Francis Ford Coppola releasing director's cut of Godfather: Part III

Color me curious. The themes of that movie are pretty solid. It was just a bit of a mess. And I really like the title separation. This movie had precious little connective tissue to the first two. It's clearly tacked on.

Gosh! Will there be more of Sofia?

It's so hard to watch Andy Garcia sharing a scene with her.

He's trying so hard...

He should have won the Oscar that year.

https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/redeeming-the-legacy-of-the-godfather-part-iii/

Sofia Coppola was not a professional actress when she took the role of Mary in The Godfather Part III to help her father out of a jam. Winona Ryder had been cast in the role initially, but dropped out just before the start of filming after showing up for work suffering from what doctors called complete exhaustion. Other actresses considered for the role, such as Laura San Giacomo, Annabella Sciorra and even Madonna were rejected by Francis Coppola as too old to play the character, which he envisioned as a teenager. But Sofia’s performance — in a role crucial to the story — was called out upon the film’s release by many critics, some in nasty personal tones, as the movie’s own fatal mistake.

Talia Shire says her experience on the first Godfather was similar in some ways to her niece’s unexpected dive into the saga. “That first one, you could ask, what do you need a sister for? Because it was already very politically complex,” she muses. “So I used to wonder what I was doing on that first one. But I believe that when Winona dropped out (of Part III) that the movie could have unraveled right there, just like that. It was Sofia who saved it, at a great cost to her that she did not deserve. But she saved it because it went forward and Francis was extremely focused.”

But Shire adds that the aftermath for Sofia — the storm of criticism she faced — was beyond the pale. “If you look at Pauline Kael’s review back then, she highlights Sofia as giving an excellent performance because she had an incredible innocence,” says Shire. “I liked her performance back then. What I didn’t like — and I have to tell you, I don’t want it to churn myself up because now it’s 30 years — but I was really furious with some of those hurtful things that were said. They were just…it went past what you felt was even critical anymore. It had moved into something that was almost vulgar.”