The only problem was that Coppola and Pacino both said they wouldn’t return. After The Godfather Part II swept the 1974 Academy Awards and proved wrong everyone who felt that it would fail, Paramount wanted a sequel. Of course, for a long time, it seemed like The Godfather Part III would never be made. (For his part, Duvall has defended his salary demands by saying that the only reason anyone was making Godfather Part III was for the money so why shouldn’t he get paid? And again, Duvall has a point….) They should have paid Duvall his five million. Hagen’s absence is felt far more than Paramount expected it would be. If Tom Hagen had been in the film, Michael would have had someone to whom he could relate. The rest of the family - Mary (Sofia Coppola), Vincent (Andy Garcia), and Anthony (Franc D’Ambrosio) - are too young to truly understand the sins of the past. Connie (Talia Shire) is too busy scheming and plotting on her own. Kay (Diane Keaton) holds him at arm’s length for most of the film. (It’s a good gangster film but it never feels like a worthy follow-up to the films that came before it.) And one of the major problems with the film is that Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone doesn’t have anyone with whom he can really confide. There’s a lot that I do like about The Godfather Part III but it’s undoubtedly a flawed film.

When Duvall refused to return, the film had to be reimagined.Ĭoppola’s right. Originally, Coppola had planned for Duvall’s Tom Hagen to be a major part of Godfather Part III. While Duvall wasn’t demanding to be paid as much as Al Pacino, he still felt that their salaries should be “comparable.” Paramount, who had already gone through a lot of protracted negotiations to get Coppola, Pacino, and Diane Keaton to agree to do the film, disagreed.

Recently, when asked about The Godfather Part III‘s somewhat lackluster reputation, director Francis Ford Coppola said that the biggest mistake that Paramount made was refusing to meet Robert Duvall’s salary demands.

Dragons of God by Vincent Coppola