Al Pacino Movie:

		List Price: $124.99		Label: Paramount Home Entertainment Salesrank: 368 Released: September 23, 2008
		Our Price: $44.99
		Used Price: $30.36
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
THE GODFATHER: Popularly viewed as one of the best American films ever made, the multi-generational crime saga The Godfather (1972) is a touchstone of cinema: one of the most widely imitated, quoted, and lampooned movies of all time. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino star as Vito Corleone and his youngest son, Michael, respectively. It is the late 1940s in New York and Corleone is, in the parlance of organized crime, a "godfather" or "don," the head of a Mafia family. Michael, a free thinker who defied his father by enlisting in the Marines to fight in World War II, has returned a captain and a war hero. Having long ago rejected the family business, Michael shows up at the wedding of his sister, Connie (Talia Shire), with his non-Italian girlfriend, Kay (Diane Keaton), who learns for the first time about the family "business." A few months later at Christmas time, the don barely survives being shot by gunmen in the employ of a drug-trafficking rival whose request for aid from the Corleones' political connections was rejected. After saving his father from a second assassination attempt, Michael persuades his hotheaded eldest brother, Sonny (James Caan), and family advisors Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) and Sal Tessio (Abe Vigoda) that he should be the one to exact revenge on the men responsible. After murdering a corrupt police captain and the drug trafficker, Michael hides out in Sicily while a gang war erupts at home. Falling in love with a local girl, Michael marries her, but she is later slain by Corleone enemies in an attempt on Michael's life. Sonny is also butchered, having been betrayed by Connie's husband. As Michael returns home and convinces Kay to marry him, his father recovers and makes peace with his rivals, realizing that another powerful don was pulling the strings behind the narcotics endeavor that began the gang warfare. Once Michael has been groomed as the new don, he leads the family to a new era of prosperity, then launches a campaign of murderous revenge against those who once tried to wipe out the Corleones, consolidating his family's power and completing his own moral downfall. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winning for Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay, The Godfather was followed by a pair of sequels.

THE GODFATHER PART II: This brilliant companion piece to the original The Godfather continues the saga of two generations of successive power within the Corleone family. Coppola tells two stories in Part II: the roots and rise of a young Don Vito, played with uncanny ability by Robert De Niro, and the ascension of Michael (Al Pacino) as the new Don. Reassembling many of the talents who helped make The Godfather, Coppola has produced a movie of staggering magnitude and vision, and undeniably the best sequel ever made. Robert De Niro won an Oscar®; the film received six Academy Awards, including Best Picture of 1974.

THE GODFATHER PART III: One of the greatest sagas in movie history continues! In this third film in the epic Corleone trilogy, Al Pacino reprises the role of powerful family leader Michael Corleone. Now in his 60's, Michael is dominated by two passions: freeing his family from crime and finding a suitable successor. That successor could be fiery Vincent (Andy Garcia)... but he may also be the spark that turns Michael's hope of business legitimacy into an inferno of mob violence. Francis Ford Coppola directs Pacino, Garcia, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Eli Wallach, Sofia Coppola, Joe Montegna and others in this exciting, long-awaited film that masterfully explores the themes of power, tradition, revenge and love. Seven Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture.

Description of The Godfather - The Coppola Restoration Giftset (The Godfather / The Godfather Part II / The Godfather Part III) [Blu-ray]:
On the DVD People used to say this was Frank Sinatra's world, and the rest of us just lived in it. After watching the multiple special features in the box set The Godfather - Coppola Restoration, one might conclude it's actually time for a cultural and historical revision: This is the Corleone family's world. The rest of us better tread lightly. Actually, the point of the half-dozen or so features crammed onto a disc accompanying the beautifully restored The Godfather, The Godfather II and The Godfather III, is that The Godfather movies have penetrated popular culture in such a deep and meaningful way that they are second-nature to everything. David Chase, creator of and writer on The Sopranos, for example, describes in the featurette "Godfather World" that his hit HBO series was intended to be the story of the first generation of mobsters actually influenced by Francis Ford Coppola's hit trilogy. Joe Mantegna calls the three films "the Italian Star Wars." (Mantegna co-stars in The Godfather III.) Alec Baldwin says no matter what one is doing, one is compelled to stop and watch the films if they're on television. Richard Belzer calls the films "a religion." And so on. A number of people similarly testify in "Godfather World" to the importance and ubiquitousness of The Godfather and its sequels in American life. There's no point in arguing, so its best to move on to the other featurettes, including "The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't," reviewing in detail much of what has been said about Paramount's mistreatment of Coppola, about casting fights (Steve McQueen as Michael?), about the studio's assumption they were getting a quick-and-dirty B-movie, and about producer Robert Evans' determination to keep his choice of director and unlikely actors under his wing. Fresh information within the special features, however, begins with "… When the Shooting Stopped," a fine study of post-production on The Godfather, with several surprising and fascinating facts. Among emerging details is an explanation of why Michael Corleone's scream toward the end of The Godfather III is silenced out. (Hint: it was meant to be the inverse of a sound effect in the first movie.) "Emulsional Rescue: Revealing The Godfather" talks about the painstaking work of restoring the first two films, beginning with a phone call from Coppola to Steven Spielberg (after the latter's DreamWorks studio became part of the Viacom family) asking if he'd request money from Paramount for restoration work. "The Godfather On the Red Carpet is a negligible series of fawning statements about the movie from hot young actors, while "Four Short Films" are brief and enjoyable takes on different aspects of The Godfather's impact on modern living. --Tom Keogh



Stills from The Godfather - The Coppola Restoration Giftset (Click for larger image)

The Godfather - The Coppola Restoration Giftset (The Godfather / The Godfather Part II / The Godfather Part III) [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Is That Sonny Corlieone Banging on the Door?
2009-09-26 - I don't like these Godfather movies, by gosh, bygolly. Too much violence, not enough sex.

For example, we're told that Fredo Corlieone "was banging cocktail waitresses two at a time" but (correct me if I'm wrong), we never see him banging even *one* cocktail waitress, one at a time.

Sure, during the wedding scene Fredo's brother, Sonny Corlieone, has wall-sex with one of the wedding guests. But James Caan isn't even Italian! (What's the dang-deal?)

And poor Michael Corlieone. He gets to be Godfather. The King. Numero Uno. The Big Cheese. And who does he get to bang? ... Diane Keaton. ... He might as well work for the post office, man!

Then there's Don Corlieone (no relationship to "Soul Train's" Don Cor-nel-ius!). The former gets to bang Morgana King; but lemme tell ya, that's like drivin' over ten miles of bad road with a Yugo.

Troy Donahue got to bang Connie Corlieone, but since Talia Shire is far-sighted, rumor has it, she thought it was *Phil* Donahue! Which, right there, would make anyone's stomach turn.

Of course, other than Sonny's brief stand-up routine, we never got to see any decent banging; let alone two-at-a-time. The closest we came to checking out Fredo's action is when he asked Kay Corlieone to stand on a mirror while he drooled pathetically all over his nice Ivy League suit. ... YOU CALL THAT FILMMAKING! ... I've seen better banging at a high school drum & bugle contest.

Now take Tony Soprano. Now there's a mafia don who sure'nuf can "bang 'em two at a time." Three, if necessary.

He banged more service-oriented members of the lumpen proleteriat in one episode than the entire Corlieone patriarchy did in three gosh-darn movies.

And Tom. Tom Hagen. You miserable sexless wretch. Where's the beef, counselor? Where's the strudel? Where's the Ba-Da-Bing girls you're supposed to being bailing out on a regular basis? ... Sir, you disgust me!

In short, whatever happened to "sex and violence"? Don't they go together like, like -- like a horse and carriage? Like Frick and Frack? Like Dolly Parton. Like Laurel and Hardy and Missus Laurel and Missus Hardy?

Can you believe it -- a movie about Italians, and the only guy who gets laid is a bar mitzvah boy.

Oye, the humanity!



WOW !!!
2009-09-25 - This is a great set !! Highly recommended !! It looks so clear !! The Godfather looks good in blu !!!

A Magnificent Classic in Blu-ray
2009-09-12 - What a joy it is to watch this quintessential American classic, restored to all its cinematic glory in blu-ray! The old DVD versions of The Godfather trilogy are rendered unwatchable compared to the blu-ray versions. Always a dark movie series, both literally and figuratively, one can now see the details in the dimly lit scenes, such as within the office of Don Corleone during the wedding sequence of Godfather I. I was unable to find scratch marks, dirt, etc. in these discs. And the colors in the brightly illuminated outdoor shots of the wedding absolutely jump off the screen! As always, Godfather I&II are the most compelling of the trio (I actually prefer, only slightly, Robert Deniro in II- only because of the delicious character developement of the Don; both Pacino and Deniro act magnificently as does Brando of course). But even Godfather III, the weakest of the combo is a compelling movie to watch. A must have for any serious afficianado of American film.

An offer you cannot refuse...
2009-09-08 - GoHastings was incredibly fast and the product was in great condition for a used item!

About this blu-ray transfer.
2009-08-13 - No need to say anything about the movies; for me, a huge LOTR fan, this is just the best cinematic trilogy ever. This is about the blu-ray transfer. There are people who did not like it, and this for two reasons: 1) It does not look better than the DVD. This is simply not true. I have played both Coppola restorations in the same player and TV, and the difference between the upgraded DVD and the Blu-Ray is huge. The quality of the image in Blu-Ray is just mind-blowing (at least in this US edition). 2) It is grainy. This one is true, and yet, I have seen more grain in very recent movies. And, after all, it is the original grain of the celluloid, not some DNR artifact, so it is actually cinematographically great to see it; it is the way the director and photographer intended it to look. If you want pristine grainless clarity, forget about this one (and yet, it is not that grainy...I was surprised to see so little of it after having read some grain-haters reviews), but if you want to watch it as good as, or proably better, than in cinemas, this is it.