The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone Blu-ray review

Dec 03, 2020- Permalink

The Godfather Part III hit theatres thirty years ago. Director Francis Ford Coppola decided that milestone should be marked with an edit that was closer to his initial vision for the film and a title that he and writer Mario Puzo originally wanted: The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. This edit rearranges several scenes, adds a new ending, and gives the story a more focused vision. I was lucky enough to get a look at Paramount’s new Blu-ray release of Coppola’s vision.

The 1080p AVC-encoded digital transfer is in the theatrical release’s 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The image is sharp and clear and retains a fine grain from its film source. The image is detailed, with facial features, hair, textiles, and environmental elements giving up a treasure trove of visual information. Colours are rich and accurate with a pleasing, natural palette. Black levels are very good too and their isn’t much loss of detail in darker moments. It’s just a beautiful video presentation.

On the audio side, the main soundtrack is English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 with additional Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in French, Spanish (Castilian and Latin American), German, Italian, and Japanese. Subtitles are available in English, English SDH, French, French SDH, Arabic, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, and Swedish. The sound engineers make beautiful use of the soundscape using the surrounds for ambient atmosphere and effects, whether it’s hushed conversation or violent action that’s aided by the subwoofer. Carmine Coppola’s score is dynamic and each instrument is allowed to sing. Dialogue is clear, centred and well-prioritized. The movie sounds as beautiful as it looks.

If you’re looking for extras, keep looking because there aren’t any beyond a digital code and an intro to the new edit by Coppola.

My recommendation? You want The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone in your collection. The new edit improves the movie and it looks and sounds gorgeous.