So, a little history on the casting for GF3 first.The title of GF3 - TopicsExpress

So, a little history on the casting for GF3 first.The title of GF3 was purported to originally have been The Death of Michael Corleone and was supposed to revolve around the central conflict of Michael (at his darkest) vs. Tom Hagen (who is the only one who has the ability to attempt to reason with Michael).Unfortunately, Duvall passed due to the fact that Hagen was a lead character and he was only being offered a fraction of what Pacino was getting. Which sucks for all of us, because who doesnt want to see a showdown between Michael and Tom?Well...I am not so sure about that.In GF1 and GF2, the ever-reliable Tom Hagen was a decent man not cut out to be a wartime consigliere. Despite being loved and raised by the Corleone family, he was always considered an outsider of sorts for not being Sicilian. But unlike Fredo or Sonny or Connie, I never felt Tom Hagens struggle. He was never an emotional character and the script itself does not give a lot of opportunity to explore Tom Hagen, the man. Minor hints (like the fact that he has a mistress and possibly courting other offers, which was revealed by Michael in GF2) are so throwaway that Tom always stayed a 1 dimensional character to me---not that this is a negative thing as he serves his role perfectly among the ensemble cast.But amplifying him up to a lead character directly in conflict with Michael Corleone---was this really earned? How much have we grown with Tom as a character? With Michael, you have this incredibly strong history of him from his more idealistic youth to his transformation into a monster at the end of GF2. Is Tom someone you would root for? Would you think he had a fighting chance, knowing what you know Michael is capable of?It is because of this that I feel that the conflict which was supposed to be the heart of GF3 would have been anti-climatic and ineffective, especially given the dramatic pathos of Fredos (my favorite character) betrayal and fallout in GF2. In GF1, Fredo had very few scenes but those small scenes really cemented Fredo as this helpless creature who only wanted his fathers and then his younger brothers love and respect. In GF2, you see how much he has fallen apart and how his pride is wounded. You understand his arc and why he does what he does. Which is why it is so tragic.Tom has never had this development and so it makes no sense why setting him up as the primary antagonist to Michael and his eventual, if we were to judge by the original title, downfall. The emotional resonance would not have been there and the movie would have had to spend a TON of time developing Tom as a character to even remotely make it work.Finally, Coppola at this point, while making a few good but not great films after GF2, was not the same visionary who created the original films. The pieces which were salvaged from the original GF3 script were pretty terrible (ie- George Hamilton taking on the Hagen-ish character role, the role of Mary, which would have been awful whether or not Sofia Coppola played it or not, the convoluted Vatican subplot, etc).I have read a bunch of articles online where folks feel that if Duvall got the role, the movie would have been completely different. Even Coppola publicly stated it was a huge loss.But given the above, do you still think GF3 would have been good?CMV :)Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. Wed just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to read through our rules. If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which, downvotes dont change views! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our popular topics wiki first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to message us. Happy CMVing!