Review: 'The Godfather Trilogy' on 4K Blu-ray Sets a New Standard

There's truly no way you can overstate the impact that Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" and its sequels have had on filmmaking, our culture, the world, etc. The influence is just that huge. So, rather than try to provide a critical assessment on the films, let's explore the storied history of the original film elements of the first film.

The original camera negative of "The Godfather" doesn't exist as it did back in 1972. It had become so well-loved because of various restorations and new 35mm prints that a duplicate negative was made and used to fill in the areas of the original negative that had been so beat up by time on a scanning machine. The color has since faded because of that use, but a massive restoration effort that has been ongoing since 2007 unearthed original film elements from the shoot, giving Paramount another chance to get use these new elements, scan them and use advanced restoration tools to make the film look better than ever. And with this new 4K Blu-ray release of the trilogy, that goal has been achieved, and then some.

Paramount Home Entertainment presents "The Godfather Trilogy" on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with Dolby Vision HDR and newly remastered sound options, including the original mono tracks for "The Godfather" and "The Godfather: Part II." To say that Paramount has pulled out all the stops for this edition is to understate the obvious – I've truly never seen these films look better and these new 4K presentations exploit the power of HDR to embolden the expressionism of Gordon Willis' cinematography.

In addition, Paramount has added a few new special features to enjoy, including a 17-minute featurette on the new restoration efforts that's really enjoyable. Archivists and colorists don't get that much screen time, so it was really nice to see an entire featurette dedicated to their work to bring these movies to 4K properly. As for disc configuration, it's worth noting here that each film gets a single 4K Blu-ray disc. Although I was initially concerned about these long films being compressed onto one disc each, bitrates are excellent across the board. I can't speak highly enough of how stable these presentations look. Clearly, it's a result of thousands of hours of work.

A huge benefit to this new 4K set is that "The Godfather: Part III" is given one 4K disc for "The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone," and another for both theatrical and 1991 home video cuts of the film. Although "Coda" is the cut that Coppola now prefers of the film, it was terrific to see the theatrical and 1991 home video cuts get the same Dolby Vision HDR treatment. And if you want to see side-by-side comparisons of the new restorations and scans vs. previous restorations and scans, there's a special feature just for that. It's the kind of supplemental material that elevates this set to even higher regard.

If you have 4K equipment at home, you'd be remiss not to pick up "The Godfather Trilogy" as soon as it hits retailers. As someone who does have all the equipment, I found it immediately humbling to watch these classic films in a way I never thought would be possible. This is a must-buy set.

Other special features include:

� Introduction to "The Godfather" by Francis Ford Coppola
� "Full Circle: Preserving "The Godfather""
� "Capturing the Corleones: Through the Lens of Photographer Steve Schapiro"
� "The Godfather: Home Movies"
� Restoration comparisons
� "The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't"
� "Godfather World"
� "Emulsional Rescue – Revealing ""The Godfather""
� "...when the shooting stopped"
� Four short films on "The Godfather"
� The Family Tree
� Crime Organization Chart
� Connie and Carlo's Wedding Album
� 2008 Credits
� Behind the scenes featurettes
� Additional senes
� Galleries
� Trailers

"The Godfather Trilogy" is now available on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray from Paramount Home Entertainment.