The Godfather Part III

From The Godfather Wiki

The Godfather Part III is the third and final part of The Godfather saga.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Plot

The movie begins in 1979, with a brief flashback establishing the long and tragic history of criminal activity within, and by, the Corleone family. Much has changed. Michael Corleone is now a defeated, depressed old man who feels tremendous guilt for indulging in his ruthless ambition many years ago. The thoughts of his estrangement from his children are all he has to show for it. His adopted brother Tom Hagen is now dead, the Corleone compound at Lake Tahoe is abandoned, his wife Kay has divorced him, and beset by his own depression and guilt, he had relinquished control of his children back to his ex-wife.

Michael has returned to New York, where he is self-consciously using his enormous wealth and power to restore his dignity and reputation in the eyes of the public. The violent criminal element of the Corleone family has been largely abandoned, ostracized by Michael himself as well as the hardened public, which no longer romanticizes the gangster lifestyle. In fact, Michael has embraced corporate America, which is now more tolerant of Michael's nihilism, where he is able to rebuild the Corleone family as a legitimate enterprise using the blood money from his free-wheeling gangster years. The aging thugs and sociopathic soldiers from Michael's past have either gone into the underground, or have been relegated to the background of Michael's life, serving as bodyguards for him and his family. With his psyche and family largely damaged by his violent methods, Michael now struggles between repairing his fragile relationships while trying to contain the violent sociopaths that still fester in the shadows and ruins of his decaying criminal enterprise. In an attempt to seize upon the changing times, Michael creates a charity, the Vito Corleone Foundation, in memory of his father, and at a ceremony in St. Patrick's Cathedral, he is presided over by Archbishop Gilday, where Michael is awarded the Order of St. Sebastian. Kay, who has remarried, sits with Michael's children, Anthony Corleone and Mary Corleone.

At the lavish party following the ceremony, Anthony tells his father that he is going his own way, dropping out of law school to pursue a career as an opera singer. Kay supports his choice, but Michael argues in private about Anthony’s future, wishing that his son would join the business or do something respectful, like being a lawyer. Suddenly, Vincent Mancini, Sonny Corleone’s illegitimate son, shows up at the party. He is embroiled in a feud with Joey Zasa, the Corleone family's mafioso muscle. What remains of the old Corleone criminal empire is now under Zasa's stewardship. However, the old Corleone neighborhood in New York is in ruins, and has become lawless. In a room away from the party, Vincent and Zasa tell Michael about their feud. The discussion grows violent, with Vincent accusing Zasa of being an out-of-control monster who mocks Michael behind his back. Michael makes it clear that he is not "a gangster" and that his wish is that the family will find peace. So he asks the two men to make peace with one another. Feigning peace with Zasa, Vincent bites off part of Zasa’s ear after Zasa makes fun of Vincent's earring. Zasa is escorted out and Michael scolds Vincent for his violent ways. But impressed by Vincent's passionate loyalty to protect Michael, Michael agrees to take his hot-headed nephew under his wing. The party concludes with a family picture where Michael asks Vincent to join the rest of the family.

That night, two men break into Vincent’s home, after Vincent has spent the night with an attractive journalist named Grace Hamilton. Vincent kills one, frightening the other into revealing Zasa as the man who sent them. The scene closes with Vincent shooting the second man.

Michael wants to buy the Vatican's shares in Immobiliare, an international real estate holding company that is controlled by the Vatican. He negotiates a transfer fee of $600,000,000 with Archbishop Gilday, who has plunged the Holy See into tremendous debt through his poor management and corrupt dealings as head of the Vatican Bank. At Vatican City, however, Michael learns that some people oppose the deal. Ratification will be more complicated than he had expected.

Don Altobello, an elderly New York mafioso, tells Michael that his old New York partners want in on the Immobiliare deal. A meeting is arranged in Atlantic City, and Michael appeases most of the mafiosi with generous payoffs from their casino days. Zasa gets nothing. Furious, he declares that Michael is his enemy, and tells everyone in the room they must choose between him and Michael. Zasa storms out of the meeting. Don Altobello runs after him to try and talk to him about this irrational move. Minutes later, a helicopter hovers outside the conference room and sprays a barrage of bullets through the ceiling windows. Almost everyone present is killed, but Michael, Vincent and Michael's bodyguard, Al Neri, with Vincent acting as his uncle’s human shield, escapes. Back at his apartment in New York, as Michael considers how to respond to this hit, he suffers a diabetic stroke, and is hospitalized.

Though they are cousins, Vincent and Mary begin a romantic relationship. Unbeknown to Michael, Vincent plans revenge on Zasa. During a street fair similar to that of the second film, Vincent and his accomplices kill Zasa's bodyguards, and Vincent shortly murders Zasa himself. Michael, still hospitalized, berates Vincent when he finds out, but Vincent insists that he got the go-ahead from Al Neri, who in-turn insists that he got the go-ahead from Connie, who has become deeply involved in family affairs. Michael insists that Vincent end his relationship with Mary because Vincent’s involvement in the family puts Mary in danger. Vincent agrees. However, in Sicily, where the family moves to pursue the Vatican deal and attend Anthony’s opera debut, the relationship continues.

Michael tells Vincent to speak with Altobello and, in order to see where the old man’s loyalties lie, to pretend that he is thinking of leaving the Corleone family. Altobello supports the idea of Vincent switching allegiance, and introduces Vincent to Liccio Lucchesi, the man behind the plot to prevent Michael’s acquisition of Immobiliare.

Michael visits Cardinal Lamberto, a well-intentioned and pious priest, to speak about the Immobiliare deal. Lamberto convinces Michael to make his first confession in thirty years; among other sins, Michael confesses to ordering the killing of his brother Fredo. It is an extremely emotional moment for Michael, and it troubles him. Touring Sicily with Kay, who has arrived for Anthony’s performance, Michael also asks for her forgiveness. As both admit that they still love each other, Michael receives word that Don Tommasino, his Sicilian friend, has been killed, signaling that a new round of violence is about to begin. Cardinal Lamberto is elected Pope John Paul I, which means that the Immobiliare deal will likely be ratified.

Vincent tells Michael what he has learned from Altobello: Lucchesi is behind the plot against the Immobiliare deal, and an assassin, the same who killed Tommasino, has been hired to kill Michael. Vincent wants to strike back, but Michael cautions him, saying that if he goes ahead with such a plan, there’ll be no going back. Vincent insists on revenge, and Michael relents. He makes Vincent head of the Corleone family, the new Godfather. In exchange for the promotion, Vincent agrees to put an end to his relationship with Mary.

The family travels to Palermo to see Anthony perform the male lead of Cavalleria Rusticana at the renowned opera house Teatro Massimo. Vincent’s plans for revenge go into effect. Interspersed with scenes from Anthony’s performance are the brutal murders of Lucchesi, Altobello, Gilday, and their associates, who have already poisoned the new pope. This scene also mirrors the scene at the end of Part I, when Michael had orchestrated the deaths of his enemies.

Mosca de Montelepre, a hired assassin sent to kill Michael, lurks at the opera house. The assassin kills two of Vincent’s men, but the opera ends before he has the chance to shoot Michael. The assassin retreats to the opera house facade’s staircase, and tries to shoot Michael there.

Mary is confronting her father about the forced breakup with Vincent, when two shots ring out. The first hits Michael in the shoulder, he reels away and the second hits Mary in the chest, and she dies calling out to her father a single questioning word: "Dad?" Vincent then kills the assassin. With Mary's lifeless body in his arms, Michael screams in primal pain and rage. The first two screams are rendered silently with only background music; the third shout is heard by the audience. As they grieve, Connie, Kay and Vincent look upon Michael's distraught reaction momentarily shocked out of their own grief, almost in surprise, presumably only now realizing how truly dear his family were to him.

The scene dissolves to a short montage of Michael's memories, the first being a dance with Mary, the second being a dance with his first wife, Apollonia, and the last being a dance with Kay. The film ends in an unmentioned year with an aged and broken Michael, seated in the front yard of his Sicilian villa. He slumps out of his chair collapses to the ground and dies, totally alone. A small dog sniffs around his body and the screen fades out.