RollingStone.com
If youve been on the fence about what Blu-ray can do, the just-released *The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration* will make you a convert. Its not that the restoration looks shabby on regular DVD—it most assuredly does not—but the *The Godfather Trilogy* on four Blu-ray discs screams the word "definitive." Suddenly, scenes from the first two *Godfather* films that looked bathed in mud instead of light take on the burnished glow of something freshly minted. I had doubted that the brownish tones and murky shadows that director Francis Coppola wanted from cinematographer Gordon Willis would ever be possible to reproduce on disc. No more. "I believe in America" is the first line uttered in *The Godfather* trilogy. Well, I believe in this restoration. The DVD is a monumental achievement that preserves the film’s resonant mood, stirring storytelling, haunting Nino Rota score, and gallery of career-defining performances, including Marlon Brando as the iconic Don Vito Corleone and Robert De Niro as the younger Don. Both deservedly won Oscars. In adapting Mario Puzo’s novel about a Mafia family, Coppola turned Mario Puzos pulp bestseller into lasting cinema art. *Parts 1* & *II* remain indisputable American classics. The fact that the trilogys major competition for your DVD dollar this week is *Sex and the City: The Movie*— adding 12 minutes of deleted scenes to a film that was already punishingly long—is laughable. *The Godfather Trilogy* is the keeper, and it raises a question that needs to be asked.
Posted: 9.23.08
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