A documentary on the making of the three Godfather films, with interviews and recollections from the film makers and cast. This feature also includes the original screen tests of some of ... See full summary »
Director:
Jeff Werner
Stars:
Francis Ford Coppola,
Mario Puzo,
Marlon Brando
THE GODFATHER LEGACY goes deep inside Francis Ford Coppola's epic saga about the Corleone crime family and reveals how the Academy Award-winning film and its sequels became one of the most ... See full summary »
In the midst of trying to legitimize his business dealings in New York City and Italy in 1979, aging Mafia Don Michael Corleone seeks to avow for his sins, while taking his nephew Vincent Mancini under his wing.
Gennaro lives with his ailing grandpa, who sits outside holding tight to his last quarter. But grandpa's not ready to die, he has some unfinished business with a woman from his past and he enlists Gennaro to act as his emissary.
Director:
James Foley
Stars:
Al Pacino,
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio,
Jerry Barone
Two symbiotic sociopaths play obscurely deviant mind games with each other while engaging in perversely brutal acts of violence against victims apparently chosen at random.
It originally aired on NBC over four consecutive nights (one three-hour segment and three two-hour segments) in November 1977. See more »
Alternate Versions
A 1981 video release was titled The Godfather 1902-1959: The Complete Epic (in Japan it was titled The Godfather 1901-1959: The Epic). This version reportedly contains less additional scenes. In 1992, The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980 was released. It features "The Godfather Saga" and The Godfather: Part III edited in chronological order with even more additional scenes. See more »
If you keep in mind that Mario Puzo's The Godfather novel had no literary sequel, I find it astonishing that within the span of less than two years later both he and Francis Coppola were able to produce such a feat!
Nevermind the fact that the idea of cherry picking backstory from Vito Corleone's and forecasting into Michael and the Corleone family future and fates is something to approach with great trepidation for an author and filmmaker. But they pulled it off!
Then they had the audacity and inventiveness to introduce a flashback structure into the film. Coppola told editor Walter Murch if he had only had a little more time editing it before its release that "it might've been great". The resulting 1977 "Novel for Television and its uncensored 1981 Godfather Saga (released only on VHS) is the fulfillment of that wish and evidence of its greatness.
If two great films can be intercut together, reordered (and even have plot lines expanded upon) and still remain seamlessly coherent, that alone is a testament to the genius of both story(s), direction and author(s).
Imagine if you will, a director producing a sequel of the same power a year or two later to any classic work like Stephen King's "Shawshank" or Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind". Couldn't be done and hasn't. Except in Godfather's case.
(Coppola even managed to direct and write "The Conversation" in between).
Unsurpassed!
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
If you keep in mind that Mario Puzo's The Godfather novel had no literary sequel, I find it astonishing that within the span of less than two years later both he and Francis Coppola were able to produce such a feat!
Nevermind the fact that the idea of cherry picking backstory from Vito Corleone's and forecasting into Michael and the Corleone family future and fates is something to approach with great trepidation for an author and filmmaker. But they pulled it off!
Then they had the audacity and inventiveness to introduce a flashback structure into the film. Coppola told editor Walter Murch if he had only had a little more time editing it before its release that "it might've been great". The resulting 1977 "Novel for Television and its uncensored 1981 Godfather Saga (released only on VHS) is the fulfillment of that wish and evidence of its greatness.
If two great films can be intercut together, reordered (and even have plot lines expanded upon) and still remain seamlessly coherent, that alone is a testament to the genius of both story(s), direction and author(s).
Imagine if you will, a director producing a sequel of the same power a year or two later to any classic work like Stephen King's "Shawshank" or Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind". Couldn't be done and hasn't. Except in Godfather's case. (Coppola even managed to direct and write "The Conversation" in between).
Unsurpassed!