DVD Review: The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration Giftset Blu-ray

As the story progresses into the second act, the movie enters a split phase where two stories are told. The rise of Michael Corleone and the decline of his marriage takes half of the center stage, while the growth of Vito Corleone, the growth of his family, and the rise of the Corleone’s as he becomes Don Vito is the other story. This section is engrossing to say the least. De Niro manages to get Vito and Brando down to a perfection. Meanwhile, Michael Corleone’s story is one of fierceness and violence that is impossible to turn away from.

It is only the third portion of the film that fails to live up to the massive expectations that the series has previously built up. Things like placing Sofia Coppola in the role of Mary, Michael’s daughter, did not help the movie at all. However, things are tied up here better than you would expect if you only read reviews about the film and chose not to watch it. There are good performances and good storylines in the third film. It just could never have lived up to the legend of the two films that came before it.

What you end up with is an end of a picture in the best way possible. An aging Michael does his best to come to terms with his life as he has to hand the family over to someone else. He is almost completely legal, like he always wanted, but being where he came from means that he can never truly be 100% legit. He deals more with boardroom boys and less with back alley thugs these days, so the feel of the movie changes, but the man is still very much the same.

Storyline/Plot:
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:

Audio/Visual:

The entire set of The Godfather movies look stunning in Blu-Ray. With 1080p MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 transfers it is hard to go wrong. Even more impressive is the fact that every tiny frame has been restored and it is completely obvious when you watch these movies. The dark levels are rich and strong, which is important because as you will learn from the featurettes that was one of the goals.

The yellow-ish tints that appear in the films were done to give it a classic home movie feel. While these aren’t your average home movies by any means they look perfect. If you own the other versions, you will hardly be able to recognize the films with this set. This was definitely the way that The Godfather was meant to be viewed. There are no compression errors, no moments of noticeable noise, and no distractions. It is one of the nicest blu-ray sets that I own.

TrueHD Dolby 5.1 is the source behind the audio for all three films. All of the channels are used to their fullest extent. This is noticed best during shoot outs and action sequences, as well as when the booming soundtrack comes into play. The dialogue is placed mainly in the front, which is common, and everything from dialogue to audio effects is balanced with perfection. Like the video transfer this is a complete 180 compared to what was once offered. In addition to English audio, French and Spanish tracks are available in 5.1. A Dolby mono mix is also available in French and Spanish for the first two films, though I am not sure why. Subtitles are also available in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Visual:
Audio:

Bonus Features:
If you enjoy the bonuses on the previous 2001 version of The Godfather you will be pleased to know that all of the bonuses have been ported. They are available on this set along with a new set of bonuses to top off the set and offer long time fans some new information to chew on.

The 2001 bonuses included a number of featurettes such as, “Making of The Godfather“, “Filming Locations”, “Francis Ford Coppola Notebook”, “Puzo and Coppola on Screenwriting”, “Gordon Willis on Cinematography”, “The Music of The Godfather“, and “The Original 1971 Behind the Scenes Featurette.” Most of these are pretty self explanatory. There is a short and long making-of segment, the latter being over an hour long, and discussions concerning cinematography, locations, screenwriting, and the director’s motivation for making these films what they have become. In addition to this there are some text based features “The Corleone Family Tree” and an award list. Things end this area with some trailers, photo galleries, and storyboards.

The new special features are mainly featurettes with a small collection of short films added in for good measure. These include “Godfather World”, “The Masterpiece that Almost Wasn’t”, “When the Shooting Stopped”, “Emulsional Rescue”, and “The Godfather on the Red Carpet.” The worst of the worst here is certainly the last featurette. In “Red Carpet” a movie premiere is visited and some of Hollywood’s lesser knowns are given the chance to shock viewers with horrific impersonations and monologues from the movie. While the other featurettes are worth watching more than once, I am sad that I bothered to watch this one at all.

“Godfather World” is a fun featurette that discusses how this one series really shaped the scene from then on. You have a chance to see some spoof clips and hear from some people in the business. “The Masterpiece that Almost Wasn’t” offers up all of the details about how The Godfather almost didn’t happen. This piece also has numerous actors and directors weighing in. Both “When the Shooting Stopped” and “Emulsional Rescue” deal with the technical aspects of the film. The first looks at the filmmaking process and the last discusses the important aspects of restoration, which was a key factor in the beautiful new look of The Godfather.

One of the most amusing text based features is the Crime Chart, which shows rap sheets of many of the major players. In the short films section you can enjoy “GF vs. GF Part II,” “Riffing on the Riffing,” “Cannoli,” and “Clemenza.” The first of these was definitely the one that was most worth watching.

Bonus Features:

Bottom Line:
If you buy one box set this year you owe it to yourself to buy The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration Giftset Blu-ray. This set includes all of the bonuses from the previous edition plus a large selection of new bonuses unique to this set. The movies look better than ever and there is no reason to pass up the opportunity for a blu-ray set if you have a player for it. This set reminded me of how much I love The Godfather. With how great this is you can expect to see it on our Hot Holiday DVD list this year.

Overall Rating:

Technorati Tags: DVD Review, Paramount Home Video, The Godfather, Coppola Restoration, Blu-Ray, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard S. Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, Al Lettieri, Diane Keaton, Abe Vigoda, Gianni Russo, Rudy Bond, John Cazale, Talia Shire, Francis Ford Coppola, Mario Puzo

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Written by Dominicus - Visit Website
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At 23 years old, I feel that I've lived enough life to share my opinion with the world. That's what I'm doing here, as a writer, for Literary Illusions. I was born in Florida, raised in California, and currently living in Colorado, where I go to a small school in the middle of nowhere. Majoring in Business Administration, I have the goal of one day ruling the world. Interests in life include dating, movies, sports, hanging out with friends, drinking, bar hopping, and writing in both an inebriated and sober state.