous conquests have made him a very rich man the thoughts of his children, their future, happiness, and his legacy are the only things keeping him going now. His adopted brother Tom Hagen is now dead (it is strongly implied that Tom's death was a natural one) and the Corleone compound at Lake Tahoe has been abandoned. Michael and Kay divorced in 1959, and Michael gave her custody of their children, Anthony and Mary. He has since returned to New York City.

The violent criminal element of the Corleone family has been largely abandoned, ostracized by Michael as well as the public, which no longer romanticizes the gangster lifestyle. In an attempt to break with the past, Michael creates a charity, the Vito Andolini Foundation, in memory of his father.

At a lavish party following the ceremony, Michael and Kay have a somewhat uneasy reunion. Anthony tells his father that he is going to drop out of law school to pursue a career as an opera singer. Kay supports his choice but Michael initially disagrees, wishing that his son would either finish law school or join the family business. Anthony steadfastly refuses, stating that while he loves his father, he will never be part of the family business (much like Michael's initial relationship with his own father). Michael eventually, though somewhat reluctantly, acquiesces to Anthony's wishes. Meanwhile, Vincent Mancini, Sonny Corleone’s illegitimate son, shows up at the party. He is embroiled in a feud with Joey Zasa, the Corleone family's mafioso muscle. What remains of the old Corleone criminal empire — once the most powerful Mafia family in the nation — is now under Zasa's stewardship. However, the Corleones' old neighborhood in Little Italy is in ruins, and has become a slum. In Michael's study, Vincent and Zasa tell him about their feud. The discussion grows violent, with Vincent accusing Zasa of mocking Michael behind his back. Michael makes it clear that he is not a "gangster" and that whatever bad blood exists between Vincent and Joey Zasa is none of his business, and must only be settled between them. He asks the two men to make peace with one another. They embrace, but Zasa insults Vincent by whispering "bastardo" in his ear. Enraged, Vincent bites off part of Zasa’s ear. Michael agrees to take his nephew under his wing. The party concludes with a family picture where Michael asks Vincent to join the rest of the family.

That night, two men break into Vincent’s home, after Vincent has spent the night with a journalist (Bridget Fonda). Vincent kills one in order to frighten the other into revealing Zasa as the man who sent them, then kills him. Michael seeks to buy the Vatican's shares in Immobiliare, an international real estate holding company. He negotiates the transfer of $600,000,000 to the Vatican Bank with Archbishop Gilday, who has plunged the Holy See into tremendous debt through his poor management and corrupt dealings. While in the Vatican, Michael learns that several influential parties oppose the deal for many reasons, not the least of which is his extensive criminal history.

Don Altobello, an elderly New York mafia chief and old friend of the Corleones, tells Michael that his old New York partners of The Commission want in on the Immobiliare deal. A meeting is arranged at an Atlantic City hotel, and Michael appeases most of the mafia bosses with generous payoffs. Zasa, however, gets nothing. Furious, he declares that Michael is his enemy. Zasa storms out with Altobello close behind, attempting to calm Zasa down. Minutes later, a helicopter hovers outside the conference room and sprays the room with machine gun fire. Most of the other mob bosses are killed but Michael, Vincent and Michael's bodyguard, Al Neri, escape. Back at his apartment in New York, Michael is told that those mob bosses who escaped the massacre quickly made deals with Zasa. As Michael considers how to respond to this hit, he suffers a diabetic stroke, and is hospitalized.

Though they are cousins, Vincent and Mary begin a romantic relationship. Unbeknownst to Michael, Vincent plots revenge against Joey Zasa. During a street fair, Vincent and his accomplices kill Zasa's bodyguards, and Vincent, disguised as a police officer, murders Zasa himself. Michael, still hospitalized, berates Vincent when he finds out. Michael also insists that Vincent end his relationship with Mary because Vincent’s involvement in the family puts Mary's life in jeopardy. Vincent agrees.

The family takes a vacation to Sicily in March 1980, in preparation for Anthony's operatic debut in Palermo. Michael tells Vincent to speak with Don Altobello and to make known to him his intentions of leaving the Corleone family. Altobello supports the idea of Vincent switching his allegiance, and introduces him to Don Licio Lucchesi, the man behind the plot to prevent Michael’s acquisition of Immobiliare. Michael visits Cardinal Lamberto to speak about the Immobiliare deal. Lamberto convinces Michael to make his first confession in nearly thirty years in which he tearfully admits to ordering Fredo's murder.

Touring Sicily with Kay, who has arrived for Anthony’s operatic debut, Michael asks for her forgiveness. As they both admit that they still love each other, Michael receives word that Don Tommasino, his Sicilian friend and ally of the Corleone Family for over half a century, has been assassinated, signaling that a new round of violence is about to begin. Cardinal Lamberto is elected Pope John Paul I, which means that the Immobiliare deal will likely be ratified, due to his intention to "clean up" the dealings of the Vatican. The new Pope's intentions come as a death knell to the plot against the ratification of the Immobiliare deal, prompting frantic attempts by the plotters to cover their own tracks. Vincent tells Michael what he has learned from Altobello: Lucchesi is behind the plot against the Immobiliare deal, and a master assassin known as Mosca da Montelepre (the man who killed Tommasino), has been hired by Altobello to kill Michael. Vincent wants to strike back, but Michael cautions him, saying that if he goes ahead with such a plan, there’ll be no going back. Vincent insists on revenge, and Michael relents. He makes Vincent the new don of the Corleone family, telling him to "call yourself a Corleone." In exchange, Vincent agrees to finally put an end to his relationship with Mary.

The family travels to Palermo to see Anthony perform the lead in Cavalleria Rusticana at the renowned Teatro Massimo. Meanwhile, Vincent makes plans to seek revenge against the Corleone family's enemies. Interspersed with scenes from Anthony’s performance are the brutal murders of the enemies of the Corleone family.

- Frederick Keinszig is assaulted by Vincent's men, who hang him to make his death an apparent suicide.
- Archbishop Gilday has the Pope's tea poisoned. The Pope drinks it and dies.
- Don Altobello eats a poisoned cannoli that his goddaughter Connie gives him. He soon dies a silent death as Connie painfully watches.
- Al Neri shoots Archbishop Gilday as he climbs a spiral staircase.
- Finally, Calo approaches Don Lucchesi and whispers into his ear "Power wears out those who do not have it" before stabbing Lucchesi in the throat with his own pair of glasses, killing him before he is killed himself by Lucchesi's bodyguard.

Mosca, the assassin hired by Altobello to kill Michael, descends upon the opera house during Anthony's performance, killing three of Vincent’s men, but the opera ends before he has the chance to kill Michael. The assassin retreats to the opera house facade’s staircase, and tries to shoot Michael there. At the same moment, Mary is confronting her father about the forced break-up with Vincent. Two shots suddenly ring out. The first hits Michael in the shoulder. The second hits Mary directly in the chest, and she dies calling out to her father. A vengeful Vincent kills the assassin with a single shot. As Michael weeps and cradles Mary's bloody body in his arms, Kay screams in agony.

The scene dissolves to a short montage of Michael's memories, the first being a dance with Mary, the second being a dance with his first wife, Apollonia, and the last being a dance with Kay-symbolizing the women he has lost. The film ends in an unspecified year showing an aged Michael seated alone in the front yard of his Sicilian villa. He slowly puts on a pair of sunglasses, drops an orange from his hand, slumps over in his chair, collapses to the ground, and dies, completely alone.

There's no more word space for a critical review. See for yourselves the capstone to Coppola's masterpiece.

My Rating: 8/10

The "Reel Revelation": "Father, Forgive..."

After so many years of chasing the goal of the gangster and ignoring the consequences of his actions (outside of the bullets that chased him because of the men he killed/had killed) Michael Corleone's life slows down and he has time to reflect. At long last he is able to lift up his eyes and look at what his life has become. He sees the beauty of his children, feels the hurt of his divorce from Kay, and remembers all of those who have been lost to the "family business." And he remembers Fredo, his brother, whom he ordered to have killed. During a telling moment of pure emotion Michael confesses many of his sins to a priest during which he delivers these classic lines: "Father, I have sinned... I killed my brother... I killed my brother... I killed my mother's son... I killed my father's son..." Suddenly he realized the weight of his sin and the toll is has taken on his life, having been left untended for so long a time

Elsewhere in the film Michael also offers up this tender plea while sitting beside Don Tommassino coffin: "Goodbye my old friend. You could have lived a little longer, I could be closer to my dream. You were so loved, Don Tommasino. Why was I so feared, and you so loved? What was it? I was no less honorable. I wanted to do good. What betrayed me? My mind? My heart? Why do I condemn myself so? I swear, on the lives of my children: Give me a chance to redeem myself, and I will sin, no more."

Michael's heart was searching in the right direction but the redemption he was seeking could be found in the lifeless corpse of a mafia boss. His penitence was true, but the grace necessary to turn his life around could not be given by a dead man. He was much closer in the confession scene when he faced God (to some degree, at least) and asked for his forgiveness. All of the right pieces were in the place but the most important piece was missing; the presence of God.

We all carry around burdens that weigh us down. There are things within our lives that we've carried for so long their weight has become a part of our lives. We commit sins we don't call sin, we use foul worlds but we don't admit to cursing, and we live in the dark when God has called us into the light. You can only live this way for so long until your life will crumble just like Michael's did. I wish there was another alternative to offer, that I could say "...until your life crumbles or you...get a new job and your disposition returns." That is not the way of things. Sin has but one cost, one "wage", and it is death.

Confession is one of the most important elements of the Christian life. Not only do we invite and adversely nurture divisions between ourselves and God (on our end, not God's, of course) when we fail to confess our sins to him, but we drive others away when we're not open with our neighbors about our wrongdoings toward them. To make matters worse few things are as difficult as telling someone "i'm sorry" and meaning it. We are far more likely to generate an endless list of reasons to defend our position...to make what we did right and acceptable...long before we'd ever admit we've done something wrong. We fool ourselves and pull the cloak of ignorance further over our eyes. Only God can rescue us from this destructive cycle of living.

Lent is a season of reflection. What do you reflect on? Reflect on Christ's death on the cross, yes! Reflect on God's presence in your life, yes! Also reflect on your own sin. Be mindful (and honest!) of the things you've done that have brought pain into the world. When you feel conviction or shame don't back away, offer your heart to God and pray for him to absolve (wash away) your wickedness. It is one of the devil's most clever traps; to convince a Christian that by saying "Lord, have mercy..." on Sunday morning their hearts are clear of darkness. While a sin may be forgiven we will still wrestle with the inner turmoil of what that sin does to us long after the sin itself has been dissolved away by the blood of God's precious Son.

See you tomorrow - E.T.

P.S. - I apologize for the length tonight. Here's a video about forgiveness and saying i'm sorry that some may find helpful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_bdMecxias