The Godfather Trilogy 4K review

Mar 18, 2022- Permalink

Film lovers and physical media collectors can often be heard talking in their sleep. Nine times out of ten what they’re mumbling is “When is The Godfather coming out on 4K?” Wake them up now, because Paramount has released a newly-restored 4K set of the entire trilogy to celebrate the first film’s 50th anniversary. The set contains The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II and The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, which is Francis Ford Coppola’s preferred cut of the third film. It also contains the theatrical and 1991 cuts of what was then called The Godfather: Part III. I had a chance to take a look at a review copy of The Godfather Trilogy 4K courtesy of Paramount.

Let’s take a look at the video presentation first. The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded transfers with HDR10 and Dolby Vision for all three films are presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. All three films have been lovingly and meticulously restored, looking over multiple source materials and spending thousands of hours cleaning up stains and scratches. The results are just beautiful. The clarity and detail of the visuals are spot on. Facial textures, hair, textiles, sets and outdoor locations have an amazing amount of detail. The original film grain is slightly more pronounced in the first film, but who cares? Black levels and contrast are spot on and there’s a really good amount of detail in the shadows and darker scenes. Colours are natural but pop where needed and the HDR really enhances fire and neon elements. Digital noise and artifacts are not noticeable at all. Again, just a beautiful video presentation.

On the audio side, The Godfather has an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD and 2.0 Restored Mono Dolby Digital soundtrack as well as Spanish, French, and Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks and French, Italian, and Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese Spanish, and Swedish. The Godfather: Part II has an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD and English Dolby Digital 2.0 Restored Mono soundtrack as well as French, Japanese, and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks and French and Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone has an English 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack as well as Czech, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish (Spain and Latin American) Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, and a Polish Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Roman, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), Swedish, and Thai. The Godfather: Part III (Theatrical and 1991 cuts) have an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, soundtrack as well as French German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Spain) and Spanish (Latin America) Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Roman, Simplified Chinese, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), Swedish, and Thai.

Phew! Still with me? Okay, so how is the sound? The 5.1 mixes make good use of the soundscape with ambient sounds and effects placed and moving throughout. For purists, the first two films also come with their original mono soundtracks. The subwoofer adds extra weight to not only effects like gun shots but also the scores which are rich and dynamic throughout the three movies. Dialogue is clear, centred and well-prioritized in the mix.

The Godfather Trilogy is a five-disc set. The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II and The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone each get a 4K disc. A fourth 4K disc contains the theatrical and 1991 cuts of The Godfather: Part III, while the fifth disc, a Blu-ray, contains the special features. Digital codes are included for the three main versions. The extras are a mix of legacy materials from previous releases and some new featurettes for this release. The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II 4Ks include audio commentaries from Coppola and there’s an additional commentary on Part III 1991 cut. We get looks at the restoration work, a piece on the late set photographer Steve Schapiro, multiple production featurettes, behind-the-scenes looks at the music, the cinematography, and screenwriting, additional scenes, photo galleries, and interviews with the filmmakers. It’s a great set of extras.

Stunning visuals, great sound and a plethora of bonus materials in The Godfather Trilogy 4K leaves me with just one question: What are you waiting for? Go! Add this to your collection!