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Tag: Gordon Willis

QuickView: The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (2020)

“Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.”

Michael Corleone

Releasing a new cut of the heavily criticised The Godfather Part III after thirty years will strike many as wishful revisionism from Francis Ford Coppola. Although I would not describe myself as an apologist for Part III, I have always said it had very different intentions to its predecessors, something that becomes evident with the restoration of its originally intended title. It remains far too long for a musical “coda” or epilogue; the total runtime is reduced by only four minutes, though this belies the number of changes, with scenes trimmed throughout the film to improve pacing. The tonal changes, however, are the result of nuanced restructuring of the material. Opening with a plea from a cardinal of the Vatican Bank to Michael Corleone, the resulting conversation (which originally appeared around 40 minutes into the film) immediately establishes the film’s themes: Michael’s desire for redemption through legitimising the family business and absolution for his past crimes, particularly the guilt he feels over his brother’s death. Two irreparable problems persist: the absence of Robert Duvall’s Tom Hagen (whom Mario Puzo had intended to provide a moral counterpoint to Michael) and the poor casting of Sofia Coppola as Michael’s daughter — her awkward performance may not warrant the level of derision it received, but it undermines the emotional crux of the film. Coda is a definite improvement, then, but it is unlikely to result in any drastic change in people’s views on the final entry in the saga. The last notable change is the truncated final shot, which serves to clarify the title: the death of Michael Corleone is not him slumping in his chair in the original cut, but the death of his dream for legitimacy and redemption, leaving him as isolated and alone as he was at the end of The Godfather Part II.

8/10

QuickView: All The President’s Men (1976)

“Someone once said the price of democracy is a bloodletting every ten years. Make sure it isn’t our blood.”

Ben Bradlee

Whilst considered a classic by many, the film’s greatest strength is also its weakness. Where Hollywood typically glamourises any profession it portrays, there is courageous verisimilitude here in presenting the relentless drudgery of newspaper reporting: endless calls for quotes, hours of waiting to speak to a source, wrangling names and numbers and details, poring over notes scrawled on whatever paper is to hand. The film is often taut — through Hoffman and Redford’s excellent performances, some great camerawork, and the knowledge of how events ended — but its latter half certainly drags. The Watergate Scandal broke slowly, not all in one go, and after we see the first chink lift in the White House’s armour, to be presented with the same process repeated multiple times makes for poor storytelling. This, coupled with a lacklustre conclusion in which the dominoes eventually topple off-screen, means the film’s edge dulls as its scandal fades.

7/10

"A film is a petrified fountain of thought."

(CC) BY-NC 2003-2023 Priyan Meewella

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