The Godfather, one of the greatest movies of all-time, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022 – and TechRadar can reveal an exclusive clip behind the restoration of the iconic film's visuals.
Francis Ford Coppola's seminal gangster flick was originally released on March 24, 1972. And, to commemorate its landmark birthday, Paramount Pictures has just released a new, fully remastered boxset – physically and digitally – comprising The Godfather's three beloved films.
Working alongside Coppola's American Zoetrope production company, Paramount – whose most recent production comes in the form of a Halo TV adaptation – used the latest picture restoration technology to restore The Godfather to its former glory and, for the first time, make it entirely viewable in 4K Ultra HD. As you can see in the exclusive clip, the three-year project was clearly worth the wait.
Check out the behind-the-scenes clip from one of The Godfather 50th anniversary edition's many bonus content features below:
"As an archivist, I feel that we work within certain constraints that we don't want to change the artist's vision," American Zoetrope film archivist James Mockoski says in the video above. "We always have their vision in mind to what we're doing. I feel that, over the last few restorations that we've done, and with the technology where it is, that we're at a very good point in time. The home entertainment side of things has really come to a point where I don't know where we're going to go beyond 4K."
"There's no better restoration project that I can think about," American Zoetrope editor/restoration artist Robert Schafer added. "I don't know where I'm going to go from here. All anyone ever cared about on this project was making it as good as possible.
"I think what we're releasing is the absolute best that could be done. We've worked so many rounds of quality control and color on this film... everybody worked so hard. It's nothing but satisfying to release this as it's as good as it can be."
The Godfather 50th anniversary edition 4K Ultra HD set includes all three Godfather films. Incidentally, there are three versions of The Godfather: Part III in the 4K sets: a newly remastered version of the film's original cut, an updated edition of the film's 1991 cut, and Coppola's recently re-edited version of the final film – i.e. Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.
In addition to the above boxset, a 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray Limited Collector's Edition has also been released. This version has launched with deluxe packaging and a hardback coffee table book featuring never-seen-before images from the film's development.
Both editions contains five new bonus features, such as a specially-filmed introduction from Coppola himself, alongside the 18 legacy bonus features available on previous Godfather trilogy editions.
For more Godfather-based content, take a look at the first official teaser from The Offer, the upcoming Paramount Plus TV series that details The Godfather's difficult development.
The Godfather Trilogy is available on 4K UHD and Digital now.
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