Dear Internet,
There I
have it, "The Godfather" trilogy.
It has been an interesting three days watching these three films. Three long movies, I might add, but good. I can imagine the sanity I might have lost
trying to marathon the three back to back, but it is no use trying to imagine
what might have been when the present and the future is so much more
important. And I have already gotten
ahead of myself.
"The
Godfather Part III," made 16 years after "Part II," is in
constant communication with its previous films.
It relies on the audience to be well aware of them, and should rightly
be. I made a point about this yesterday about
how "Part II" relied a bit much on the first movie, but that was because
the point that it was trying to get across seemed to be more of what the first
film was trying to say. Both films were
showing how Mike started and continued his downward spiral of being the
Godfather. Relying on a previous work to
only talk about the same thing diminishes the thing that is trying to be
addressed by only repeating the discussion with little new to add. "Part III" wants to show something
different than what the last two films talked about and needs for the audience
to have seen the previous films to be able to talk about it. This thing is the chance of salvation for
Mike Corleone.
The
film obviously wants to address the things that Mike has done throughout his
life, which include the good and the bad.
Even the second film wanted to address the multitude of sins that Mike
commits in the name of business.
However, the second film wished to do so by seeing how far down the
spiral Mike went after finally becoming Don.
"Part III" is all about the hope that Mike holds on to. This hope stems from a specific line the
first film. He tells Kay that he will
make the business completely legitimate.
The five year timeframe that he made that promise is long gone. Despite this, he actually is shown trying to
do this in "Part III." The
casinos are all sold off and the business has gone legitimate for the most
part. Mike even is awarded a papal honor
for his charitable donations. The guilt
for his actions have torn him in two over the year, and his actions in the film
reflect his desire to be an upright man.
In the
first two films, this guilt was there.
It was there with every refusal to a question he was asked. It was there with every lie to his
family. It was there with every silence. In the last two films and to an extent here, Mike
spends more time trying to tie up loose ends concerning the rotten apples than
throwing the entire bushel out and being done with it all. In "Part III," Mike is wiser than
he has been in previous films. He even
comments about how he will be very smart when he is dead. This wisdom and intelligence is put to work
in protecting his two children. He
desires his son to be a success and his daughter to be untouched by the underworld
that he belongs to. I said previously
how he was often cold to his children or was at least not acting in a fatherly
manner. Here, he tries desperately to be
the father he wanted to be. He treats
his family with love and respect, although he does keep his temperament at
times. This relationship is highlighted
by a series of brief flashbacks here and there that do not slow down the plot much
by only lasting a few seconds.
I think
I might be getting too far off from the point that I want to make concerning
"Part III." The film concerns
the small hope for Mike. He wishes to be
forgiven and absolved of his crimes. He
wants out, but he is too far in to be able to leave. Mike gains a little bit of this hope, but he
must suffer before the end like he has suffered for so many years. This suffering is not the kind that the film
points to in the climax of the film. It
is the suffering that occurs in the final scene. He must suffer alone because that is what his
life ultimately would lead to. All his
actions lead to his own death rather than those around him. That death is a long and slow one filled with
emptiness. It is not the pain of seeing
those close to you die, but the pain of living the days after by one's
self. It is like an ulcer that starts in
the winter of life, a pain that can last for years, bleeding, and being in
anguish with it constantly reminding the victim of its presence. It is not a broken arm bent in the spring of
youth, which heals quickly and is more real in the doctor's record than in the
mind of the patient.
The
final question is of course, "Does Mike gain the salvation he sought so
desperately to obtain?" The film
does not really say. It more implies
that he does not considering that he dies alone with only his dog nearby. There is a chance considering that by finally
losing everything he held dear he might be repentant, but that would be
inserting too much into what is not there.
What the film is able to do, or at least was able to for me, was finally
make the audience sympathetic to a Michael that had received the title of
Godfather. When he received the title, Mike
became a man whose life revolved around his mob status while his family became
more estranged. He still had his family,
and could still try to fix things before the end. This can be seen when he takes his ex-wife
around the Sicilian town to try and become closer. However, in the end, his choice of being the
Godfather is what chooses his destiny, as well as the ones belonging to those around
him.
"The
Godfather Part III" is a great film in my mind. It is one that takes a long time to tell, but
makes a superb crescendo. The climax of
the film got me to want to stand up and punch something, but not in a retaliation
of the film being so bad that I wanted to take my mind off of it. No, I wanted to vent my frustration because
the film was successfully able to get me to feel that way. It got me riled up and upset about the most
important thing in the whole film, which was something that was supposed to be
upset about. If a film makes me cry when
I am supposed to cry, if a film makes me cheer when it is time to cheer, if a
film makes me scream obscenities because it makes me care about the injustice,
it succeeds in what it sent out to do.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop,
P.S. Next will be "The Muppet Show."
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