The godfather trilogy remastered - a more true and improved vision of these landmark films (The Godfather Trilogy (5 DVDs))

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Product:	The Godfather Trilogy (5 DVDs)
Date:	21.06.08 (130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Greatly improved picture (cleaner, closer to the original theatrical release) and sound

Disadvantages: Some minor video and audio artifacts remain, most unresolvable

Note: For this review i'll concentrate purely on the dvd boxset itself, comparing it to the previous release to determine whether its worth shelling out to buy this new set - especially for those who already have the previous dvd release. Checkout other reviews such as hogsflesh's for critique of the actual films themselves.

Just released is the new restored and remastered godfather trilogy box set. This new release is the result of over a years work and several million dollars spent on the restoration project. Months were spent hunting down the original film negatives (or where not avaliable/too damaged to theaterical film prints or seperation masters), then scanning them into digital at 4k resolution and cleaned and then restoring frame by frame. Theres a great article from ascmag.com detailing the work done to make the restoring these films to the original directors vision.
http://www.ascmag.com/magazine_dynamic/May 2008/PostFocus/page1.php

If some of these terms about picture quality confuse you then have a look at the excellent reference on dvd/video artifacts from Michaeldvd (link below). Its good reading anyone who demands high quality video in their dvds (and conversely wondering why this isn't always the case in some dvds). dvdbeaver also has a good reference suggesting some 'rules' needed to make a good quality dvd.
http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Articles/VideoAr tefacts/VideoArtefacts.html
http://www.dvdbeaver.c om/film/productionrules.htm

So has the restoration been worth it? Most definately! The opening scene of the godfather highlights the dramatic difference the restoration has made. The previous dvd release had almost no shadow detail at all in this purposely dark lit scene. The new release improves here, showing more detail while still retaining the dark look as intended. The colour correction done for the restoration makes a massive, but perhaps contentious difference to the older dvd release. The godfather films were all shot with a specific look, in particular a bit more red and quite a bit more yellow tint than your average film. The original theatrical releases (for those who were around in the 70's to see them) had this. However no video release (for technical limitations of videotape i'd guess) has had them quite the same since. So most viewers are used to seeing the godfather films with a more flat colours. So it should be stressed that this is not in any way a 'defect' or similar of this dvd release, its look is exactly as was intended. Only a couple of times did the colours seem a bit too yellow, mostly its a great improvement giving a distinct and look that helps place the film in setting and content of it.

The frame by frame restoration has resulted in a much cleaner print, free of scratches, and other defects in the previous dvd release. Its not entirely perfect, with the occasional white spec appearing, though to be honest it was only picked up on close viewing on the computer and when watching even on a big screen tv will likely be unnoticed. There is still some film grain/noise present, but removing it is a double edged sword as noise reduction techniques remove the finer subtle details along with the grain so generally do more harm than good. That said the grain is rarely distracting, just not to the squeeky clean levels of saw the star wars restorations.

there is now more detail in the films without applying unnatural sharpening algorithms or edge enhancement that often result in 'halos' around the edges of people etc, which was sometimes a problem in the previous dvd release. Generally the image is quite stable, though the occasional scene has a bit of wobble that is generally only noticable on close inspection. Overall this is a great result especially considering the damaged state the original film was in. Its never looked better and probably never will - any minor limitations such as grain are unresolvable with causing unwanted side effects. I hadn't noticed any problems with the encoding of the movies - no mpeg blocking despite the long lengths of the films. Interestingly the second film is no longer spread over two discs as per the previous dvd release. I didn't notice any compromise to the picture as a result - certainly only having only one 5.1 audio track helps over the usual releases with multiple languages and/or dts sound which all takes up space otherwise allocated to the picture. I'd recommend anyone with the older dvd release upgrade their copy for the video improvement alone, and anyone else to ensure they purchase the new edition at all costs.

Audio wise the improvements are a little more subtle, with a fitting 5.1 soundtrack that never sounds out of place or distracting to the era of the film. The fidelity is improved even more so over the previous dvd release, with good use of the front speakers. Most of the movie is (as expected) carried by the center speaker, with the music and ambients spread all around the left and right speakers to great stereo/surround effect. It never sounds too 'mono' oriented with good stereo seperation overall. The rear speakers are also used for the score occasionally and in other ways in a generally subtle matter. There is still the ocassional audio distortion - mainly when michael corleone shouts, but is less distracting than the last dvd release and ultimately not a big issue. Much improved is some of the dialogue which at times sounded tinny or poorly recorded, now sounds seemless with the rest of the film. I didn't notice any major audio sync issues, again an improvement over the previous dvd release. In short the audio does exactly what it should, it conveys the dialogue, effects and music mostly without drawing attention to itself through either artifacts/distortion or unnatural sound design (for example an aggresive bass enhanced soundtrack would be entirely innapropriate for this film).

Extras wise this addition carries over all the extras of the previous dvd release and adds another disc of extras (the set is still 5 dvds total since the second movie is no longer split over two discs as the previous release was). The audio commentaries remain and offer great insight into the many choices the director made in shooting the films. In particular the commentary of the third film is interesting as he defends many of the often critised elements of it. The first extras disc is all the same as the previous dvd release, including not being able to skip and seek over some of the documentaries, and no chapter stops either mainly an issue for the large 1hr 10min doco. The additional scenes are all worth watching, though unfortunately aren't in widescreen. It would have been nice if they had been given a new transfer and restoration, but that hasn't been the case - they have that 'vhs' look - soft and lacking in detail, quite disappointing really.

The second extras disc is a good improvement and is widescreen throughout, and fully seekable. The bulk of the content is interviews with various people involved with the film. The 'godfather world' is a lighter themed look at the influence on other productions, such as the sopranos in particular and more general references in countless shows such as the simpsons. More meaty is the next doco on the troubles the first film in particular had during production, detailing the many obstacles the director had to get the film made during well explained troubled times of the film industry during the 60's/early 70's. The content alternates between the director, others involved in filming, finance etc and friends of the director such as steven spielberg (who also financed the restoration) and george lucas. In particular its interesting how the godfather was one of the films that helped rescue the ailling film industry from ruin. 'when the shooting stopped' provides a bit of detail about post production and editing of the film. For interviews again the content is interesting and involving, much better than the 'fluff' featurettes many dvds have. The next 20min doco concerns the remastering effort itself. Being a tech nerd i would have preffered a longer and more detailed featurettes here, but for the rest this is a great compromise explaining many of the issues presented in restoring the films to their original glory.

the red carpet featurette is a bit more 'fluffy' that consists of candid intereviews with a few celebrities and how its influenced them. The 'short films' is perhaps a misnormer, its a set of short featurettes, again good content rounding off this worthwhile extras disc. Finally, there is a small easter egg that is easiest to access with a computer. From the main menu, pointing the mouse to just to the right of the subtitles results in the godfather manequin strings appearing, click on it to see the easter egg.

Overall this is a must see for anyone even vagually interested in cinema. Two of the greatest films of all time (and a third flawed but otherwise worthwhile film) are presented better than ever in a more faithfu; vision and improved audio. The new extras are the icing for a great value package, that anyone should buy, whether they already own the previous dvd set or not.

Summary: Anyone owning the previous set should uprgrade, anyone else should buy set this right away!