The Godfather Epic

Airs today, Sunday, January 17th, on HBO from 3 pm - 10:10 pm EST. Seven hours of all things Corleone!

The description...

"The entire saga of the Corleone crime dynasty re-edited in chronological order from The Godfather I, II and III, including scenes originally deleted from theatrical versions."

It's HBO so no reason for cutting / editing scenes or dialogue. My DVR is set!

Enjoy!

Double check that time..... It's on 5:00 p.m. Eastern until 12:10 a.m.

My bad. You are correct, SC. Apologies and thanks for the correction

The "Saga" yes, but that doesn't include any of Part III. This originally aired on television back in the '70s (over the course of four nights). That was long before Part III was even made.

Here in NYC it starts at 5 pm eastern time.

Good something long to watch

I fall a sleep on stuff like this. I will dvr it

Thanks for the heads up. It's showing at 2:00 here. Don't know if I'll be able to watch it all but we'll see.

Am I the only one who actually prefers the chronological version?




TIS

Madonne! Just when my Steelers are battling for the Superbowl.

I need to watch this version one day, unfortunately i don't have this channel..

I've watched a little over an hour of this and I'm up to the part when Vito returns to Corleone to fulfill his vendetta.

Really great stuff. I've never seen all the old stuff in HD and the details in the background of many scenes are terrific.

The street scenes of old New York are outstanding. Pay attention to the windows, store signs, logos and names that appear prominently but missed because one is busy reading the subtitles.

I agree with SC, there's no way the 7 hour run time can accommodate any of GF III. The original description HBO detailed is inaccurate.

Also, enjoying the added scenes that were cut from the original theatrical release. Fanucci being attacked, Carmine Coppolla playing his flute, the introduction of Hyman Roth to Vito by Clemenza, etc.

Will this be airing again?

It's on HBO On Demand.

Sadly, I don't have On Demand.

:cheapskate:

Are you sure? I thought HBOD was available to anyone who subscribed to HBO.

I downloaded the "Epic" from my DVR to my PC and put it on three dual-layer DVD blanks. Looks great. No "new" or undiscovered deleted scenes. But, it's still good to have the entire thing in chronological order with all the deleted scenes in place.

With this storm coming up the East Coast, they're going to have extraordinary viewership on this this weekend.

I also prefer the chronological version. That's my 1st choice, over watching the theatrical releases.

I stumbled upon it on HBO by accident. I was thrilled to see it's airing multiple times. I have recorded it and will hopefully burn it to disc when I have some spare time.

No TIS, you are not the only one who prefers the chrono version. It is my favorite way to experience the two films. I especially enjoy the extra scenes in the aftermath of Vito being shot.

I'm watching The Godfather Epic again and I'm curious as to how Vito knew Tommasino and decide to go into the olive oil exporting business together?

Admittedly, I am not as familiar with the novel as some of the more knowledgeable BB members. Is the origin of Vito and Tommasino's relationship detailed anywhere?

I don't think the book specifically covers how Don Tommasino fit into these things. The book does say that Genco Abbandando was actually in charge of the operations of the import business. His family had the experience and contacts. Vito, Tessio, and Clemenza were in charge of marketing.

Thanks, pete.

Before Vito killed Fanucci, Clemenza was sort of the leader of the Vito/Clemenza/Tessio crew. As Fanucci put it to Vito, "Your friend Clemenza understands these things".

However, notice how humbled and respectful Clemenza is in the presence of "Mr. Corleone" when he is introducing Hyman Roth?

Clemenza even takes off his hat when Vito and Genco come out to the garage.

Pete, all the novel says is that Tommassino was indebted to Vito for some past service.

My DVR wouldn't even record it all. For some reason Comcast's DVR would only record this as a channel, and not a program, and you can only record a channel for six hours. Anyhow, I saw most of it. It was cool to see everything in chronological order, but I still like the originals better. A review I found on the epic version put it best, stating that in the original Godfather II, by flashing back and forth to young Vito and young Mike, you get a contrast of Vito's rise to power and Mike's fall. That could be the difference. Also, as with most deleted scenes, you realize why they were deleted in the first place. Showing Vito killing the Sicilian mob boss's associates before killing him was overkill. The scene with the boat oar was almost comical. Anyhow, the epic version is still a must to see at least once for all Godfather fans. It's long. Feels like watching a mini-series.

Just watched the rest of it. The deleted scenes from GF 1 were overkill, but the ones from season 2 were great, and should have been in the original movie. The scene where Neri goes to the casino to push Klingman around and then tells the showgirls to continue performing has shades of Fanuci. Contrasts the power Fanuci once had with what the Corleone family now has. Mikes conversation with Sonny's daughter and her fiance about how the wealthy explained what separates his family and their "thing" from the country's traditional barons and tycoons. The Godfather 2 makes so many important political points. The entire narrative of the franchise changes the very second Mike says to Hyman Roth of the Cuban rebels, "they could win." At this point, not only does the Corleone family look weak, but so does the mafia. The Cuban revolution sent the dignitaries and mobsters fleeing for life boats, reduced to the same vermin they once viewed the rebels as.

In the flashback scene when Genco is telling Vito about Fanucci's throat being slit, you can see a stack of these biscuit boxes in the background of the grosseria. Anybody remember these?

Sure do Mark. My grandmother always had them in the pantry!

One scene that I feel is not overkill and should have never been deleted in the first place is the scene when Sonny goes to his father's office after The Don is shot. Watch very closely and you will see that Sonny just can't seem to bring himself to sit in his father's chair behind the desk.

As Mark correctly pointed out in one of his other posts " this was such a little thing that spoke so loudly"

While there is no actual dialogue in that scene, it still speaks volumes!

Never saw this wedding pic of Connie & Carlo before. Not sure how rare it is but I found it by accident.

That's a huge Boutonniere Carlo's wearing

In Sicily when Michael, Calo and Fabrizio are visiting the abandoned Andolini house, they pass a woman who is splashing water from a bowl outside her front door onto the ground.

Why is this? Is it an old Sicilian tradition, wives tale or something to ward off evil?

I've often wondered about this... does anybody know anything about this?

He wanted to look good for his "spoiled Guinea brat".

lol, nice picture Mark

I love all of the deleted scenes that are in this epic! A few of my favorite are when Tom is told he is no longer the consigliere and he informs Mike that he knows that he is building a secret regime around Rocco. Another is the scene when Clemenza, Rocco and Paulie are going around town looking for places for their men to hold up in and Clemenza makes them wait while he has his lunch. Also when Neri informs Michael about the whereabouts of Fabrizio and Michael gets his revenge for Apollonia's murder. There isn't one scene in the first two movies, deleted or not, that I don't like. Now the third movie that's a different story but I still like the movie.

As happens so often, while watching the Epic for the umpteenth time I noticed a couple of things I never noticed before.

In the scene where Vito and Genco see Fanucci extorting the theater owner, Vito asks Genco why Fanucci bothers Italians. I find that inconsistent with a later scene where Vito asks Signor Roberto to let Signora Columbo stay. In that scene he finds out that Roberto is Calabrese and he tells Roberto that we are almost paisan. The upshot of both scenes is that Sicilians don't necessarily consider themselves Italians and especially in the 1920s.

...or, alternatively, that mainland Italians didn't consider Sicilians as Italians...

Has anyone been able to sit down and watch this start to finish in one sitting? Much as I would like to, I can't even come close.

I should have done it during the blizzard we received in January but I didn't have HBO back then.

In November, Regan Arts will release The Godfather Notebook, a collection of Coppola’s notes and research for the film. Pitched as “The Publishing Sensation of the Year For Every Film Fan,” this enormous tome will be a lavishly assembled version of the “prompt book” Coppola used to develop the project, and then carted around with him on the set. As a 2011 video makes clear (watch it above), it’s an exhaustive compendium of every thought, idea, and plan the filmmaker hatched regarding his mob opus.

Sounds interesting. I've always credited Coppola with the Godfather's longevity more than Puzo. I found the book to be underwhelming, way too much on Johnny Fontaine. I think Puzo was a hater who had a stick up his butt about Sinatra. Coppola took what was a great concept and good story by Puzo and turned it into a great story as well, then made II to solidify the epic.

I believe that notebook was known as 'Coppola's Bible', and it will certainly be a Bible to me! Looking forward to it.

Agreed.

If you haven't already, take the GF quiz:

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/godfather-quiz.htm?mkcpgn=i600004268&utm_source=gemini&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=HSWGodfather(desktop)

Fair test for someone on my level, who's never read a book about the film's production. I couldn't figure out a context in which the question about how many cast members won Academy Awards yields what they're saying is the correct answer.

I watched the Epic last night. It's funny how you watch something a million times, but keep noticing new things.

At the communion party, it's late. Michael tells Anthony that he's going on a trip. He then goes to his bedroom where Kay is already in bed and takes off his coat. Then the assassination attempt, the conversation with Tom, and the disposal of the bodies. Next thing Michael's on a train at night (the same night?) with his bodyguard headed for Florida. How did Michael manage all of that in just a few hours. Previously, he went to his bedroom to go to bed because he didn't plan to leave on his trip until the next morning, right?. Where was the nearest railroad station?

There was most likely some time in between, like a day or so.

Well, on the train he was wearing the same suit as he wore at the party and he told Anthony goodbye the night of the assassination.

Directoral license. He told Tom, "If what I think has happened, has happened, I leave tonight." But, that bodyguard must have been on standby...right? And he took a train instead of flying...right?

It's been a while since I've seen the movie and forgot about that line. So then he did leave the same night. Also, I think the pill he took in the train could've been a sleeping pill. But TB is right, it's indeed directorial license.

The Corleone Tahoe compound is set in Stateline, NV (the actual mansion is on the California side, a good 60 miles up the lake...). The nearest train station to Stateline NV is at the Y terminal (current Amtrak station, where US hwy 50 meets CA hwy 89), which is just right down the road from Stateline. Certainly plausible Michael and his badass old bodyguard dude could have caught a train that night, assuming that station was there in the 1950s.

Also, consider that the train schedule must have been rather accommodating: leaving in the middle of the night. On the train he's about to eat which he had already done that night.

The stress hormone cortisol probably made him hungry again. If I'd survived such an attempt on my life I 'could eat a horse' too.

Could have been a sleeping pill. But, I bet it was Miltown, the ubiquitous tranquilizer of the era.

Directorial license aside, another possibility is that Michael had some sort of safe house that he went to immediately, then arranged the bodyguard and train trip.

Sleeping pills or tranquillizers are basically the same, so we agree.

I'm watching the Epic (for the umpteenth time) and it prompts me to ask about something that as been discussed quite a bit on the Board. I reprise it here.

Vito refers to Kay as Michael's American girlfriend. Was Vito really that contemptuous of America? Were his references to Michael's heroic deeds for strangers more evidence of that contempt? If so, what was the source of his contempt since, along with Bonasera, America had made his fortune?

Yes to both, Olli: Vito was contemptuous of Michael's "miracles performed for strangers," and of the fact that he had an "American" (not Italian, not Catholic) girlfriend. I don't think he was being critical of America--just critical of Michael's choices that so obviously rejected his family's values and his father's plans for him. In the flashback at the end of II, Tom refers to those plans, and the arrangements Vito made to keep Michael from being drafted (a one-year draft lottery was in effect before Pearl Harbor).

Do any Board members know of a source that provides the GF Italian dialogue (in Italian) such as Sollozzo and Michael's exchange in Louie's?

From IMDB... Not sure how accurate, oli.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/faq#.2.1.10

Here is a translation of what they say in Italian:

Sollozzo: I'm sorry.

Michael: Leave it alone. ( or ) Forget about it.

Sollozzo: What happened to your father was business. I have much respect for your father. But your father, his thinking is old-fashioned. You must understand that I am a man of honor.

Michael: I understand those things. I know them.

Sollozzo: You do? You must understand that I helped the Tattaglia family and once I make a deal, I seek nothing but peace. Leave aside all this nonsense.

Michael: How do you say? [Then Michael returns to speaking English.]

[After Michael returns from the bathroom]

Sollozzo: Everything all right? I respect myself, understand, and cannot allow another man to hold me back. What happened was unavoidable. I had the unspoken support of the other Family dons. If your father were in better health, without his eldest son running things, no disrespect intended, we wouldn't have this nonsense. We will stop fighting until your father is well and can resume bargaining. No vengeance will be taken. We will have peace, but your Family should interfere no longer.

In Italian!

D'oh!

My bad. Apologies.

I wonder if he was taking pills for his diabetes? Not sure if they had pills that far back or not for diabetics.

If you're talking about the scene from II when he's on the train with the bodyguard just after the Tahoe shooting, I bet it was Miltown, the universal tranquilizer of the Fifties. I think diabetics treated themselves with insulin injections in those days.

Also, in III, Michael has a hypoglycemic stroke (low sugar) he's not taking pills or insulin to treat that.

That's what I figured

A while back, someone here posted a video on YouTube of the restaurant scene with Sicilian subtitles. I looked for it about a year ago and it had been taken down, but maybe it's floating around the web somewhere.

I did find this https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080713091526AALYfi8

Thanks for the English subtitles on what they said in the restaurant by the way. I always wondered what was said and wondered why they never subtitled it like other times in the movies. I know it wasn't what the poster asked for but I just wanted to say thanks by the way.

Thanks Woltz. That's what I was looking for. However, although I'm Napolitan, I find the dialogue molto Italiano. I don't know Sicilian, but if they are speaking Sicilian, it didn't read much different from mainland Italian and I didn't have any trouble translating it.

By the way, being Sicilian, why does Sollozzo tell the Captain that he's going to speak Italian to Mike?

[quote=olivant]


By the way, being Sicilian, why does Sollozzo tell the Captain that he's going to speak Italian to Mike? [/quote
He wouldn't expect the Irish police captain to understand or need to understand the difference between Sicilian dialect and Italian. Also, he didn't trust him to hear the details of his plan.