I just received my GF Coda BD disc yesterday.

---Spoiler Alert---

I really miss the cathedral scene where Michael is honored. It could have been cut down a little, but having it completely missing was strange. I felt that really added something to the movie.


When Calò is meeting Licio Lucchesi, I had the sub-titles on and Calò says as he enters Lucchesi's office, "Our friend is dead." I don't know what he was referring to there.


At the opera, Michael is given word that the deal for control of Immobiliare has been ratified by the Pope, so why was the need for Archbishop Gildayto be knocked off? Was it to try and protect the new Pope?


On the BD back cover, the picture of the family is reversed from what we see in the film.


While playing the BD film on my Sony 4K X-700 player, I pressed the player remote's display button, which shows the bit rate on screen. It also showed this: 4K/24p


I don't know if other 1080p BDs I have display that.

I finally watched Coda and...I enjoyed it a lot.

I haven't seen the original cut in a while so I can't speak to every subtle change. But it was definitely easier to follow the Vatican storyline and it moved at a better pace.

To me, the biggest problem with GFIII all along was that Sofia's performance was so terrible that it was hard to buy into that pivotal character. That didn't change. And the awful gnocchi scene remains.

SPOILER

I was lukewarm about the ending. The title slide idea seemed kind of hokey and overwrought to me. FFC didn't abide by that old saying about good screenwriting - "Show me, don't tell me."

And, after all the time he spent (unsuccessfully) trying to get GFIII titled "The Death of Michael Corleone" I found it odd that he didn't die.

SPOILER
Oh, goody! We can now ask Michael our questions! I'd start with “Why did Michael tell Fredo “Roth will never see the New Year”

Godfather Part III: Every Change To The Original In Coppola's New Cut
SPOILER

Metropolitan Opera has been offering free streaming of an opera a day during the pandemic. Tonight, and through tomorrow afternoon, they have Pagliacci and GF3's Cavalleria Rusticana. Both star Placido Domingo.

Edit - here's a link:

https://metoperafree.brightcove-services.com/?videoId=6230182867001

flogging a dead horse!

Sure thing No Tom Hagen [no brainer]

Besides there were too many new characters who popped up in Godfather 3 that didn't fit in instead of cultivating the old characters
eg: Sonny's or even Connie's son/s as power struggle schemers instead of inventing Vincent though Andy Garcia turned in a good performance

I feel in Godfather 2 the new characters Roth and Pentangeli in spite of the absence of Clemenza [granted not the big vacuum as no Hagen in Godfather 3] Clemenza's mysterious, unexplained death - somehow pulled it off
Both Roth and Pentangeli's connection to the Corleones were believable!

Interested to hear Turnbull, J Geoff takes please after their viewing of the The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone

After arguably the greatest two films of all time Coppola in his position can't afford to be made to look ridiculous! He tried not to, tinkering for two decades

The new characters barely made a dent in the big vacuum of no Hagen No doubt poor casting

Can't speak for Geoff. I thought the remaster was a bit tighter in places.
(spoilers)

Starting with Gilday's "confession" did put the Vatican problem in a more plausible light, but the original start--Michael's letter to his kids in the creepy, ruined boathouse and the Papal Knight investiture scene were good (and IMO needed) atmospherics. Not having Michael keel over at the end didn't add anything--just subtracted from "closure."

My opinion of III is unchanged: A good movie overall but not anywhere near GF and II.

three decades III is unchanged: for sale and money

Thanks Turnbull Sure thing Godfather 3 will never be “anywhere near GF and II” however many remasterings!

SPOILER

So here's the picture on the back cover of the Blu-ray. (It's a reversed image of what we see in the film). Anyone care to ID all of the characters. I know the main characters, of course, but most of the children, the older man behind Vincent, and the twins in red, etc, I'd need identifying.

The twins in red are Sonny's daughters.

Our host seems to have identified most of them here, if you scroll down a bit:

http://www.thegodfathertrilogy.com/family.html

Thanks Pete Great find!

Some are never before seen pictures for me - Anthony's first communion party, Vito and Carmela with their young children

Many, many kudos to Geoff, our Don, for posting these photos and i.d.'s. But, Coppola and Puzo were often inconsistent with those individuals and identifications over three movies spanning nearly a century.

In the photo at Anthony's party, the little kid at the far right in the bottom row isn't Santino Jr. In a deleted scene (one of the best, IMO), when Gardiner Shaw is asking Michael for Francesca's hand in marriage, there's a ~7 second bit at the very end (seen only in the TV "Saga" version, not on the "extras" disc in the DVD set) when Michael turns to a hulking young man in a plaid coat and says, "How's the football, Santino?" "Fine, Uncle Michael," he replies. I think he's in that photo in the upper row, right.