Francis Ford Coppola’s problem with ‘The Godfather Part III’: “I had no desire to make a third”
Following up one of the greatest movies in history with another one of the greatest movies in history sounds like an order so tall it borders on the insurmountable. Still, Francis Ford Coppola achieved it with The Godfather and its equally monolithic sequel.
Unfortunately for the filmmaker, who did at least experience the rare fortune of lightning striking twice, the third time did not mark the charm. Revisionist history may have painted The Godfather Part III as a disaster. While it’s undoubtedly a massive step down from its illustrious predecessors, it’s nowhere near as much of a crushing disappointment as certain people make it out to be.
The feature secured seven Academy Award nominations, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’, recouped its production budget two and a half times over at the box office, and did exactly what was expected of it in drawing the sprawling story of the Corleone family to a close. It’s not a classic on the same level as the first two, but the film’s lasting legacy is that of disillusionment, and Sofia Coppola’s infamously terrible performance is unfair.
Still, Coppola has been happy to admit that he only agreed to step behind the camera for the threequel because, to paraphrase the seminal opener, the studio made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. However, the downside was that he had to compromise his artistic vision to make the movie Paramount wanted, at the expense of drawing things to a close the way he’d initially envisioned.
Speaking to GQ, the five-time Oscar winner acknowledged that he wasn’t particularly interested in returning to the well, but the financial lure was too good to turn down. “I had no desire to make a second Godfather. I had no desire to make a third Godfather,” he said. “I thought the first one was sufficient, but sometimes you are swimming in a sea where there are needs you have to do, like feed your family.”
That’s an awfully eloquent way of confirming he was swayed by the riches laid out in front of him, which ended up placing him in the unwanted position of acquiescing to the demands of those in the boardroom. “My feeling about the third movie is that it was a coda,” he concluded, and he had no interest whatsoever in calling it The Godfather Part III, which he believed to be a somewhat baiting title that could plant the seed in the audience’s mind that there could be more to come.
Coppola always wanted to call it The Death of Michael Corleone to make it abundantly clear that it wasn’t the latest chapter in an ongoing saga but a definitive ending. In his mind, “It would not have been considered a third instalment,” but rather “the third resolution” that would draw a line under the first and second parts with an epilogue. He did get there eventually, though, even if it did take 30 years.
To celebrate Part III‘s 30th anniversary, the re-edited The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone was released. It’s a sign that maybe Paramount should have listened to him from the beginning because it’s clearly the superior version of the film.
