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"The Godfather" movies are the ultimate organized-crime movies.
It is the standard for all films in this genre. And now, for the
first time, Paramount is releasing all three movies together in this comprehensive
5-disc DVD box set.
Contents of The Godfather
DVD Collection
(click on image to enlarge)
The Story - The Godfather
"The Godfather" is an unforgettable mobster
epic about an Italian-American mafia family headed by the powerful Vito
Corleone (Marlon Brando). Vito is affectionately known as "The
Godfather" by his crime family. When you need help, you simply
ask "The Godfather" for a favor and he'll see to it that the
matter is taken care of. All he asks for is your friendship.
Chances are, you'll never have to return the favor. But in the
unlikely event that he would ask, by all means, return the favor.
When war breaks out amongst the crime families, Vito's life is
endangered. In light of the threat to his father, Michael Corleone (Al
Pacino) turns from an honorable war hero to a ruthless gangster to protect his
family. Based on Mario Puzo's best selling novel, "The
Godfather" is as much about family life as it as about organized crime.
The Story - The Godfather Part II
Spanning two DVDs, "The Godfather Part II" is
actually both a prequel and sequel to the first "The Godfather"
movie. The movie interweaves the early life of Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro),
as a child, as an immigrant, and as a young worker in 1917 trying to make ends meet for his wife and
children, and the continuation of Michael Corleone's (Al Pacino) pursuit of
his ultimate goal to legitimize
the family business in 1958. It tells the story of how Vito enters the
organized crime business
through Clemenza (Bruno Kirby) in trying to help his neighbors and
friends. In parallel, it tells the story of how Michael
takes over the mafia family business, deals with betrayals, and protects
the ones that are dear to him.
The Story - The Godfather Part III
Part III follows some 16 years after Part II (what a long
wait!). The aging Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) finally manages to get
his family out of the mafia business and spends more of his time building a loving relationship with his
children. But it isn't long before his Mafioso colleagues want a piece of the legitimate business
that he worked so hard to achieve. "The Godfather, Part III" shows
the reasonable and now wiser Michael Corleone trying to resolve business peacefully.
But Joey
Zasa's (Joe Mantegna) untimely massacre pulls him back into criminal life.
But the incident allows him to bond with his long lost nephew, Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia),
who proves his loyalty to the family and helps Michael find out
the real enemy responsible for Joey Zasa's murder.
I'm glad this trilogy is available in this DVD Collection
box set. I can't imagine waiting the 18 years that it took for all
three parts to be released to theaters, from 1972 to 1990.
The Extras
For each movie, there is a new full-length audio
commentary by director Francis Ford Coppola. Then, on the dedicated "bonus
features" 5th disc are:
Because this is such a good movie, I wish there were
even more bonus features. But those included will have to do
for now. The deleted scenes were particularly worthwhile.
Video & Audio
The image quality of these anamorphic
widescreen DVDs is only fair, even considering the film's age. The
colors seems somewhat unnatural, almost monochromatic, but perhaps that can
be attributed to the cinematography style. I can't really confirm,
since I was far too young during the years of the original theatrical
releases. Shadow details are not up to par, as most shadow details
disappear into black. Unfortunately, these comments even apply for
Part III to a large extent. For Parts I & II, I was pretty much
disappointed with the picture quality.
The Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtrack is conservatively re-mixed, to preserve the
original artistic integrity of the mono soundtrack for Parts I &
II. In a few scenes, the sound seems to expand to large soundstage,
but mostly it is limited to the front three channels. The surround
sound channels were used sparingly for slight ambiance effects. The
dialog is consistently clear throughout all three films.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony KV-27V66
27" TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony
STR-V444ES A/V receiver, NHT 2.1 as left/right main speakers, NHT 1.1C center channel speaker, NHT
SuperZero as surround speakers, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable XP speaker
wires, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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United We Stand
