The Godfather Part III
Coppola's 1990 epilogue, meant to be called The Death of Michael Corleone.
The Godfather Part III is the 1990 epic gangster film that closes Francis Ford Coppola's trilogy, produced and directed by Coppola from a screenplay he wrote with Mario Puzo, following Michael Corleone's attempt to make his criminal empire legitimate.
Quick Facts
- Director
- Francis Ford Coppola
- Writer
- Mario Puzo; Francis Ford Coppola
- Music
- Carmine Coppola
- Cinematography
- Gordon Willis
- Editing
- Barry Malkin
- Lisa Fruchtman
- Walter Murch
- Production companies
- Paramount Pictures; Zoetrope Studios
- Distributor
- Paramount Pictures
- Released
- 20 December 1990, Beverly Hills, 25 December 1990, United States
Facts from the source article.
Background
Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy García, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, Bridget Fonda, George Hamilton and Sofia Coppola star. The story weaves in fictionalised versions of the 1978 death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal of 1981-82. Coppola had refused a third film until the failure of his 1982 musical One from the Heart left him in financial trouble; he and Puzo wanted to call it The Death of Michael Corleone, treating it as an epilogue, but Paramount rejected the title.
Winona Ryder was cast as Michael's daughter Mary but left, citing other commitments and nervous exhaustion, and the part went to Coppola's daughter Sofia, drawing accusations of nepotism. Shooting ran from late 1989 to early 1990 in Italy and the United States. It premiered in Beverly Hills on December 20, 1990 and opened wide in the United States on December 25.
Reviews were mostly positive but judged it below its predecessors, praising Pacino, García and the craft while faulting the plot and Sofia Coppola's performance. It grossed $136.8 million and earned seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and seven Golden Globe nominations. A 2020 recut, The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, was received more warmly.
Related in The Godfather
Links follow this subject's own source article.
Elsewhere in The Godfather
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced