The Godfather Trilogy [DVD]

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S P O I L E R__A L E R T! ! ! This is crammed with spoilers. You can’t discuss the theme of a movie or book without them.This discussion of the theme is based on the recent director’s cut of the third movie: “Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone”, along with the original versions of the first two movies. I believe posterity will judge ‘coda’ the real third movie, the one that does full justice to the first two.The Godfather trilogy is a Greek tragedy, on an epic scale made possible by a total runtime of 9 hours, the length of four or five typical movies.In the process of joining the family business and murdering his father’s intended assassins, and later becoming godfather, Michael had several goals:1. Everything for his family.2. He wanted to be a not-a-gangster gangster, to take the family business legitimate and bequeath it to his family.3. By implication, he wanted to maintain some level of integrity. This was made fully apparent by his later guilt in ‘coda’.In pursuit of mafia business, all of this was shattered.1. Far from maintaining some integrity, Michael orchestrated multiple murders at the end of the first two movies – including his brother Fredo and his sister’s husband Carlo -- and sanctioned another wave at the end of ‘coda’ by making Vincent godfather. In between, he had an innocent prostitute murdered in a scheme to blackmail Senator Geary.In the end, he was racked with guilt over the things he had done.2. His family was lost to him.-- First his Sicilian wife Apollonia was killed in an attempted assassination of Michael, brought on by his mafia activity.-- Then his second wife Kate left him, repelled by his crimes.-- Then, because of Michael's murder of Fredo, his son Tony wouldn’t join the family business even if it became legitimate.-- The coup de grâce was the death of his daughter Mary in another assassination attempt.3. The legitimate world he was trying to join turned out to be no better than the world he was trying to leave.The movie’s portrayal of the Vatican is over the top, but I would maintain that the violence of Michael’s intended legitimate world was more than just a fictional device of the movie. The “legitimate” corporate world is as murderous as the Mafia – not rife with assassinations, but just as violent on a mass scale: deaths due to unsafe working conditions (in numbers rarely publicized), unsafe products (nicotine, oxycontin, …), poisoning of the environment, and wars rooted in the pursuit of profits. The corruption of the Vatican is a reflection of the world they're embedded in.Not-a-gangster gangsters are a mirage. In 'coda', the “death" of Michael Corleone turned out to be the collapse of his dreams, leaving him an empty shell – the fruit of his early fateful decision to join the family business.(I especially enjoyed how the mass uprising of the Cuban revolution demonstrated the real way to end Mafia violence, rendering them instantly powerless, their grand schemes in pieces and fleeing in fear. It provides a nice counterpoint to Michael's hopeless change-from-within approach.)After I knew how things turned out and thought about the theme, I re-watched all of it. I recommend it.In particular I recommend the recently issued version of “The Godfather Trilogy”, available from Amazon, the one with a red and gold cover. It has ‘coda’ and the original version of the first two movies. It features much improved colors and consequent improved visual detail, a labor of love by the restorers. There is also a generous bonus disk that sheds light on the theme, especially Extras > behind the scenes > a look inside.

Great movies!

very nice

Very interesting movie to watch.

UPDATE 04/14/22 - I AM AMENDING MY COMPLAINT ABOUT THIS 4K RELEASE:I am writing out these details in case there are any other cinephiles out there who notice this same glitch and are wondering, WTF? A high-end 4K release with a big blotch that pops up on the screen?! (Ironically, the amazing detail offered by the 4K resolution makes the blotch more easy to spot than ever before.) Well, after a little detective work, here's the explanation:There is a visual defect the The Godfather Part II about halfway into the movie. It only lasts about 4 seconds (over two shots), but I was surprised Paramount Pictures let it slide. Especially for an otherwise sterling 4K release. A lower center portion of the screen is covered in black by an irregular shape. After reaching out to American Zoetrope (Francis Coppola's production company) to voice my concern, I have learned that this was an original defect in the camera negative from 50 years ago. Seems the film was damaged in the camera and some of the sprockets obscured the image. (You can see the outline of the broken sprockets covering part of the action during the Cuba riot sequence @ 1:46:27.)A representative of American Zoetrope explained to me that NOT removing this blemish was a conscious choice by Mr. Coppola. Since it was an original artifact of the film from 1974, the choice was made to respect the integrity of the original print. To quote the representative, Mr. Coppola feels that this kind of occasional mistake “reminds us that films are made by humans." I can respect that, although I can also see both sides of the argument; after all, all the other film dirt and scratches were removed. But at least I now know that this defect was not simply a sloppy oversight by Paramount Pictures in the manufacture of the 4K disc.So as I stated in my original review, I am happy now to upgrade my rating from 1 Star. I would give the product a full 5-Star review for its quality, but I am knocking a point off because Paramount's customer service is non-existent. They are awful at providing any means for consumers to contact them about faulty products. No email, no phone number, no means of contact. Only by going around Paramount and reaching out to American Zoetrope directly did I get my questions answered. (THEY were terrific, btw!)Considering their profits come from peddling product, Paramount is terrible in their treatment of consumers. No way to run a business.--------------------------------------------------THIS WAS MY ORIGINAL REVIEW:I am writing about a ridiculous visual defect in the newly released 4K Godfather Trilogy. This looks like another example of a 4K disc rushed to market without sufficient quality control. There's already been a number of studios that have had to reissue discs in their recent 4K offerings. (Universal's PSYCHO, Criterion's A HARD DAY'S NIGHT and Columbia's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA are just three examples of recent recalls.) Now Paramount can add THE GODFATHER TRILOGY to the list!In the Trilogy set, the 4K Blu-ray disc of THE GODFATHER PART II has a visual defect @ 1:46:27, for four seconds, until 1:46:31. During the Cuba riot sequence, two shots are marred by a random shaped "black matte," obscuring the bottom-center of each shot. The matte's size and shape does not change; it doesn't move; it just blocks part of the action for four seconds. Looks like a sloppy digital mistake made in post-production. Can someone (Amazon??) please forward this concern to the appropriate department within Paramount, so that they can correct this glaring mistake and RE-ISSUE CORRECTED DISCS. (Paramount offers no way of contacting them directly regarding defective products.) I can't imagine they will let this kind of botched visual stand in the 'definitive 4K version' of a cinematic masterpiece!Fix this, and my rating will shoot up to 5 stars.

I mean, it The Godfather Trilogy. What can I say? It’s mob-tastic!

Was happy to see that it is the original version not a directors cut.