Watched GODFATHER CODA and it is a vast improvement on GFIII. I watched the original cut last spring so it’s pretty fresh in my head. The new cut makes it feel an hour shorter and improves Sofia’s performance.

It also just dawned on me that The Godfather Trilogy and the Star Wars Trilogy of Trilogies are all basically the same. GFI is the Original Trilogy. GFII is the Prequel Trilogy and GFIII is the Sequel Trilogy. I will expand on this tomorrow.

Okay so we know that of all the New Hollywood guys Coppola and Lucas had the most intimate friendship. FFC was a big brother figure to GL initially and their relationship and it’s vicissitudes has been well-documented.

What struck me while watching the new Godfather Coda is how much the Sequel Trilogy echoes FFC’s much derided threequel. Vincent Mancini/Corleone is basically Kylo Ren. A man who aspires to his grandfather’s mantle and has clearly inherited the best and worst traits of his line.

As much as Luke’s bitter disillusionment rankled geeks who wanted him to still be their hero, he’s in a very similar place to Michael Corleone in GFIII: washing his hands of something that brought him fame and made him a legend. And fans didn’t like that either.

In a way late Luke and late Michael show up decades later and say “grow up” to the fans still reveling in their youthful adventures.

So Michael and Vincent also reminded me a lot of Luke and Rey as well. Hard not to think of Han and Leia in TFA watching Michael and Kay reconnect in Sicily.

Of course the Sequel Trilogy makes the dubious choice to foreground the newbies that GFIII doesn’t.

The GF Trilogy and the SW Trilogies have the same three acts:

1. I will take up a craft that predates me and exceed the older generation.
2. I have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams and now I relate to my youthful antagonist(s).
3. I am no longer young and must pass on something I’d rather see end altogether.

Clearly these were arcs Coppola and Lucas experienced with their respective monster hits. Neither man has an easy relationship with these films. Neither went to film school to make these films. Both see them as films that took them hostage in a way.

The parallels between GFI and the Original Trilogy are pretty obvious. Michael and Luke are pretty unlikely heroes when we meet them. Both have to struggle with the sins of the father and the overthrow of the old regime.

GFII and the Prequel Trilogy are less clearly connected although it’s interesting that the second GF film is half prequel and we watch our hero become a monster.

Michael slaps Kay for aborting his child, Anakin forces chokes his very pregnant wife for perceived disloyalty. Michael murders his brother. Anakin...well you know.

Michael’s haunting flashback to 12/7/1941 at the end of GFII would fit right in at the end of Episode III. Neither can think about the good times without also reckoning how their submission to evil ended those times.