TV - Movies
What The
Godfather Part III
Had To Change To
Remove Its
NC-17 Rating
By TIM LAMMERS
Despite the legendary status of the first two "Godfather" chapters, film censors at the Motion Picture Association of America were intent on making Francis Ford Coppola follow their stringent set of standards when he was preparing "The Godfather: Part III" for release in 1990. And there was one particular scene of excessive violence that Coppola had to remove.
As revealed in the 1990 documentary "The Godfather Family: A Look Inside," the scene that raised concerns with the MPAA came in the third act of the movie, with the execution of the Corleone family’s rival, Don Licio Lucchesi. In the film's trailer, Lucchesi is put to death by having his neck snapped, but in the final version of the film, Coppola opted for a more dramatic demise.
Instead of snapping his neck, the Don is stabbed in the neck with the horn-rimmed frame. To earn an R rating, Coppola trimmed back the extremely graphic original scene, which abruptly ends with the rim penetrating the mafioso's neck. In a 2020 re-release, the scene is presented in its full, gory glory.