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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 01/04/91 -- Vol. 9, No. 27
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon.
LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158. MT meetings are in the cafeteria.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
01/09 LZ: BRAIN WAVE by Poul Anderson (Intelligence)
01/30 LZ: RITE OF PASSAGE by Alexei Panshin (Adolescence)
02/20 LZ: MARTIANS, GO HOME! by Frederic Brown (Social Satire)
03/13 LZ: TOM SWIFT by Victor Appleton II (Juvenile SF)
_D_A_T_E _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C.
01/10/90 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA
(phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)
01/19/91 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 hocpa!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzy!leeper
HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3B-301 949-4488 hotsc!tps
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-3346 mtunq!lfl
MT Librarian: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. Our next Leeperhouse film fest is two comedies you probably have
not seen. Albert Brooks is probably best known as the intelligent
reporter from _B_r_o_a_d_c_a_s_t _N_e_w_s. Brooks in real life is a real
student of the human condition. His characters are very real
people. They are funny, but they don't do Chevy Chase pratfall
humor. His films are very honest, very candid, and very subtle.
Seeing them I didn't belly-laugh but I did chuckle and years later
the jokes are still funny and painful. On Thursday, January 10, at
7 PM, the Leeperhouse will show two Brooks feature films.
THE MT VOID Page 2
Albert Brooks
MODERN ROMANCE (1981) dir. by Albert Brooks
LOST IN AMERICA (1985) dir. by Albert Brooks
Occasionally a man has to do what a man has to do. In _M_o_d_e_r_n
_R_o_m_a_n_c_e, Brooks knows it's time to end his longterm relationship
with Kathryn Harrold. No Prince Hamlet, he acts and breaks things
off. Within hours he decides breaking up may have been the dumbest
thing he ever did and wants to win Harrold back in the worst way.
And that is how he sets out to do it.
In _L_o_s_t _i_n _A_m_e_r_i_c_a, Brooks plays a corporate executive passed over
for that expected and all-important promotion. Rather than
continue with the indignity of his job, he buys an RV, packs his
wife (played by Julie Hagerty), and sets out to find the real
America, like the heroes of _E_a_s_y _R_i_d_e_r. Will they find the real
America? And will they like what they find?
2. The Learning Channel will be starting a new show on February 2,
"The Incredible Film Show." This seems to be a collection of
excerpts from very bad or very strange films, many of which are
science fiction. Check your local listing for details. [-ecl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 957-5619
...mtgzy!leeper
The market-place is a place set aside where men may
deceive and overreach each another.
-- Anacharsis
THE GODFATHER PART III
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1990 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: The Corleone saga continues in
another story of honor and revenge. This is not the Best
Picture of 1990 but it is good enough that it will
probably be nominated for that honor. While it is less
than totally original, major similarities to the other
parts may well go unnoticed. (The afterword to this
review is a spoiler.) Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4).
In these days of making popular films into series, by far the most
respected series is the now three-part "Godfather" saga. Both _T_h_e
_G_o_d_f_a_t_h_e_r and _T_h_e _G_o_d_f_a_t_h_e_r _P_a_r_t _I_I won the Best Picture Academy Award
and it is very likely we will be seeing a campaign to get _T_h_e _G_o_d_f_a_t_h_e_r
_P_a_r_t _I_I_I the same award. No sequel other than _T_h_e _G_o_d_f_a_t_h_e_r _P_a_r_t _I_I has
ever won Best Picture. The series has even outlived the accuracy of the
title, since Michael Corleone was certainly not the Godfather in _P_a_r_t _I,
and seems only rarely to use the title of "Godfather." In many ways
this is also the most deserving of being a series since the stories
really do build on each other and lose a great deal if viewed out of
order. There is now authenticity from the fact that when a character
remembers an event from years earlier, the audience also remembers it
from a point in time that is genuinely years earlier for them. If
Michael remembers the death of his first wife many years ago, I also
remember it from eighteen years ago.
It is not that there is really such original writing. In many ways
we are repeatedly seeing the same story. (For fear of spoilers I can
list only some superficial parallels here and will say more in the
afterward.) Each film starts with a long sequence that is a celebration
of an important family event: a wedding, a confirmation, an award from
the Pope. Each also concludes with a family event. One thinks of the
films as being about the family business but, in fact, the subject is
very rarely even mentioned. There is very little about how the
Corleones acquire their money. Instead, these films are almost
exclusively about meta-business issues such as the politics of dealing
with the competition; the issue arises in each film. Perhaps the reason
for the chosen concentration is that the Corleones would be much less
sympathetic if the films were about their day-to-day business. Even
visual touches are repeated. There is always a scene in the Corleone
kitchen with a big pot on the stove.
As the film opens Michael Corleone--do I really have to say he is
played by Al Pacino?--is still trying to whitewash the family name and
to live up to the nobility of the name Corleone (Lionheart). He has
contributed vast sums of money to charitable works. At one point we see
a hospital named for Vito Corleone and probably not because Vito
Godfather III December 30, 1990 Page 2
provided them with patients. At the opening Michael is contributing
$100,000,000 for poverty relief for Sicily and receiving the order of
San Sebastian from the Pope. Of note is that there is far less of the
ethnic Italian feel to this event than there was at Connie's wedding.
The Corleones are apparently assimilating American styles. Michael
feels that he is finally achieving legitimacy and respectability.
But there is a problem with Vincent Mancini (played by Andy Garcia)
who, despite the surname, is the son of Sonny Corleone (played by James
Caan in Parts I and II). Vincent is the most likely heir to the family
business, but he is also something of a loose cannon. He is as
temperamental and power-hungry as his father was. Vincent has a feud
with his current boss, a hood named Joey Zasa (played by Joe Mantegna).
Vincent is attracted to Michael's daughter, Mary. In fact, the
choice of the plain-looking Sofia Coppola, the director's daughter, for
Mary instead of the originally cast attractive Winona Ryder may actually
work for the film. Coppola is not a great actress but putting a less
attractive woman in the role creates interesting speculation as to
Vincent's motives. There is no great mystery as to why Vincent would be
interested in a woman as attractive as Winona Ryder. But Vincent has an
eye for good-looking women and the power-hungry nephew's interest in
Mary could well be power rather than physical attraction. In any case,
Michael is dead set against a relationship between these two
grandchildren of Vito Corleone. It is Vincent's feud and Michael's
relation with the Vatican that are the springboard for this third story.
Michael's other child is Anthony who, like the young Michael, wants
no part of the family business and wants instead to sing grand opera.
In fact, his debut performance at La Scala, in the lead no less, becomes
an important event in the film. The choice of opera, Pietro Mascagni's
"Cavalleria Rusticana," is of course highly appropriate. The title
literally translates to "Rustic Chivalry" and refers to the code of
honor of the poor Sicilians of the story. The concept of this Sicilian
code of honor pervades the "Godfather" films as well as the opera. The
emphasis on this-favor-for-that-favor, how one treats the Don, and
symbolic gestures such as "the Kiss of Death" are equally important in
the series and in this opera of the hatred of Turridu and Alfio. In the
time-honored Sicilian custom, Alfio challenges Turridu by embracing him
and Turridu signifies he accepts the challenge by biting Alfio's ear.
Naturally, the opera ends in bloodshed. The sweetly melancholic
Intermezzo from "Cavalleria Rusticana" may already be familiar to
filmgoers from its use in _R_a_g_i_n_g _B_u_l_l. Coppola uses it in _T_h_e _G_o_d_f_a_t_h_e_r
_P_a_r_t _I_I_I to underscore the final scenes of the film.
So does this new film live up to its predecessors? It is flawed,
of course, but then _P_a_r_t _I_I diluted its effect by jumping around in time
to pick up pieces of storyline both before and after the first film.
That was the flaw that television thought it could correct when it re-
edited the first two parts into one chronological story. (Comments on
that effort will appear in my afterword.) The third film is no more
Godfather III December 30, 1990 Page 3
flawed and probably in a league with the first two. I would rate it a
high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. (In case you're curious, I would rate
_T_h_e _G_o_d_f_a_t_h_e_r a +3 and _T_h_e _G_o_d_f_a_t_h_e_r _P_a_r_t _I_I a high +2.)
Spoiler-afterword: Earlier in this review I talked about a
repeating structure in the "Godfather" films. Let me be more detailed.
The films always start with a major family event and they always end
with a bloodbath that coincides with another major family event:
baptism, marriage-separation, son's operatic debut at La Scala. In each
case Michael is trying to make himself or his whole family legitimate,
but he is stymied. There is some unspeakable act committed by an
apparent enemy: the Tataglias, the Rosatos, Joey Zasa. Michael decides
his honor and the general safety of the family demand revenge. However,
the perpetrator is only the apparent enemy. The real enemy pulling the
strings does not show his face except as an apparent peacemaker:
Barzini, Roth, Altobello. In the end the ersatz peacemaker and all his
co-conspirators are dispatched in the bloodbath that spans only hours or
minutes. This strikes me as being too strong a parallel in structure to
be just coincidence. It, in fact, goes beyond formula. Each film is a
repetition of the same melodrama. Michael is trying to be good.
Someone interprets this as weakness and moves against him. The urge for
revenge with Sicilian anger takes over. Vito's mother, too, promised
Don Cicci that she and Vito would not take action against him and asked
for peace. He murdered her in cold blood. Vito's Sicilian revenge must
wait for the proper time but honor demands it. Vito's son Michael
replays this melodrama in each film.
I did not see the television re-editing in which the first two
parts were edited so they told one story in chronological order. I have
been told it is an improvement. I find it hard to believe, however,
since each story is a re-telling of an instance of Michael repeating his
father's tragedy. Re-editing would violate the internal structure. The
"improved" version sounds too much like taking Shakespeare's _H_e_n_r_y _I_V
Parts I and II and _H_e_n_r_y _V, editing them together to make one long play,
then showing it over five nights with commercials.
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