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The Godfather DVD Collection

The Godfather DVD Collection

List Price: $69.99
Your Price: $52.49
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: No need for explaination
Review: The best, or one of, movie collections of all time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: MARLON BRANDO IS THE PERFECT GODFATHER!!!!!!!!
Review: I own this DVD collection,books,& CDs! I love the GODFATHER Epic Saga! Everyone should see this film. If they didn't pick Marlon Brando to be the Godfather than this movie would be worthless. I wouldn't buy it without Brando in the title character!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply the best DVD collection on the market
Review: This is THE definitive Godfather collection. If you are like me, and believe that the Godfather is the best film ever made, then you will not be disappointed. The entire collection is here on stunning DVD. The clarity of the discs is superb, especially after watching the movie on unclear VHS and chopped up TV versions for all these years.

The 4th Disc is a gem and offered insightful bonuses and recollections for the parties involved as well as tidbits of facts and trivia that even me as a Godfather fantatic wasn't aware of.

Great DVD collection and completely worth the bargain price.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: On Godfather Part III
Review: I have seen this film several times, all the way through or in parts. Frankly, I have mixed emotions about it because, when discussing it, I want to be fair and focus on it as a discrete film, judging it on its own terms; however, that is so difficult for me because it is the third of three Godfather films and its two predecessors are masterpieces. I cannot exclude vivid memories of scenes and even comments from films I first saw 18 and then 14 years before seeing this one in 1990. OK, that's my challenge. I finally decided to try to rate it on its own terms, hence the Three Stars. What it has going for it includes Pacino's talent, several plausible conflicts, brilliant cinematography, and a tone of melancholy which is consistent throughout the narrative. After years of broken promises to wife Kay (Diane Keaton), Michael has almost completed a process by which to extricate himself and his family from organized crime. However, his marriage has ended, mortal enemies remain such as Altobello (Eli Wallach) and Joey Zaza (Joe Montegna), his negotiations with the Vatican encounter unexpected complications, and finally, his physical health is poor as pressures and tensions in his life intensify. It is no wonder that he suffers a severe heart attack in his kitchen ("Just when I think I'm out....") from which he never fully recovers.

However, the film has several problems. One concerns the lack of a primary plot to give the narrative cohesion. There are hundreds of individual episodes in The Godfather and Godfather Part II (as in other films such as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago) but they are coordinated effectively. Not so of the episodes in this film. Sofia Coppola's performance as Mary Corleone has been savaged by most critics. In fact, she is reputed to be a late replacement for Wynona Rider, had no prior acting experience in films, and was given a role as trivial as Anne Archer's in the three Jack Ryan films. I will not join others in bashing her. Another of the film's flaws is director Coppola and the three screenwriters' failure to do more with the role of Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia). So many missed opportunities as Garcia's great talents are under-utilized, especially when on-screen with his obviously exhausted Uncle Michael. The illegitimate son of Santino ("Sonny") Corleone, Vincent is only occasionally allowed to show some of his father's passion, providing energy which this film desperately needs and otherwise lacks.

The jumpy plot and underdeveloped characters are, in my opinion, this film's major weakness but it has several fine moments as when Vincent challenges Zaza, when Michael meets with Cardinal Lamberto (Raf Vallone), the deadly sequence as the performance in the opera house proceeds to its conclusion, and the final scene when Michael reflects upon his empty life. Judged only on its own terms, Three Stars. Let's all hope that there will be no Part IV.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: They'll Make You An Offer You Cannot Refuse!
Review: I suppose one could successfully summarize the moral underlying the Godfather saga as being the idea that the wages of sin are death and destruction, but of course the magnificent legend of the Corleone family is much more than that, and is hardly reducible to such a simple interpretation. Director Francis Ford Coppola is no stranger to the dangers of excess, as a careful screening of his wonderful epic, "Apocalypse Now" masterfully illustrates. And while Coppola often strays into excess with this three episode story covering a fifty year period, his creative genius in showing how the child becomes father to the man is fleshed out and demonstrated with realistic, flesh and blood characters who remind us all of others we have know. And it is in this fashion that he threads the moral message of how family and personal history intertwine to trap one into a destiny that both reinterprets and yet again recapitulates the cultural milieu from which it springs.

There is also the collective genius of the ensemble cast, an eclectic collection of the rising luminaries of their time, such as the matchless Marlon Brando, having arisen like the Phoenix from the ashes of relative obscurity to reclaim his lost luster and reputation. Of course, Robert DeNiro, playing the young and emerging Godfather, is simply superb, as usual. Given the fact that he is actually Irish, unlike most of the other actors, who have Italian-American heritage, it is even more stunning to watch how masterfully he interprets his role. There is Al Pacino, a rising star who proved with this part he had the "legs" to go to a stunning career as a dramatic force all of his own. Also terrific is Andy Garcia, a hotheaded Corleone cousin, illegitimate offspring of Sonny.

Then we must add Robert Duvall, who beautifully underplayed his supporting role in two of the segments as the legal advisor to the Godfather, delivering the ominous legend regarding "an offer you cannot refuse" more than once for his adopted family. There is, too, Coppola's sister, Talia Shire, who went on to further fame as Sly Stallone's ever-faithful main squeeze in the seemingly endless Rocky series, and Diane Keaton, who like Pacino and Shire, is one of the several actors to actually appear in all three films. There is John Cazale, who is a veteran character actor who plays Fredo, the weaker older brother whose character flaws prove to be fatal. The list of wonderful actors involved in this massive nearly twenty-year project just goes on and on.

At its base, of course, the author of the best-selling book providing the basis for the original film, Mario Puzo, styled his story around the framework of a Shakespearean tragedy, the way in which young Michael Corleone become ensnared by family and personal circumstances into becoming the Godfather himself. Coppola uses the story to examine the darker and more tragic of human qualities that lead us so far astray, and the sage becomes a cautionary allegory for the dangers implicit in reaching for power in a corrupt and all too malleable world. Enjoy!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: On Godfather Part II
Review: Is this a prequel or a sequel? In some ways, both. What we have here is a film which provides essential and highly informative information about Vito Corleone who later became a crime family don (played by Marlon Brando in The Godfather) and a continuation of the saga as Michael succeeds his father as don and proceeds with plans to involve his family only in legitimate enterprises. One of the several reasons that Coppola received an Academy Award for best director and The Godfather Part II received an Academy Award as best film is his brilliant use of cross-cuts. (Obviously, they were eliminated in the made-for-television The Godfather Saga in 1977 which rearranges the two films' narrative within a chronological order.) My own opinion is that this film is the equal of The Godfather but they are, stand alone, masterpieces. Special credit is due cinematographer Gordon Willis who uses sepia-tone to present what seem like almost home movies of young Vito and his family...but then, when shooting events at Lake Tahoe compound and in Cuba, the action is presented with a contemporary look.

The focal point of much of the film is the relationship between Michael and Hyman Roth (Strasberg) as they develop their partnership in Cuba. The negotiations are juxtaposed, indeed intertwined with Michael's strained relationship with his older brother Fredo (John Casale). Almost but not quite lost in all this are Michael's deteriorating relationships with his sister Connie (Talia Shire), Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), and eventually with just about everyone. As the film ends, Michael is alone in just about every possible way.

As to my favorite scenes, there are several which include Michael's conversation with Roth on the balcony (during the celebration of Roth's birthday) when Michael shares his recent experience on a street in Havana, later when he confronts insecure Fredo with betraying him (Michael) and the Corleone family, and when Tessio (Abe Vigoda) approaches Michael during the burial of his father and later when Tessio appeals for his life, and even later when Michael looks out the window of his compound on Lake Tahoe, perhaps recalling happier moments in his past. When Michael offered to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, he began a rite of passage after which he was ordained (if that's the right word) to a fate his father never wished for him. When this great film ends, Michael seems empty...without any redeeming humanity...resigned to accept what he felt required to do and is therefore somehow fulfilled.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "I believe in America..."
Review: I collect great films, and I've seen many, and nothing can compare to the power, emotion and craftsmanship of the Godfather Trilogy. These 3 films truly are the best of all time. They encompass every human emotion, and the many complex, multi-layered characters interact perfectly to express a story that can't be ignored. These films are like one long epic poem about vengeance, grief, family, friends, and redemption. The performances, by one of the best all-star casts (Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Taila Ahire, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall, etc.) are all amazing. The keen direction by Francis Ford Coppola and his eye for talent made these films the masterpieces of modern film that they are today. At long last, these films finally arrive to DVD in a fabulous box set with enough to please any fan.

*DISC 1: THE GODFATHER
"I never wanted this for you."
It all began here. Relive the drama with Vito Corleone, his struggle to keep power, his past sins returning to haunt him, and the eventual pass of the torch to Michael Corleone. Remember the love triangle between Michael, Kay and Apollonia. The truly amazing original film that started it all. An essential to every collection.
*DISCS 2 and 3: THE GODFATHER PART II
"Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."
Arguably better than the first, this film follows Michael's rise to power and his obsessive/paranoid hunger to keep his power... whatever the cost. This film also features flashbacks into the life of a young Vito Corleone, and the flashbacks show fascinating parallels between the two at seperate times. Michael decides to eliminate all of his enemies... even if that means his own brother, the treacherous anger-filled Fredo. The film ends with a shot of an aging Michael, sitting alone and contemplating all of the demons of his life. A truly beauiful shot that perfectly closes what may be the single greatest film of all time.
*DISC 4: THE GODFATHER PART III
"Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in."
A truly underrated classic, this film follows Michael's path to redemption. Times have changed, he and his family are older, some of his friends have died and he is looking towards legitimate enterprises. But will hotheaded Vincent, the illegitimate son of Santino, ruin his plans? Will his forbidden love with Michael's daughter Mary spell the end of the family?
Michael has dangerous dealings with the Vatican bank that threaten to end his legitimacy. The film climaxes in an opera house with the play Cavaleria Rusticana, which leads to the films inevitable emotionally-charged ending that perfectly ends the greatest film series of all time.
DISC 5: SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
The bonus disc includes some GREAT special features that will please any Godfather fan. There are documentaries and featurettes on the making of the films, the music, Coppola's original notebook, locations, etc. There are also original trailers to each film, bios of the cast, a Corleone family tree, Oscar acceptance speeches, and so much more! Each film also includes fantastic commentaries by director Francis Ford Coppola, in which he reveals all the films secrets, bloopers, and very interesting bits of trivia! This is definetly one of the bst commentaries I've ever heard, so don't miss them.

All together, this is a film set that can't be ignored. They are essentials to every collection and required viewing to any film fan. Also reccomended is "The Godfather" book by Mario Puzo and "The Godfather Legacy", the official companion book by Harlan Lebo. Pick this up today. It's an offer you can't refuse.

"A man who never spends time with his family can never be a real man."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Definitely one of the best movies
Review: I'm fan of F. Coppola. These 3 movies are among the best I've ever seen.
Great actors !

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the greatest trilogy of all time
Review: the godfather is arguably the best movie of all time. And to be able to see it on dvd with all the exras you get with this collection is simply amazing! a must-have!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Godfather Rules!
Review: If they didn't hire Marlon Brando to do the Godfather,then the whole movie wouldn't have been so successful these last 25 years. I really enjoyed them.


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