9 times out of 10: When someone is asked to list their top 10 movies of all time, at least 1 of the Godfather movies appears, sometimes even 2 of them. Hardly anyone mentions the movie The Godfather III when these lists appear; most simply pretend they never existed. It’s not that it’s a completely horrible movie, it’s just that when compared to the first 2 movies that were possibly masterpieces, few movies could match. It could be argued after a 15-year gap between films, why try? Still, it’s really an epilogue to a great movie series and it’s an essential part of the saga.
As good as the Godfather movies were, the aftermath of appearing in these movies was often devastating to the careers of any actor who approached them.
Al Pacino (Michael Corleone)
Despite how great Pacino was in the movies of The Godfather, Serpico, and dozens more, he once won an Academy for his role as a retired, blind army officer who liked to yell “Hoo-Ahh” in the blink of an eye. and closing his eyes, he quickly changed that. exaggerated style in his career. What was once great quickly became annoying, just like his movies.
Marlon Brando (Don Vito Corleone)
Playing the aging patriarch of the Corleone family, Brando delivered the performance of his life, in a life already filled with great performances. Most of the work he did after that was overpaid cameos in which he didn’t even read the script and improvised under the “influence.” Sure, it was great on Apocalypse Now, but did you know they improvised those 16 minutes of incoherent speech over 3 days of Brando rambling out of his damn mind? The real talent was in editing, not acting. There’s also the matter of Brando gaining so much weight in movies that he’s often only shot from the chest up.
Robert Duvall (Tom Hagen)
Fantastic actor, and he’s made some great movies, but you’d be hard pressed to find a movie he’s made for the last 20 years where he’s not wearing a cowboy hat. Like Pacino, once he found something that earned him awards (in this case Emmys for things like Lonesome Dove), he stood his ground and did nothing else for the most part. For such a good actor, it’s a shame to be locked up like that.
Talia Shire (Connie Corleone Rizzie)
Aside from starring in popular movie franchises like the Godfather saga and the Rocky movies, he hasn’t done much. On the other hand, her landing the role may have had as much to do with nepotism (she was the director’s sister) as it did with acting ability.
John Cazale (Fredo Corleone)
He had a masterful performance as Michael’s idiotic brother, Fredo, and followed up with some excellent feature films, including The Deerhunter and Dog Day Afternoon. Unlike the others, Mr. Cazale has a good excuse for not making more great movies; sadly, he died in 1978.
Bruno Kirby (Pete Clemenza – when he was young)
He was a great character actor, who starred in both film and television, he was everywhere. You would almost have to go out of your way to NOT see his work somewhere. Unfortunately, his career was too short after he passed away from leukemia a few years ago.
And while it’s almost unfair to include people who only made Godfather III, the curse seems to be attached to them as well. Here are some cases.
Andy Garcia (Vincent Mancini)
At one point, Andy Garcia was considered THE NEXT BIG THING in Hollywood. His roles in movies like Black Rain, Internal Affairs, and The Untoucheables seemed to suggest that he would surely be a contender, but a lackluster descent to B-movies and straight to video productions seems to suggest otherwise. His last great masterpiece, appearing in the second of Steve Martin’s attempts to destroy the Pink Panther films.
Bridget Fonda (Grace Hamilton)
Another promising one, which is part of the film, unfortunately, mostly ended up on the cutting room floor. It seems like most of her screen time was for Sofia Coppola’s “performance” instead * gasp * She was good at a small role in Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, and was offered the lead role in Ally McBeal (more later turned in to Calista Flockhart) but turned him down to focus on his film career, which has ended up being a very bad decision as he hasn’t done anything remarkable since 2002.
AND FINALLY … the DAMN part of Mary Corleone …
The role was actually written for a young Julia Roberts, but she escaped the curse and withdrew due to scheduling conflicts. Madonna also begged for the role, but lost it because Coppola thought she was too old to play the role. Winona Ryder actually signed on for the role, but was apparently dropped out because Johnny Depp broke off their engagement and she may have had a meltdown (supposedly). Winona, who was another BIG THING NEXT with success in movie roles like Heathers and Beetlejuice, is now sadly best known for being caught on video for shoplifting.
The only good thing about The Godfather’s Curse is that it destroyed any chance of Sofia Coppola returning to act in a movie. He ended up leaving acting to pursue directing, where he ended up putting together a masterpiece like Lost in Translation.
