He was hobbled by several financial fiascos, including the disastrous One From the Heart (1982) and The Cotton Club (1984), and his attempts to develop new means of filmmaking such as extensive previsualization and editing on video earned him scorn from multiple quarters. How could another sequel possibly match that feat? Complicating things was the status of Coppola’s legacy: having been the former “great white knight who made it,” as his protégé George Lucas called him in describing Coppola’s ability to break into the fabled Hollywood studio system as a young man and bend it to his will, Coppola had struggled throughout the Reagan years. Not only was it the second sequel to one of the New Hollywood’s most canonical films, but the previous sequel had done the unimaginable by arguably besting its predecessor in quality and accolades. Of course, it is hard to imagine that Part III had any chance of being seen otherwise considering the multiple acts it had to follow. And, even though it earned seven Oscar nominations and fared decently at the box office, it has always been viewed as a letdown, an insufficient follow-up to two of the greatest modern American films. Given the international stature of the first two films (both of which won the Oscar for Best Picture), the lengthy amount of time that had elapsed since Part II, and the fact that the 1980s had been rough on Coppola critically, commercially, and financially, it is the height of understatement to say that much was riding on Part III. So, any comparisons I make between the two films was done in this manner.Įighteen years after the release of The Godfather (1972), Francis Ford Coppola’s career-defining, industry-reinvigorating masterpiece, and 16 years after the release of its sequel The Godfather Part II (1974), Coppola returned on Christmas Day in 1990 with The Godfather Part III, which he again co-wrote with Godfather novelist Mario Puzo. Afterwards, curiosity got the best of me, and I went back and scanned through and watched large sections of Part III. However, in the end I decided not to, opting instead to watch Coda and try to evaluate it on its own merits, rather than in comparison to Part III. I had not watched Part III in close to 10 years and have only seen it a handful of times, so I am not deeply familiar with it. Note: I went back and forth on whether I should watch The Godfather Part III prior to watching Coppola’s re-edited version, which has been retitled The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Harrison), Bridget Fonda (Grace Hamilton), Sofia Coppola (Mary Corleone), Raf Vallone (Cardinal Lamberto) Stars: Al Pacino (Michael Corleone), Diane Keaton (Kay Adams), Talia Shire (Connie Corleone Rizzi), Andy Garcia (Vincent Mancini), Eli Wallach (Don Altobello), Joe Mantegna (Joey Zaza), George Hamilton (B.J. Screenplay: Mario Puzo & Francis Ford Coppola