--- title: "The Godfather Part III" year: 1990 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-godfather-part-iii" fi1m_score: 63 critics_score: 68 critics_reviews: 20 published: "2026-09-19T17:09:54.371761+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T17:09:54.943304+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Godfather Part III (1990) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola · 2h 42m · MPA R · Crime, Drama, Thriller **Fi1m score: 63** · Critics 68 from 20 reviews *In a sentence:* Two and a half hours of exquisite lighting and a plot that reads like a bank’s annual report > Coppola’s last visit to the Corleones is handsomely built and often moving, with Pacino tired and grey and Andy Garcia hungry beside him. But the Vatican plot never comes clear, the daughter is miscast, and at 162 minutes it feels every one of them. ## Synopsis New York, 1979. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), grey and nearing sixty, receives a papal honour in church and throws a party at his flat afterwards. His former wife Kay Adams (Diane Keaton) arrives with their children: Anthony (Franc D’Ambrosio), who wants to leave law school to sing opera, and Mary (Sofia Coppola), who fronts the family’s charitable foundation. Michael is negotiating to take control of Immobiliare, a European property company, through the Vatican’s bank and Archbishop Gilday (Donal Donnelly), and to leave crime behind for good. Into the party walks Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia), his brother Sonny’s illegitimate son, feuding with the flashy street boss Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna) and asking Michael for a place at his side. Connie (Talia Shire) presses her brother to give it to him. ## Review Sixteen years after [*The Godfather Part II*](https://film.one/film/the-godfather-part-ii), Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo go back to Michael Corleone and find him old. It is 1979, his hair is grey and cropped, and he wants the one thing money in his trade has never bought him, which is a clean name. The plan is to take control of Immobiliare, a European property company, with the Vatican’s bank as partner and Archbishop Gilday (Donal Donnelly) as the man with his hand out. *The Godfather Part III* is beautifully made, honestly felt and, for long stretches, a muddle. Pacino plays Michael as a man who has spent twenty years indoors. The voice has dropped to a rasp, he moves as if his joints hurt, and when he loses his temper it comes out as a cough. This Michael wants approval, and Pacino lets us see what it costs him. Andy Garcia’s Vincent Mancini gives the film its pulse. He walks into the opening party in a leather jacket among the dinner suits, and every scene he enters gets faster. Joe Mantegna makes Joey Zasa a vain street boss in beautiful tailoring, and Eli Wallach’s Don Altobello is an old man made of sugar and kisses. We were moved, more than we expected, and early. At the party, Michael’s son Anthony (Franc D’Ambrosio) tells him he is leaving law school to sing, and later that evening sings him an old Sicilian song. Pacino sits with his hands folded and listens, Gordon Willis holds the shot, and the face gives way in a manner we had not seen in two films. We came braced for a sequel made for the money and found a film about a man who wants to be forgiven and has left it late. The craft is as good as the series ever had. Willis shoots the New York rooms in the dark ambers he used in 1972, faces lit from one side and the rest left to go black, and when the film reaches Sicily he opens the windows and the stone goes the colour of bread. Dean Tavoularis dresses the Corleone flat in dark wood, old paintings and heavy curtains. Milena Canonero puts Michael in charcoal and Vincent in black leather, then moves Vincent into suits as he climbs. Carmine Coppola’s score leans on the waltz and the love theme from the earlier films and adds heavier brass under the Vatican scenes. The trouble is the business. The first two films made Michael’s deals as clear as his killings; here the deal is a share purchase involving a lawyer, B.J. Harrison (George Hamilton), an archbishop, a bank and a board in Rome, and we sat through several meetings about it without being able to say afterwards who owed whom what. Walter Murch, Lisa Fruchtman and Barry Malkin cut each scene cleanly; what they cannot do is make us care which cassock is which. Somewhere in the second hour, during another conversation about percentages, we were bored, and then cross about being bored by something this beautifully lit. Then there is Mary. Sofia Coppola plays Michael’s daughter, and she is plainly not a trained actor; the lines come out flat, and her scenes with Garcia, which need heat, have none. The fault is not hers. It belongs to a production that asked a beginner to carry the feeling of a 162-minute film and then stood her next to Pacino. Diane Keaton’s Kay gets two scenes in which to be sad and right, and Talia Shire’s Connie, who has hardened into something like a consigliere in black, is the more interesting woman and gets less time. Raf Vallone’s Cardinal Lamberto has one long scene with Michael in a courtyard, and it is the best-written thing in the film. The last movement, built around Anthony’s operatic debut in Palermo, cuts between the stage and the family’s business in the manner of the baptism in the first film, and for twenty minutes the old confidence is back. It is a long wait for it. See it after the other two, and not too soon after, when you are ready to spend an evening with a tired man rather than a dangerous one. As an epilogue it has real feeling in it, and Pacino and Garcia are reason enough to stay to the end. It carries a 15. *Fi1m score 63, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics land somewhere between respect and relief. The reviews agree the film falls short of its two predecessors, but a clear majority still find it worth the evening, and many of those verdicts follow the 2020 recut, which is widely credited with a clearer first hour and a stronger ending. Praise clusters on Al Pacino, weary and remorseful as Michael, and on the craft: Gordon Willis’s photography, the scale of the Vatican set pieces, its operatic mournfulness. The reservations are consistent. Review after review, favourable or not, names Sofia Coppola’s casting as Mary as the flaw no edit can fix, and most find the Vatican conspiracy plot convoluted. The spread is wide, from raves to dismissal. The New Yorker, in 1991, finds the film lumbering and incoherent; Sight and Sound argues in 2020 that the recut adds confusion rather than clarity; Empire finds it a dreadful disappointment as a Godfather film, if fine as a gangster picture. ### Reviews we read (20) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Duane Byrge (90/100, inferred): The review calls the film a full-bodied though somber dramatic orchestration and a brilliant character study of Michael Corleone’s attempts at atonement and legitimacy. It singles out Al Pacino’s Oscar-caliber lead performance for particular praise while noting some confusion in the cross-cut finale. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/the-godfather-part-iii-review-1990-movie-1235739324/) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (90/100, inferred): The film matches its predecessors in narrative intensity, epic scope, socio-political analysis, physical beauty, and feeling for its characters and milieu, and is the most personal of the three for the director. Sofia Coppola’s casting in a key role is the main flaw. [Read](https://variety.com/1989/film/reviews/the-godfather-part-iii-1200428213/) - **The Telegraph**, Robbie Collin (4/5): The recut clarifies motives and improves pacing in the first hour, vindicating the film and Sofia Coppola's performance after years of overstated scorn. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/godfather-coda-death-michael-corleone-review-coppola-fixes-greatest/) - **Time Out**, Dave Calhoun (4/5): The re-cut of The Godfather Part III offers redemption especially for Sofia Coppola's performance and makes the sprawling Mafia opus more invigorating overall. While it does not fully match the earlier films, the changes to beginning and end, along with strong turns from Pacino, make it worth revisiting. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-godfather-coda-the-death-of-michael-corleone) - **Financial Times**, Danny Leigh (★★★★☆): The restoration and discreet re-edit heighten the corporate Vatican deal and bring Darwinian self-knowledge to the fore in this recut of the finale. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/9b7d2c43-00e0-4a71-a0d2-64fd914b009f) - **Los Angeles Times** (70/100, inferred): The film does not achieve its towering goals and is a disappointment relative to the first two, yet it remains one of the year’s best American movies thanks to its high ensemble talent, gorgeous craft, and artistic ambition. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-23-ca-9701-story.html) - **Slant Magazine**, Jake Cole (70/100, inferred): The review finds the Coda re-edit clarifies Part III as a bombastic yet ultimately insular morality play with a sharper focus on Michael’s conflict with a corrupt clergy and a stronger thematic close to the saga. It praises the restored cinematography and evocative central conflict while noting weaknesses in some performances. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/the-godfather-coda-blu-ray-review/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (70/100, inferred): The recut is worth watching as a revision of the original's choppy plot and Sofia Coppola's performance, though it remains stately and less vibrant than contemporary films like GoodFellas. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/dec/01/the-godfather-coda-the-death-of-michael-corleone-review-francis-ford-coppola-al-pacino) - **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (NYT Critic’s Pick): The film is a valid and deeply moving continuation of the Corleone saga that holds out the possibility of redemption for Michael. It is more mournfully operatic than its predecessors and succeeds in making the characters' intervening decades feel consistent and lived-in. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/25/movies/review-film-the-corleones-try-to-go-straight-in-the-godfather-part-iii.html) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★☆): The sharper edit removes corny flashbacks and tightens the narrative for a more satisfying experience of the same Vatican-deal story. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/mario-puzos-the-godfather-coda-the-death-of-michael-corleone-1990-review-a-sharper-version-of-the-trilogys-finale-0kw35zxg7) - **Radio Times**, Adrian Turner (3/5): The third film is a distant relative of the masterpieces that preceded it, undermined by a bungled plot and mercenary origins, though Pacino and Garcia deliver strong performances. Sofia Coppola's inexperience in the key role of Mary further weakens the picture's impact. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-fhir5p/the-godfather-part-iii/) - **Sight and Sound**, Michael Atkinson (40/100, inferred): The re-edit of The Godfather Part III into Coda fails to redeem the 1990 film, resulting mainly in textual confusion rather than meaningful improvement. The critic highlights persistent issues with pacing, casting compromises and the screenplay's structural weaknesses despite some visual strengths from cinematographer Gordon Willis. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/godfather-part-iii-coda-death-michael-corleone-redux-re-edit-rejig) - **The New Yorker**, Pauline Kael (40/100, inferred): The movie is lumbering and lacks coherence or the internal force of the earlier entries, though it is not a public humiliation. It feels like an unfinished, operatic exercise in grandiosity that reflects Coppola’s own exhaustion and depression more than the characters’ passions. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1991/01/14/vanity-vanities) - **Empire**, Barry McIlheney (30/100, inferred): As a standalone film about hoods and a Vatican conspiracy it works fine, with strong lead performances and clever directorial touches. As the eagerly awaited third part of the Godfather saga, however, it is a dreadful disappointment that lacks the narrative strength, menace and epic sweep of its predecessors. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/godfather-part-iii-review/) - **The Playlist**, Jason Bailey (A-): The changes improve the film into a fine and worthy conclusion, with better structure and standout performances like Pacino's. Some core problems, including Sofia Coppola's casting, persist despite the enhancements. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/godfather-part-iii-coda-recut-review-20201201/) - **/Film**, Chris Evangelista (8/10): The recut is largely the same but tighter, with Coppola's sharp direction and set pieces shining through. Pacino excels as a weary Michael, but casting flaws like Sofia Coppola's performance remain unfixable. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/578078/the-godfather-coda-review/) - **HeyUGuys**, Adam Solomons (4/5): The recut is a triumph that breathes new life into the film, with a stronger ending that frames the series profoundly. It remains inferior to the first two entries due to convoluted plotting and uneven performances. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/the-godfather-coda-the-death-of-michael-corleone-review/) - **Collider**, Sam Barsanti (75/100, inferred): The film is much better than its poor reputation suggests and is more fun than expected despite a convoluted plot. The critic singles out the absurd Vatican conspiracy storyline and the improved ending in the Coda cut for making the tragic conclusion more poignant. [Read](https://collider.com/the-godfather-part-3-underrated-crime-epic-sofia-coppola-al-pacino/) - **NME**, James McMahon (60/100, inferred): The re-edit trims the fat and reworks the structure to give the story better finality and flow, making it a more entertaining and fitting conclusion than the original cut. It remains the weakest of the trilogy due to weaker story, performances, and script compared to the first two films. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/the-godfather-coda-the-death-of-michael-corleone-review-2830096) - **The Wrap** (60/100, inferred): The re-edited version may be the best yet of the troubled third entry, but it remains overshadowed by its predecessors. Coppola's changes, including a stronger new opening and trimmed runtime, improve the pacing and focus, though issues like Sofia Coppola's performance and other flaws persist. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/the-godfather-coda-film-review-part-iii-coppola-al-pacino/) ## Details - **Director:** Francis Ford Coppola - **Director:** Francis Ford Coppola - **Screenplay:** Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola - **Cinematography:** Gordon Willis - **Editor:** Lisa Fruchtman, Barry Malkin, Walter Murch - **Music:** Carmine Coppola - **Production design:** Dean Tavoularis - **Costume design:** Milena Canonero - **Producer:** Francis Ford Coppola - **Cast:** Al Pacino as Michael Corleone; Diane Keaton as Kay Adams; Talia Shire as Connie Corleone Rizzi; Andy Garcia as Vincent Mancini; Eli Wallach as Don Altobello; Joe Mantegna as Joey Zasa; George Hamilton as B.J. Harrison; Bridget Fonda as Grace Hamilton - **Runtime:** 2h 42m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 25 December 1990 - **Genres:** Crime, Drama, Thriller - **Budget:** $54 million - **Box office:** $137 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQR85-nGk2M ## Where to watch in the US - Paramount+: streaming, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $16.99, uhd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, ES, FI, FR, GB, HR, HU, IE, IN, IT, JP, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SI, SK, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1991: Best Cinematography (nominated); Best Film Editing (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Production Design (nominated); Best Supporting Actor (nominated) - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star 1991: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star (won) - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress 1991: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress (won) ## If you liked this - *The Long Good Friday* (1980), Fi1m 88: Bob Hoskins tries to go legitimate with the Americans and the week gets away from him — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-long-good-friday.md) - *Il Divo* (2008): Sorrentino’s Andreotti, and the Roman corridors Coppola’s Vatican plot only waves at - *Once Upon a Time in America* (1984), Fi1m 81: Leone’s gangsters grow old too, and the regret runs even longer — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/once-upon-a-time-in-america.md) - *A Bittersweet Life* (2005): A Seoul enforcer’s loyalty and its reward, told tight where Coppola sprawls - *The Irishman* (2019), Fi1m 86: Scorsese’s old men in the same trade, with Pacino louder and just as lost — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-irishman.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-godfather-part-iii