The official web site of A.H. Lloyd

Robert Duvall’s death caused me to see what films I had on hand that featured him. Obviously, Apocalypse Now, but I’ve watched that many, many times. After much thought (and searching) I realized that The Godfather (and its sequel) were the only ones I had on hand. I have seen in many films, but only owned two. This will be addressed in future purchases.

Anyhow, I paid particular attention to Duvall’s work, and the part of Tom Hagan is pretty much the polar opposite of Colonel Kilgore (or The Great Santini for that matter). Hagan is calm, mild-mannered and faultlessly polite. It’s a great performance.

But as I was re-watching the films, I realized that they oddly prefigured the trajectory of the Star Wars films. The Godfather is a straight-up story, but the sequel moves backwards in time, creating something of a prequel as it also advances the story. The third installment moves unabashedly into the future.

This is very similar to Star Wars. If one thinks of Vito Corleone as holding the same place as Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker, the first film shows him at the fullness of his power, and then his death. The second, however, describes his origin story, while also pressing ahead with the main storyline. This allows viewers to note the similarities with his son Michael, and it has the virtue of keeping the narrative interesting since the flashbacks (while interesting) are bolstered by the unfolding drama in the current age.

Yet the third film (rightly considered inferior), simply presses forward, albeit in a much more satisfactory manner than Disney’s cinematic atrocities.

Indeed, the failure of Disney to provide an real link or connection throughout the sequel films was their undoing. Constantly switching out writers/directors didn’t help, and this is probably why George Lucas is so upset (and outspoken) about what his franchise became. Whether his treatments were better will likely only be known some years from now, hopefully before his death.

In any event, I can’t help but wonder if Lucas took in The Godfather and its second installment and longed for something similar.

Of course, even setting aside Disney, Lucas simply could not create a compelling backstory for Anakin. His writing was awful, and it’s clear that creating fully realized characters was beyond him. In the original films, he could fall back on excellent acting and and strong pacing (and of course, his ex-wife’s editing skills) to cover that up. Subsequent films were closely monitored by Fox and provided with veteran directors and proven script doctors to protect the investment.

One might note the similarities between Francis Ford Coppola’s third outing and what happened with the prequels when George Lucas also had unquestioned creative control. It is often the case that constraints on artists make things better.