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HBO has an offer you can't refuse: The Godfather Epic

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J

JoeBoy101

Member
Just when you thought you were out...

Uproxx

Uproxx said:
In 1977, NBC found some time in its busy schedule of Chico and the Man reruns to air The Godfather Saga, a massive seven-and-a-half-hour chronological edit of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. It follows Marlon Brando’s Vito Corleone from his young immigrant days, where he’s played by Robert De Niro, to when he’s a crazy old man with oranges in his mouth.

...

The Godfather Epic, which is available on HBO Now and will re-air on HBO on Jan. 23, comes in at 434 minutes, or just over seven hours. It’s not the longest Godfather chronological edit out there, however: The Godfather Trilogy: 1901–1980 combines the first two films, as well as The Godfather Part III, into one 583-minute flawed masterpiece.
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I've only seen this once before back on Cable in the mid-90's I think on USA or something. Not only is it the entire story chronologically, but includes some rather interesting deleted scenes:

Spoilers in case...

- Vito meeting young Hyman Roth for the first time
- Older Vito killing (brutally in one case) the guards that were searching for him when he was a child
- Michael having Fabrizio car bombed when he gets word of him in the US

And more. There are a lot of color scenes that are short but add to the story, like when Vito's Mom brings him to Don Ciccio. The original movie makes it look like she chose to bring him, when in truth, he was being collected by the guards. She chose to come with them.

On HBO Go/NOW well, immediately, and airing on 1/23 on HBO, you don't want to miss this version. Don't make this get ugly.

Luca_Brasi.gif
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
Saw this years ago on AMC I think. It's I restring, but I think having the back and forth when young Vito and Michael as head of the family in part 2 works so well and you lose something by losing that.
 
S

Syriel

Member
Is this the first time it'll be seen in HD?

This cut has been released on VHS, but I don't ever recall seeing in on Blu.
 
J

JTripper

Member
How long does that make this "Epic" version?

Weird to think about but I really think Godfather ends on the perfect note and 2 begins the same. They work well as original and sequel so I wonder if this long version just stitches the two together at each end.
 
A

Ashhong

Member
I am gonna be honest and say that I have never watched a godfather movie. So can someone explain this? Do the movies have a lot of flashbacks and this just cuts it up so its in chronological order? There are only three movies right? That goes to over 7 hours??
 
B

Blader

Member
Syriel said:
Is this the first time it'll be seen in HD?

This cut has been released on VHS, but I don't ever recall seeing in on Blu.
Click to expand...

AMC aired it in HD last year, though it was called The Godfather Saga. Not sure if there's any difference between that and this.

Ashhong said:
I am gonna be honest and say that I have never watched a godfather movie. So can someone explain this? Do the movies have a lot of flashbacks and this just cuts it up so its in chronological order? There are only three movies right? That goes to over 7 hours??
Click to expand...

The first movie is linear, the second jumps between past and present stories. They're each about 3-3.5 hours. This version edits both films into a single linear movie.

That said, don't watch it this way for your first time. For one, it's fucking long (7.5 hours), but there's also an important narrative reason in Part II for cutting back and forth that you lose if you've never seen the movie before.
 
J

JoeBoy101

Member
Retro4ever said:
I am a big traditionalist so in a way I kind of cringe the idea of doing this.
Click to expand...

I can understand, but along with the deleted scenes, I think its a very interesting alternative. Not necessarily better, but a much different viewing experience. Plus, with the way the color changes in the time frames, its WAY more natural than you'd think.

Syriel said:
Is this the first time it'll be seen in HD?

This cut has been released on VHS, but I don't ever recall seeing in on Blu.
Click to expand...

The movies have been out on Blu for a while, so other than maybe having those deleted scenes in HD, I didn't see any difference in quality from the normal HD movies.

JTripper said:
How long does that make this "Epic" version?

Weird to think about but I really think Godfather ends on the perfect note and 2 begins the same. They work well as original and sequel so I wonder if this long version just stitches the two together at each end.
Click to expand...

Its in the article, about seven and a half hours long. It doesn't just run them both together. It re-orders the scenes based on the time frame. So, the beginning of the epic is young Vito in Sicily. You don't even get to Michael until about 1/3 of the way through the movie when the original Godfather starts.

Blader said:
That said, don't watch it this way for your first time. For one, it's fucking long (7.5 hours), but there's also an important narrative reason for cutting back and forth in Part II that you lose if you've never seen the movie before.
Click to expand...

As much as I like the Chronological version, I do totally agree with this.
 
R

Ridley327

Member
Ashhong said:
I am gonna be honest and say that I have never watched a godfather movie. So can someone explain this? Do the movies have a lot of flashbacks and this just cuts it up so its in chronological order? There are only three movies right? That goes to over 7 hours??
Click to expand...

Kinda. The Godfather Part II is the one that's really flashback heavy, but it's woven into the narrative to illustrate young Vito's rise and Michael's descent into hell. They also shot a shitload of footage for the young Vito sections in that film, so there's a lot of deleted scenes that have been available to use for edits like this.
 
U

uncelestial

Member
Just watched it on HBO Go. It's worth a viewing up to the point where it catches up to Godfather I, for sure. But then I started skimming. I felt like the impact of the Michael vs. Sollozo/McClusky scene @ Louis' restaurant was diminished; it starts like 3 hours into the "epic." By then you've seen a lot of shit.

However, the long, lingering look at young Vito that opens the movie is great. I'm not sure what was new but I was so happy watching it. De Niro is just wonderful as Vito and it's a great fucking story.

But I got the sense that all they really did for this was stick the "young Vito" flashbacks from II into the beginning (with some deleted stuff added), then basically they run Godfather I, then II, in their entirety. Not that amazing of a rearrangement really; it's not like the original films jumped around the chronology a lot to begin with.
 
L

LookAtMeGo

Member
Im curious. I will check it out for the deleted scenes. The first 2 are my favorite movies of all time besides Braveheart. I still like the 3rd.
 
G

gdt

Member
I'll never understand why people feel the need to put everything in chronological order. Part II never had that in mind. There's an art to the way the flashbacks are layered into the story.
 
N

number11

Member
Wasn't the book kinda like this. I'd obviously prefer to watch the originals.. But this is a cool way to watch the films on second viewing.
 
T

True Savior

Member
This is a heresy. Godfather should be watched exactly as it's intended by Coppola.

Are the deleted scenes the ones from the dvd/blu set? (I think there were some)
 
F

Fusion Pizza

Member
7.5 hours? That's just stupid.

Don't let Peter Jackson here about this..... we'll all be subjected to the 30 hour Hobbit / LOTR supercut.
 
U

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
To me Godfather 3 is unwatchable, it's impossible to reconcile Pacino's cartoon performance with the one from the first two films. The only scene I can watch is the last one.

The first two work together perfectly.
 
E

Eidan

Member
The way Vito's story parallels Michael's in Part II is one of the reasons it's better than the original. These chronological cuts are idiotic.
 
N

nortonff

Hi, I'm nortonff. I spend my life going into threads to say that I don't care about the topic of the thread. It's a really good use of my time.
I'll definitely watch this. I don't see the problem of watching it in a different way.
Curious about the extra scenes.
 
V

Vampirolol

Member
Both me and my friend never saw The Godfather until 2010 I think, at that time the chronological version was on TV so we decided to watch it and both thought "Yeah, Godfather is ok but boring."
Months later we saw the original movies and it was a completely different experience, they are so much better, that time I learned that editing fucking matters, Godfather II made chronological sucks.
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
Bay Maximus said:
Really?

As someone who hasn't seen any of the Godfathers, I'm interested in checking out this cut. Why do you think it's a bad idea?
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a lot of impact of the second movie is based around the juxtaposition of the present time cut with scenes from the past. Watching the past first and then the present totally ruins that.
 
B

Blueboys1306

Banned
My father has a boxed copy of this on vhs! Brilliant version of 2 amazing films. Been waiting for this to someday come out of dvd/blu ray...
 
U

Union Carbine

Member
Bay Maximus said:
Really?

As someone who hasn't seen any of the Godfathers, I'm interested in checking out this cut. Why do you think it's a bad idea?
Click to expand...
This epic edit is fun in a certain way but it shouldn't be the first way you watch the films. Watch the original edits then come back to this.
 
R

Ridley327

Member
Union Carbine said:
This epic edit is fun in a certain way but it shouldn't be the first way you watch the films. Watch the original edits then come back to this.
Click to expand...

I could be mistaken, but I do believe the Blu-ray set for the films does come with most of the deleted scenes that were inserted back into the TV edit, as well as a couple of other ones that remained deleted in every incarnation. The material is definitely out there for everyone if you want to minimize your time with the actual features, which is what I would heartily recommend!
 
Stitch

Stitch

Gold Member
Did they put all the violence back into this version? The mini-series was censored in every violent scene.

But probably not because the saga also used alternate shots for some violent scenes.
 
G

gdt

Member
This should not be the way you see these films for the first time. That's like heresy to me.


But as a 3rd or further watch for fun that seems ok.
 
U

Union Carbine

Member
Ridley327 said:
I could be mistaken, but I do believe the Blu-ray set for the films does come with most of the deleted scenes that were inserted back into the TV edit, as well as a couple of other ones that remained deleted in every incarnation. The material is definitely out there for everyone if you want to minimize your time with the actual features, which is what I would heartily recommend!
Click to expand...
Maybe, I haven't checked my bluray copy. My point was really that someone's first viewing of these films should not be in this epic format but as they were originally released.
 
R

Ridley327

Member
Union Carbine said:
Maybe, I haven't checked my bluray copy. My point was really that someone's first viewing of these films should not be in this epic format but as they were originally released.
Click to expand...

100% with you on that one. I really can't imagine The Godfather starting anywhere other than "I believe in America." It's unthinkable to me.
 
M

Marvie_3

Banned
phaonaut said:
Watching this right now and the added footage at times is really interesting.
Click to expand...
I thought the same thing over the weekend when i watched through this. I liked a lot of the extra scenes. I doubt id ever watch the chronological version again but it was neat to watch it once.
 
T

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
The guy that Hyman Roth was based on founded the town that I grew up in. Still blows my mind. Local boosters keep vandalizing the town's Wikipedia page to remove all references to him.
 
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