Diane Keaton one of the stars of The Godfather Part III, says that watching Francis Ford Coppola’s new cut – titled Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone – was “one of the best moments of her life”.
When Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part III originally came out in 1990, it wasn’t thought of as highly as the first two movies – both of which are considered among the very best films of all time.
Part III‘s reputation has improved somewhat in the years since but it is still thought of as the ugly duckling – not necessarily because it isn’t an excellent film but it’s very hard to live up to the iconic nature of the first two movies.
Coppola has now re-cut Part III, however, and is calling it the definitive version of the movie. Apparently, it makes quite the difference, especially for star Diane Keaton who wasn’t too keen on the film when it first came out.
Speaking to Variety, however, after seeing the new cut, Keaton says she was wrong about the movie and doesn’t understand why she didn’t like the film before:
“It was one of the best moments of my life to watch it. To me, it was a dream come true. I saw the movie in a completely different light. When I saw it way back, it was like ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ It didn’t seem to do that well and the reviews weren’t great. But Francis restructured the beginning and the end and man, I’m telling you it worked.
“I don’t know why people didn’t appreciate it, but I was one of them. What was wrong with me? Why didn’t I like this before? But I didn’t. I kind of just dismissed it and thought, ‘oh well.’”
That’s great to hear that Keaton now has a love for the movie and hopefully, this new cut will encourage audiences to re-visit this epic crime drama.
Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of The Godfather: Part III, director/screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola brings a definitive new edit and restoration of the final film in his epic Godfather trilogy—Mario Puzo’s THE GODFATHER, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), now in his 60s, seeks to free his family from crime and find a suitable successor to his empire. That successor could be fiery Vincent (Andy Garcia)… but he may also be the spark that turns Michael’s hope of business legitimacy into an inferno of mob violence.
