You haven't seen the conclusion to the Godfather trilogy until you've seen The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Newly remastered and at an excellent debut price, this is an excellent choice to pick up and experience the film in a new way.
“Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of The Godfather: Part III, director/screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola brings a definitive new edit and restoration of the final film in his epic Godfather trilogy – Mario Puzzo’s The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.
Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), now in his 60s, seeks to free his family from crime and find a suitable successor to his empire. That successor could be fiery Vincent (Andy Garcia)…but he may also be the spark that turns Michael’s hope of business legitimacy into an inferno of mob violence. The film’s meticulously restored picture and sound, under the supervision of American Zoetrope and Paramount Pictures, includes a new beginning and ending, as well as changes to scenes, shots, and music cues. The resulting project reflects author Mario Puzo and Coppola’s original intentions of The Godfather: Part III, and delivers, in the words of Coppola, “a more appropriate conclusion to The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II.””
When I heard about this re-release from Francis Ford Coppola, I couldn’t help but think back to Apocalypse Now Redux. In his attempt to re-edit the film, Coppola added an entirely new subplot, around 50 minutes of additional scenes, severely altering the pacing of the film, essentially slowing it to a halt. He’s since released a ‘Final Cut’ that has fixed these issues, but I couldn’t help but be wary of further editing may do. I always found the harsh criticism of The Godfather: Part III to be a bit unfair. The story was a bit hard to follow at times, but the overall themes of the film: regret, loss, etc, still was able to shine through even in the film’s darkest moments. Although it is by far the weakest of the three, I admit that I was curious to see what changes were made, which gave me renewed interest in going back and revisiting the final film to his epic trilogy.
The new title of the film, The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, was always intended to be the original title according to Coppola. This wasn’t intended to be the finale of the story by any means, but an addition to it, as the Coda in the title suggests. The most notable changes are going to come from the beginning and ending of the film. It had been a while since I’ve seen the original cut, but will never forget the final moments and the significance of the oranges throughout the film.
One of the biggest problems with the original edit of the third film was the hard to follow plot line of the Catholic Church and the Immobiliare company that Michael was seeking to gain control of. The new beginning of the film paints this a bit clearer, as a scene that was originally midway through the film is now repositioned as the opener: a plea for help by the Church to Corleone, mirroring the other films. The price of that help? Controlling interest in the company, which would set out to legitimize Michael’s business and make him one of the richest men in the world. This puts this part of the story at the forefront and more clear to be the ultimate objective of everything the film revolves around, something the original cut had trouble doing.
Other scenes have been shifted around, certain ones cut for faster pacing, overall adding quite a lot to the film tonally. We see Michael’s arc much more clearly than before, his desire to legitimize his family business, getting pulled back in reluctantly, admitting to past horrors, an almost reconciliation with Kay, all leading up to the tragic conclusion. As much as I enjoy Sofia Coppola as a filmmaker, her uneven performance as Mary Corleone and her relationship with Vincent was a bit distracting in the original, this has been trimmed quite a bit as well, enhancing the story further.
Video
The video is presented in 1080p High Definition Widescreen 1.85:1 that is newly restored. This new transfer looks great. The picture is very clear and detailed. Grain is kept at a good level, with some of the colors of Sicily coming through nicely.
With this newly restored version of the third film, here’s hoping we will eventually perhaps even get a 4k release of the first and second film with Coppola overseeing. Those are titles definitely worthy of upgrades.
Audio
The audio is presented in a new Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track. The levels on this track sound excellent, and you’ll hear some very robust sound coming from sequences such as the Opera scene, or many of the Church scenes in which hymns can be heard echoing throughout the surrounds. Dialogue is clear and concise, heard naturally through the center channel. The soundtrack sounds just as good, with that Godfather score that is instantly recognizable from the other two.
Special Features
There is only one extra located on the disc, a very short introduction by Coppola that is optional before the film. It’s not a huge loss, as the earlier Blu-ray only contained commentary by Coppola, which wouldn’t make sense now with the film re-worked. However, for all the work he did to re-release the definitive version, it would have been nice to see something beyond him talking for a little over a minute.
- An Introduction from Francis Ford Coppola
It’s very rare that filmmakers have the opportunity to go back and change something for the better, and even rarer that the audience will get behind those changes. The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone is a marked improvement over the original, with the best part being that it’s only subtle changes you may not even notice if you haven’t seen the film recently. This is definitely worth checking out to see the differences for yourself, and perhaps give it another chance if you didn’t enjoy it the first go-around.
