The Godfather Trilogy

[Wenton]

I guess part of my like for Connie came from an alternate scenario I dreamed up where, after part two, she takes Michael's lecture at the beginning to heart, dumps the loser, tends to her kids, and stops acting flighty.

For all the acclaim part two gets as a drama, it also provides one of the funniest movie moments I've ever seen. At the wedding, when Frankie Pentangeli is trying to lecture the band on how to play an Italian song and they go into "All Around the Mulberry Bush" and he stomps away, ranting and raving like the crazy old man he is. Makes me laugh every time I see it.

[Peggy Lane]

Does anyone remember when they put the Godfather Heritage 1900-1970 or somesuch out on VHS before Three came out? Coppola re-edited the movies into chronological order, so you start with DeNiro as Vito and end with the final events in II. As much as I love I and II, I really liked seeing the story unfold like that.

[luciano]

peggylane said:

Does anyone remember when they put the Godfather Heritage 1900-1970 or somesuch out on VHS before Three came out? Coppola re-edited the movies into chronological order, so you start with DeNiro as Vito and end with the final events in II. As much as I love I and II, I really liked seeing the story unfold like that.

Yeah, it was The Godfather Saga - it originally aired on NBC. I remember seeing it a few years back in one of the cable channels. I think they released it on VHS as The Godfather Epic, with some changes as some scenes were cut out of the televised version [due to the violence, I guess]. The televised version itself did have more footage than the regular theatrical versions, though.

[india7]

Oh, that sounds seriuosly cool! Is it on DVD?

[luciano]

The Godfather Epic was released on tape, but it's out of print. The Godfather DVD Collection has all the bonus footage shown in the Epic/Saga but the movies are separated as normal.

Sometimes the Saga is shown on cable, though.

[Wenton]

I remember the extended version showed Vito killing the guys who brought he and his mother to the Don when he was child. During their flashback trip Sicily, I think. That was my favorite part. I think it also had a scene where Michael has Fabrizio killed in return for Apollonia.

[Wol]

The movies in chronological order weird me out. You get Brando doing DeNiro instead of DeNiro doing Brando.

The only thing Coppola got right about III is that Michael has to pay for Fredo.

[pennygwoods]

I liked Godfather III! I loved how it showed that in the end, all of Michael's riches didn't mean a damn thing. Plus I loved Joe Mantenga as Joey Zaza, and the hit by helicopter. "MY LUCKY COAT!"

As for who should've played Mary? Nobody! She added nothing to the story and could've been left out altogether.

tapshoetimestep said:

So for me, the story ends with Michael as the isolated monster who has become exactly what he feared most.

But to me, that IS how it ended. Maybe not so much the monster part, but he DID die isolated, with no one to mourn him, unlike his father Vito.

[hal9000]

I have a daft question about Part I... after the meeting of the heads of the 5 families when Vito gives in to using his political influence to cove the drug racket in exchange for Michael's safe return, he tells Tom that he now knows Tattaglia wasn't behind the whole thing, but Berzini was. How did he know that? What behaviour at the meeting alerted Vito to this?

[luciano]

I think it was three things: [1] "Tattaglia's a pimp. He never could've outfoxed Santino." Tattaglia's Family was weak - the main thing that the Family dealt in was prostitution. Whenever it did get strength, it was because it aligned itself with folks like Sollozzo or Barzini - without those two, it went back to being weak. Barzini, on the other hand, came close to rivalling Vito and his Family. [2] Barzini's tipped his hand way too much during the meeting. He was the one making the most demands. Couple that with: [3] Barzini had men sniffing out Michael's trail in Sicily. I don't remember if this was mentioned in the movie, but it was in the book. So you had a war going on resulting from the death of Vito's son and, at the "Let There Be Peace" discussion, the dude who is suspected of being behind the murder doesn't even speak all that much while the dude who is sending guys after the other son is dominating the conversation.

Even without [3], Vito's intuition would have picked up on the fact that Barzini certainly came to that meeting prepared with all those demands, knowing exactly what to gain from a weakened Corleone, while Tattaglia was focusing less on what he could gain and more on wanting to save his own ass.