Posted by Recently over pizza, me and the fam, got into a discussion about the best films of all time.
My husband said Shawshank Redemption, (1994). I said Godfather, (1972), to which I added that my personal favourite film of that genre is Goodfellas, (1990). Just look at that fantastic still at the top of this blog post with the late, great Ray Liotta. My eldest said: K-Pop Demon Hunters, (2025), but then remembered Kung Fu Panda, (2008), which we all nodded and said is just a fantastic film. Then we looked at where these films were streaming, but somehow still ended up watching K-Pop Demon Hunters, (2025) again! I didn’t mind though as the songs are so catchy.
A few days later, I just couldn’t help myself and began watching Godfather because it was streaming on BBC iPlayer along with Godfather II, (1974), and Godfather III, Director’s Cut (2020). Afterwards in the name of research, I watched Goodfellas because oh great joy, it was showing on Netflix, like the time I was blogging about the uncanny valley of The Irishman, (2019). And even now many years later Goodfellas is such a great film.
However, since my latest deep dive into Godfather Goodfellas land, every conversation I have had with anyone has had a reference in it:
I’ll make him an offer he cannot refuse.
You’re a funny guy.
Just when I think I am out, they pull me back in.
Even without having seen these films, we all know the references because they are quoted everywhere in unlikely places from the romcom You’ve got Mail, (1998) and The Sopranos Christopher Moltisanti, referencing them incorrectly which hilariously leads to people explaining them to him, to this season’s (Season 5, 2025) Only Murders in the Building. They have entered into the lexicon.
I probably would have gone on to watch The Sopranos if I could have found it already streaming. As it was, I found myself watching BBC 2’s Talking Pictures The Godfather Trilogy on BBC iPlayer, as I just didn’t want my journey to end. In it, Francis Ford Coppola talked about how he didn’t want to make Godfather III, because he felt he had done everything he wanted to, but as he was having financial problems he signed up for the money. Even when making Godfather II, 15 years earlier, he wasn’t sure that he was the best director for the job and said:
I had in fact on the second one suggested to Paramount that a young director that I thought was really quite suitable to do it was Marty Scorsese.
Francis Ford Coppola, BBC 2 Talking Pictures The Godfather Trilogy
Funnily enough, Martin Scorsese is only four years younger than Francis Ford Coppola and at that time 1973-4 (Godfather II time), he had already done Mean Streets, (1973) with Robert de Niro which was the first of many films Scorsese did with de Niro: Taxi Driver (1976), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), King of Comedy, (1982) and of course, Goodfellas (1990), which came out the same year as Godfather III.
However, Coppola’s comment got me wondering how might it have looked if Scorsese had done Godfather III. Would he have done it in the style of Goodfellas and what sort of film would have been the result?
I quite liked Godfather III though it got a mixed press, I liked the themes of corruption in the higher echelons of society and how the ‘real life’ is reflected in the opera. Carmela Soprano disagrees:
Tony watches Godfather II all the time. He says the camerawork looks just as good as in the movie theatre….he likes the part where Vito goes back to Sicily. Three was like, ‘What happened?’
Carmela Soprano, The Sopranos (2000)
So! If we were to restyle to the story of Godfather III, with a Goodfella vibe. What would that film look like? And would the critics have liked it? I think Carmela would have done, especially as I would have made the young Andy Garcia in the heart of the film.
Just a warning, from here on in, there ***will be many spoilers*** , or watch the video version of this blogpost as we enter the world of Goodfellas Godfather:
Goodfellas Godfather
If they’d have been busy making Godfather III, de Niro couldn’t have been in it, along with the unthinkable thought: Goodfellas might never have been made. Gasp! And then: Double gasp! In that alternate universe, how would that have affected further films that they made together: Cape Fear, (1991), Casino, (1996), The Audition (2015), The Irishman, (2019), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)?
Gasping aside, let us suspend reality for a moment and try to imagine what Godfather III would have looked like under Scorsese’s direction. Firstly, the opening would be very different. Goodfellas begins with one of the greatest opening lines of all time:
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.
Henry Hill
This is such a fabulous opening and absolutely captivating.
In contrast, Godfather III, well I couldn’t remember the opening, even though I’d only just watched again, so I had to search on YouTube and found this one: Godfather III opening. It is lyrical and operatic with the classic Godfather theme music and a voiceover by Michael Corleone. It contains flashbacks of his past deeds and foreshadows what is to come as Michael writes a letter inviting his children to the ceremony for his Papal Honour. The ceremony symbolises the achievement of his life goal of legitimising the family business and now his life can finally be the one he imagined he would have. It does the job though, I am not hooked.
To reel me in, Goodfellas Godfather, would have to open with Vincent Mancini (aka Vincenzo Santino Corleone), the illegitimate son of Michael’s decease brother Santino, doing a voiceover like Henry Hill instead of Michael. We would make it Vincent’s story, not Michael’s. Michael would be the B-roll, we’d still get his story, but not in the way we currently do, leaving space for our main story, Vincent’s rise to be young and fresh and exciting.
The operatic tragedy of Michael was done really well in the first Godfather. He didn’t want to be part of the family, he wanted to go his own way, honest, upright, family man, but due to circumstances, he ended up involved, like he says: It’s not personal, its strictly business. And, then in Godfather II, well he just dug in and became like Shakespeare’s Macbeth:
I am in blood
Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
This is so vivid. I imagine Macbeth halfway across a bloody river and turning back would be just as far as getting to the goal. Michael has the same trapped weary attitude and omg, he did some awful stuff in Godfather II as it is weaved in with the story of Vito and how he got started.
Inspired by that, I would weave in Vincent, who loves this life and his life as a soldier and just wants to go around whacking anyone who disrespects Michael, who doesn’t love his. Vincent is more like Henry Hill, young, fiery, wanting to fight, wanting to be a gangster more than anything else as he says in the scene when we first see him with Michael:
Uncle Mike, I’m just here for the party…I could just kill this b******… What am I gonna do with this guy. WHAT! …I say we make him dead. You give the word and I’ll take care of it myself.
Less operatic tragedy more Mean Streets. Vincent is on the up and up and we want to watch that story, and compare it with Michael on the way down. We’d have fewer operatic high-stakes corruption Vatican scenes, we’d leave in the bits where Michael regrets his past, and we’d have a lot of Vincent, telling everyone where to get off when they don’t respect his Uncle Mike.
Instead of the slow-burn epic of family, legacy, and the tragic weight of power, we would have Scorsese style kinetic, street-level action. And definitely, we would do it Goodfellas style in a documentary-like in tone with lots of voiceover narration, quick cuts, freeze frames, needle-drop soundtracks, and frenetic camera movements. Vincent’s voice only, not Michael’s. And of course, we’d have a scene, like the famous long single sequence shot of the Copa scene, when Henry takes Karen to the Copa for a proper date. Perhaps we’d do that when Vincent rides down the street to shoot Joey Zaza, or the scene when Michael gives Vincent the name Corleone and makes him the head of the family and that’s where I would end this film too.
Vincent is victorious and Michael fades to black. Vincent has never pretended to be anything else than what he is and he is going to be very successful at what he does. In contrast, Michael would never recognise who he really was which led to all the bad decisions and terrible actions. He lied and lost everyone he loved because he played the tyrant role too well, believing that it would be worth it in the end. The price of becoming a legitimate business man cost him everything he had and that was his tragic downfall. I think Vincent who has never lied to himself, rather like Henry Hill, would end up doing okay. He might too come a cropper, but he would not loathe himself on the way.
