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Francis Ford Coppola's Audio Commentaries Are Carried Over

The Godfather — The Coppola Restoration preserves all three feature-length audio commentaries by Francis Ford Coppola that were included with the 2001 DVD set. This means you get more than nine hours of commentary, and it is excellent.

Coppola reveals that in The Godfather the severed horse's head is real — they got it from a pet food factory.


Also, Coppola claims he narrowly avoided being fired in the first few weeks of production because the Paramount execs were unhappy with his work. He says things went smoothly on Godfather II, but years later he got in big financial trouble when he made the box-office flop One From the Heart, so he reluctantly agreed to do Godfather III. He acknowledges his daughter Sofia received a lot of negative criticism for her performance in the third movie, but he stoutly defends her, although here we have to keep in mind that he is a fiercely loyal family man. In any case, he deserves to be cut some slack because he had chosen Winona Ryder for the role, but she unexpectedly dropped out at the last minute.

DVD Details

Below I have listed the details for the five-disc DVD set The Godfather — The Coppola Restoration.

Release Date: September 23, 2008
Number of Discs: 5

Feature Film: The Godfather
Feature Film Runtime: 2 hours 57 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Widescreen (16x9), Color
English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround
French 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround
English Mono
English Subtitles
French Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Director Francis Ford Coppola

Feature Film: The Godfather: Part II
Feature Film Runtime: 3 hours 22 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Widescreen (16x9), Color
English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround
French 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround
English Mono
English Subtitles
French Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Director Francis Ford Coppola

Feature Film: The Godfather: Part III
Feature Film Runtime: 2 hours 50 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for Violence and Language
Widescreen (16x9), Color
English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround
French 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround
English Subtitles
French Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Director Francis Ford Coppola

Behind the Scenes: A Look Inside (1 hr. 13 min.)
Behind the Scenes: On Location (7 min.)
Behind the Scenes: Francis Coppola's Notebook (10 min.)
Behind the Scenes: Music of The Godfather (9 min.)
Behind the Scenes: Coppola & Puzo on Screenwriting (8 min.)
Behind the Scenes: Gordon Willis on Cinematography (4 min.)
Storyboards — Godfather Part II (24)
Storyboards — Godfather Part III (4 1/2 min.)
The Godfather Behind the Scenes 1971 (9 min.)
Additional Scenes (34)
Filmmakers Bios (6, text)
The Family Tree (text)
Photo Gallery (stills)
Rogues' Gallery (stills)
Acclaim & Response

Godfather World (11 min.)
The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't (26 min.)
…when the shooting stopped (14 min.)
Emulsional Rescue Revealing The Godfather (19 min.)
The Godfather on the Red Carpet (4 min.)
Four Short Films on The Godfather (7 min.)

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