Tripwire Reviews Restored The Godfather

Don Corleone As You’ve Never Seen Him Before

♦Francis Ford Coppola’s classic The Godfather (1972) has just got a limited cinema rerelease for its restored version at UK cinemas so Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows just accepted an offer he couldn’t refuse and took a look at the new version…

The Godfather
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard S. Castellano, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton

The Godfather is in my top ten films of all time but I admit I have never seen it on a big screen. So I jumped at the chance to see it arguably the way that Coppola created it to be shown.

The story of The Godfather is of course the tale of Vito Corleone (Brando), the patriarch of the gangster family and the parallel tale of his son Michael (Pacino), who despite all of his attempts, can’t help but be sucked into the gangster’s life that his family is immersed in. The Godfather looks pretty good on Blu Ray at home but sitting in front of it on a big screen takes it to a whole other dimension. From the brilliant opening scene when we meet the don for the first time at his daughter’s wedding through the gang war that the Corleones find themselves part of, fighting rivals Barzini and Sollozzo (played respectively by Richard Conte and Al Letteri) and even watching the reckless Sonny (Caan) meet his end, seeing it on a big screen lends it extra depth and a cinematic elegance that it lacks on the small screen at home.

There is nothing wrong with watching The Godfather at home, especially with the increased proliferation of smart TVs these days, but you can’t beat seeing it at the cinema. The restored version adds an extra layer of richness and clarity to proceedings.

Even 46 years after it was first released, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather continues to be a lesson in filmmaking and it is well worth trying to catch this restored version at the cinema in the UK.

The restored Godfather is out now in select UK cinemas. Here’s the details of where it is showing:

Park Circus is delighted to announce the return of The Godfather to the big screen this September, in proud partnership with Paramount Pictures. Francis Ford Coppola’s Academy Award-winning® classic will screen at BFI Southbank from 21 September, and at selected cinemas nationwide – including Picturehouse and Showcase cinemas, HOME Manchester, Glasgow Film Theatre and Filmhouse Edinburgh. 

The Godfather is set in the 1940’s and opens at the lavish wedding of Connie, the daughter of the revered Godfather Don Corleone, an event where business and pleasure naturally go hand in hand. Depicting the importance of family life in modern society, this classic film is about a father and his sons, and questions of power and succession.   

Starring Marlon Brando as Don Corleone, an ageing Mafia ‘Godfather’, and Al Pacino as Michael, the youngest son who takes up the mantle despite his better intentions, The Godfather was adapted from a bestseller by Mario Puzo by young Italian-American director Francis Ford Coppola.

The Godfather won Academy Awards® for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando) and Best Adapted Screenplay and was in 2017 ranked the greatest film of all time by Empire magazine.

The Godfather restored www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk