Michael’s successor as the Corleone family’s don would have felt more natural ifThe Godfatherhadn’t cut a character from Mario Puzo’s book. At its heart,The Godfatheris the story of Michael’s evolution from mild-mannered war hero to feared boss of a mafia empire.The Godfather Part IIIthen goes further and chronicles the handover of power from Michael to his nephew, Vincent Mancini.The Godfather Part IIIinfamously lacks the gilded reputation of Francis Ford Coppola’s previous two entries, and introducing Vincent as a secondary protagonist is among the reasons why.
Played by Andy Garcia, Vincent is the illegitimate son of Michael’s brother Sonny, who paid the ultimate toll for his anger issues midway through the firstThe Godfathermovie. Vincent almost crawls out of nowhere inThe Godfather Part III, and after audiences spent more than six combined hours withMichael and the Corleone family, adjusting to an entirely new main character - one with hardly any connection to the existing narrative - is a jarring experience. Vincent’s entry intoThe Godfather’s main castwould feel a lot smoother, however, if the first movie had stayed authentic to its source material.
How The Original Godfather Movie Could Have Set Up Vincent As Michael’s Replacement
Vincent Mancini’s Mother Is A Big Deal In The Book
Viewers would be excused for forgetting her, butVincent’s mother, Lucy Mancini, did feature in Francis Ford Coppola’s firstThe Godfathermovie. Making several brief cameos alongside James Caan’s Sonny, Lucy’s most notable scene came when she and Sonny sneaked away to have sex during the opening wedding scene. Nevertheless, to say that Lucy’s role inThe Godfatherwas understated would be an understatement. Relegated to a background character, Lucy was about as prominent as Fredo’s wife or Michael’s bodyguard.
Audiences would be able to appreciate how Vincent taking over the Corleone family is a continuation of Lucy’s story.
InMario Puzo’sThe Godfatherbook, however,Lucy Mancini becomes a relatively important side character, and entire sections are dedicated to her perspective. Lucy’s story remains peripheral to the main feud between the Corleones and the Five Families, but she still receives plenty of characterization, development, and exposure. Still, it’s easy to see why Coppola chopped Lucy’s role in the movie down so ruthlessly. Her subplot has little bearing on Michael’s journey to becoming the new Don Corleone, and with other characters jostling for space in the lengthy runtime, Lucy was an obvious part of the book to excise.
HadThe Godfatherretained Lucy Mancini, however, Vincent’s arrival inThe Godfather Part IIIwould carry far more weight.Lucy’s chapters offer vital insight into her complicated feelings for Sonny, her dependence on theCorleone family’s money, the shady nature of their enterprise, and her aspirations for the future.
After Sonny’s death in the book, Lucy becomes an employee of the Corleone family for a time.
If those elements had been transferred intoThe Godfather’s movie adaptation, Vincent’s arrival inPart IIIwould weave a connective thread from the first chapter to the last. Audiences would be able to appreciate how Vincent taking over the Corleone family is a continuation of Lucy’s story, and part ofThe Godfather’s tapestry from the very beginning. Without Lucy, Vincent just feels like a random child turning up without rhyme or reason. With her, Vincent’s ascension to Godfather feels like a payoff that was decades in the making.
The Problem With Adapting Lucy Mancini’s The Godfather Story
Lucy Mancini’s Story Has A Big Problem
Her lack of involvement in the central story aside, losing Lucy Mancini was perhaps necessary because, for reasons known only to Mario Puzo, her subplot revolved heavily around unusually-sized genitals. It is no secret that Sonny Corleone was a well-endowed man, andThe Godfathernodded to this when his wife was shown boasting to her friends at Connie’s wedding, miming out his size with her hands. Lucy Mancini was, according toThe Godfather’s book timeline, born with an uncommonly roomy vagina, meaning she and Sonny could accommodate each other in ways other lovers could not.
Since the finished movie already came out at nearly three hours, it is easy to see why Lucy was pushed into the background.
After Lucy’s story continued in Las Vegas where she worked for Fredo and Moe Greene running the Corleone-owned hotels, she found a surgeon who could fix her downstairs issue. In a flagrant abuse of his position, said doctor then made advances on Lucy and the two married, finalizing her separation from the Corleone family. Clearly,The Godfatherneeded to cut that material top to bottom.
You Shouldn’t Call The Godfather A Trilogy & Francis Ford Coppola Perfectly Explained Why, 33 Years After Part III
The Godfather trilogy may consist of three movies, but Francis Ford Coppola doesn’t consider the series to be a true “trilogy” for one simple reason.
Giving Lucy more relevance inThe Godfatherwould have meant adapting her affair with Sonny, her feelings, her association with the Corleone family, and her work in Las Vegas with Fredo, while somehow ignoring the primary reason she and Sonny became lovers, and her subsequent quest for gratification in bed with other men. In other words,The Godfatherneeded to concoct a whole new, movie-original role for Lucy. Since the finished movie already came out at nearly three hours, it is easy to see she was simply pushed into the background instead, no matter how much Vincent’s rise in the third movie would have benefited.
The Godfather
The Godfather chronicles the Italian-American Corleone crime family from 1945 to 1955. Following an assassination attempt on family patriarch Vito Corleone, his youngest son Michael emerges to orchestrate a brutal campaign of retribution, cementing his role in the family’s illicit empire.
