'Godfather Coda': Andy Garcia talks Coppola's revision of Corleone saga ending (2024)

Alex Biese|Asbury Park Press

Just when we thought we were out, they've pulled us back in.

Arriving 30 years after filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and “Godfather” novelist Mario Puzo originally wrapped their iconic "Godfather" series with 1990’s “The Godfather: Part III,” Coppola has re-edited the climactic installment into “Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.”

“In musical terms, a coda is sort of like an epilogue,” Coppola says in his new introduction to the film. “It’s a summing up, and that’s what we intended the movie to be.”

Following similar efforts from Coppola to restore and revise his films “Apocalypse Now” (1979) and “The Cotton Club” (1984), this “Coda” is an unflinching final glimpse at the Corleones as patriarch Michael (played by Al Pacino) works to steer his family away from criminality and his nephew Vincent (Andy Garcia) rises in the family ranks.

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The new approach cuts right to the dark heart of the matter, distilling down all of the Corleone family’s pain into an unavoidable tidal wave of grief and regret.

“What Michael is going through has more clarity,” said Garcia. “It engages you more and you feel for him more because of it, you understand it. It’s a lot crisper that way. I never had an issue with the first (version of the film), but I can see why Francis wanted to do what he did, and the (new) movie to me (is) very emotional ... "

“Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone” arrives in select theaters on Friday, Dec. 4, and will be released on Blu-ray and digital formats from Paramount Home Entertainment on Tuesday, Dec. 8. Its releasecompletes a job Coppola started more than 30 years ago.

“(Coppola) had agreed to release the movie in December, on Christmas Day (1990),” Garcia explained, “and I think he felt he needed more time to find the movie the way he wanted to find it, but he catered to the studio’s request because they had a lot of money tied up into it and stuff like that, and he’s very generous that way and accommodating.

“And I think over the years he felt like, ‘I really hadn’t finished the movie when it came out.’ And even though the movie’s beautiful he felt as a filmmaker, as a storytelleras if, ‘There are some things I’d like to go back to, some thoughts I had.' "

Boasting a revised beginning and endingwith scenes, shots and musical cues rearranged throughout the film, “The Death of Michael Corleone” is 13 minutes shorter than “The Godfather Part III” – it now runs two hours and 37 minutes.

“The picture has been given, I think, a new life, which does in fact act an illumination of what the two films meant,” Coppola states in his introduction.

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'I'd dreamt about this.'

“The Godfather: Part III” was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, with Garcia receivingBest Supporting Actor Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his turn as the son of Sonny, James Caan’s character from “The Godfather” (1972).

Due to the "Coda" reconfiguration, Vincent has been elevated from ensemble member to the film's co-lead.Michael's downfall plays off of Vincent's rise to powerand a romance between Vincent and Michael's daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola).

“Because of the new structure, he’s introduced sooner in the story," Garcia said."I used to come in like half an hour into the movie or something like that.So now he comes in a lot earlier so it becomes … these parallel narratives:the love story with Sofia and Vincent’s rise within the family, and Michael shepherding him and grooming him really for ultimately the exchange."

As Vincent serves as the hot-headed new member of the Corleone family, the film introduced Garcia to the "Godfather" family of Puzo, Pacino and the Coppola clan. Garcia, 34 at the time, entered the film early in his big screen career after a run in the likes of Brian De Palma's "The Untouchables" (1987) and Mike Figgis' "Internal Affairs" (1990).

“It was one of those things that you kind of go like, ‘I’m not sure if this is real or if it’s a dream,’ because I’d dreamt about this since the day I saw ('The Godfather')," Garcia said. "It was the movie that inspired me to pursue acting seriously, to engage and say, ‘This is what I want to do with my life.’ And ‘Godfather 2’ only enhanced that.So I always had a connection, like all of us have.I always felt a deep connection to that.”

“Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone,” 157 minutes, rated R, in select cinemas Friday, Dec. 4, and available on Blu-ray and digital formats Tuesday, Dec. 8, paramountmovies.com/movies/the-godfather-coda.

Alex Biese has been writing about art, entertainment, culture and news on a local and national level for more than 15 years.

'Godfather Coda': Andy Garcia talks Coppola's revision of Corleone saga ending (2024)
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