The Godfather Trilogy goes Blu

[rex]

Two of the best movies ever made—plus that third one from 1990—are coming to Blu-ray in just a few months, complete with brand-new transfers, lossless soundtracks, and HD extras. It's a milestone for the new format. The four-disc set is slated to arrive September 23 (the same day as the newly minted DVDs), with a disc for each "Godfather" movie plus a disc full of extra features, including several shot in HD. Also, they'll all come with lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtracks (I bet Sonny's death at the tollbooth will sound impressive)—and, in a nice touch for purists, the original mono soundtrack (in Dolby Digital 1.0) will also be available for the first two Godfathers. All three films will feature audio commentary with Coppola, although it's not clear whether they'll be the same commentary tracks from the first DVD set from 2001.

On the downside, the Godfather movies will only be available in Blu-ray as a box set—at a whopping $119.95, double the price of the equivalent DVD set. Note to the movie studios: If you really want us to start buying Blu-ray movies, cut out the price gouging. (At least you can pre-order the set on Amazon for $86.95, or 30 percent off.) that said, the dark, delicate cinematography of Gordon Willis in the Godfather trilogy should look spectacular on Blu-ray—and these films are among the key blockbusters (like the "Star Wars," "Lord of the Rings," and "Indiana Jones" movies) that could finally give Blu-ray the momentum it needs to really take off.

[wes]

Originally Posted by rex

On the downside, the Godfather movies will only be available in Blu-ray as a box set—at a whopping $119.95, double the price of the equivalent DVD set.

Unsain just don't buy them if customers refuse to pay these obnoxious prices they will have to come down look at what is happening to CDs, who wants to pay this much money when you can rent for less than a dollar a movie on a netflix or BB plan.

Originally Posted by rex

Note to the movie studios: If you really want us to start buying Blu-ray movies, cut out the price gouging.

Agreed

Originally Posted by rex

"Star Wars," "Lord of the Rings," and "Indiana Jones" movies) that could finally give Blu-ray the momentum it needs to really take off.

Not if the prices are so high then it will take much longer, I refuse to spend more taht $15 on an old movie and $20 on a new one. I would rather rent it, and wait six month until the price is $10 and then buy it if I really like it

[The Kipnis Studios]

This saga should have been available a lot earlier. It seems Paramount was slow to pick up the restoration process. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to have Academy Award winning restoration producer, Robert A. Harris, here at KSS some months ago to evaluate the Saga, particularly the new SD DVD versions versus the HD content.

I hope everyone will appreciate how difficult it is to restore a 37 year old film. Perhaps there will be an interview where he goes into the particulars. But suffice it to say, the BD version should be of the very best quality available since each film's original release, decades ago!

[deacongreg]

Jeremy,


That is something all of us will be looking forward to. It seems however, that the pricing that I saw, compared to the sd version, is a bit much in my opinion.

[wes]

Originally Posted by deacongreg

Jeremy, That is something all of us will be looking forward to. It seems however, that the pricing that I saw, compared to the sd version, is a bit much in my opinion.

Blockbuster or Netflix renting until prices come down to earth, remember VHS tapes I sure never bought any until they were $15 and I only bought a few as the quality was horrendous anyway.

[rex]

POP Sound recently completed audio restoration work for Paramount Home Entertainment's highly anticipated release of The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration DVD Collection on DVD and Blu-ray. The five-disc DVD and four-disc Blu-ray collections include fully restored versions of The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II, as well as a newly remastered version of The Godfather, Part III. Widely considered among the greatest movies ever made, the films were given sparkling, all-new 5.1 surround sound mixes.

Under the supervision of Ron Smith, Vice President of Paramount DVD Mastering, and Jeff Cava, Restoration Project Post Production Coordinator, POP Sound spent nearly eight months on the project, working in concert with Walter Murch, the original re-recording mixer on The Godfather, Parts II & III. For the first two films, POP Sound worked from the films' original mono stems, as well as the original multi-track recordings of their musical scores. POP Sound had access to the original stereo elements for The Godfather, Part III (The re-recording mixer on the project for POP Sound was the late Ted Hall, well-known for his work on such projects as Saturday Night Fever, Chinatown and The Last Waltz.)

For POP Sound, the goal of the project was to use the latest technology to make the films sound as good as possible while maintaining the integrity of the original mixes. Much of his his attention was devoted to eliminating artifacts that had affected the soundtrack over the years and addressing audio issues that were impossible to address when the films were made. "There was a lot of clean up to get it to sound fluid in transitions-the original mono tracks were rough, with rough transitions," recalled POP Sound Executive Producer for Home Theater Moksha Le Blanc. "There was a lot of de-humming and de-clicking, as well as time alignment issues to deal with. The original laser disc mix had a constant hum that wasn't apparent at the time, but with the better home theater systems of today you begin to hear stuff like that.

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