Chinatown

Info About Chinatown:

Chinatown is a 1974 American neo-noir film, directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Towne, and starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston. The film was inspired by the California Water Wars, a series of disputes over southern California water at the beginning of the 20th century by which Los Angeles interests secured water rights in the Owens Valley. The Robert Evans production, a Paramount Pictures release, was the director's last film in the United States, and features many elements of film noir, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama.
In 1991, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for films that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," and it is frequently listed among the greatest in world cinema.^[4][5][6] The 1975 Academy Awards saw it nominated eleven times, with an Oscar going to Robert Towne for Best Original Screenplay. The Golden Globe Awards honored it for Best Drama, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay. The American Film Institute placed it second among mystery films.
A sequel, The Two Jakes, was released in 1990, again starring Nicholson, who also directed, with Robert Towne returning to write the screenplay. The film failed to generate the acclaim of its predecessor.

Plot

A woman identifying herself as Evelyn Mulwray (Ladd) hires private investigator J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Nicholson) to perform surveillance on her husband Hollis I. Mulwray (Zwerling), the chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Gittes tails him, hears him publicly oppose the creation of a new reservoir, and shoots photographs of him with a young woman (Palmer) that are published on the front page of the following day's paper. Upon his return to his office, Gittes is confronted by a beautiful woman who, after establishing that the two of them have never met, irately informs him she is Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) and that he can expect a lawsuit.
Realizing he was set up, Gittes figures whoever did it wants to get Mulwray, but, before he can question the husband, Lieutenant Lou Escobar (Lopez) fishes Mulwray, drowned, from a freshwater reservoir. Suspicious of murder, Gittes investigates and notices that, although huge quantities of water are released from the reservoir every night, the land is almost completely dry. He is confronted by Water Department Security Chief Claude Mulvihill (Jenson) with a henchman (Polanski) who slashes Gittes's nose. Back at his office, Gittes receives a call from Ida Sessions, an actress whom he recognizes as the bogus Mrs. Mulwray. She is afraid to identify her employer, but provides a clue: the name of one of "those people" is in that day's obituaries.
Gittes learns that Mrs. Mulwray's husband was once the business partner of her father, Noah Cross (Huston), so he meets Cross for lunch at his personal club. Cross offers to double Gittes' fee to search for Mulwray's missing girlfriend, plus a bonus if he succeeds. Gittes visits the hall of records where he discovers that many large orange groves have recently changed ownership in the northwest San Fernando Valley. He goes there but is caught and beaten by angry landowners, who believe he is one of the water department agents who have been demolishing their water tanks and poisoning their wells to force them out.
Gittes's review of the obituaries uncovers a former resident of the Mar Vista Inn, a retirement home, who is one of the new landowners in the Valley. He infers that Mulwray was murdered when he learned that the new reservoir would be used to irrigate the newly purchased properties. Evelyn and Gittes bluff their way into Mar Vista and confirm that the real estate deals are done in the name of its residents without their knowledge. After fleeing from Mulvihill and his thugs, they hide at Evelyn's house, where they nurse each other's wounds and end up in bed together.
Early morning, Evelyn has to leave suddenly, but she warns him that her father is dangerous and crazy. Gittes manages to follow her car to a house where he observes her with Mulwray's girlfriend. He confronts Evelyn, who finally confesses that the woman is her sister.
The next day, an anonymous call draws Gittes to Ida Sessions' apartment; he finds her murdered, with Escobar waiting for his arrival. Escobar pressures him because the coroner's report found salt water in Mulwray's lungs, indicating that the body was moved after death. Escobar suspects Evelyn of the murder, and insists Gittes produce her quickly or he'll face charges of his own.
Gittes returns to Evelyn's mansion. There he discovers a pair of bifocals in her salt water garden pond and finds her servants packing her bags. His suspicions aroused, he confronts Evelyn about her "sister", whom she then claims is her daughter Katherine. Gittes slaps her repeatedly until she cries out "She's my sister and my daughter!", then tearfully asks Gittes if it is "too hard" for him to understand what happened with her father. She points out that the eyeglasses are not her husband's, as he did not wear bifocals.
Gittes makes plans for the two women to flee to Mexico. He instructs Evelyn to meet him at her butler's home in Chinatown. Gittes summons Cross to the Mulwray home to settle their deal for the girl. Cross admits he intends to incorporate the Northwest Valley into the City of Los Angeles, then irrigate and develop it. Gittes produces the bifocals—they belong to Cross and link him to Mulwray's murder. Mulvihill appears, confiscates the glasses, and forces Jake to take them to the women.
When the three reach the hiding place in Chinatown, the police are already there and arrest Gittes. Evelyn will not allow Cross to approach Katherine, and when he is undeterred she shoots him in the arm and drives away with Katherine. As the car speeds off, the police open fire, killing Evelyn. Cross clutches Katherine and leads her away, while Escobar orders Gittes released, along with his associates. One of them urges, "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."

Cast

• Jack Nicholson as J.J. "Jake" Gittes
• Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Cross Mulwray
• John Huston as Noah Cross
• Perry Lopez as Lieutenant Lou Escobar
• John Hillerman as Russ Yelburton
• Darrell Zwerling as Hollis I. Mulwray
• Diane Ladd as Ida Sessions
• Roy Jenson as Claude Mulvihill
• Roman Polanski as Man with Knife
• Richard Bakalyan as Detective Loach
• Joe Mantell as Lawrence Walsh
• Bruce Glover as Duffy
• James Hong as Kahn
• Roy Roberts as Mayor Bagby
• Noble Willingham as Councilman
• Burt Young as Curly
• Belinda Palmer as Katherine Cross

Production

Background

In 1971, producer Robert Evans offered Towne $175,000 to write a screenplay for The Great Gatsby (1974), but Towne felt he could not better the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. Instead, Towne asked for $25,000 from Evans to write his own story, Chinatown, to which Evans agreed.^[7][8]
Chinatown is set in 1937 and portrays the manipulation of a critical municipal resource — water — by a cadre of shadowy oligarchs. It was the first part of Towne's planned trilogy about the character J.J. Gittes, the foibles of the Los Angeles power structure, and the subjugation of public good by private greed.^[9] The second part, The Two Jakes, was about another grab for a natural resource — oil — with a thicker-torsoed Gittes in the 1940s. It was directed by Jack Nicholson and released in 1990, but the second film's commercial and critical failure scuttled plans to make Gittes vs. Gittes,^[10] about the third finite resource — land — in Los Angeles, circa 1968.^[9]

Origins

The characters Hollis Mulwray and Noah Cross are both references to the chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, William Mulholland (1855–1935)—the name Hollis Mulwray is partially an anagram for Mulholland. The name Noah is a reference to a flood, to suggest the conflict between good and evil in Mulholland. Mulholland was the designer and engineer for the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which brought water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles. For reasons of engineering and safety, Mulwray opposes the dam that Cross and the city want, arguing he will not make the same mistake as when his previous dam broke, resulting in the deaths of hundreds. This is a direct reference to the disaster of St. Francis Dam, personally inspected by Mulholland on the day of its catastrophic failure just before midnight on March 12, 1928.^[11] As many as 600 people,^[12] 42 of them schoolchildren, died that day and the town of Santa Paula was inundated with flood water, as were many others in the Santa Clara River Valley.^[13] The incident effectively ended Mulholland's career.

Script

Towne wrote the screenplay with Jack Nicholson in mind.^[8] He took the title (and the famous exchange, "What did you do in Chinatown?" / "As little as possible") from a Hungarian vice cop who had worked in Chinatown and explained to the writer that the complicated array of dialects and gangs in Los Angeles's Chinatown made it impossible for the police to know whether their interventions were helping victims or furthering their exploitation.^[8]
Polanski learned of the script through Nicholson, with whom he had been searching for a suitable joint project. Producer Robert Evans wanted Polanski to direct for his European vision of the United States, which Evans believed would be darker and more cynical. Polanski, a few years removed from the murder of his wife and unborn child in Los Angeles, was initially reluctant to return, but was persuaded on the strength of the script.^[8]
Evans wanted Cross to die and Evelyn Mulwray to survive. Producer and Director argued over it, with Polanski insisting on a tragic end. "I knew that if Chinatown was to be special," Polanski said, "not just another thriller where the good guys triumph in the final reel, Evelyn had to die."^[14] Evans and Polanski parted ways over this dispute and Polanski wrote the final scene a few days before it was shot.^[8]
The original script was over 180 pages and included a narration by Gittes; Polanski cut that and reordered the story so the audience and Gittes unraveled the mysteries at the same time.

Characters and casting

• "J.J. Gittes" was named after Nicholson's friend, producer Harry Gittes.
• "Evelyn Mulwray" is, according to Towne, intended to initially seem the classic "black widow" character typical of lead female characters in film noir, yet is eventually made the only selfless character in the film. Jane Fonda was strongly considered for the role; but Polanski insisted on Dunaway.^[8]
• "Noah Cross": Towne said that Huston was, after Nicholson, the second-best-cast actor in the film, and that he made the Cross character menacing through his courtly performance.^[8]
• Polanski appears in a cameo as the gangster who cuts Gittes' nose. The effect was accomplished with a special knife which indeed could have cut Nicholson's nose if Polanski had not held it correctly.

Filming

Polanski originally offered the cinematographer position to William A. Fraker. Paramount agreed and Fraker accepted. Paramount had previously hired Fraker to shoot for Polanski on Rosemary's Baby. When Robert Evans became aware of the hiring he insisted the offer be rescinded. Evans, who had also produced Rosemary's Baby, felt pairing Polanski and Fraker created a team with too much power on one side, and would thus complicate the production. Because of this, Fraker was fired and replaced by John A. Alonzo.
In keeping with a technique Polanski attributes to Raymond Chandler, all of the events of the film are seen subjectively through the main character's eyes; for example, when Gittes is knocked unconscious, the film fades to black and fades in when he awakens. Gittes appears in every scene of the film.^[8]

Soundtrack

Phillip Lambro was originally hired to write the film's music score, but it was rejected at the last minute by producer Robert Evans, leaving Jerry Goldsmith only ten days to write and record a new one. Parts of the original Lambro score can be heard in the original trailer for the movie. The haunting trumpet solos were performed by Hollywood studio musician and MGM first trumpet Uan Rasey. The soundtrack was released through ABC Records and features twelve tracks of score at a running time just over thirty minutes.

1. "Love Theme from Chinatown (Main Title)"
2. "Noah Cross"
3. "Easy Living"
4. "Jake and Evelyn"
5. "I Can't Get Started"
6. "The Last of Ida"
7. "The Captive"
8. "The Boy on a Horse"
9. "The Way You Look Tonight"
10. "The Wrong Clue"
11. "J.J. Gittes"
12. "Love Theme From Chinatown (End Title)"

Goldsmith received an Academy Award nomination for his efforts though he lost to Nino Rota and Carmine Coppola for The Godfather Part II. Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal^[15] published an article on July 11, 2009 praising Jerry Goldsmith's music for the film, crediting its success to the revised score. The soundtrack to Chinatown is often regarded as one of the greatest scores of all time and ranks in ninth place on the American Film Institute's top 25 American film scores.^[16] Filmmaker David Lynch cites Chinatown as his favorite film score of all time.^[17]

Legacy

Evans says that the film cemented Jack Nicholson, then a rising star, as one of Hollywood's top leading men.^[8]
Robert Towne's screenplay for the film has become legendary among critics and filmmakers, often celebrated as one of the best ever written.^[9][18][19] However, it was Polanski who decided about filming the fatal final scene, changing Towne's idea of a happy ending.
Chinatown brought more public awareness to the land dealings and disputes over water rights which arose while drawing Los Angeles' water supply from the Owens Valley in the 1910s.^[20] Margaret Leslie Davis, in her 1993 book Rivers in the Desert: William Mulholland and the Inventing of Los Angeles, says the sexually charged film is a metaphor for the "rape" of the Owens Valley, and notes that it fictionalizes Mulholland while concealing the strong public support for Southern California's water projects.
The film holds a 98% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 59 reviews.^[21] Metacritic assigned a rating of 86/100 based on 10 critic reviews.^[22]


Above Extracts Taken From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown_(1974_film)

More Info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315/ - http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/4490/Chinatown/

Jack Nicholson as J.J. "Jake" Gittes, in Chinatown

Sangue por Sangue (Blood Simple)

Info About Another Great Crime Movie:

Blood Simple. is a 1984 neo-noir crime film written, directed and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film's title derives from the Dashiell Hammett novel Red Harvest, in which "blood simple" is a term to describe the addled, fearful mindset of people after a prolonged immersion in violent situations.^[1]
It was the directorial debut of the Coens and the first major film of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, who later became a noted director, as well as the feature film debut of Joel Coen's wife Frances McDormand, who subsequently starred in many of his features.
In 2001, a "Director's cut" DVD was released. It ranked #98 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills. The film also placed #73 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

Plot

Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya), the owner of a Texas bar, suspects his wife Abby (Frances McDormand) is having an affair with one of his bartenders, Ray (John Getz). Marty hires private detective Loren Visser (M. Emmet Walsh) to take photos of Ray and Abby in bed at a local motel. The morning after their tryst, Marty makes a menacing phone call to them, making it clear he is aware of their relationship.
The following day, Ray confronts Marty and quits his job. Marty threatens Ray's life and advises him to not trust Abby. Marty then hires Visser to kill the couple while he takes a fishing trip to Corpus Christi to establish an alibi. Visser breaks into Ray's home, steals Abby's gun, and photographs the sleeping couple through the bedroom window. Later, he presents doctored photos of their corpses to Marty when collecting his $10,000 fee. He then shoots Marty with Abby's gun in a double cross, leaving the gun at the scene to frame Abby for Marty's murder.
Later that evening, Ray returns to the bar and, finding a seemingly dead Marty and Abby's gun, assumes Abby murdered her husband. He decides to cover up the murder, cleaning up the blood and disposing of evidence in a backyard incinerator. Ray drives to a remote field and digs a hole to dispose of Marty's body, but discovers that Marty is still alive. He throws Marty in the hole and buries him alive. Afterward, Ray calls Abby and she thanks him for calling her in the morning, but he misinterprets this as her gratitude for his role in Marty's murder.
Visser burns the doctored photos but realizes one is missing, having been locked in the bar's safe by Marty. Visser also realizes that he left his cigarette lighter in Marty's office. Meanwhile, Ray visits Abby and tells her "I cleaned up your mess," not realizing that she does not know what Ray is talking about. Ray assumes Abby is being coy, and they begin to argue. They are interrupted by a telephone call from Visser, who says nothing. Abby assumes that Marty is calling her and tells Ray. However, Ray assumes Abby is lying and storms out.
Confused by Ray's behavior, Abby goes to the bar to find it ransacked; Visser had been trying to break into the safe, but was interrupted by Abby's arrival. Observing the scene, Abby now thinks that Ray killed Marty because of a money dispute. She accuses him of this the next time they meet, but he explains that he found her gun at the bar and that he buried Marty alive. Ray returns once more to the bar and opens the safe, finding Visser's faked photo. He realizes he is being followed as he leaves for Abby's apartment.
When Abby arrives home that night, she turns on a light and finds Ray looking out the large window. He tells Abby to turn off the light because someone is watching them from across the street. Abby thinks Ray is threatening her, and leaves the light on. Visser is on a nearby roof with a rifle and, seeing Ray in the window, shoots him dead. Realizing Ray was right, Abby knocks out the light. She hides in the bathroom just as Visser arrives. Visser goes to the bathroom to kill Abby, who is not there. Reaching out the window, he opens the window to the next apartment, but Abby slams it down on his wrist and drives a knife through his hand. Visser shoots holes through the wall, punches through, and removes the knife. Abby retreats and waits behind the bathroom door, holding a gun.
As Visser is about to emerge, she fires through the door, hitting Visser. "I'm not afraid of you, Marty," Abby says. Visser, lying on the bathroom floor, mortally wounded, suddenly bursts into laughter. He says: "Well, ma'am, if I see 'im, I'll sure give 'im the message."


Cast

• John Getz as Ray
• Frances McDormand as Abby
• Dan Hedaya as Julian Marty
• M. Emmet Walsh as Loren Visser
• Samm-Art Williams as Meurice
• Deborah Neumann as Debra
• Holly Hunter as Helene Trend (voice only, uncredited)

Reception

The film currently holds a 95% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

"Director's Cut" and home media

The film was released on VHS tape in 1995 with a 99-minute running time, and, after the film had been re-released theatrically in 1998 (premiering at the Austin Film Festival on October 3) as a "Director's Cut" with a 96-minute running time, this version was released on DVD in 2001. This shorter version was released again on DVD in 2008 by MGM.
Unusual for such an exercise, the "Director's Cut" is some three minutes shorter than the original 1985 theatrical release. The Coens reduced the running time with tighter editing, shortening some shots and removing others altogether. In addition, they resolved long-standing rights issues with the music: the original theatrical version of the film made prominent use of The Four Tops' "It's the Same Old Song"; it had been replaced with Neil Diamond's "I'm a Believer" for the 1995 U.S. home video edition on VHS. The "director's cut" reinstated the Four Tops track as the Coens had always intended.
The 2001 DVD release features several spoofs of DVD 'special features'. One is an introduction to the film by fictional film historian "Mortimer Young", who claims that the Director's Cut removes some of "the boring bits" and adds other parts; this was also included in the theatrical release of the Director's Cut.
It also includes an audio commentary by "Kenneth Loring", the fictional artistic director of the equally fictional "Forever Young Films". Loring offers several entirely spurious "facts": for example, he claims that the scene with Ray and Abby driving in the rain, talking about Marty, was acted out in reverse as well as upside down, to synch the headlights of passing the car just as certain lines were said (he claims that filming the scene backwards and upside down was the logical choice to get the timing right, and that the actors are wearing hair spray to keep their hair pointing "down"). Elsewhere in the commentary, he claims that, in scenes with both dialogue and music, the actors simply mouth the words and record them in post-production, so they won't interfere with the music; that Marty's dog is animatronic; that the sweat on various actors is "movie sweat", gathered from the flanks of Palomino horses; that Fred Astaire and Rosemary Clooney were at one time intended for the film; and that a fly buzzing about is not real, but the product of computer generated imagery. "Loring" is voiced by actor Jim Piddock, using a script written by the Coen brothers.
The 2008 MGM release is a barebones DVD edition of the 96-minute "Director's Cut", billed as Blood Simple: Director's Cut with no commentary or extras.

Soundtrack

The score to Blood Simple is written by Carter Burwell, the first of his collaborations with the Coen Brothers; he went on to write scores for all of their films. Blood Simple. was also the first feature film score for Burwell, and he became a much-in-demand composer in Hollywood.
The score is a mix of solo piano and electronic ambient sounds. One track, "Monkey Chant" is based on "Kecak", the "Ramayana Monkey Chant" of Bali.
Selections from Burwell's score were released on an album in 1987, along with selections from the Coen's next film, Raising Arizona.

1. "Crash and Burn" – (2:40)
2. "Blood Simple" – (3:33)
3. "Chain Gang" – (4:47)
4. "The March" – (3:34)
5. "Monkey Chant" – (1:04)
6. "The Shooting" – (2:52)
7. "Blood Simpler" – (1:22)

The tracks from Blood Simple. comprise the final seven tracks on a 17-track CD that also features selections from the Raising Arizona soundtrack.

Other songs not on the CD

• "It's the Same Old Song" performed by The Four Tops
• "Louie Louie" performed by Toots & the Maytals
• "The Lady in Red" performed by Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra
• "Rogaciano"
• "He'll Have to Go" performed by Joan Black
• "El Sueno" performed by Johnny Ventura
• "Anahi" performed by Maria Luisa Buchino and her Llameros
• "Sweet Dreams" performed by Patsy Cline

Remake

In December 2009, Zhang Yimou released a loose remake of the film as a comedy. The film, titled A Simple Noodle Story (known internationally as A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop), is set in a Chinese noodle shop in a desert and revolves around the restaurant owner's plan to murder his adulterous wife and her lover.^[3]

Above Extracts Taken From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Simple

More Info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086979/

A Força do Poder (Scarface)

Info About Another Great Movie With Al Pacino:

Scarface is a 1983 American crime film directed by Brian De Palma, written by Oliver Stone, produced by Martin Bregman, and starring Al Pacino as Tony Montana. A remake of the 1932 film of the same name, the film tells the story of a Cuban refugee who comes to Miami in 1980 with the Mariel Boatlift, and becomes a drug cartel kingpin during the cocaine boom of the 1980s. The film is dedicated to Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht, the director and principal screenwriter, respectively, of the original film.
The initial critical response to Scarface was mixed, with criticism over excessive violence and graphic language. Some Cuban expatriates in Miami objected to the film's portrayal of Cubans as criminals and drug traffickers. Later reviews were more positive. It is now considered a classic within the mob film genre.

Plot

In 1980, Cuban refugee Tony Montana (Al Pacino) arrives in Miami during the Mariel boatlift. He, along with his best friend Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer), and their friends and associates Angel (Pepe Serna) and Chi-Chi (Ángel Salazar), are sent to "Freedom Town," a refugee camp. In exchange for hitting a former Cuban government official at the request of cocaine trafficking tycoon Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia) in revenge for torturing his brother to death, the group is released from Freedom Town and given green cards. On the outside, they are offered a deal by Frank's henchman Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham) to buy cocaine from Colombian dealers. The deal falls through and Angel is dismembered with a chainsaw by the Colombians, in front of a horrified Tony. Manny and Chi-Chi storm the apartment before the same fate befalls Tony, and the Colombians are killed. Suspecting that Omar betrayed them, Tony and Manny insist on personally giving Frank the money and drugs retrieved from the deal. Impressed, Frank hires Tony and Manny. During their meeting, Tony meets, and is instantly attracted to, Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer), Frank's trophy wife.
Months later, Tony visits his mother Georgina (Míriam Colón), and younger sister, Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), of whom he is fiercely protective. His mother is appalled at his dishonest means of affording his gaudy lifestyle, scolding him that she didn't raise him to be that and asserting that Gina is not to be corrupted like him, and disowns him. As Tony gets in his waiting car, Manny comments on Gina's beauty before being severely warned by Tony that she's off limits.
Frank sends Tony and Omar to Bolivia to meet with cocaine production overlord Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar). Tony agrees to a deal with Sosa without Frank's approval, and Omar leaves to contact Frank. Sosa discloses that Omar is a police informant and then has Tony witness as a beaten Omar is pushed to his hanging death from a helicopter by "The Skull" (Geno Silva), Sosa's assassin. Tony vouches for the rest of his organization and Frank, and Sosa agrees to the deal, parting with a warning that Tony should never betray him. In Miami, Frank is infuriated by Omar's demise and the unauthorized deal struck by Tony. The relationship between Tony and Frank dissolves, and Tony establishes his own organization and informs Elvira of his intentions toward her.
At the nightclub, Tony is blackmailed by corrupt detective Mel Bernstein (Harris Yulin), who lays out the cost of Tony continuing his business operation in return for police immunity. Tony angers Frank further by openly pursuing Elvira in the club. Tony sees Gina dancing with a drug dealer. He throws the dealer out, and following a heated exchange he slaps Gina before Manny takes her home. Hitmen attempt to assassinate Tony, but he escapes. Suspecting that his former boss sent the hitmen, Tony, Manny and Chi-Chi go to Frank's office, where they find him with Bernstein. When a planned phone call by one of Tony's henchmen confirms Frank's involvement, Manny kills Frank and Tony kills Bernstein. Tony takes Elvira and seizes Frank's empire.
With Sosa's supplies, Tony builds a multi-million-dollar empire, and he later marries Elvira. However, the operation struggles as Tony and Elvira excessively use cocaine, Tony's money launderer demands more pay, and Manny grows resentful as Tony takes all credit for their success. Eventually, Tony is charged with money laundering and tax evasion after a police sting operation. Sosa offers to use his government connections to keep Tony out of jail if Tony assassinates a Bolivian journalist who intends to expose Sosa during a speech to the United Nations. Later, Tony further pushes Manny and Elvira away by blaming his friend for his arrest and accusing his wife of being infertile because of her drug use. After a fight, Elvira leaves Tony.
In New York City, Tony, Chi-Chi and Sosa's henchman Alberto (Mark Margolis) prepare for the assassination. Alberto plants a bomb on the journalist's car, but when the journalist is unexpectedly accompanied by his family, Tony calls off the mission. Alberto insists on continuing, forcing Tony to kill him. Later, Tony learns that Manny and Gina have been missing for several days. Returning home, Tony is contacted by a furious Sosa over the mission's failure. Sosa ends their business relationship and reminds Tony that he should not have betrayed him.
In search of Gina, Tony goes to his mother's house. She gives him an address in Coconut Grove. At the address, Manny opens the door wearing a bathrobe. When Tony also sees Gina in a robe, he goes into a rage and kills Manny. Gina furiously tells Tony that she and Manny had just gotten married the day before and were planning to surprise him.
Tony and his men take Gina to Tony's mansion. Tony declares war on Sosa before burying his face in a large mound of cocaine. Meanwhile, Sosa's men begin assaulting the mansion and killing Tony's men. A drugged Gina accuses Tony of wanting her himself, before shooting him in the leg. One of Sosa's men shoots and kills Gina. Tony kills the man and becomes enraged at the sight of Gina's corpse. Chi-Chi is also killed by Sosa's assassins. In a cocaine-fueled fury, Tony uses a grenade-launcher-equipped rifle to kill several of Sosa's men. Tony is repeatedly shot, but continues to fight until he is shot in the back by The Skull, who crept up behind him. Tony's corpse falls into a fountain below, in front of a statue reading, "The World is Yours."

Cast

• Al Pacino as Tony Montana
• Steven Bauer as Manolo Ribera ("Manny Ray")
• Michelle Pfeiffer as Elvira Hancock
• Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Gina Montana
• Robert Loggia as Frank Lopez
• F. Murray Abraham as Omar Suárez
• Harris Yulin as Mel Bernstein
• Paul Shenar as Alejandro Sosa
• Ángel Salazar as Chi Chi
• Michael P. Moran as Nick "The Pig"
• Pepe Serna as Angel Fernandez
• Míriam Colón as Georgina Montana
• Al Israel as Hector "The Toad"
• Michael Alldredge as George Sheffield
• Mark Margolis as Alberto "The Shadow"
• Geno Silva as "The Skull"
• Richard Belzer as the comic at the Babylon Club

Reaction

Scarface premiered on December 1, 1983 in New York City, where it was initially greeted with mixed to positive reaction. The film's two stars, Al Pacino and Steven Bauer, were joined in attendance by Burt and Diane Lane, Melanie Griffith, Raquel Welch, Joan Collins, her then-boyfriend Peter Holm and Eddie Murphy among others.^[3] According to AMC's "DVD TV: Much More Movie" airing, Cher loved it, Lucille Ball, who came with her family, hated it because of the graphic violence and language, and Dustin Hoffman was said to have fallen asleep. Writers Kurt Vonnegut and John Irving were among those who allegedly walked out in disgust after the notorious chainsaw scene. At the middle of the film, Martin Scorsese turned to Steven Bauer and told him, "You guys are great – but be prepared, because they're going to hate it in Hollywood... because it's about them."^[4]
Scarface, upon its first release, drew controversy regarding the violence and graphic language in the film, and received many negative reviews from movie critics. Despite this, the film grossed $65 million worldwide, and has since gathered a large following. On the two-disc Special Edition, the film's producer, Martin Bregman, said that the film was well received by only one notable critic, Vincent Canby of The New York Times. However, Roger Ebert rated it four stars out of four in his 1983 review and he later added it to his "Great Movies" list.^[5] Over the years, reviews for the film have changed from negative to positive. Some stated that editing was a problem in the movie. In one case, where Omar Suarez is hanging from the helicopter, his shoe falls off randomly and it seems as if he is dancing while hanging from the helicopter. Rotten Tomatoes holds an average of 89% with a consensus of " Director Brian De Palma and star Al Pacino take it to the limit in this stylized, ultra-violent and eminently quotable gangster epic that walks a thin white line between moral drama and celebratory excess."^[6]

Rating

Scarface was given an X rating three times (original, second, and third cuts) for extreme violence, frequent strong language and hard drug usage. Director Brian De Palma pulled in a panel of experts, including real narcotics officers, who stated that the film was an accurate portrayal of the real-life drug underworld and should be widely seen. This convinced the 20 members of the ratings board to give the third cut an "R" rating by a vote of 18 to 2. De Palma later asked the studio if he could release the original director's cut, but was told that he could not. However, since the studio executives did not know the differences among the three submitted cuts, De Palma released the director's cut to theaters anyway with an unapproved "R."^[7]

Box office

Scarface was released on December 9, 1983, in 997 theaters, grossing USD $4.6 million in its opening weekend. The film went on to make $45.4 million in North America and $20.5 million internationally for a worldwide total of $65.9 million (over $135 million, when adjusted for inflation, as of 2010).

Critical reception

Roger Ebert wrote "DePalma and his writer, Oliver Stone, have created a gallery of specific individuals, and one of the fascinations of the movie is that we aren't watching crime-movie clichés, we're watching people who are criminals."^[8] He later added it to his "Great Movies" list.^[9] Vincent Canby also praised the film in the New York Times: "[T]he dominant mood of the film is... bleak and futile: what goes up must always come down. When it comes down in Scarface, the crash is as terrifying as it is vivid and arresting."^[10]
Leonard Maltin was among those critics who held a negative opinion of Scarface. He gave the film 1½ stars out of four, stating that "...[Scarface] wallows in excess and unpleasantness for nearly three hours, and offers no new insights except that crime doesn't pay. At least the 1932 movie moved." In later editions of his annual movie guide, Maltin included an addendum to his review stating his surprise with the film's newfound popularity as a cult-classic.^[11]
In his review for Newsweek, David Ansen wrote, "If Scarface makes you shudder, it's from what you think you see and from the accumulated tension of this feral landscape. It's a grand, shallow, decadent entertainment, which like all good Hollywood gangster movies delivers the punch and counterpunch of glamour and disgust".^[12] Jay Scott, in his review for the Globe and Mail, writes, "For a while, Al Pacino is hypnotic as Montana. But the effort expended on the flawless Cuban accent and the attempts to flesh out a character cut from inch-thick cardboard are hopeless."^[13] In his review for the Washington Post, Gary Arnold wrote, "A movie that appeared intent on revealing an alarmingly contemporary criminal subculture gradually reverts to underworld cliche, covering its derivative tracks with outrageous decor and an apocalyptic, production number finale, ingeniously choreographed to leave the antihero floating face down in a literal bloodbath."^[14]
It currently holds a "Fresh" rating of 89% from Rotten Tomatoes, and an average score of 65/100 from Metacritic.
Pacino earned a nomination for Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama and Steven Bauer was nominated for Best Supporting Actor as well. DePalma was nominated for, but did not win, a Razzie Award for Worst Director.

Legacy

In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten Top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Scarface was acknowledged as the tenth best in the gangster film genre.^[15] The line "Say hello to my little friend!" (spoken by Montana of his M16A1's M203 grenade launcher) took 61st place on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes list. Entertainment Weekly ranked the film #8 on their list of "The Top 50 Cult Films,"^[16] and Empire Magazine placed it among the top 500 films of all time, at #284.^[17] In 2010, VH1 rated the movie at number 5 in its list of 100 greatest movies of all time. Scarface was the first film in which the expletive "fuck" is used over 200 times.

Releases

VHS

Scarface was initially released by MCA Home Video on VHS, CED Videodisc, Laserdisc, and Beta in the summer of 1984 – a two-tape set in 1.33:1 pan and scan ratio – and quickly became a bestseller, preluding its cult status.^[18] A 2.35:1 Widescreen VHS would follow years later in 1998 to coincide with the special edition DVD release. The last VHS release was in 2003 to counterpart the 20th anniversary edition DVD.

TV version

The TV version of Scarface premiered on ABC on January 7, 1989.^[19] 32 minutes were edited out, and much of the dialog, including the constant use of the word "fuck", which was muted after the beginning of "f-" or replaced with less offensive alternatives. In addition, aside from being heavily cut for content and time, the following scenes were added in order to make up for anything that was cut:

• An extra Freedom Town scene, in which Tony is in a phone booth trying to call a young girl (presumably Gina), and then watches television with Manny and Chi Chi.
• At the Babylon Club, before Frank points to Tony El Gordo, he points to him Luis and Miguel Echevierra.
• While visiting his mother's house, Tony presents her with a gift. He then says, "So here we are, the Three Musketeers", as he opens the champagne bottle, and makes a toast to America.
• A scene that shows Sosa talking to his fiancee, Gabriella Martini, on a white horse.
• A scene where Tony meets his lawyer for the first time.
• A scene in New York City, where Tony is approached by police while planting a car bomb, and pretends to be looking for his lost dog.

Some of these scenes appear as extras on DVD, but in a rough-cut fashion, as opposed to the versions that were seen on television.

DVD

Scarface has been released on DVD several times in the United States.
The first release was by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on the film's 15th anniversary in 1998 under the studio's "Collector's Edition" line. The DVD featured a non-anamorphic widescreen transfer, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, a "Making of" documentary, outtakes, production notes and cast and crew biographies. This release was not successful, and many fans and reviewers complained about its unwatchable video transfer and muddled sound, describing it as "one of the worst big studio releases out there".^[20]
This DVD quickly went out of print, subsequently fetching outrageous prices on secondhand sites such as eBay.^{[citation needed]} In 2003, Universal released a remastered two disc "Anniversary Edition" to coincide with the film's 20th anniversary re-release, featuring two documentaries — one re-edited from the last release to include new interviews with Steven Bauer (Manny Ray) and another produced by Def Jam Recordings featuring interviews with various rappers on the film's cult status in the hip hop world and other extras ported over from the previous DVD. New to this edition was a 2.35:1 Anamorphic widescreen transfer and 5.1 surround sound in both Dolby Digital and DTS. An alternate, 1.33:1 pan and scan version of the DVD was also made available.
The limited, 20th anniversary theatrical re-release in 2003 also boasted a remastered soundtrack with enhanced sound effects and music but the DVD's 5.1 tracks were mixed from the film's original four-track stereo audio, resulting in noticeably limited frequency and surround effects. A limited edition box set was also released featuring a gold money clip embossed with the "Tony Montana" monogram, production stills, lobby cards, and a DVD of the original Scarface. In 2005, Universal released a single disc 'movie only' version of the Anniversary Edition with the deleted scenes as the sole bonus feature.
In the fall of 2006, Universal released the movie in a two-disc "Platinum Edition" featuring the remastered audio from the theatrical re-release in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround. Most of the extras (with the exception of the Def Jam documentary, production notes, and cast and crew biographies) from the Anniversary Edition were also included. New features to this edition were two featurettes relating to the new video game and the criminal and cultural world of Miami in the 1980s, and a "Scarface Scorecard", which kept track of the number of bullets fired and "F-bombs" throughout the film.

Blu-ray

Universal Studios released Scarface on Blu-ray on September 6, 2011 in a two-disc, limited edition, steelbox package.^[21] The set contains a remastered, 1080p widescreen transfer of the film in 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound, as well as a digital copy. Disc two is a DVD of the 1932 Scarface, featuring a TMC-produced introduction by Robert Osborne and an alternate ending. Bonus features for the 1983 Scarface are ported over from prior editions, including the deleted scenes, The Making of Scarface documentary, the Scarface: The Video Game featurette, and a new retrospective documentary: The Scarface Phenomenon. The Blu-ray also features BD-Live, Pocket-Blu app access, and "U-control"; featuring the "Scarface Scoreboard" from the 2006 Platinum Edition DVD, and picture-in-picture cast and crew interviews along with celebrity fan retrospectives, outtakes, and scene comparisons between the 1932 and 1983 versions, and the 1989 television edit.^[22]
A special gift set, limited to 1,000 copies, features the Blu-ray set housed in a cigar humidor, designed by world-renowned humidor craftsman Daniel Marshall. The humidor box set retails for an MSRP of $999.99.^[23]
Universal also launched a "National Fan Art Contest" via Facebook. The top 25 submissions selected by Universal were entered in a poll where fans voted on their 10 favorite works to be featured as art cards in the Blu-ray set. The Grand-Prize winner had their artwork featured on a billboard in a major US city in order to promote the release. To celebrate the release of Scarface on Blu-ray, Universal Studios and Fathom Events teamed up to make a Scarface Special Event. The event included Scarface coming back to select theatres nationwide for one night only on Wednesday, August 31, 2011. A twenty-minute documentary on how the film impacted the world today also featured.
A single-disc version, featuring only the first disc of the film and special features in standard Blu-ray packaging was released on October 11 of the same year.

Spanish-language version

When released in Spain, the film was titled El Precio del Poder (The Price of Power).^[24][25] The US and Latin American editions of the DVD feature a Spanish language track, but give the title as Caracortada (Spanish for "Cutface"; a literal translation of "Scarface" into Spanish is "Cara cicatrizada"). Hector `The Toad` calls Tony Montana 'Cara de cicatriz' while he is being chained in the shower after Angel has been killed.


Above Extracts Taken From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarface_(1983_film)

More Info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086250/

O Padrinho - Parte III (The Godfather - Part III)

Info About The Third Movie Of This Great Trilogy:

The Godfather Part III is a 1990 American crime film written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, and directed by Coppola. It completes the story of Michael Corleone, a Mafia kingpin who tries to legitimize his criminal empire. The film also weaves into its plot a fictionalized account of two real-life events; the 1978 death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal of 1981–1982; linking both and with the affairs of Michael Corleone. The film stars Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and Andy García, and features Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton, Bridget Fonda, and Sofia Coppola.
Coppola and Puzo originally wanted the title to be The Death of Michael Corleone but this was not acceptable to Paramount Pictures. Coppola states that The Godfather series is in fact two films, and Part III is the epilogue. Part III received mixed reviews, grossed $136,766,062 and was nominated for seven Academy Awards.

Plot

In 1979,^[2][3] Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) is nearing 60 and wracked with guilt for his ruthless rise to power, especially ordering the murder of his brother Fredo. By now, he has mostly retired from the Mafia, leaving the Corleone family's criminal interests in the hands of enforcer Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna), and is using his tremendous wealth and power to restore his reputation via numerous acts of charity. Michael and Kay (Diane Keaton) have been divorced since 1960, and Michael gave her custody of their children, Anthony (Franc D'Ambrosio) and Mary (Sofia Coppola).
At a ceremony in St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, Michael is named a Commander of the Order of St. Sebastian. At a party following the ceremony, Anthony tells his father that he is going to drop out of law school to pursue a career as an opera singer. Kay supports his choice, but Michael disagrees, wishing that his son would either finish law school or join the family business, but Anthony refuses to have anything to do with his father's "legacy". Michael and Kay have an uneasy reunion, in which Kay tells him that Anthony knows the truth about Fredo's death.
Meanwhile, Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia), the illegitimate son of Michael's late brother Sonny, shows up at the party. He is embroiled in a feud with Zasa, who has involved the Corleone family in major drug trafficking and turned Little Italy into a slum. Michael's sister Connie (Talia Shire) arranges a "sit-down" between Vincent and Zasa in Michael's study. The discussion erupts into a fight, in which Vincent bites Zasa on the ear. That night Vincent has a one-night stand with a journalist named Grace Hamilton (Bridget Fonda). Two men armed with knives and a gun break in and try to kill him. Vincent kills them both, but not before learning that Zasa sent them. Michael is troubled by Vincent's fiery temper, but is nonetheless impressed by his loyalty, and agrees to take his nephew under his wing.
Meanwhile, Michael busies himself with the biggest deal of his career: He has recently bought up enough stock in International Immobiliare, an international real estate holding company known as "the world's biggest landlord", to become its largest single shareholder, with six seats on the company's 13-member board of directors. He now makes a tender offer to buy the Vatican's 25% interest in the company, which will give him controlling interest. Knowing that Archbishop Gilday (Donal Donnelly), who serves as head of the Vatican Bank, has run up a massive deficit, he negotiates a deal to pay $600 million to the Bank in exchange for the shares. The deal is quickly approved by Immobiliare's board. However, it must be ratified in Rome by Pope Paul VI, who is gravely ill. Without his word, the deal is in limbo.
Don Altobello (Eli Wallach), an elderly New York Mafia boss and old friend of the Corleones (as well as Connie's godfather), soon visits Michael, telling him that his old partners on the Commission want in on the Immobiliare deal. Michael, however, is adamant that the deal shall be untainted by Mafia involvement. A meeting is arranged, and Michael appeases most of the Mafia bosses with payoffs from the sale of his Las Vegas holdings. Zasa, however, gets nothing and declares that Michael is his enemy and storms out. Altobello tells Michael that he will try to reason with Zasa and follows close behind. Minutes later, a helicopter hovers outside the conference room and sprays it with machine gun fire. Most of the other mob bosses are killed, but Michael, Vincent, and Michael's bodyguard, Al Neri (Richard Bright), escape. Back at his penthouse in New York, Vincent tells Michael that those mob bosses who escaped the massacre made deals with Zasa. Michael knows that Zasa was not the mastermind of the massacre due to Zasa's being "muscle" and not having the cunning to organize such a scheme. Vincent wants to kill Zasa, but Michael refuses. As he considers how to respond to the situation, he suffers a diabetic stroke and is hospitalized, but not before realizing Altobello is the traitor.
As Michael recuperates, Vincent begins a romantic relationship with Mary and plots revenge against Zasa. Neri and Connie give Vincent permission to act. During a street festival hosted by Zasa's Italian American civil rights group, Vincent's men gun down Zasa's bodyguards. Vincent, disguised as a policeman on horseback, shoots Zasa dead. When Michael discovers this, he berates Vincent for his rashness. Michael also insists that Vincent end his relationship with Mary, because Vincent's involvement in the family's criminal enterprises puts her life in jeopardy.
The family takes a vacation to Sicily in preparation for Anthony's operatic debut in Palermo at the Teatro Massimo. They stay at the villa of Corleone family friend Don Tommasino (Vittorio Duse). Michael tells Vincent to speak with Altobello and tell him that he is planning to leave the Corleone family. Altobello supports the idea of Vincent's switching his allegiance, and introduces him to Don Licio Lucchesi (Enzo Robutti), a powerful Italian political figure and Immobiliare's chairman. Michael realizes that the Immobiliare deal is an elaborate conspiracy among Lucchesi, Archbishop Gilday, and Vatican accountant Frederick Keinszig (Helmut Berger) to swindle him out of his money, and visits Cardinal Lamberto (Raf Vallone), the man favored to become the next Pope, to speak about the deal. Lamberto convinces Michael to make his first confession in 30 years, in which he tearfully admits to ordering Fredo's murder. Lamberto tells Michael that he deserves to suffer for his sins, but that his life could still be redeemed.
Shortly after the meeting between Vincent and Lucchesi, Altobello travels to the small village of Montelepre, where he hires Mosca (Mario Donatone), a veteran hitman, to assassinate Michael. A few days later, Mosca and his son, disguised as priests, attempt to kidnap Don Tommasino and force him to allow them entry to his villa. Tommasino refuses, and Mosca kills him. While touring Sicily with Kay, who has arrived for Anthony’s operatic debut, Michael asks for her forgiveness. As they both admit that they still love each other, Michael receives word that Tommasino is dead. At Tommassino's funeral, Michael swears over his old friend's coffin to sin no more.
After the death of Pope Paul VI, Cardinal Lamberto is elected Pope John Paul I, which means that the Immobiliare deal will likely be ratified. The new Pope's intentions come as a death knell to the plot against the ratification of the Immobiliare deal, prompting frantic attempts by the plotters to cover their own tracks. Vincent tells Michael that he has learned from Altobello of Mosca's plot on his life. Michael sees that his nephew is a changed man, and makes him the new Don of the Corleone family. In exchange, Vincent agrees to put an end to his relationship with Mary.
The family travels to Palermo to see Anthony perform the lead in Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, a tale of murderous revenge in a Sicilian setting. Meanwhile, Vincent exacts his own revenge:

• Keinszig is abducted by Vincent's men, who smother him with a pillow and hang him from a bridge to make his death look like a suicide.
• Don Altobello, also attending the opera, eats poisoned cannoli that his goddaughter Connie gives him. He dies as Connie watches sadly from her box.
• Al Neri travels to the Vatican, where he shoots Archbishop Gilday.
• Finally, Calò (Tommasino's former bodyguard) meets with Don Lucchesi at his office, claiming to bear a message from Michael. As he pretends to whisper the message to Lucchesi, Calò stabs him in the throat with his own glasses.

The killings are too late to save the Pope, however. Just hours after he approves the Immobiliare deal, the Pope drinks poisoned tea provided to him by Archbishop Gilday and soon dies in his bed.
Mosca, still disguised as a priest and armed with a sniper rifle, descends upon the opera house during Anthony's performance, killing three of Vincent's men and preparing to shoot his target from a box, but the opera ends before he has the chance to pull the trigger. The assassin retreats to the opera house façade's staircase and tries to shoot Michael there. At the same moment, Mary confronts her father about the forced break-up with Vincent. Mosca fires twice, wounding Michael and accidentally killing Mary. Vincent then shoots him dead. As Kay and Connie weep, Michael cradles Mary's body in his arms and screams in agony.
The scene dissolves to a short montage of Michael's memories of all the women he has lost, composed of scenes with Mary, Kay, and his first wife, Apollonia.
The film ends with Michael, an old man, sitting in the garden of Don Tommasino's Sicilian villa. He slumps over in his chair, falls sideways to the ground, and dies alone, with only his dog present.

Cast

• Al Pacino as Michael Corleone
• Andy García as Vincent Mancini-Corleone
• Diane Keaton as Kay Adams-Corleone
• Talia Shire as Connie Corleone
• Sofia Coppola as Mary Corleone
• Eli Wallach as Don Altobello
• George Hamilton as B. J. Harrison
• Joe Mantegna as Joey Zasa
• Richard Bright as Al Neri
• Bridget Fonda as Grace Hamilton
• Raf Vallone as Cardinal Lamberto
• Franc D'Ambrosio as Anthony Corleone
• Donal Donnelly as Archbishop Gilday
• Helmut Berger as Frederick Keinszig
• Don Novello as Dominic Abbandando
• John Savage as Father Andrew Hagen
• Mario Donatone as Mosca
• Vittorio Duse as Don Tommasino
• Enzo Robutti as Don Licio Lucchesi
• Al Martino as Johnny Fontane
• Jessica DiCicco as Child

Pre-production

Coppola felt that the first two films had told the complete Corleone saga. In his audio commentary for Part II, he stated that only a dire financial situation caused by the failure of One From The Heart compelled him to take up Paramount's long-standing offer to make a third installment.^[4]
According to an article in Premiere,^{[citation needed]} Coppola and Puzo requested six months to complete a first draft of the script with a release date of Easter 1991. Paramount agreed to give them six weeks for the script and, lacking a holiday movie, a release date of Christmas Day 1990.
Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, and Talia Shire reprise their roles from the first two films. According to Coppola's audio commentary on the film in The Godfather DVD Collection, Robert Duvall refused to take part unless he was paid a salary comparable to Pacino's. On an episode of Inside the Actors Studio,^[when?] Duvall said he understood that Pacino was the star but felt insulted by the difference in their salaries, saying "if they paid Pacino twice what they paid me, that's fine, but not three or four times, which is what they did."^[5] When Duvall dropped out, Coppola rewrote the screenplay to portray Tom Hagen as having died before the story begins. Coppola created the character B. J. Harrison, played by George Hamilton, to replace the Hagen character in the story. The director further states that, to him, the movie feels incomplete "without [Robert] Duvall's participation." According to Coppola, had Duvall agreed to take part in the film, the Hagen character would have been heavily involved in running the Corleone charities.
The first draft of a script had been written by Dean Riesner in 1979, based on a story by Mario Puzo. This script centered around Michael Corleone's son, Anthony, a naval officer working for the CIA, and the Corleone family's involvement with a plot to assassinate a Central American dictator.^[6] Almost none of the elements of this early script carried over to the final film, but one scene from the film — in which two men break into Vincent's house — exists in the Riesner draft and is nearly unchanged.^[7]
Coppola says that he felt The Godfather saga was essentially Michael's story, one about how "a good man becomes evil," as the writer/director puts it on the same commentary track referenced above. Coppola says he felt that Michael had not really "paid for his sins" committed in the second film, and wanted this final chapter to demonstrate that. In keeping with this theme, Coppola completely re-wrote the script.
Julia Roberts was originally cast as Mary, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.^[8] Madonna wanted to play the role, but Coppola felt she was too old for the part.^[9] Rebecca Schaeffer was set to audition,^[10] but she was murdered. Winona Ryder dropped out of the film at the last minute.^[8] Ultimately Sofia Coppola, the director's daughter, was given the role of Michael Corleone's daughter. Her much-criticized performance resulted in her father being accused of nepotism, a charge Coppola denies in the commentary track, asserting that, in his opinion, critics, "beginning with an article in Vanity Fair," were "using [my] daughter to attack me," something he finds ironic in light of the film's denouement when the Mary character pays the ultimate price for her father's sins.
As an infant, Sofia Coppola had played Michael Corleone's infant nephew in The Godfather, during the climactic baptism/murder montage at the end of that film. (Sofia Coppola also appeared in The Godfather Part II, as a small immigrant child in the scene where the nine-year-old Vito Corleone arrives by steamer at Ellis Island.) The character of Michael's sister Connie is played by Francis Ford Coppola's sister, Talia Shire (making her both Mary and Sofia's aunt). Other Coppola relatives with cameos in the film included his mother, father (who wrote and conducted much of the music in the film), uncle and granddaughter, Gia.^[11] Michele Russo, who plays the son of the assassin Mosca, is also a distant Coppola relative, from the same town as Francis Ford Coppola's great-grandmother.^{[citation needed]} In addition, Coppola cast Catherine Scorsese, mother of Martin Scorsese, in a small part.

Reception

At Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a mixed to positive response with a 68% "fresh" rating.^[12] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 60, based on 19 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".^[13]
The Godfather Part III is considered by some to be the weakest of the three Godfather films.^[14][15] Common criticisms include Sofia Coppola's acting, the plot being too outlandish and convoluted, and being too based on continuity, rather than just a "stand alone" story.
In his review, Roger Ebert stated that it is "not even possible to understand this film without knowing the first two." Nonetheless, Ebert wrote an enthusiastic review, awarding the film three-and-a-half stars, a better rating than he gave The Godfather Part II in an earlier review.^[16]However, he gave 4 stars for The Godfather Part II in his 2008 re-rating^[17] and included it in his list of Great Movies but excluded The Godfather Part III. He also defended the casting of Sofia Coppola, who he felt was not miscast, stating, "There is no way to predict what kind of performance Francis Ford Coppola might have obtained from Winona Ryder, the experienced and talented young actress, who was originally set to play this role. But I think Sofia Coppola brings a quality of her own to Mary Corleone. A certain up-front vulnerability and simplicity that I think are appropriate and right for the role."
Ebert's colleague, Gene Siskel, also highly praised the film and placed it on his list of the ten best films of 1990 (#10). Siskel admitted that the ending was the film's weakest part, citing Al Pacino's makeup as very poor.
Leonard Maltin gave the movie three out of four stars and stated in his movie guide that the film is "masterfully told", but the casting of Sofia Coppola was an "almost-fatal flaw".

Awards and honors

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Andy Garcia), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Dean Tavoularis, Gary Fettis), Best Music, Song (for Carmine Coppola and John Bettis for "Promise Me You'll Remember").^[18][19] It is the only film in the series not to have Al Pacino nominated for an Academy Award (he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for The Godfather and for Best Actor for The Godfather Part II). It is the only film in the trilogy not to win for Best Picture or any other Academy Award for that matter, as well as the only film in the trilogy not selected for preservation by the U.S. National Film Registry. It is, however, the first trilogy to be nominated for Best Picture in each of the installments, and the only sequel to win the coveted prize after the original film won.
American Film Institute recognition:

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
  • "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in." – Nominated^[20]

The film was also nominated for seven Golden Globes Awards, but did not win.^[21] Sofia Coppola won two Golden Raspberry Awards for both Worst Supporting Actress and Worst New Star.

Historical background

Main article: Pope John Paul I conspiracy theories

Parts of the film are very loosely based on real historical events concerning the ending of the papacy of Paul VI, and the very short duration of John Paul I in 1978, and the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano in 1982. Like the character Cardinal Lamberto, who becomes John Paul I, the historical John Paul I, Albino Luciani, reigned for only a very short time before being found dead in his bed.
Journalist David Yallop argues that Luciani was planning a reform of Vatican finances and that he died by poisoning; these claims are reflected in the film.^[22] Yallop also names as a suspect Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, who was the head of the Vatican bank, like the character Archbishop Gilday in the film. However, while Marcinkus was noted for his muscular physique and Chicago origins, Gilday is a mild Irishman. The character has also drawn comparisons to Cardinal Giuseppe Caprio, as he was in charge of the Vatican finances during the approximate period of which the movie was based.^[23]
The character of Frederick Keinszig, the Swiss banker who is murdered and left hanging under a bridge, mirrors the fate (and physical appearance) of Roberto Calvi, the Italian head of the Banco Ambrosiano who was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982 (it was unclear whether it was a case of suicide or, as the Italian idiom has it, "being suicided". Courts in Italy have recently ruled the latter.) ^[24] The name "Keinszig" is taken from Manuela Kleinszig, the girlfriend of Flavio Carbone who was indicted as one of Roberto Calvi's murderers in 2005.^[25]
On the audio commentary of the DVD, Francis Ford Coppola states that the character of Don Licio Lucchesi would be very recognizable for Italian citizens. The thick-rimmed glasses, the official police bodyguard while Michael meets the Don in Sicily, and a single quote at the end of the movie are supposedly clues that Don Lucchesi is (at least partly) based on Giulio Andreotti.
The killing of Joey Zasa is reminiscent of the shooting of Joseph Colombo in a street parade.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Score.^[26] Also, the film's love theme, "Promise Me You'll Remember" (subtitled "Love Theme from The Godfather Part III") sung by Harry Connick, Jr., received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Song.


Above Extracts Taken From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather_Part_III

More Info: http://www.thegodfather.com/ - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099674/