The Godfather Part III (1990)

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General		Extras
Category	Mob	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Francis Ford Coppola (Director)
Rating
Year Of Production	1990
Running Time	163:11
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (79:52)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Francis Ford Coppola
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Al Pacino Diane Keaton Talia Shire Andy Garcia
Case	Slip Case
RPI	$29.95	Music	Carmine Coppola

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired Swedish Danish Norwegian Finnish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Made in 1990, this third instalment of the Godfather trilogy has come under much criticism over the years and is the least liked by the critics and fans alike of the three films by a considerable margin. Set in 1979, the Corleone family business is becoming legitimate. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) is making generous donations to charity and through a trust managed by his daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola) is becoming a model citizen. In fact, the Vatican is awarding him their highest honour due to the work he is doing for them and the philanthropic contributions he makes. While Michael is attempting to legitimise his business, the jostling is commencing to continue the shady side of the family. Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia) is the b****** son of Michael's brother Sonny, and he feels that he is in a position to take over the family business and perhaps become Don. He is also falling for the affections of the flirtatious Mary Corleone despite them being cousins and against the wishes of her father.

    Meanwhile, Michael is facing increasingly poor health and pressures from both Vincent and a hood named Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna) who are fighting for control of the gambling and racketeering empire. Michael is making a play to claim control of the Vatican bank and facing pressure from a government inquiry and the corrupt forces within the Vatican and Catholic Church itself (which sparked much controversy at the time for suggesting such a thing if I remember correctly). Much of the action takes place in Sicily and Rome, with the culminating assassination scenes playing out at an opera in the Italian capital.

    While much of the production crew was the same as the previous two films, many of the cast are missing this time round. Al Pacino carries the story, but aside from Talia Shire as his sister Connie, most of the cast are new to the story. Andy Garcia in particular seemed a little out of place to me. It's interesting to hear Francis Ford Coppola's comments about this film and respond to some of the criticism that flared up upon its release. Much of his displeasure with the film arose from the fact that he really hadn't finished it when Paramount insisted that it be released. Coppola felt that he needed a further six months to polish it up to his satisfaction, and this he was unable to do.

Video

    Like the other films in the collection, this is presented in an aspect of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. Overall, this is a far cleaner print than the first two instalments, thought it is not without problems of its own.
   
    While this is the sharper of the three films and the level of detail is better, there is still an abnormal amount of edge enhancement that is quite distracting at times (see 79:21 on Vincent Mancini's jacket for a glaring example). Shadow detail is also quite poor at times and I'm not sure that it can be blamed on the source material this time. There is no low level noise.
   
    Set in more contemporary times, the colours are fairly drab and muted. There is not a huge amount of vibrancy but no real problems as well. It's just that the colours are not particularly stunning.

    There are no MPEG artefacts apparent. The film-to-video artefacts were limited to the odd shimmer here and there that was not particularly distracting. The number of film artefacts is significantly less than in the original two films.

    There are several subtitle options available. I sampled the English variety and found them to be highly accurate and presented very nicely.

    The transfer is presented as a single sided, dual layered disc with RSDL formatting. The layer change is located at 79:52. It is pretty well located and not overly disruptive.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on this disc, these being a remastered English Dolby Digital 5.1 and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround commentary track. I listened to both tracks in total. There is certainly a wider and more open soundstage on offer from this soundtrack than the original two. There is certainly more stereo separation, though given the nature of the film, where there is a significant amount of dialogue, it is still prominently focused on the centre speaker.

    Dialogue is clear and concise and of much better quality overall than the earlier two films. Considering the age of the source material, this is not surprising. There are no audio sync problems.

    The musical score this time round was composed by Coppola's father Carmine Coppola (who collaborated with Nino Rota on the first two films). Nino Rota's music is used throughout also.

    There is some surround use, though not to any great extent. The subwoofer is likewise mostly silent.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    The main menu features one of three scenes from the film (more death featured again - though only two murders). These scenes are sequentially selected each time you go back to the main menu. Audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 and features part of the film score.

Commentary

    A great deal of criticism has been levelled at this film and during this commentary, Francis Ford Coppola uses it as an opportunity to answer some of those criticisms. He is honest and open about the problems that exist with this film. Many of them are attributed to the fact that it was quite a rushed project that was conceived, filmed and released in less than a year. In fact, he felt that he needed an extra six months to complete it, but Paramount insisted that it be released. Coppola admits that he didn't have the clout that he did in making the second film and some of the decisions made were not his. With Robert Duvall missing after failed negotiations, the cast was lacking that certain something. The fact that Winona Ryder was supposed to play Michael's daughter, Mary but pulled out at the eleventh hour also caused problems. She was replaced by Coppola's own daughter Sofia who had no experience of acting and copped plenty of criticism about it. She has had to carry the baggage associated with Coppola's decision to cast her ever since. Coppola is open in his admiration for his daughter and the way that she handled herself during the performance. He also points out the other members of his family that appear in the film - and there are quite a few of them!

    Coppola points out that there is also a recipe in the film, as there always should be. This time it's for Gnocchi!

    The Godfather Collection DVD Box Set features the same specification throughout the world. Therefore our product is to be favoured due to the superior PAL formatting.

Certainly the weakest of the three films, maybe because it was rushed, or maybe it was too grand in its planning. Maybe it just had to followup many years after two of the most successful films ever and Coppola was always on a hiding to nothing. Certainly rounds the trilogy off, just don't expect the same quality as the first two films.

The video is better than the original films, but is not what I would call stunning. Being set in contemporary times, it is certainly not as vibrant as many other films that I have seen recently.

The audio is much better than the original films. The dialogue in particular is from a far superior recording.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall