Average Rating: 
Rating:  - If there was ever an offer you couldn't refuse, it's this!
Francis Ford Coppola and Paramount Home Entertainment held a press conference and street fair in Brooklyn, and yours truly was there! The exciting news, of course, was announcing the release of THE GODFATHER DVD COLLECTION on October 9, 2001! If the preview of the set is any indication, then I must say this will be the crown jewel in any DVD collection! The three films will only be released together in this set. The Godfather and The Godfather Part III will each be on one disc, and The Godfather Part II will take two discs. The first of the good news? Francis Coppola has recorded full-lenth audio commentaries for all three films! But wait, there's a fifth disc that will blow your socks off! Check this out -- the bonus disc contains 3+ hours worth of special features, including: > "The Godfather Family: A Look Inside" documentary > "Francis Coppola's Notebook", an inside look at taking the book to screen! > "On Location" with production designer Dean Tavoularis! > "The Godfather Behind The Scenes" 1971 featurette! > "The Cinematography of The Godfather"! > "The Music of The Godfather" -- two featurettes! > "Coppola and Puzo on Screenwriting"! > Storyboards from GF2 and GF3! > "The Corleone Family Tree" character and cast bios! > Academy Award® acceptance speeches! > Photo galleries with captions! > Theatrical trailers! > Filmmaker bios! > Corleone Family timeline, with real-life events mixed in! > Never-seen alternate opening of GF3! > And "all" of the extra footage found in the televised Godfather Saga! The picture quality looked fantastic -- Coppola's American Zoetrope did a wonderful job restoring the films! From what I could tell, the sound quality was perfect, and the on-screen menus looked great. And the DVD packaging looks very nice. All three films are in widescreen format with English 5.1 surround sound, French mono, and English subtitles. Perhaps the only "bad" news I heard was that there were no plans at this point to release the chronological version on DVD. Francis said that the films were meant to be seen with the flashbacks, and I tend to agree. The biggest plus of having The Godfather Trilogy or Epic on tape, or watching The Godfather Saga on TV, was all the extra footage included. Well, the bonus disc in The Godfather DVD Collection contains "all" of the extra footage, and even something we've never seen anywhere before: an alternate opening for The Godfather Part III. Francis didn't give a firm "no" though; he cited technical reasons for not being able to include all the extra footage on DVD: the different scenes are in various levels of production ("they weren't mixed and scored"), making it difficult to add them seemlessly with today's technology. Maybe, but they seemed to be okay in the boxed sets and on TV to me. Do yourself a favor and order the biggest DVD release of all time!
Rating: - One Sweeping Epic.
Probably the two best known trilogies in the history of cinema are the "Star Wars" trilogy and "The Godfather" trilogy. To look at all three films by Francis Ford Coppola is to look at three examples of great cinema, of great acting and composition. The first "Godfather" is a true masterpiece, full of so many characters and such a moving story. Marlon Brando is unforgettable in probably his best role. It's also a great parable on the son taking over for the father, of a bloody family tradition being passed down the generations. And the funny thing is, even the son who didn't want anything to do with the family business, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), is eventually the one who ends up commanding it. "The Godfather Part 2" is a brilliant look at both the father and son at the same age. Coppola shows us the rise of Michael as a ruthless mafia don and the ascendance of Don Vito from part 1 in the 20s as a crime boss as well. Coppola nicely balances both, and created a weird moving experience. The movie is elegantly mounted and goes out further than the first one, even takes us to Cuba where Michael flees the night of Castro's takeover. Everything from the sets, suits and music is rich. And the ending is haunting. "The Godfather Part 3" finalizes the saga as we see Michael as an old man, already tired of the violence and wants to legitimize his family. But the past is seductive, and Michael is pulled back in. This movie is rich in cinematography and music. It has a lot of style and great performances by Pacino and Andy Garcia as the trigger happy Vincent. The movie is haunting in it's own way, and exciting. It's great to watch this and connect it's threads with the other two. With part 3 "The Godfather" series ends on the right note. Every film in this collection is a masterpiece and Coppola's best work. It's an example of true cinema.
Rating: - Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" Trilogy
THE GODFATHER: Mario Puzo's Popular Novel Comes To Life In Artful Fashion...Filmed In Foreboding Tones, The Film Takes Us Into The Lurid World Of The Mafia...Marlon Brando Won An Oscar For His Performance, But It's Al Pacino Who Grabs Your Attention With An Unnerving Intensity... THE GODFATHER, PART II: This Is A Sequel That Equals The Quality Of The Original, An Almost Almost Unheard Of Circumstance In Hollywood...Director Francis Ford Coppola Skillfully Meshes Past And Present, Intercutting The Story Of Young Don Corleone (Robert DeNiro), An Ambitious Immoral Immigrant, And His Son Michael (Al Pacino), Who Lives Up To His Father's Expectations, Turning The Family's Crime Orginizition Into A Sleek, Cold, Modern Operation...This Gripping Film Won Seven Academy Awards... THE GODFATHER, PART III: From The First Frame Of This Operatic, Shakespere Influenced Final Chapter In The Screen's Finest Gangster Epic, We Are Thrust Back Into The Larger Than Life World Of The Corleone Family...It Is Two Decades After The Modern Day Events In "Part II", And Don's Son Michael (A Brilliant Performance By Al Pacino) Has Managed To Move The Family Out Of Crime And Into Legitimate Enterprises...But Sinister Forces Lurking Within His Empire Compel Michael To Revert To His Old, Violent Ways - With Tragic Consequences...
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