Mario Puzo's The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone

 "Never hate your enemies.  If affects your judgement"  Michael Corleone to Vincent

About a year ago I wrote a review on The Godfather Part III which was mildly positive based on the strengths of the leads and the portion of the storyline that focused on Michael’s attempt to atone for his crimes.  However, I have long felt overall a sense of disappointment in the film as it is disorganized, overlong, and asked the audience to invest in an incestuous relationship.  The film felt a little rushed as it had many interesting ideas but was not terribly well put together.

Last year director Francis Ford Coppola (who also cowrote all three films with the late Mario Puzo, who wrote the original novel-which is one of my favorite books) announced he would be releasing a cut entitled Mario Puzo's The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone for the film’s 30^th Anniversary which was his original choice for a title.  This version would restructure the film and focus a little more clearly on its themes.  This was encouraging news as I hoped there was a better film in the footage I had seen and allowed for a strong conclusion to two of the best films ever made. 

Auspiciously Coda is about 4 minutes shorter and is a massive improvement over Part III which through some both obvious changes and other minor ones gives the film a much greater impact and a fun viewing experience.  Coda is a more fitting epilogue to the story told in the first two films.  The Godfather and The Godfather Part II told a story of a good man whose soul was slowly corrupted by taking over his family’s mafia business.  This film is the story of his attempts to leave the criminal world, but despite his efforts and actions, the Corleone Family is in too deep.

Spoilers below:

Coda opens with Michael’s meeting with Archbishop Gilday which clarifies from the outset that Michael’s objective is to both legitimize his businesses and image by working with the Vatican, but perhaps more importantly, save his soul.  Michael has divested of all the criminal elements of the Corleone Family and wants to buy a controlling interest in a real estate company called Immobilaire which does business with the Vatican.  However, as Roger Ebert pointed out in his review “God does not take payoffs”.  

The problem with this plan is the Vatican is involved in corrupt dealings with Immobilaire involving an embezzlement of funds.  The type of men who are attracted to working with Michael (and his money which is from questionable sources) are at odds with Michael’s goals of going legitimate.  The one exception is Pope John Paul I who ultimately ratifies the deal because Michael has confessed his sins, but then he is murdered by the Lucchesi family.

On this viewing I really tried to follow what the dark side of the church dealings are.  They are never fully explained in the film but what I gleaned from it is Lucchesi is a chairman of Immobilaire but also heads up a crime family, which had stolen $600 million from the company.  Michael’s investment replaces the funds but Lucchesi does not want Michael to be in control of his company which is why he has the new Pope killed, although doing it after he has ratified the deal seems counterproductive.  Through Don Altobello, an old Corleone family friend with whom Lucchesi has made an unspecified deal with, Lucchesi also plots to kill Michael to keep him from controlling Immobiliare. 

The Godfather Part III opened with a flashback of Fredo’s murder, before panning past the now empty Lake Tahoe compound and then going into the ceremony for Michael’s charitable work.  This reminded the audience why Michael feels guilty but only told us about the charitable work so we in the audience did not feel it.  The trailer opened on the scene of Michael meeting with the archbishop so it was our first view of him this way.  Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to start Coda in the same place.  Also, by dropping the ceremony Coppola cuts straight to the celebration afterwards which is a hallmark of the opening of all three films. During these scenes we meet many of the key players in the story, how they fit in, and most importantly, see where Michael is emotionally.  After the first film’s wedding, Michael is outside of the family affairs. In Part II, right after his son’s Communion, Michael is the Don coldly refusing all requests. In this film Michael is trying to reconcile all parties, both from a business point of view (keeping Zasa and Vincent from attacking each other) and starting to re-earn Kay’s trust. 

The character of Vincent makes more of an impression since he enters the story a little earlier.  In re-watching the scene in which Vincent is in bed with the journalist played by Bridget Fonda, he clearly sends her out as bait when he hears the noise in his apartment which is cold.  Vincent’s handling of the men sets him up as a cold killer who Michael gradually mentors leading to him becoming the new Don.  In the party it is established early on that Michael’s own son Anthony wants no part of this life, even if Michael is outside of the gangster world so Vincent becomes a surrogate. 

There seems to be some additional dialogue in the scene between Mary and Vincent in which they first get together.  I do not remember any moment in Part III in which Mary asked if Michael had Fredo killed so if this is new it strengthens her character slightly.  One scene that is shorter than I remember is when Michael is speaking to Don Tommassino’s body (who amazingly has an open coffin despite getting killed by a shotgun at close range).  I thought it was one of his best moments in the original film, so I am surprised Coppola cut some of the beginning in which Michael speaks of how beloved Don Tomassino is.

The scene in which Anthony sings the pretty song with the Godfather Love theme now has subtitles in which it is now clear that that the lyrics directly correspond with Michael’s memories of Apollonia, who like Mary, was an innocent victim in an attack that targeted Michael.

One of the biggest changes is accomplished by cutting out of the final scene a few seconds earlier.  In Godfather Part III Michael originally died after a close-up of him sitting in Don Tommassino’s villa.  In the new version the screen goes dark after establishing Michael and a postscript implies that he will live to be 100 years old.  Michael looks about 80 and seems to be completely alone to contemplate how the crimes of his life were paid by his family.  He has probably stayed in Sicily to stay away from everyone else so no one else he loves gets killed but Coppola leaves it to the audience to interpret it.   

Some of the weaknesses of the film did not bother me as much this time.  I do still miss Robert Duvall’s Tom Hagen since it would have surely allowed for interesting scenes between Tom Hagen and Michael at this different point in their lives.  Hagen probably would have been shown catching wind of the Vatican plot earlier since a weakness of the film is Michael should have been aware that the chairman of Immobilaire is a don. Sofia Coppola is still not the caliber of actress needed for Mary but she is quite good in the scene in which Vincent breaks up with her.  Winona Ryder is a better actress but at the time she was playing a lot of characters who drive the action in their films and the relative passivity of Mary might not have been a good fit though Ryder would have surely found a way to make her interesting.

In my earlier review I mentioned that Michael looks and sounds much different even though through his behavior he is clearly the same man.  Al Pacino’s voice dropped a lot in the years between Godfather Part II and III but here it did not bother me.  When I last saw Part III I had recently seen Part II so the change was more noticeable.  Watching Coda now it felt like a natural continuation of the character since I have not seen Michael for awhile though the spiky hair seems out of character for him. Fredo’s absence is felt but that is one of the points of the film. 

Talia Shire’s Connie has turned into a Lady MacBeth type character who is protecting the Corleone kingdom, and supporting Vincent’s violent impulses.  As always, Shire makes Connie fascinating but this turn is unexplained.  Does Connie really believe that Fredo drowned or is she just telling herself that to justify staying close to Michael?  In the past two films Connie could be a little reckless but she was not foolish.

Diane Keaton gives her best performance in the three films as Kay, who is the one person who is unintimidated by Michael’s power and is always honest with him.  One of the best decisions Coppola made is Kay being married since it makes it close to impossible that she and Michael could ever find love again.  Michael is just hoping for some sort of peace from her, which he gets but only for a short time.   The reconciliation scene between them is tender in its honesty but of course short lived.  Notably Michael has no romantic interest in his life. 

The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone is an essential viewing for fans of the series.  I suggest audiences view this version instead of The Godfather Part III and am glad Coppola opted to improve this film.  This time the Godfather pulled me back in.  ****.