The Russian Mafia drama has reached its final chapter "The Godfather Part III" ..."
Francis Ford Coppola
Liliputins. What the hell is this ?
http://www.stihi.ru/2012/08/18/5368
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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 attempts to legitimize his criminal empire. The film also interweaves a fictionalized account of two real-life events into its plot: the 1978 death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal of 1981–1982; both are linked to Michael Corleone's business affairs. The film stars Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and Andy Garcнa, 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 Paramount Pictures found that unacceptable. Coppola subsequently stated that The Godfather series is two films, and Part III is the epilogue. Part III received mixed to positive reviews compared to the critical acclaim that the first two films received. It grossed $136,766,062 and was nominated for seven Academy Awards including the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Plot
In 1979, as Michael Corleone is approaching 60, he regrets his ruthless rise to power, and is especially guilt-ridden for having his brother, Fredo, murdered. He has semi-retired from the Mafia, leaving the Corleone family's criminal interests under enforcer Joey Zasa's control. Michael uses his tremendous wealth and power in an attempt to rehabilitate his reputation via numerous charitable acts. Michael and Kay divorced in 1960, and Kay was given custody of their children, Anthony and Mary.
At a ceremony in St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, Michael is named a Commander of the Order of St. Sebastian. At the following reception, Anthony tells his father that he is leaving law school to become an opera singer. Kay supports his decision but Michael asks Anthony to complete his law degree. Anthony refuses to adhere to his father's wishes. Michael and Kay have an uneasy reunion, in which Kay reveals that she and Anthony know the truth about Fredo's death.
Vincent Mancini, Sonny Corleone's illegitimate son with Lucy Mancini, arrives at the reception. 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, arranges a meeting between Vincent and Zasa. When Zasa calls Vincent a bastard, Vincent bites Zasa's ear. When Vincent overpowers two hitmen sent to kill him, he learns that Zasa was responsible. Michael, troubled by Vincent's fiery temper but impressed by his family loyalty, agrees to take his nephew under his wing.
Michael's recent stock purchase in International Immobiliare, an international real estate holding company known as "the world's biggest landlord", makes him its largest single shareholder, with six seats on the company's 13-member board of directors. He makes a tender offer to buy the Vatican's 25% share in the company, which will give him controlling interest. Knowing that Archbishop Gilday, head of the Vatican Bank, has accumulated a massive deficit, Michael offers the Bank $600 million in exchange for the shares. The Immobiliare's board quickly approve the offer, but it must be ratified in Rome by Pope Paul VI, who is gravely ill. Without his word, the deal remains in limbo.
Soon after, Don Altobello, an elderly New York Mafia boss and Connie's godfather, visits Michael, telling him that his old partners on the Commission want in on the Immobiliare deal. Michael wants the deal untainted by Mafia involvement and pays off the mob bosses from the sale of his Las Vegas holdings. Zasa receives nothing and, declaring Michael his enemy, storms out. Altobello follows Zasa, saying he will reason with him. Minutes later, a helicopter hovers outside the conference room and opens fire. Most of the bosses are killed, but Michael, Vincent, and Michael's bodyguard, Al Neri, escape.
Back in New York, Al Neri tells Michael that the surviving mob bosses made deals with Zasa. Believing Zasa lacks the cunning, Michael is certain someone else masterminded the massacre. He forbids Vincent from killing Zasa. Michael, who realizes that Altobello is the traitor, suffers a diabetic stroke and is hospitalized. As Michael recuperates, Vincent and Mary begin a romantic relationship, while Neri and Connie give Vincent permission to retaliate against Zasa. During a street festival hosted by Zasa's Italian American civil rights group, Vincent kills Zasa. Michael berates Vincent for his rashness, and also insists Vincent end his relationship with Mary, saying Vincent's involvement in the family's criminal enterprises endangers her life.
The family travels to Sicily for Anthony's operatic debut in Palermo at the Teatro Massimo. They stay with Don Tommasino, a long-time Corleone friend. Michael wants Vincent to convince Altobello that Vincent intends to leave the Corleone family. Altobello introduces Vincent to Don Licio Lucchesi, a powerful Italian political figure and Immobiliare's chairman. Michael discovers that the Immobiliare deal is an elaborate swindle, conspired by Lucchesi, Archbishop Gilday, and Vatican accountant Frederick Keinszig. Michaels visits Cardinal Lamberto, favored to become the next Pope, to discuss the deal. Lamberto persuades Michael to make his first confession in 30 years; after Michael confesses he ordered Fredo's murder, Lamberto says Michael deserves the suffering he has over it but he can be redeemed.
Shortly after Vincent and Lucchesi meet, Altobello hires Mosca, a veteran hitman, to assassinate Michael. Mosca and his son, disguised as priests, kill Don Tommasino as he returns to his villa. While Michael and Kay tour Sicily, Michael asks for Kay's forgiveness. They admit they still love each other. Michael receives word that Tommasino is dead, and at the funeral, Michael vows over his old friend's coffin to never sin again.
After Pope Paul VI dies, Cardinal Lamberto is elected as Pope John Paul I, and the Immobiliare deal will likely be ratified. The new Pope's intentions are a death knell to the scheme against ratifying the Immobiliare deal. The frantic plotters attempt to cover up their tracks. Vincent tells Michael that Altobello is plotting to have Mosca assassinate Michael. Michael sees that his nephew is a changed man and designates him the new Don of the Corleone family, telling him he wants Vincent to adopt the Corleone name. In exchange, Vincent agrees to end his romance with Mary Corleone.
The family travels to Palermo to watch Anthony's performance 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 and then hang him from a bridge, making his death look like a suicide.
Don Altobello, also attending the opera, eats poisoned cannoli that his goddaughter Connie gave him. He dies as Connie watches from her opera box.
Al Neri travels to the Vatican, where he shoots Archbishop Gilday.
Finally, Cal; (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, Cal; stabs him in the jugular vein with his own glasses.
The killings are too late to save the Pope. Just hours after he approves the Immobiliare deal, the Pope drinks poisoned tea served by Archbishop Gilday, and dies soon after. Mosca, still disguised as a priest and armed with a sniper rifle, descends upon the opera house during Anthony's performance, eliminating three of Vincent's men but is unable to shoot Michael. The assassin retreats to the opera house fa;ade and attempts to kill Michael. Mosca fires twice, intending to murder Michael but kills Mary. Vincent shoots him dead.
Michael remembers all the women he has lost as a montage of Mary, Kay, and Apollonia is shown. An elderly Michael sits alone in the garden of Don Tommasino's Sicilian villa. He is eating an orange, a recurring symbol throughout the Godfather trilogy foreshadowing death. Michael slumps over in his chair, falls sideways to the ground with only a dog present.