Synopsis:

The Godfather, The Godfather Part 2 and 3 are monumental masterpieces. This Godfather Magnum Opus will over two movies restore all available HD material to a total run time of 602 min. A few minutes never seen in HD, making it the longest possible chronological version ever seen and UNCENSORED! PLUS, the original ending of Part 3, which MUST be in full and not truncated as it was in Coda, has been restored (together with the 14 mins removed from Coda).

Intentions:

In 1992, The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980 (1992) was released. It features "The Godfather Saga" edit (Part 1 and 2) and The Godfather: Part III (1990) edited in chronological order with additional scenes. This was a VHS release rt 588min. This has never been available in HD and when televised, was heavily censored and in Standard definition only. A few years ago, AMC claimed to have restored it IN HD, but in fact 22 mins were taken up by credit rolls and synopsis and a further 25 min were cut for violence and run time. That over 40 minutes removed. The AMC version ran 580 min in total. I wanted to restore all the cuts AND go in and clean up poor transition, bad music timing on crossfades and even errors in the original which persist in all official versions.

Change List:

- All new Paramount Logo - Fanedit Logo - All new flicker free opening titles (using actual font grabs from the onscreen version) cleaned up and stabilised - All new subtitles across all movies in a consistent and the correct font - Expanded subtitles where translation is either missing or incorrect - New establishing shot of Vatican added and 1 min restored to Cardinal. Michael discussion - All material removed from Coda (13 minutes in total) is restored. All additional Coda shots included. - Opening montage for Part 3 and original more dramatic ending, restore. - 3 secs removed for better continuity in the climax. - All Subtitles replaced for Part 3 and expanded where Italian was not transalated. - 17 Traveling crop mattes used to create new end titles roll from Part 2 and Part 3 with music re-ordered from both films end credit rolls to match timing. - New end credit roll composed of 19 travelling crop mattes with re-sequenced music from credit rolls of Part 1 and Part 2 - Fanedit thanks card at the end of the credits SPOILERS FOLLOW FILM 2 ADDIITIONAL SCENES MICHEAL’s OPUS from The Godfather Part II - footage of Michael walking on a pier in Lake Tahoe playing with a dog. - Lake Tahoe caption added in consistent font - Caption “The day of Anthony Corleones Holy Communiion” added - There is footage of Anthony's First communion. (NOT in AMC, bizarrely) - Anthony's party, there is added footage of singing on the grandstand, and in the parking lot. - Anthony walking up to the button men, and stopping as Kay calls after him. - Added scene of Fredo and his wife Deanna in the parking lot. - Added scene of Deanna drunk with Fredo - Sonny's daughter comes to see Michael for his blessing to marry Gardner Shaw - After Francesca and Gardner leave, scene about Santino Jr.and football. - Extra material of Al Neri talking to Michael (with Hagen and Lampone) - Fabrizio ("Fred Vincent"), leaving his pizzeria in NYC, - Footage leading up to Pentangeli drinking from the garden hose added and repositioned - Pentangeli sitting and drinking wine with Anthony. - Al Neri visiting Meyer Klingman, The Godfather Part III additional scenes/Shots - 6 shots newly added to the CODA version of Part 3 are retained - Additional dialogue between Michael and the Cardinal NOT SEEN IN ANY OTHER VERSION in HD!! (audio from and SD DVD special feature, visuals are re-purposed shots from Part3) - Corrected continuity establishing shots error - More thorough translation of subtitles - all 13 minutes removed for Coda are ratained - Kay lighting a candles in remembrance (used under the credits for the Novel for television) - An in Memoriam sequence during the end credit from The Trilogy version MIchael's Opus v8.03 A dozen or so minor micro audio transition teaks that should be unnoticeable to most. A new bridging montage between part 2 and 3 ( prior to the INTERMISSION) now created an effective setting up for Part 3, suggested from an observation by @tylrsmmrs about the shots of Connie and Michael eacting on the pier. A shot of George Hamilton in the newly created opening scene could be seen that he was speaking (albeit a long shot)…when in fact he was not speak.ing on the audio. This has been corrected without removing any of the new audio recovered from a low res extra that had clean audio. The Don Altobello chopper shot is reinstated as it was for La Fine 1.08. Sourced from and extra in bonus discs of the 4K edition. The audio clipping issue has been resolved throughout the second half of Michael's Opus. This occured due to an incorrect audio setting in the previous version down mix during the rendering and would only be noticeable on some 6 Ch systems. Only about 4 or 5 people seem to have had this issue. Credits THANKS updated to include @spence and @tylrsmmrs

Additional Notes:

As a starting point, I used The Trilogy VHS 580 min version to inform the structure. I then used The official blu rays and the AMC Novel for television for source material. Once the overall 10 hour structure was laid out, I chose to break the movie naturally at what is the end of The Godfather. I then had to rebuild all transitions to create the young Vito chronological flow, with improved music timing, better cross fades and removed all add break fade to blacks. Additional changes are listed below. All captions, subtitles and opening credits are in the correct consistent font throughout. The Godfather movies contain many errors which are persistent in all official versions. Apart from restoring all HD censored material to the chronological version, I have also corrected many errors and made a few minor narrative changes to improve the flow.

Other Sources:

The Godfather Trilogy Limited Edition CDs The Godfather Coda: The death of Michael Corleone Special features from all Blu ray versions The Godfather Epic 720 p (unknown source).

Special Thanks:

Gbeditsmovies, jswert123456, Moe_Syzlak, jrWHAG42, Heavysyde, stferguson78, flaminio, asterixsmeagol, sgp1428, grabaham, subjectzero, TheUltimate, Mako and morrigan for following my tortuous thread on this, their feedback, encouragement and support.