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While The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone is a slightly leaner and more focused revision of The Godfather: Part III, Francis Ford Coppola’s revamp won’t do much to radically change anyone’s feelings about the final installment in his crime family saga, the 1990 film widely deemed a disappointment following the two instant classics that preceded it.
In other words, the problems in Godfather 3 are too fundamental to be erased by merely restructuring and trimming what had been a bloated, less than engaging finale. Tragedy and family — among the cornerstones of the Godfather saga — are precisely what’s so off about this final entry, whether it’s Godfather: Part III or Godfather, Coda. Al Pacino’s ailing, aging Michael and Talia Shire’s darker, vicious Connie are the most prominent returning cast members, with Diane Keaton’s remarried Kay playing a supporting role in service of Michael’s quest for forgiveness. But this Corleone family is a shell of the one we’d previously come to know; they’re less defined, less warm, and largely strangers to the viewer, with the film itself hardly developing any of its new characters to fill the void or bring anything unique or exciting to the saga.
The filmmaker’s daughter Sofia Coppola remains woefully miscast as Michael’s beloved daughter Mary, and her romance with her first cousin Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia) is still as cringe-inducing as it was 30 years ago. (Sorry, but there’s still no way to dress up incest between first cousins and make it into some tragic romance between star-crossed lovers doomed by the family business.) It’s not all Sofia Coppola’s fault, mind you, as Mary is underwritten and lacks any true motivation beyond wanting to be in love with her cousin, but a stronger actress could have transcended what little there is on the page for her to play. Mary is ultimately there to be the crushing blow to her father’s vain attempt at redemption. She says at one point she wants to be closer to her dad but at no point do we witness any true estrangement between them. Indeed, she appears to be the apple of his eye, with her aspiring opera singer brother Tony the one who has an icy relationship with their father.
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Garcia brings a much-needed jolt of charisma and energy to the whole affair as Sonny Corleone’s illegitimate son Vincent, succeeding where Sofia Coppola couldn’t in bringing more to his underwritten role. But Vincent lacks the gravitas and pathos of past Godfather characters; even his dad Sonny had more nuance and dimension to him. Vincent is a one-note, vicious hothead throughout, whose eventual graduation to become the new Godfather feels unearned; as loyal as he may be to Michael, he only got the job because there really was no one else left in line for it by then. The surrogate father-son bond between Michael and Vincent isn’t really explored much, and Michael, while firm on it needing to be called off, isn’t really as aghast at his daughter and his brother’s son being romantically involved as you’d think a father would be. (He’s more upset about Tony not wanting to become a lawyer.)
All of this is to say that even with Coppola’s rejiggering and wholesale cutting of scenes, there are still enough deep flaws in Godfather, Coda to keep the film from being anywhere near as good as the first two chapters. It is, however, still a slightly better version of the same movie, getting to its point in a more deft way by losing the original’s “Michael gets a papal medal” sequence and using Michael’s meeting with Archbishop Gilday about the Catholic Church’s debts — and Michael’s bid to acquire the Church’s stake in the firm Immobiliare — as the impetus for everything that’s to come. This was a smart change because it establishes what Michael wants — redemption (even if he has to buy it) as well as a legitimate future and fortune for his family — right off the bat.
Another notable difference is the very end of the film, which provoked laughter in the theater when I saw it back in 1990. Without giving too much away, Coda has a shorter and bleaker resolution than what was seen in the theatrical cut. It doesn’t redeem the deeply flawed nature of the movie, but it’s certainly a better ending than the one we’ve had for the past 30 years.
And while I’m personally interested in all the Vatican bank intrigue, the film is so engrossed in these machinations that it loses sight of what it should mean to the characters. The movie remains in service of the plot rather than the characters, with the minutiae of the Immobiliare deal getting far more screen time than the development of the tragic (albeit very misguided) romance between Mary and Vincent or the relationship between Michael and his children.
The cinematography, production design, and overall aesthetic of this final Godfather film remain as gloomily gorgeous as its predecessors, elements that this crisp new Blu-ray and digital transfer capture well. Francis Ford Coppola may have improved upon his initial release with this Coda, but no amount of reworking of this material can make Sofia Coppola’s performance better, the new characters more compelling, or the central plot less aloof.
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