The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone

Just when he thought he was out of the family business, an aging, semi-retired Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) finds himself pulled back into a mafia turf war in Francis Ford Coppola’s elegiac epilogue to the Godfather saga, set two decades after the events of Part II. Inspired by a controversial real-life episode in the history of the Catholic Church, the third installment follows Michael’s efforts to buy the Vatican’s controlling interest in a powerful real estate company, with an eye toward keeping the peace between his hot-tempered nephew (Andy Garcia) and a cold-blooded enforcer (Joe Mantegna)—and atoning for his own life of sin. Rebutting widespread critiques of the film’s structure and pacing in the years following its initial release, in 2020 Coppola released a reedited version intended to more closely match his and Puzo’s original vision for the sequel.