Product Description

Features: the godfather: the godfather ii: the godfather ii: each featuring a new full-length directors audio commentary. Plus a three hour extraordinary bonus disc produced especially for the dvd collection. English subtitles and closed captioning. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/23/2006 Run time: 725 minutes Rating: R

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1147 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2001-10-09
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 545 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Throughout his long, wandering, often distinguished career Francis Ford Coppola has made many films that are good and fine, many more that are flawed but undeniably interesting, and a handful of duds that are worth viewing if only because his personality is so flagrantly absent. Yet he is and always shall be known as the man who directed the Godfather films, a series that has dominated and defined their creator in a way perhaps no other director can understand. Coppola has never been able to leave them alone, whether returning after 15 years to make a trilogy of the diptych, or re-editing the first two films into chronological order for a separate video release as The Godfather Saga. The films are our very own Shakespearean cycle: they tell a tale of a vicious mobster and his extended personal and professional families (once the stuff of righteous moral comeuppance), and they dared to present themselves with an epic sweep and an unapologetically tragic tone. Murder, it turned out, was a serious business. The first film remains a towering achievement, brilliantly cast and conceived. The entry of Michael Corleone into the family business, the transition of power from his father, the ruthless dispatch of his enemies--all this is told with an assurance that is breathtaking to behold. And it turned out to be merely prologue; two years later The Godfather, Part II balanced Michael's ever-greater acquisition of power and influence during the fall of Cuba with the story of his father's own youthful rise from immigrant slums. The stakes were higher, the story's construction more elaborate, and the isolated despair at the end wholly earned. (Has there ever been a cinematic performance greater than Al Pacino's Michael, so smart and ambitious, marching through the years into what he knows is his own doom with eyes open and hungry?) The Godfather, Part III was mostly written off as an attempted cash-in, but it is a wholly worthy conclusion, less slow than autumnally patient and almost merciless in the way it brings Michael's past sins crashing down around him even as he tries to redeem himself. --Bruce Reid

Customer Reviews

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!

Here's the scoop ...
This is gonna be great!! I can't wait! Amazon doesn't tell you what you're getting, so here is the scoop as I know it ...

The Godfather Trilogy is ONLY going to be released as a box set! (though I suspect that down the road you will be able to buy them individually)

The trilogy will run across four discs, with GODFATHER II on two discs, and all are in anamorphic widescreen with running audio commentary from Francis Ford Coppola.

The fifth disc will feature 3+ hours worth of bonus material, including Coppola's notebook on adapting the Mario Puzo novel for the screen

* A Documentary on the Making of the Films (73 minutes)
* Additional Scenes
* Cast Rehearsals
* Filming Locations Featurette
* Storyboards
* Cinematography of The Godfather
* The Music of The Godfather
* The Corleone Family Tree
* The Godfather Historical Time Line

That's what I know so far!!! Good stuff huh? Well what are you waiting for? ORDER IT !!!

You're Gonna Refuse This Offer? Fagetaboutit!
"The Godfather DVD Collection" gives the greatest movies of all time the special treatment they deserve. The Godfather Complete Epic combined the first two films into one movie, with the action taking place in chronological order. In addition, some scenes that were originally edited out were put back in. I much prefer "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II" in their original versions, which is the way they appear in this DVD collection. Both movies won the Academy Award for best picture, which is an amazing achievement. In addition, "The Godfather Part III" was nominated for best picture. A partial cast list includes some of the greatest actors of all time: Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, Robert Duvall, Talia Shire and Diane Keaton.

What really sets the Godfather DVD Collection apart is the Bonus Materials disc. It includes a documentary on the making of the films, deleted scenes from all three movies, theatrical trailers and much more. I discovered a hidden bonus in a normally boring feature. In the section entitled "DVD Credits", I kept hitting next to fast forward past the extensive lists of names. After the last list, it takes you to a scene from the HBO series "The Sopranos." They're trying to watch a bootleg copy of the Godfather DVD! That's an extra surprise in a disc already packed with features.