By Francis Ford Coppola is no stranger to heading back into the editing room to create new cuts of his films. He made one of the most famous re-cuts of them all with Apocalypse Now: Redux and even came back to that again with last year’s Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut. He hasn’t waited long to accept the chance to revisit another of his films, one which has a, shall we say, less beloved reputation amongst his fans when compared to something like Apocalypse Now.
For this return to the editing room, Coppola is taking another look at The Godfather: Part III. There are those that say that The Godfather: Part III is a blight on the legacy of the first two films, two films often regarded as some of the greatest films of all time. I, for one, have always found it to be an engrossing mafia drama, with enough going for it to stand as a decent sequel. Yes, it is not as good as its predecessors, but not many things are. Yet, it does have a negative reputation, one of being a disappointment, and it is clearly an issue that has been on Coppola’s mind.
With reordered scenes, a slightly different ending, and the originally desired title put back in place, Coppola has aimed to craft the film more in the fashion of what he and Godfather-creator Mario Puzo had wanted to achieve. What that film is, as expressed by Coppola in his introduction to the film, is a summation of the thematic concerns of the first two films, an epilogue to the character’s stories, a filmic coda, as the new title presents it.
Full review over at Filmhounds Magazine, originally published December 1st 2020.
Andrew Gaudion 