The Godfather Part III (1990) - Coppola's operatic gangster opus finale

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Al Pacino looks vacantly at us from this dark, sparse poster for Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III

Don Michael Corleone is attempting to legitimize the family mafia business and ready his successor, but as he gets near to his exit point, his past tracks him down, and soon death trickles forth everywhere around him, while a multi-million dollar deal with the Vatican crumbles.

The Godfather Part III is written by Mario Puzo (Superman (1978)) and co-writer/producer/director, master Michigander filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola (Rumble Fish (1983)). It is the finishing chapter in the Godfather trilogy and the first of them not directly adapting Puzo's original 1969 novel.
More accurately than a 'chapter' The Godfather Part III should be termed an opus, because it is an opera-like tragedy, and the film is about as grand and lavish and as they come.
The story of Part III is fundamentally different from the first two and more resembles a fascinating story of an emperor than 'reality.' This necessarily has changed Al Pacino's (Jack and Jill (2011)) Michael character dramatically. SPOILER Coppola executes his operatic finale in Palermo, Sicily with his daughter Sofia Coppola (Anna (1987)) as Mary Corleone, whose death comes as a majestic Flood, as the sins of the father seemingly demand this awful sacrifice.
Andy Garcia (Ballers (2016, TV-series)), Talia Shire (The Deported (2009)), Pacino SPOILER and not least Eli Wallach (Christopher Columbus (1985, miniseries)) as the film's traitor all give outstanding performances in The Godfather Part III, which, despite perhaps being the slightest film in the trilogy, still is a film of extraordinary class.

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Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date

Apocalypse Now (1979) redux version - The horror of war  

The Godfather Part II (1974) - The great, icy monolith 

The Godfather (1972) - Coppola and Co.'s epic cinema magic
Dementia 13/The Haunted and the Hunted (1963) - Coppola's gothic AIP castle horror 

Watch a masterful scene from the film here with Pacino and Diane Keaton

Cost: 54 mil. $
Box office: 136.7 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 2.53 times its cost)
[The Godfather Part III premiered 12 December (Los Angeles) and runs 162 minutes. Coppola only agreed to make the film to help himself out of the financial slump he had put himself in with his enormous flop One from the Heart (1982). He envisioned Part III as an epilogue to the first two films, and he and Puzo proposed the title The Death of Michael Corleone, which Paramount refused. Julia Roberts and then Winona Ryder were cast as Mary but dropped out, and the role eventually went to Sofia Coppola, which the director was since heavily criticized for as her performance was lambasted and decried as an instance of nepotism. Shooting took place in Italy, including Rome, New York and New Jersey from November 1989 - May 1990. It opened #3, behind holdover hit Home Alone and fellow new release Kindergarten Cop, to a 6.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another 2 weeks (#2-#3) and grossed 66.6 mil. $ (48.7 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning none. Those were Best Picture, lost to Dances with Wolves, Supporting Actor (Garcia), lost to Joe Pesci for Goodfellas, Director, lost to Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves, Cinematography (Gordon Willis), lost to Dean Semler for Dances with Wolves, Art-Set Decoration, lost to Dick Tracy, Editing, lost to Dances with Wolves, and Original Song (Carmine Coppola and John Bettis' Promise Me You'll Remember), lost to Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man) by Stephen Sondheim from Dick Tracy. It was also nominated for 7 Golden Globes and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. A 4th Godfather film was discussed, and Coppola and Puzo had worked on a screenplay, when Puzo died in 1999. Coppola returned with Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Pacino returned in Frankie and Johnny (1991). The Godfather Part III is fresh at 68 % with a 6.42/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Godfather Part III?

The Godfather Part II (1974) - The great, icy monolith

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The sharp image of heir-to-the-throne Michael Corleone is right-of-centre and also throws the title off balance in this text and symbolism-heavy poster for Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II

Michael Coleone takes over the New York mob family empire after his late father in 1958. SPOILER He and his wife Kay survive an assassination attempt, and the hunt for the traitor begins, followed by a failure in Cuba, miscarriage and more death.

The Godfather Part II is written by Mario Puzo (Superman (1978)), based partially on his novel The Godfather (1969), and Michigander master filmmaker, co-writer/producer/director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather (1972)). It is the second part in the Godfather trilogy, which ends with The Godfather: Part III (1990).
Coppola boldly attacks his sequel to one of the biggest hits in 1970s cinema and fearlessly places everything on black, as he opens the film similarly to The Godfather with a large family celebration, but here a First Communion party for Michael and Kay's son with an atmosphere that is in stark contrast to the warm festivity at the Godfather wedding party. This icy-cold, highly different mood continues to seep from Part II, SPOILER which in large part centers on Michael's realization and dealing with the fact that his brother Fredo is the traitor.
Warmth and glow are found in the epic film in its sequences that follow Michael's father, Vito's childhood and youth in Sicily and New York, stylized and delicious visually (cinematography by Gordon Willis (Zelig (1983)) with Robert De Niro (Everybody's Fine (2009)) innovative and terrific as Vito.
None of the performances in Part II are less than great; and Nino Rota's (Roma (1972)) music is central to the film's power.
It is a matter of taste whether one prefers the first film or the drastically different tone of The Godfather Part II, which is very dark, full of bitterness and loss of values, certainly a very cold great achievement in film.

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Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - Coppola goes for the jugular with unsubtle, overlong adaptation

Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date

Apocalypse Now (1979) redux version - The horror of war  

The Godfather (1972) - Coppola and Co.'s epic cinema magic
Dementia 13/The Haunted and the Hunted (1963) - Coppola's gothic AIP castle horror 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 13-15 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: Reportedly 88 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned at least 5.86 times its cost)
[The Godfather Part II premiered 12 December (New York) and runs 200 minutes. Puzo started writing the screenplay in 1971, before the release of the first film. Coppola was given great freedom following Godfather's enormous success, and the initial 6 mil. $ budget was allowed to more than double during production. James Cagney refused a part in the film. Coppola had to change the script to appease Pacino's misgivings just prior to production. Shooting took place from October 1973 - June 1974 in California, New York, Las Vegas, Nevada, Miami, Florida, Washington DC, Italy and the Dominican Republic. Marlon Brando failed to appear for his one day of shooting (a flashback scene), and the script was immediately changed to accommodate the no-show. Paramount opposed the 'Part II' in the title, as this had not been put in the title of a mainstream movie before, but Coppola had his way, and the practice was soon commonplace afterwards. The film grossed 47.5 mil. $ in North America (54 % of the total gross). Both domestically and internationally the film did far less business than its landmark predecessor, but it was still Paramount's highest-grossing movie of the year and the 7th highest-grossing film of the year in North America overall. The film won 6 out of 11 Oscar nominations. It won Best Picture (the first sequel to achieve this), Supporting Actor (De Niro), Director, Adapted Screenplay, Art-Set Direction and Score. It lost Actor (Pacino) to Art Carney for Harry and Tonto, two more Supporting Actor nominations (Michael V. Gazzo and Lee Strasberg), Supporting Actress (Talia Shire) to Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express and Costume Design to The Great Gatsby. It was also nominated for 6 Golden Globes, won 1/4 BAFTA noms and several other awards. Roger Ebert initially gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one, but later changed it to a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. IMDb's users have voted the film in at #3 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between The Godfather (1972) and The Dark Knight (2008). Coppola returned with Apocalypse Now (1979). Pacino returned in Dog Day Afternoon (1975). The Godfather Part II is certified fresh at 97 % with a 9.62/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Godfather Part II?

The Irishman (I Heard You Paint Houses) (2019, VOD) - Scorsese's great gangster epic of growing old and death

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+ Best Comeback Actor of the Year: Joe Pesci + Best Epic of the Year + Best Gangster Movie of the Year + Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 155.8-246.8 mil. $ range + Worst Dollar Return of the Year: 0.05-0.03 Times the Cost + Worst Poster of the Year

Joe Pesci in the front looks strange around his eye on this uninspired poster for Martin Scorsese's The Irishman

Frank Sheeran is an able WWII veteran who works as a truck driver in Philadelphia in the 1950s, when he is introduced to mob head Russell Bufalino and starts working for him. The country's most influential union leader, Jimmy Hoffa, also makes Sheeran's acquaintance and makes use of him for many years, until he has driven himself into a corner.

The Irishman is written by Steve Zaillian (Schindler's List (1993)), based on the memoir I Heard You Paint Houses (2004) by Charles Brandt (The Right to Remain Silent (1988)), and directed by New-Yorker master filmmaker Martin Scorsese (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)) whose 25th feature it is.
The film is a major work, an ambitious and terrific production of a filmmaker who is afforded the rare luxury of roaming around a hugely costly period drama that runs 3½ hours. It is Scorsese's longest film to date, his best since The Departed (2006), which was a (gangster) thriller, and his best straight-up gangster movie since Casino (1995).
The Irishman can be described as having three major parts: The first part is the anecdotal part, where Scorsese tells a story, a story of gangsters, which he has perfected and made a familiar style of which multitudes have tried to copy the world over: This time Robert De Niro (Meet the Fockers (2004)) as Sheeran doubles as narrator, as he seems to be relating his life's story to us from the nursing home he has wound up in. The second and third part of the film are shorter than the first part, which probably runs about half the film: SPOILER The second part could be coined; The End of Hoffa. Those familiar with American history will know that Jimmy Hoffa disappeared mysteriously in July 1975 and that his body was never found. The film portrays how unyielding Hoffa's combative side overtakes his reason, and how even his closest friends can't dissuade him to leave a course, which ultimately gets him executed by Sheeran himself, his perhaps closest friend. The detail that Scorsese devotes to this section of the film plies it with dramatic weight: Though Sheeran has taken several lives during his life, this is a most terrible job, and the nerves and sweat of the inevitable action, which changes his life, are very palpable.
The third part of the film concerns growing old and dying. The film is different from Scorsese's previous gangster films in that it has an eye on death throughout, and not death that is celebrated in 'cool' or bad-ass killings but death as the inevitable fact of life that it is: Throughout the film texts on characters stopped in motion informs us how and when their real-life counterparts met their (mostly) violent deaths. This is an effective antidote to the glamour inherent in the gangster lifestyle that is also depicted: It usually ends prematurely. But the focus on death gets its own whole part of the film, as Sheeran as an old man struggles with walking but more with his daughter Peggy's refusing to see him; a man facing the loneliness and silence of an life's last period. The section is truly profound and very human.
The Five Satins' 1956 song In the Still of the Night enforces the experience.
A stricter, conventional studio backer would have trimmed The Irishman to 2½-3 hours at the writing stage to ensure its theatrical profitability, and the story could have been tightened, - but something would have been missed, and I can't point to thing in The Irishman that I would want to miss. Ultimately it is a joy to see the long film that Scorsese wanted us to see, and this story is so rich with events and drama that it sustains the length.
What is a shame is that the film is only available in very few cinemas (mostly only in the biggest cities), and precious few run times as well. This is because Netflix, the film's main financier, do not care much about cinemas and movie-lovers attending them but stand firm on their business of catering to couch-potatoes. This stubborn policy is indeed a pain to endure when the product here happens to be the great new epic by one of cinema's top chiefs globally.
The Irishman is of note also as one of the first major films that use CGI to de-age its stars: As the film opens we see a younger De Niro, Joe Pesci (Easy Money (1983)) as Bufalino and Al Pacino (Chinese Coffee (2000)) as Hoffa. Pacino doesn't look as young as a man in his 40s, which he is supposed to, and De Niro and Pesci have a rubbery stiffness and strange, digital shine to them that makes one think, unfortunately, of wax figures. This is tricky technology and not perfect yet. Perhaps the film would have been better off with a trio of younger actors casting their lot in the picture for this part of it.
There are two other castings in The Irishman, which didn't sit perfect with me: Domenick Lombardozzi (The Wire (2002-08)) as Fat Tony was the problem in reverse, as a too young (though fine) actor was propped up in make-up and prosthetics to be the much older character. - Why not just cast a fine actor in the appropriate age range? The other one is Anna Paquin (Bellevue (2017)): Suddenly in the film Sheeran's teenage daughter Peggy is Paquin, who is 37 years old in real life, and obviously doesn't look like someone who was just a teenager. Paquin is good but this casting is terrible.
De Niro is tremendous as Sheeran, who doesn't feign a remorse which isn't there naturally in the end, even if his confessor searches for it. Pesci is very different from his iconic gangster portrayals of the past: Bufalino is an elegant and dignified gangster. Pacino is perfect as the divisive Hoffa, who goes from being the main man for 2.3 mil. Teamster members to being side-tracked and hated. The Irishman is cinema. No surprise it should be seen in one.

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The Age of Innocence (1993) or, Stayin' IN the Pants
Cape Fear (1991) - Scorsese adds lots of stuff to remake but loses the balance    

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 159 mil. $
Box office: Estimated 7.5 mil. $ and counting
= Box office disaster (primarily made for streaming/VOD)
[The Irishman premiered 27 September (New York Film Festival) and runs 209 minutes. De Niro made Scorsese read Brandt's book, and development began in 2007. The project was stuck in development hell for years, while Scorsese made other films. Pesci was reportedly offered his role 50 times before accepting it, leaving retirement for it. The film is the first collaboration of Scorsese and Pacino. Shooting took place for 108 days from August 2017 - March 2018 in New Jersey, New York and in Florida, including Miami. The budget rose from a projected 100 mil. $ to 125 mil. $, which Netflix put up, to 140 mil. $ due to CGI costs, - to finally, reportedly, 159 mil. $. The film's truthfulness is contested. Netflix has asserted that around 16 % of its account-holders, around 26 mil. people, have watched at least 70 % of the film on their platform. It is Netflix's biggest theatrical release in North America and globally to date, but most of the gross numbers are not, as other major US releases, made public. The reason for the film's small theatrical engagement is that Netflix refuses to align with an exclusivity 'window' for theaters before films hit streaming and video, which is otherwise standard. The film is estimated to have made 6.7 mil. $ (89.3 % of the total gross) in North America with its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets made public being the Netherlands with 623k $ (8.3 %) and South Korea with 209k $ (2.8 %), - however most markets are unreported. The film is nominated for 5 Golden Globes, won an AFI award, 2 National Board of Review awards and several other honors. It has been voted in at #145 on IMDb's user-generated Top 250, currently sitting between Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Scorsese is set to return with Killers of the Flower Moon (2021), a period crime drama with De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. De Niro returns in The War with Grandpa (2020); Pacino in Axis Sally and Pesci is not announced for anything new, likely heading back to retirement. The Irishman is certified fresh at 96 % with a 8.87/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Irishman?

The Departed (2006) - Scorsese's Boston-set wildcat of a capital letter Movie

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+ Best Boston Movie of the Year + Best Gangster Movie of the Year + Best Comeback Actor of the Year: Matt Damon + Best Remake of the Year + Best Ensemble of the Year: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson, Alex Baldwin, Kevin Corrigan, James Badge Dale

Jack Nicholson lurks in the background behind the young leading men on this poster for Martin Scorsese's The Departed

QUICK REVIEW:

In Boston, Massachusetts, it isn't Italian Americans who control the city's criminal underbelly. Frank Costello does; an Irish crime king who has a guy on the inside of the city's police department, but who also has an 'infestation problem' of his own. In Boston you just have to deal with your problems...

Master filmmaker Martin Scorsese (Casino (1995)) does it again with The Departed; creates a unique crime blast of a movie. The Departed is a remake of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's Infernal Affairs (2002), a very successful Hong Kong movie which got 2 sequels, written by William Monahan (Kingdom of Heaven (2005)), who won an Oscar for his adapted screenplay.
The movie offers juicy parts for an exciting ensemble cast that all bring their very best to the film. - And for once, at this stage in his career, Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting (1997)) also has a fully fledged part. - His star was back on the rise, after about 5 years of more or less dubious movies, with his performance in Departed.
The film features a cool music side; both lots of great source music and a great score by Howard Shore (Doubt (2008)). The Oscar-winning editing, by Scorsese regular Thelma Schoonmaker (Goodfellas (1990)), and Michael Ballhaus' (Air Force One (1997)) cinematography are unmatched. SPOILER Martin Sheen's (Apocalypse Now (1979)) death scene is very exciting, and the film's ending, in which nearly everyone 'departs', is great.
I only withhold the 6th ♥ from Departed because the characters, and especially Jack Nicholson's (The Shining (1980)) Frank Costello, seem at times exaggerated in an almost circus-like way. It is truly a great movie nevertheless.

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Martin Scorsese directing The Departed

Watch the totally kick-ass trailer for the movie here

Cost: 90 mil. $
Box office: 289.8 mil. $
= Big hit
[The Departed was shot on locations in Boston with interior scenes shot in New York. The film was highly anticipated and became one of Scorsese's biggest hits to date, both commercially and critically: Departed broke Scorsese's decades-long Oscar jinx and earned both Best Picture, Director as well as Adapted Screenplay and Editing Oscars. Mark Wahlberg (Ted 2 (2015)) was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Many have commented that Scorsese won for a lesser film than he has previously been nominated for. He has himself said that he won for Departed because it is his first movie "with a plot." It opened #1 in North America with 26.8 mil. $ and grossed 132.3 mil. $ there (46 % of the total gross).]

What do you think of The Departed?
Any thoughts on Scorsese and Co.'s Oscar wins for the film?

American Gangster (2007) - R. Scott's great American gangster epic, the first of its kind about a black American

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+ Best Gangster Movie of the Year + Best Epic Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year

Black, white, and a line of blood are the sole colors on the classic poster for Ridley Scott's American Gangster

American Gangster is English master filmmaker Ridley Scott's (Gladiator (2000) best movie since Black Hawk Down (2001). It is written by Steven Zaillian (Moneyball (2011)), based on Mark Jacobson's 2000 New York magazine article The Return of Superfly. It is Scott's 17th feature.

Frank Lucas from North Carolina is a central gangster in late 1960s Harlem, New York, where he rises to be the top dog, responsible for vast heroin smuggling, extortion and violence, among other crimes, - but detective Richard Roberts is on his heels.

Goodwill and excellent craftsmanship is put into American Gangster from several sides: The recreation of 1970s Manhattan is impressive (production design by Arthur Max (Robin Hood (2010))), and the funky, eclectic music (original tracks and the score by Marc Streitenfeld (Poltergeist (2015)) are mixed effectively) works perfectly in getting us into this other time and place. There's top-shelf acting from Denzel Washington (Flight (2012)), Russell Crowe (The Mummy (2017)), and Ruby Dee (Cool Red (1976)) as Mama Lucas. - All of it is a joy for the movie-lover.
SPOILER Great, memorable scenes in the film include the one where Lucas is arrested by Roberts outside of the church to the sounds of Amazing Grace, as well as the final scene, in which he is let out of prison to a changed city to the tunes of Public Enemy.
Despite the depiction of its its real-life characters' actual actions in the film being greatly contested, American Gangster is a great film and a riveting piece of American history.

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Denzel Washington gives an interview about the movie here

Cost: 100 mil. $
Box office: 266.4 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 2.66 times its cost)
[American Gangster premiered 19 October (Harlem, New York) and runs 158 minutes. Universal bought the rights to the New York magazine article in 2000, and Scott circled the project, which eventually began development with Antoine Fuqua directing and Washington and Benicio Del Toro starring. Concerns about direction and budget led to Fuqua's getting fired in 2004 and the production cancellation, which initially cost the studio 30 mil. $ of which 20 mil. were for Washington and 5 mil. for Del Toro, who had so-called 'pay-or-play' contracts, securing them payment in case of cancellation. Will Smith was in talks to star, until Scott returned to the project and re-teamed Washington and Crowe, who had starred together previously in Brett Leonard's Virtuosity (1995). Washington and Crowe both met with the real people their characters are based on prior to filming, which took place in New York and Chiang Mai, Thailand from July - November 2006. The film opened #1 to a 43.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, the biggest opening up to that point in Washington and Crowe's careers. It stayed in the top 5 for another 2 weeks (#2; #3) and grossed 130.1 mil. $ (48.8 % of the total gross) domestically. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 19.8 mil. $ (7.4 %) and Italy with 15 mil. $ (5.6 %). It was the 19th highest-grossing film of the year domestically and worldwide. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Both Lucas, Roberts and other central people who were involved with the actions shown in the film have commented that the film makes up a lot for dramatic effect, and two former DEA agents sued Universal Pictures for defamation, which was eventually dismissed by a US district judge. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Supporting Actress (Dee), lost to Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton, and Art Direction, lost to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It was also nominated for 3 Golden Globes, 5 BAFTAs, a Grammy and many other awards. It topped the home video and rentals charts and was the 14th best-selling DVD of 2008 in North America, though its gross here is unreported. Scott returned with Body of Lies (2008). Washington returned in The Great Debaters (2007), Crowe in Body of Lies. American Gangster is certified fresh at 80 % with a 6.99/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of American Gangster?