The Godfather Part III: Why Robert Duvall's Tom Hagen Didn't Return

Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather Part III" has suffered a mixed, if not tortured, reception. While contemporary reviews of the movie were generally approving, the general response from fans of the first two "Godfather" films was scathing. Soon enough, the film gained a reputation akin to "Return of the Jedi" or "Spider-Man 3," being thought of for many years as a huge disappointment of a trilogy capper. Like those aforementioned films, however, the movie underwent reappraisal a few decades after its release, and now its reputation has risen to become generally mixed again. 

Helping things along was Coppola himself, recutting and re-releasing the film in a new version in 2020, retitled "The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone." Time heals most wounds, after all, and now "The Godfather Part III" is typically regarded as a film that, while not rising to the superlative heights of the first two movies, has its own charms.

Yet some common criticisms of the film persist. One involves the performance of Coppola's daughter, future director Sofia Coppola, as Mary Corleone. Another concerns the movie's complex plot, which has more to do with high-level corporate skullduggery than mobster politics. One typical knock against the movie is not about anything in it, but instead someone who is sorely missing: Robert Duvall, in the role of Corleone consigliere Tom Hagen. Duvall, who passed away at age 95, is nowhere to be found in the film. 

This hurts it immensely, given what a key presence he was in "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II." What makes his absence even worse is the knowledge that he was originally supposed to play a big part in the movie, but chose to bow out due to a dispute over his salary.

According to a 2004 60 Minutes interview with Robert Duvall, the actor was initially hopeful to return to the role of Tom Hagen for "The Godfather Part III." Sadly, he and director Francis Ford Coppola couldn't come to terms with a financial arrangement that Duvall found fair, as the actor explained:

"I said I would work easily if they paid [Al] Pacino twice what they paid me, that's fine. But not three or four times, which is what they did."

When Coppola addressed the dispute during his commentary track for the movie, he stated that Duvall had requested more money than was available, leading the filmmaker to write Hagen out of the script and essentially replace him with another lawyer character, played by George Hamilton. While this omission doesn't ruin the film, it's still a shame that Hagen is rather unceremoniously missing from the last part of the trilogy. Especially when it seems like the falling out between Duvall and Coppola centered around the director's (and Pacino's) financial issues. The two began working together in 1969's "The Rain People," and Duvall would make an appearance in each of Coppola's films during the 1970s. Sadly, "Apocalypse Now" marked the de facto end of this collaboration, and "The Godfather Part III" dispute only solidified it.

To be fair, "The Godfather Part III" didn't really need Hagen in order to tell the story Coppola wanted, and Duvall eventually did reprise the role in the various "The Godfather" video games from 2006 and 2009. Yet there's no question that Duvall's presence in the third and final "Godfather" would've enhanced the film considerably. At least we'll always have the first two "Godfather" films to appreciate Duvall's invaluable contribution to them.