The Godfather: Special Edition

Distributed by
Pioneer LDCE

Cat.no: PFLED 37031

Cert: 18

Running time: 178 minutes

Sides: 4 (CLV)

Year: 1972

Pressing: 1997

Chapters: 34 (9/9/12/3+1)

Sound: Dolby Surround

Widescreen: 1.85:1

Price: £39.99

Extras : Featurette

"The Godfather - A Look Back"

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Director:

Francis Ford Coppola

Cast:

Marlon Brando
Al Pacino
James Caan
Richard Castellano
Robert Duvall
Sterling Hayden
John Marley
Richard Conte
Diane Keaton

His daughter's wedding day, Don Corleone (Brando) is seeing wedding guests and is unable to refuse their requests. Like the actor who wants to land a part in a movie for which he's perfect, for whom a producer will be persuaded to change his mind by virtue of his favourite horse turning up as a bloody head on his bedspread.

The Don's war hero son Michael (Pacino) explains to his finance Kay (Keaton) how the singer was helped early in his career by the Don's making the man's first manager an offer he couldn't refuse. A gun was held to the manager's head and he was assured that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract. "That's my family," says Michael to the horrified Kay, "it's not me." But whatever Michael intends, blood is thicker than water and when his father is seriously injured in a war with rival crime gangs, Michael is inevitably drawn in.

This was a towering epic in 1972 and has stood the test of time well. If not without action set pieces - an eerily deserted hospital set for a gangland killing, a splattery shoot-up of a car at a tollbooth - it'sprimarily a brilliant dissection of a ruthless business (which just happens to be organised crime) and the toll which that takes on its male members' family lives.

Brando is magisterial in the title role - the very stuff of which screen myths are forged - and from this point on was able to charge astronomical fees for elder statesman cameos in films as varied as Superman and Coppola's own subsequent Apocalypse Now.

Not that it's Brando's film alone, by any meansthere are also terrific supporting roles from the likes of Duvall as the "adopted son", right-hand man and company lawyer and the aforementioned Keaton trying to get an outsider's (read woman's) handle on the (exclusively male) dynasty.

Perhaps the biggest revelation if one looks at the film today is Pacino, then a virtual unknown with only the odd obscure role behind him, who lends considerable depth to his portrayal as Michael in what looks increasingly like his greatest ever screen role. The ending, which we're not going to reveal, comes not with a violent death or anything comparable, but with a closing drawing room door that's beautifully understated although in its own way equally powerful.

Pioneer's PAL disc is everything one could hope for - the detail on such set pieces as the opening wedding celebration, the key meetings in smoking rooms or hotel lobbies and the occasional shoot-ups all looks superb, while the widescreen presentation helps the film's compositional feel no end. The remastering extends to a soundtrack remixed in Dolby Surround so that, for instance, the opening wedding party feels much more real than it would in mere mono.

Also included on the disc as Chapter 34 is a welcome posthumous 10-minute documentary entitled The Godfather - A Look Back which refreshingly presents extracted clips in 1.85:1 and features fascinating interview material with Coppola, Mario Puzo and Talia Shire. More impressive still, however, is Pacino talking about how he landed the role, how he played the part and how he feels about the role today - compelling material indeed, making this additional documentary featurette the icing on the cake as far as this superb disc is concerned.

Pioneer's future slate includes the remaining two Godfather movies - after this superlative disc, they're eagerly anticipated.

Film: 5/5
Picture: 5/5
Sound: 5/5

Review copyright © Jeremy Clarke, 1998.