If I were to create a list of what I consider to be the ten all-time greatest films, two of them would be the first two of the three ‘Godfather’ films. In an article written by Dave Itzkoff for The New York Times, the director and cast, including Al Pacino, Sofia Coppola and Andy Garcia, look back at making “Part III,” which has been re-edited (and retitled) for its 30th anniversary.

Here is a brief excerpt from that article.

Credit: Paramount Pictures, via Getty Images

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Francis Ford Coppola is aware of the checkered reputation of the final film in the trilogy. When a film is first released, “you know that whatever the reaction is will define it for its entire life.”

In the final scene of “The Godfather Part III,” Michael Corleone, the aged protagonist of this epic crime drama, is left in solitude to contemplate his sins, gripped with guilt over actions that have devastated his family and the knowledge that he cannot change what he has done.

Coppola, the director and co-screenwriter of the “Godfather” series, has never approached his work in quite the same way. These three movies have won a combined nine Academy Awards, grossed more than $1.1 billion when adjusted for inflation and gained an exalted status in the popular consciousness. But rather than regard them as immutable monuments, Coppola has treated them like an unfinished painting he is free to update.

He has previously restored and reordered portions of the “Godfather” story, modifying its multigenerational tale of corruption, vengeance and family duty as his own ideas about storytelling have evolved.

Now he has turned his attention to “The Godfather Part III,” the 1990 film that took a more meditative approach to the Corleones. Unlike the near universal acclaim the first two movies enjoy, “Part III” is remembered as the Fredo of its family — the one that doesn’t really measure up. It was criticized for its lugubrious tone, convoluted plot and Coppola’s casting of his daughter, Sofia — now a celebrated filmmaker in her own right — as Michael’s doomed daughter, Mary.

For a new theatrical and home-video release this month, Coppola has rechristened the film as “Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.” The new name pays tribute to Puzo, his “Godfather” co-screenwriter and author of the original novel, and includes the title they originally intended for the film that became “Part III.” The director has changed its beginning and ending and made alterations throughout to excavate and clarify the narrative that he always believed it contained about mortality and redemption.

The history of this “Godfather” movie is as sweeping and dramatic as the much-told tales behind the creation of its two illustrious predecessors, full of conflict, perseverance and decisive last-minute changes. It is a legend that seemingly ended with a fatally flawed result — but now has a new untold chapter that could improve the standing of the final film in one of the most influential franchises of all time.

Coppola’s personal story is of course inextricable from the story of the movie, and there is more at stake for the director than reclaiming his movie from the tarnished reputation he felt it never deserved. At 81, he is still striving to demonstrate his vitality as a filmmaker and reconnect with the rebellious energy that permeated the making of the first two “Godfathers.”

He is no longer the barnstorming artistic despot of the 1970s; these days he approaches his trade like a seasoned craftsman, always honing his work in search of some mythical ideal. Using a quaint metaphor, he compared his process to fixing a cigarette lighter.

As Coppola explained in an interview, “You put in more fluid. Then it’s too much fluid, so you have to put in a new flint. You have to pull the wick out. And then, all of a sudden, it lights.”

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Here is a direct link to the complete article.

Dave Itzkoff is a culture reporter for The New York Times who writes frequently about film, television and comedy. He is the author of four books including, most recently, “Robin,” a biography of Robin Williams, and “Mad As Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies.”