The Godfather Part III is a 1990 American gangster film written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, and directed by Coppola. It's the final chapter in the Godfather saga about Michael Corleone, a Mafia kingpin who tries to legitimize his criminal empire.
Plot[]
In 1979, Michael Corleone is approaching 60. Wracked with guilt over his ruthless rise to power, especially for having ordered his brother Fredo's assassination, he donates millions to charitable causes. Michael and Kay are divorced; their children, Anthony and Mary, live with Kay. At the reception following a papal order induction ceremony in St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in Michael's honor, Anthony tells his father that he is leaving law school to become an opera singer. Kay supports his decision, but Michael wants Anthony to complete his law degree first; nevertheless, Michael agrees to let Anthony go his own way. Michael and Kay have an uneasy reunion when Kay reveals that she and Anthony know the truth about Fredo's death. Vincent Mancini, the illegitimate son of Michael's long-dead brother Sonny, arrives at the reception. Michael's sister, Connie, arranges for Vincent to settle a dispute with his rival, Joey Zasa, but Zasa calls Vincent a bastard, and Vincent bites Zasa's ear. Michael, troubled by Vincent's fiery temper yet impressed by his loyalty, agrees to include Vincent in the family business.
Michael knows that the head of the Vatican Bank, Archbishop Gilday, has accumulated a massive deficit and offers $600M in exchange for shares in Internazionale Immobiliare, an international real estate company, which would make him its largest single shareholder. He makes a tender offer to buy the Vatican's 25% share in the company, which will give him controlling interest. Immobiliare's board approves the offer, pending ratification by the Pope.
Don Altobello, a New York Mafia boss and Connie's godfather, tells Michael that his partners on The Commission want in on the Immobiliare deal. Michael pays them from the sale of his Las Vegas holdings. Zasa receives nothing and, declaring Michael his enemy, storms out. Don Altobello, assuring Michael that he can diplomatically resolve the matter, leaves to speak to Zasa. Moments later, a helicopter hovers outside the conference room and opens fire. Most of the bosses are killed, but Michael, Vincent, and Michael's bodyguard, Al Neri, escape. Michael realizes that Altobello is the traitor, and suffers a diabetic stroke. As Michael recuperates, Vincent and Mary begin a romance, while Neri and Connie give Vincent permission to retaliate against Zasa. During a street festival, Vincent kills Zasa. Michael berates Vincent for his actions and insists that Vincent end his relationship with Mary, explaining Vincent's involvement in the family's criminal enterprises endangers her life.
The family goes to Sicily for Anthony's operatic debut in Palermo at the Teatro Massimo. Michael tells Vincent to pretend to defect from the Corleone family in order to spy on Altobello. Altobello introduces Vincent to Licio Lucchesi, Immobiliare's chairman. Michael visits Cardinal Lamberto, anticipated being the next pope, to discuss the deal. Lamberto persuades Michael to make his first confession in 30 years, during which Michael tearfully confesses that he ordered Fredo's murder. Lamberto says that Michael deserves to suffer for his sins, but can be redeemed. Michael discovers that the Immobiliare deal is an elaborate swindle, arranged by Lucchesi, Gilday, and Vatican accountant Frederick Keinszig.
Vincent tells Michael that Altobello has hired Mosca, a veteran hitman, to assassinate Michael. Mosca and his son, disguised as priests, kill Corleone family friend Don Tommasino as he returns to his villa. While Michael and Kay tour Sicily, Michael asks for Kay's forgiveness, and they admit they still love each other. At Tommasino's funeral, Michael vows to sin no more. Following the pope's death, Cardinal Lamberto is elected to succeed him and the Immobiliare deal is ratified. The plotters against the ratification attempt to cover their tracks and Gilday kills the new pope with poisoned tea. Michael sees that Vincent is a changed man and names him the new Don of the Corleone family, in return for ending his romance with Mary.
The family sees Anthony's performance in Cavalleria rusticana in Palermo while Vincent exacts his revenge:
- Vincent's men smother Keinszig and then hang him from a bridge, making his death look like a suicide;
- At the opera, Connie gives Altobello a poisoned cannoli and watches him die from her opera box;
- Calò, Tommasino's former bodyguard, stabs Lucchesi in the neck with his own spectacles.
- Neri travels to the Vatican, where he shoots and kills Gilday.
At the opera house during Anthony's performance, three of Vincent's men search for Mosca, but he overcomes them. Mosca shoots Michael, wounding him, and the bullet passes through him and hits Mary, killing her. Vincent shoots and kills Mosca. Michael cradles Mary's lifeless body and screams in agony; the scene fades out into a montage of Michael with Kay, Mary, and his first wife, Apollonia.
Years later, an elderly Michael, sitting alone in the courtyard of Don Tommasino's villa, slumps over in his chair and falls to the ground.
Cast[]
- Al Pacino as Michael Corleone
- Andy García as Vincent Mancini-Corleone
- Diane Keaton as Kay Adams-Corleone
- Talia Shire as Connie Corleone
- Sofia Coppola as Mary Corleone
- Eli Wallach as Don Altobello
- George Hamilton as B. J. Harrison
- Joe Mantegna as Joey Zasa
- Richard Bright as Al Neri
- Bridget Fonda as Grace Hamilton
- Raf Vallone as Cardinal Lamberto
- Franc D'Ambrosio as Anthony Corleone
- Donal Donnelly as Archbishop Gilday
- Helmut Berger as Frederick Keinszig
- Don Novello as Dominic Abbandando
- John Savage as Father Andrew Hagen
- Mario Donatone as Mosca (The Godfather)
- Vittorio Duse as Don Tommasino
- Enzo Robutti as Don Licio Lucchesi
- Al Martino as Johnny Fontane