A red rose rests on the buttonhole of the godfather Vito Corleone's jacket, played by Marlon Brando, centered in the frame (1), a slack shadow of mystery, a warm orange glow.
This is the first clip of the "The Godfather" trilogy, directed by Francis Coppola, an American of Italian descent.
The rose is a reference to Vito's warm heart, his love for family, and his own vision. Later, at his funeral, the mafia throws red roses, without showing any emotion, Vito goes and takes his roses with him, his son Michael takes his place indifferently, in Cool lighting evokes calm and expresses cruelty.
Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone
The story of the "Godfather" trilogy revolves around the Corleone family, the most powerful Italian mafia family in New York, which runs criminal activities along with gambling clubs and prostitution, headed by Vito Corleone, and for his influence and relationships, people resort to him to protect them and help them solve their problems. In his ill health, and when power is transferred to his sons, the youngest son "Michael" - played by Al Pacino - who was an officer in the US Navy during World War II, finds that he is forced to retract his refusal to get involved in the family business after the shooting of his father from In order to avenge him, after years his brother "Sonny" (James Caan) is killed, and he repeats what he did with the other families that contributed to his brother's assassination and liquidates their leaders, by the third part we are sure that "Michael" has completely lost himself.
Coppola collaborated with cameraman Gordon Wells, nicknamed the Prince of Darkness, to produce a lighting that was so important that it assumed a narrative role in the story.
Wells' transitions between light and dark seemed carefully planned, and every frame he made became a canvas, one fan even going so far as to frame the film's first two parts against paintings by influential artists.
In one of them we can see "Opolina", Michael's first wife, resembles Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, and even surpasses her in beauty and vitality. We also see "Rembrandt" the Dutch darkness artist in one of his portraits next to Vito, and then the painting "Love Letter" by Johansen Vermeer ', another Dutch painter, next to Michael, and finally we see the rebellious Italian artist "Caravaggio" who was sentenced to death by the Pope, as Michael did with one of them (2).
From the point of view of some critics, this film, in its first and second parts, tells the story of American capitalism, which Coppola himself called “capitalism in its purest form.” As for journalist Jonah Wise, she placed them next to the series “Breaking Bad.” ) saying that the two works fuel our desire to probe the lives of the villains whom we loved (3).
Isn't Michael Corleone so close to Walter White that we've seen both go from meek to ruthless criminal?
After director Francis Coppola finished the movie "The Godfather" in its two parts, and the great director "Stanley Kubrick" praised them by saying that they were "the greatest movie ever made", Coppola returned years later and presented a third part, despite acknowledging in one of the meetings that the film with its two parts can be fused in One movie, because they told the whole story.
Coppola did not really want the birth of a third movie from "The Godfather", but his financial conditions had deteriorated, and he heard news that a new director had been appointed to make a third part (4), and then the producing company "Paramount Pictures" threw its last paper, which is to send a script Written for the film, inquiring about Coppola's opinion of it, this infuriated him, so he did not find it necessary to accept the company's offer in the end and to produce a new part that was the conclusion of the series.
Due to the time difference between the last part and its predecessors (approximately seventeen years), the audience awaited it with sky-high expectations.
But when the movie saw the light, he seemed like a emaciated child who did not have the strength and splendor of his twins. His luck was bad. Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas" preceded it by only three months, and of course it drew attention, which carried "The Godfather" more previous comparisons.
On the other hand, critics poured out their anger on the performance of Coppola's daughter "Sofia" in the film, which for them was superficial, turbulent and unconvincing, and therefore was seriously harmful because it was a mainstay of the story, and criticized him for choosing instead of brilliant actresses (5), Omar Sophia At the time, just 18 years old with little acting experience, she was chosen as a last-minute replacement for the role after Winona Ryder's sudden withdrawal.
Coppola himself was never satisfied with the last part, so after more than twenty years (in 2020) he returned again with a modified version of the third part, he spoke about it in a statement to Agence France-Presse, saying: “In this modified version of the last part, I wrote A new beginning and end, and I have rearranged some scenes, shots and musical cues. In it, he finally managed to put the title, which Paramount Pictures had not previously approved, which is "The Godfather of Mario Pozo, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone."
But while the film wasn't as celebrated as its predecessors, it was interesting that it was nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards and seven Academy Awards, making "The Godfather" the first trilogy in history to have each of its films nominated for Best Picture (6). We can understand these contradictory references if we distance the film from comparison with its early parts, and consider it as a Shakespearean epic about a tragic hero trying in vain to purify from bygone days. Michael is not only similar to "King Lear" in the play written by "William Shakespeare", but also bears similarities with Prince "Haditora", the hero of the movie "Ran" by Japanese director "Akira Kurosawa", both of whom came out of the mantle of "King Lear"., the king who announced the division of his kingdom among his three daughters, and did not receive the expected praise from his youngest girl, the most beloved to his heart, as he rejected his hypocrisy and exiled her, and then his two other daughters rejected him after sharing his wealth, to find himself in the open and crazy, and meet his youngest daughter in the end, When she is killed, he dies of grief for her.
Coppola in The Godfather 3
Since the beginning of the third film, glimpses of the previous two parts float, you can see the boat in which Fredo was killed at the end of the second part, the balcony where Michael stood watching the execution of his order to assassinate his brother, the abandoned abandoned house fence, and children's toys that seem to belong from a long time ago, Michael interrupts that scene, in the fall of his age, addressing his two sons, Antonio and Mary, to invite them to attend the papal honoring ceremony for him for his charitable work, after he donated $ 100 million to the Roman Catholic Church, writing to them that they are his true wealth and most valuable possession, and in a foundational scene, the transition from Their picture hanging on the wall actually indicates that they are central heroes in this tale.
As he did in the previous two parts, "Coppola" begins his film with a celebration befitting the favor granted by the church to Michael, through which he hopes to atone for his sins in public and polish his family name, not deceiving "Kai" his ex-wife, who came to beg him to let his son choose his own path. Away from him, Vincent, his nephew, and their new enemy, Zaza, appear. Like the previous two parts, a betrayal is discovered that drives the film.
The dramatic turn of the tragedies resembles the mountain curve. The events escalate to the climax and the hero grows stronger. He commits a folly and goes too far, crossing all the lines until the stop signs no longer exist. Then he misses all chances of survival. At this point, Michael stopped at the end of the second part, and beyond this point There is nothing but regression, only then might the hero express remorse despite knowing the absurdity of his declaration, then abandon his struggle, resistance, torment, and defiance and go to his death voluntarily, having lost everything.
When Vito Corleone in Part One, when a corrupt cop slaps Michael, seeks revenge and protects his father, Vito Corleone, forgetting his desire to get away from the family business, commits a premeditated murder, crossing the line between a human and a criminal world.
With this he did not advance into the criminal world and escaped to Sicily, he married Opolena, whom he fell in love with, but the car explosion, which was supposed to kill him, killed her instead.
Here our hero temporarily stops escaping and becomes the godfather.
He is not a spiritual father in all the meanings of the word like his father, he does not want power and authority for the sake of the family, but for himself.
This is how we saw him at the end of the second part cross the red lines and go far into the underworld, where there is no return.
Shadows devour Michael's luminous face and soul slowly, as a reflection of his loss of innocence. Here he is in the third part. He appears to be in a deep well separated from himself, guarded by the shadows of losses and the image of his brother Fredo in front of his eyes. He looks forward to getting out of that well again, he dances with his daughter "Mary" as his father danced before, and puts his fortune before the Vatican, his being strikes the struggle between forgiveness, revenge, love, fear, redemption and grunt corruption in all sectors of society, including the Catholic Church.
The script of "Coppola" and the novelist "Mario Puzo", who wrote the novel "The Godfather" initially, was based on a real incident that shook the Vatican at the end of the seventies and early eighties following the death of Pope John Paul I after only 33 days of taking office, and the scandals of the Vatican Bank The body of a banker who worked there appeared and was found hanging on London Bridge. The film shows corrupt Vatican officials and venal cardinals (7) (8).
Michael may have thought that the higher he socialized, the closer his soul would be to transcendence, and all doubt and blemishes would be removed from his name, but what happened is that the higher he rises, the greater the corruption, so instead of reaching his soul, he finds himself pushed into the well of the underworld again, accompanying his realization. This is a scene with a charge of anger, collapse, and screaming in the storm, in the light of lightning and the sounds of thunder. It is an identical scene from the play "King Lear", where the king collapses in pain and curses us with evil.
Both eventually faint, as Michael lays unconscious in the hospital, in a drunken coma.
Then, in Sicily, where it all began, Michael "Kay" greets their daughter, Mary, who takes several photos of them walking backwards into the open trunk of a car, in a scene that seems to be walking slowly toward her coffin.
The scene is read in the cinematic language as an undisclosed sense of what is to come (9).
Michael confesses his remorse to "Kay", because he lost her and moved away from their two sons, they exchange a confession that their love still exists, but they are interrupted by the news of his friend's death, so one of his men gets angry, saying: "Blood calls for blood." Here he pleads Michael for permission to take revenge (10) (11) And Kai realizes that it is impossible to separate him from the world of crime. The seduction of evil proves to be more than the attraction of good, so Michael returns to him as a butterfly is attracted to light.
The essence of the tragedy lies in the fact that the sins that stain his soul are inescapable. For the first time, Cardinal Lamberto professes his sins and begins to cry. The camera moves away from him until it settles in a corner covered with flowers that gives a sacred suggestion. It is the moment when Michael decides to confess, even though he He will not repent anyway, he complains about the Vatican's deception to him and their procrastination in the deal he made with them, and the extent of their corruption, so the cardinal pulls a stone from the fountain and says: "Look at this stone, it has been in the water for a very long time, but the water did not penetrate it." The cardinal breaks the stone and appears It is dry on the inside, he continues: "The same thing happened with men in Europe. For centuries they were surrounded by Christianity, but faith and Christ did not live within them."
Just as King Lear loved his daughter Cordelia and wanted to give her his kingdom, so was Michael's desire for his daughter Mary, and if he became torn between her and his nephew Vincent, who sees the death of his enemies as the answer to every question, Michael fears for the calm and naive Mary that She is a victim, she loves Vincent and this can be used to pressure him from the enemies, as happened before with Michael. The events come to a climax when Michael abdicates to Vincent the position of godfather on the condition that he abandon his daughter Mary. Michael awaits his imminent death arranged by his enemies.
"Coppola" mentioned in one of the interviews that the themes of the godfather embodied in an opera appeared in the film towards the end, which is the opera "Petro Mascani" entitled "The Honor of the Country", some scenes on the stage are actually similar to scenes in the movie (12).
Michael and his family sit and watch, waiting for Antonio to sing, on stage, we see how the shadows of violence chase virtue, we see people who have been able to black - which may be a metaphor for evil - wearing a skull and carrying a cross covered with a representation of Christ, the image of the crucifixion is the symbol of suffering that drives them to flee.
They are metaphors for what Michael went through, in a clearer sense: for his prayers to be answered he must endure all kinds of stress and suffering (13).
In this opera, Mascani directs his music to popular themes of 19th century Italy, such as honor, loyalty, betrayal, and revenge, to which Coppola adds nostalgia, memories in New York and Sicily.
A portrait from the end of the opera of a man executed by hanging based on the murder of Roberto Calvi (an Italian businessman), who was involved in one of the Vatican scandals.
Michael comes out of the opera. His daughter asks him, “Dad, why are you doing this to me?” Michael replies, “Do what?”
The hitman shoots his rifle twice at Michael, here Coppola switches to a wider shot.
Michael breathes a sigh of relief, but his world is shattered when he sees the bullet that was destined for him hit his daughter (14).
After several decades of cold violence in a vain attempt to legitimize his family name, Michael is forced to pay for his sins in the most painful way.
On the steps of the Sicily Opera, Michael's silent cry lends a legitimate Shakespearean touch to this epic.
Some critics consider the scene of Mary's murder to be one of the worst scenes ever filmed, due to Sophia Coppola's lifeless performance, as she stares blankly, "Dad?", before falling to the ground.
But Al Pacino saved the moment with his performance, brilliantly portraying a man torn between his dreams and his guilt.
In a close-up, Al Pacino covers his face with his hands, while the watch he wears in his left hand indicates that there was never enough time to save her.
As we mentioned, the movie "Ran" meets the third part of the movie "The Godfather" in that both were influenced by Shakespeare's epic "King Lear". During ten years, the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa painted the paintings of this movie before writing the script, so the film's cadres reflected the message of his paintings. And the way out.
Prince "Haditora" in the movie "Ran" is determined to divide his kingdom among his three children, and as befits a Shakespearean play, the younger son, as Cordelia did in the play "King Lear", announces his dissatisfaction with that act, which reveals his far-sightedness, as the two sons betray They meet each other before killing each other, deserting their father and leaving him stranded in the open, facing the fact that, just like Michael, his kingdom has been built on bloodshed and destruction. The love of power possessed the two heroes, so they committed sins that those close to them were not spared, and when their end approached, they felt remorse, but they paid the price with the death of the beloved son in their heart.
With a wonderful soundtrack, embracing his recently murdered daughter, Mary, Michael delves into his past, the waltz he performed with three women in his life: Mary at his papal ceremonies, Apollonia at his first wedding, and Kai during their marriage. .
He loved them all, and a priest and lived groping with them after their loss, the dances fade away, a close-up of an old man in black glasses, with a crutch and a dog beside him, seeming in his own hell.
When Michael wept before over Mary's body, he sounded like King Lear in mourning for Cordelia, Lear, who whispered, "Crash, my heart, I'm shattering," and even lived praying to die to catch up with his daughter until his prayers were answered. He died sadly, just as Prince Hidetora died after his son Sapporo was murdered, shortly after they met again, and Michael died alone at the end.
Well, we may be right if we say that the third part of "The Godfather" may not be as powerful and plotted as the previous two parts, if it is compared with them, but there is no doubt that it alone, and in many aspects of it, deserves much praise.
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Sources:
oranges – The Godfather: Anatomy of a Film
The Godfather Explained: Cinematography of Shadows
The Most Important Line in 'The Godfather'
Francis Ford Coppola Finally Gets to Release His Version of The Godfather Part III
Why The Godfather Part III has been unfairly demonised
In Defense Of “The Godfather Part III” |
by Christopher Pierznik |
The Passion of Christopher Pierznik
The Godfather, Part III movie review (1990)
VATICAN STORY LINE HAS REAL-LIFE BASIS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSriozJ8R4Q
The Godfather Part III: From the Stage to the Streets
https://www.mspcinephiles.org/criticism/2018/3/30/the-godfather-part-iii-the-body-cries-out
Opera Meets Film: 'The Godfather: Part III's' Operatic Structure As Reflected Through 'Cavalleria Rusticana'
The Godfather: An opera you can't refuse
In Defense Of "The Godfather Part III"