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Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
The Godfather-DVD Collection Bonus Materials (2001)

The Godfather-DVD Collection Bonus Materials (2001)

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Released 12-Oct-2001

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Documentary Featurette-Francis Coppola's Notebook
Featurette-On Location
Featurette-The Godfather Family-A Look Inside
Featurette-The Godfather Behind The Scenes 1971
Deleted Scenes
Featurette-The Cinematography of The Godfather
Featurette-The Music Of The Godfather
Featurette-Coppola and Puzo on Screenwriting
Storyboards
Biographies-Cast
Biographies-Character
Featurette-Academy Award acceptance speeches
Gallery-Photo
Theatrical Trailer-x3
Biographies-Crew
Rating Rated R
Year Of Production 2001
Running Time 211:00
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By None Given
Studio
Distributor

Paramount Home Entertainment
Starring None Given
Case Slip Case
RPI Box Music None Given


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    With the last disc of The Godfather DVD Collection devoted solely to extras, one would hope that they are of decent quality and quantity. Consider also the standing that these films have in American film history and the amount of effort that Paramount went through to get them released, and I would be slightly disappointed if this wasn't the greatest set of extras ever released. It lives up to that expectation in a couple of areas, but is let down in others. There is certainly quantity (over 200 minutes worth), but the quality varies. The extras are all accessed from a non 16x9 enhanced menu with no audio. Unless otherwise stated, all the audio for the extras is from a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    See Extras for details.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    See Extras for details.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Featurette - Francis Coppola's Notebook

    This is one of the better mini-featurettes that I have seen in quite some time and gives a real insight, albeit an all-too-brief one, into exactly how a director might prepare for making a major motion picture.

    Running for nine minutes and forty nine seconds, it features Francis Ford Coppola sitting on a couch with a large, battered, multi-ring folder filled to overflowing in front of him. He calls it his 'Prompt Book'. Coppola tells how he read the original The Godfather novel by Mario Puzo and then basically pulled apart the novel and stuck each page onto a full size sheet of paper. Onto these sheets he added notations, prompts, underlined or highlighted important and key scenes, and basically used it to plan the whole film. He used it as a virtual 'Bible' to refer to while filming. Interestingly, Coppola found that he could have almost made the film without a real script. He had completed the script with Puzo, but hardly referred to it when making the film (presumably the actors used it for their lines and that was about it). His 'prompt book' was the key to the whole production process and it is quite amazing to see just how close the finished film actually came to what his notes described. This is a fabulous insight into the preparation process and it's a real shame it doesn't run longer.

Featurette  - On Location

    With many of the exterior scenes of the first two movies filmed in the lower east side of New York, this featurette is a retrospective look at the streets used for the production. Instead of using soundstages, Coppola decided a much more authentic look would be achieved by using the real streets. Production Designer Dean Tavoularis conducts a guided tour of the areas used and the changes that the team had to make to replicate the look of the 20s and 40s. Total running time is 6:56 minutes.

Featurette - The Godfather Family - A Look Inside

    This is the most comprehensive featurette found on the extras disc in terms of length, though it is by no means the best. It is a one chapter featurette running for 70:30 minutes. It was made in 1991, a year after the release of Part III. It's a strange type of feature, one that has some good attributes and a couple of negative aspects as well. It offers a retrospective look at the first two Godfather films, and a look at the behind-the-scenes processes of the third. We see Francis Ford Coppola and some friends around a dinner table discussing the various aspects of the films, and as they discuss various elements we get cut away to the actual scene or the particular screen test they are discussing. As a result, it has a bit of a disjointed feel to it, flitting around between Part I, Part II, the dinner with Coppola, and Part III. It really could have done with a reworking with a decent narrator pulling it all together into a more coherent format. Some of the highlights here are the multiple screen tests for the character of Michael Corleone, performed by Al Pacino, James Caan, and Martin Sheen. We also get to see a Sonny Corleone screen test by a very young Robert De Niro looking very much like Bono from U2!

    The video is a mix of 1.33:1 full screen for the interviews and behind the scenes footage with Pan & Scan footage for the film highlights. The overall video quality is fairly ordinary as well, with huge amounts of grain and film artefacts present.

Featurette  -The Godfather Behind The Scenes 1971

    This is the original behind-the-scenes promotional feature that was made back in 1971 for the release of the first film. It is of fairly ordinary quality with very grainy video and quite scratchy audio. It runs for 8:35 minutes. It offers only a couple of interesting facts (such as the student film-maker that was given access to make a behind-the-scenes documentary of the street scenes), otherwise it is an early 70s version of the present day promotional fluff piece.

Deleted Scenes

    Just about the most comprehensive set of deleted scenes that I have ever encountered. In fact, there is probably enough material presented here to make a separate movie in its own right and one that would almost be comprehensible in story terms.

    Presented as a timeline of the Corleone family history from 1901 to 1979 (from the main deleted scenes menu you are also able to view the full chronology of the Corleone family), there are a total of 34 scenes all with text introduction so you know what the scene about. By having them listed in a timeline, you know exactly when they occur and from which film in the trilogy they were excised. By having the text description as an introduction to each scene, you know exactly what is about to occur and can easily place it within the context of the three films. Most run for around 1-2 minutes, though there is also an alternate opening sequence to the Godfather Part III that is over 6 minutes long. Total running time for all the scenes is over 50 minutes.

    Extremely comprehensive and a lesson in how to present a large number of deleted scenes in a coherent and meaningful manner.

Featurette - The Cinematography of The Godfather

    Running for 3:36 minutes, this featurette is an interview with cinematographer Gordon Willis. The main point he explains in this brief featurette is the unusual use of underexposure and lighting techniques that are so prominent throughout the films. He admits that on occasion they may have gone too far and this is the reason that several scenes came out just a little too dark.

Featurette - The Music Of The Godfather

    Even to someone who has never seen these films before, the musical score is instantly recognisable and highly original. This featurette is in two parts and focuses on the work of Nino Rota and Carmine Coppola respectively. Part One runs for 5:16 minutes. In January 1972 Francis Ford Coppola travelled to Rome to meet with Nino Rota and discuss the music for the first film. He taped part of the discussions with him and this is the recording of that meeting. The quality is obviously a bit scratchy, given that it was recorded on a handheld cassette deck and is now the better part of 30 years old. You will benefit greatly by turning on the subtitles to catch all of what Nino Rota is saying.

    Part two runs for 3:18 minutes and focuses on Coppola's father Carmine Coppola who collaborated with Rota on the score (and subsequently won an Oscar) and continued his work through on all three films.

Featurette -Coppola and Puzo on Screenwriting

    This featurette runs for 7:48 minutes and features Francis Coppola and Mario Puzo discussing, in interview style, the development of the script that they worked on together. It starts with Puzo discussing how the original book evolved and how the film rights were sold. He then discusses how he collaborated with Coppola in developing the screenplay. For Part II, Coppola apparently invented much of the story and again developed the screenplay with Puzo. An interesting fact for Part III from Francis Coppola is that he did not want to call it Part III. He wanted the title to be "The Death Of Michael Corleone" but apparently Paramount overruled him.

Storyboards

    Two sets of storyboards are available for viewing, both taking on different visual forms. Set one sees 24 storyboards for a scene from Part II. These are presented as static images that you need to scroll through with your remote. Set two is from the 'Break-in at Vincent's apartment' scene from Part III and is presented as a visual storyline that automatically steps you through the boards. There is also a voiceover for what is actually happening in the scene, so you don't need to read any captions or speech bubbles to keep up with what is going on. This section runs for 4:13 minutes.

Biographies - Character and Cast "The Corleone Family Tree"

    Presented as 'The Corleone Family Tree', you can follow the links of each family member on a series of static screens. The major members of the family are able to be selected and from here we see a brief history of that character. You are also able to select the photo of the actor that plays that particular character (or 3 actors in the case of Don Vito) and see a brief biography of that actor (albeit only up to 1971 in the case of the original Godfather cast). A decent way to tie together the characters and the cast.

Featurette - Academy Award acceptance speeches and Network TV introduction

    Something slightly different this one. Both The Godfather and The Godfather Part II won a myriad of awards including a whole swag of Academy Awards. This extra shows four of the acceptance speeches (two per movie) complete with hideous 70s fashion. We see the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award for The Godfather with the speech by Francis Ford Coppola, running for 2:19 minutes. We also see the Best Picture Academy Award for The Godfather, not awarded to the Director as is the fashion now, but the Producer, Albert Ruddy. His speech runs for 1:44 minutes. The awards for Part II included Best Director and Best Picture again. These are both collected by Coppola and run for 1:45 and 1:01 minutes respectively.

    There is also a full list of all the awards and nominations that all three films received from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

    Another interesting little snippet is the introduction from Francis Ford Coppola that preceded the 1974 network television premiere of The Godfather. Running for 1:32 minutes, we see Coppola sitting at an editing desk, finishing up Part II. He explains that he has made some minor alterations to the film to allow it to be shown on television and if the violence left in is likely to upset anyone, then they shouldn't watch. It's refreshing that the director gets to make the cuts for the TV version instead of some heavy-handed censor who has no regard for the continuity of the story. This is presented in the full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The quality is reasonable for the age of the material.

Gallery - Photo

    There are two different galleries present here. The first is the 'Photo Gallery'. This gallery is one of the highlights of the extras package due to the fact that it has been presented very nicely. It is presented full screen 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced. There are 105 different photos featuring all aspects of 'in-front-of-camera' and 'behind the scenes' action and all come complete with a caption, so you know exactly what the photos are and who is in them - an excellent idea that more galleries should have. The photos are all a decent size as well, taking up most of the screen. They don't suffer too badly from not being 16x9 enhanced, though a couple do exhibit a minor shimmer around the edges.

    The second gallery is the 'Rogues Gallery' and contains 10 different portrait shots of some of the villains found in the three films. The specifications are the same as the main gallery.

Theatrical Trailer

    Trailers for all three films are available for viewing. All are presented in an aspect of 1.78:1 and feature 16x9 enhancement. The audio for all three is Dolby Digital 2.0.

    The Godfather

   Running for 3:31 minutes, this trailer is a series of still images from the film with the score playing over it. Not terribly exciting. I'm surprised it was presented like this at all. Maybe Coppola blew the budget making the film and there was nothing left to promote it.

    The Godfather Part II

    Running for 3:57 minutes, this is a better trailer, though it does appear to be a re-release trailer, as it spends the first 53 seconds listing all the Academy awards that Part II won. Shows much of the story of the film as would be expected for the duration it runs. A fairly cheesy voiceover and reasonable quality video are the standout features here..

    The Godfather Part III

    A more modern, as would be expected, though very long trailer, running for 4:14 minutes. Starts with a 1:10 minute summary of the first two films in order to get audiences up-to-speed with what has occurred (there was 16 years between drinks after all), then launches into the trailer proper. The quality here is much better with only a few film artefacts present although there is plenty of edge enhancement.

Biographies Crew

    Biographies for Francis Ford Coppola, Mario Puzo, Gordon Willis, Dean Tavoularis, Nino Rota, and Carmine Coppola. All are presented full screen 1.33:1 and are quite detailed. From each of these, if you select the name of the person at the top left of the screen, you are able to view the short featurette that focuses on their work (ie Coppola's takes you to the Notebook featurette).

Easter Eggs

    There are several Easter Eggs to be found if you poke around long enough. They are all quite good, especially the first one, featuring the Sopranos.

    The Sopranos

    Go to the DVD credits section and then keep selecting NEXT. You will be treated to a very, very funny scene with the Sopranos sitting down to watch an advance bootleg edition of the Godfather box set. They have some trouble with the player which leads to a familiar conclusion. Very nicely done. Running for 1.32 minutes, it is presented in 1.78:1 non 16x9 enhanced. I particularly like the FBI warning at the start.

    James Caan Screen Test

    Go to the 'Corleone Family Tree' and select 'Sonny'. Select 'Sonny' again and you will be taken to his biography. Press the 'Left' arrow key to highlight the photo of James Caan and then press 'Enter.' You will be shown James Caan's biography. Press the 'Left' arrow key once again to highlight the portrait of him and if you press 'Enter' now, you will be shown a screen test by James Caan for his part as Sonny Corleone. Runs for 40 seconds.

    International Dubs

    Go to the 'Set Up' section from the main menu and press the 'Right' arrow key on your remote control. A globe will appear, which when selected will show a whole series of scenes from all three films with various international languages dubbed over the scenes. Runs for 45 seconds.

    Show me the money!

    From the 'Filmmakers' section select 'Mario Puzo'. Then press your left arrow button twice. A large, green dollar sign appears. Select this and you will be treated to a 6 second clip of Mario Puzo and Francis Coppola shooting pool. Coppola asks Puzo why he wrote The Godfather.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

  The Godfather Collection DVD Box Set features the same specification throughout the world. Therefore our product is to be favoured due to the superior PAL formatting.

Summary

    This is a pretty decent set of bonus material that in terms of variety is up there amongst the best I have seen. Very little of it gets repeated 'ad-nauseam' as is often the case with many so-called extras packages. Some of the extras, such as the 'Coppola Notebook' are highly original and unlike anything I have seen previously. The whole package though, would have been so much better had there been a really more up-to-date documentary about the overall Godfather trilogy, presented from a modern day perspective. The material (aside from the Sopranos Easter Egg), does have a 'been-there done-that' feel to it.

  Overall, this disc is a very worthwhile addition to The Godfather DVD Collection 5 disc set.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Darren Walters (It's . . . just the vibe . . . of my bio)
Tuesday, November 20, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDLoewe Xemix 5006DD, using RGB output
DisplayLoewe Calida (84cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationHarmon/Kardon AVR7000.
SpeakersFront - B&W 602S2, Centre - B&W CC6S2, Rear - B&W 601S2, Sub - Energy E:xl S10

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