When you listen to the commentary track, you'll learn that the original title for The Godfather Part III was "The Death of Michael Corleone." The studio resisted, saying that the only acceptable title for the film was Part III. This is rather ironic since Coppola had to fight with the same studio for the title "The Godfather Part II" almost two decades earlier. Then, they thought the public would resist the notion of a film called "part II" and now they insist on it.

A full circle, if you will.

This also happens to be the theme of Part III, or rather the entire saga. In the beginning, Michael wanted nothing to do with the "family business." When taking over the family was thrust upon him, he vowed the make everything legitimate. At the opening of this last installment of The Godfather, it seems that he's finally succeeded in removing the Corleones from the world of crime.

Some time has passed since the second film and it's now the late 1970's. The Corleone family has sold its interests in the Las Vegas casinos and moved back to New York. Michael (Al Pacino) is receiving an award from the church for a rather large donation he's making. Naturally, the press doesn't buy it that the family is now legitimate, which only fuels Michael to go to great lengths to prove them wrong. He's putting together a deal to partner with the Vatican in running a huge multinational conglomerate.

Meanwhile, Sonny's boy, Vincent (Andy Garcia), is running into trouble with another gangster, named Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna). Vincent believes he can hide behind the reputation of the Corleone family and brazenly insults Zasa while trying to bring Michael into the mess. Naturally, this causes Zasa to retaliate by sending a couple of thugs after Vincent.

As Michael escalates his efforts to stay out of it, the feud between Zasa and Vincent grows. Michael heads to Atlantic City to officially bow out of the casino business there and while he's meeting with all of the other families, Zasa stages a daring helicopter attack, very nearly killing the Corleones.

Like it or not, Michael is pulled back into the violence as he tries to tame the wild Vincent and discover who is trying to kill him. He suspects that there must be someone pulling Zasa's strings. By his reasoning, Zasa is little more than a small-time gangster who couldn't pull off the helicopter attack without help.

An interesting thing to note is that when the film opens, Michael seems somewhat weary, resigned, if you will. When the violence starts up, he protests loudly about getting involved and claims that everything he's ever done has been solely to support and protect the family. We get the feeling that he's protesting just a tad too much. The fact is, the more violent the situation becomes, the more animated and lively Michael gets. It's not that his protests seem like outright lies, however. Rather, there is an interesting dichotomy to the character. Michael may very well be weary of the gangster lifestyle, but there's no denying that the intrigue and deaths give him a charge.

Most of the main characters (those who haven't been killed off, that is) return for Part III. The obvious and notable exception is Robert Duvall. Apparently, he wasn't offered a sweet enough deal to appear, which is a shame. The new family lawyer is played by George Hamilton and unfortunately, he just doesn't have the spark that Duvall brought to the film. Perhaps it's just that he isn't given enough to do.

Also, note the character of Connie (Talia Shire). In the first two films, she never quite seemed happy with her lot in life. In fact, by Part II, she resented Michael and the rest of the family and openly defied them by drinking heavily and sleeping around. Connie has made a change for this film. It would seem that age has tempered her anger for the killing of her husband and she's developed a thirst for the sort of power Michael has. You can clearly see frustration in her regarding Michael's desire to move away from crime. Connie finds a new champion in Vincent, in whom she sees the same fire and drive that seems to have faded from Michael.

All in all, Part III is good, but like the second film, this one is made better by being part of the whole. There is a familiarity between these characters so that all they have to do is look at each other and we know what they are thinking because we know what has come before. In a way, this is the film's primary weakness. If you don't know the first two films, many elements of this one make little sense.

Aside from its dependence upon the other films (which is forgivable considering that Part III is intended as the closing chapter of a saga), my only other complaint is with the ending. The final scenes of the film work as is, but the action ends so abruptly and is followed by such a significant jump forward in time that we're left wondering just how everything concluded. The film is meticulous in its setup and then it ends at what seems to be just the start of the climax.