Through June 18th, Amazon's Blu-ray Gold Box deal is the Academy Award-winning The Godfather Collection boxset. Paramount Home Entertainment's Blu-ray release of the iconic gangster trilogy, The Godfather Collection stars Al Pacino (Dog Day Afternoon) as Michael Corleone, a young man who inherits the top mob boss position of "Godfather" from his father, Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando, Apocalypse Now).
This 4-disc Blu-ray collection is director Francis Ford Coppola's much-lauded digital restoration of his Godfather films, the third of which - 1990's The Godfather: Part III - is only available on Blu-ray through this franchise boxset.
The Godfather Collection includes commentary by Francis Ford Coppola on The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II, and The Godfather: Part III, and it features a fourth Blu-ray disc filled with supplemental materials giving insight into the making of The Godfather and its sustained impact on cinematic culture.
During this week, Amazon's Deal of the Week price for The Godfather Collection is $49.99, or 60% off the standard Amazon SRP.
And this set has been cheaper than this deal of the day many times before on Amazon. If you're going to "deal of the day" something, shouldn't it at least be at the cheapest price it's been offered at before? I love Amazon but I hate it when they jack the price of things up to make the newest discount look attractive.
Normally, the weekly box set deals are great. But if you had told me the regular price on this was $49.99, I'd have had no trouble believing that. I got the single-disc Sapphire releases of the first 2 films for $9.99 each around Black Friday last year.
The fact that this is the 3rd most popular in BD sales at this price just goes to show that some people think EVERY sale is worth getting in on.
@Josh 100% agree. Everyone always talks about the Sofia Coppola debacle, and I will concede she might not have been the best choice for the role. But I will also say that I believe Andy Garcia totally over-plays/acts the "I'm Sonny's kid and I've got his temper" part.
Putting those two things aside, I think the storyline is genius and the movie itself is superb.
I agree that the 3rd movie was not as bad as everyone makes out to be. When it came out, the cognoscenti decided to dump on Sofia Coppola because she came across as too "valley girl", but when you really think about it, what would the over-protected daughter of a very rich and powerful family be like? And I don't think that Winona Ryder would have been that much better. I personally think they should have switched roles and let Bridget Fonda play the daughter after Ryder dropped out.
One thing I didn't like about the relationship between Garcia and Coppola in the film was that they spend virtually no time together, but instantly seem to be in love.
Godfather I and II were largely "origin" stories and because they took place mostly in the past, they have a great mythic feel to them. Godfather III didn't have that, but the story actually was quite interesting because it was based on real-life events at the Vatican and Coppola cleverly worked around those events. If you're not aware of the actual events, I could see liking the film less. But the quick succession of several popes as well as questionable handling of funds and some of the murders portrayed in the film all actually happened.
And some critics also felt that Godfather III was about Coppola's own reluctance to make another Godfather movie ("Every time I'm out, they pull me back in") as well as the death of his own son (in a boating accident), so it's also interesting interpreting the film from that perspective. The film was beautifully made and IMO, it doesn't deserve all the hate that it gets, even though it's definitely not as great as GFI and GFII. It's not like the silly Jaws sequels or some of the Alien sequels where they "jumped the shark".
As for the price? Not so great. I bought it for a few dollars less years ago. Don't remember if it was from Amazon or B&N. It's funny how some movies get absurdly discounted (like the Back to the Future set, Close Encounters and Blade Runner) and others seem to remain over-priced (in comparison).
If you're interested in how intelligent films are made, Coppola's narration across all three films is brilliant. He's somewhat repetitive at times, but it's a course in filmmaking in itself, including (maybe especially) all of the related politics and associated egos. It's shocking when you find out that Paramount really just wanted a quickie, relatively low budget "B" movie to make some quick bucks playing on the popularity of the novel. And that they wanted (among others) Ryan O'Neal for the role of Michael and that they once considered Danny Thomas for the role of Vito Corleone. When you realize that, you also come to realize what garbage the first film could have been and how brilliant Coppola actually was to realize something much better.
I ordered mine, only payed a grand total of USD 30.36. Chose the cheaper of the shipping methods. I only hope that it does play on my PS3. I did read that blu ray is region free. Will be horrified if it turns out otherwise.
Don't throw Godfather III on the ash-heap...it's definitely uneven, but the good parts are great, and watching Eli Wallach chew the scenery is worth the price of admission alone.
Godfather III is a piece of shit. Even the studio knows it, which is why they sell the first two separately. They knew people (i.e. yours truly) wouldn't shell out a premium for anything featuring Part III. People fault Andy Garcia's overacting and Sofia Coppola not acting at all, but IMO they aren't as bad as the performances by Joe Mantegna and Talia Shire, or Eli Wallach phoning in an imitation of Lee Strasberg. I mean, George Hamilton? Bridgette Fonda? Hamfisted religious symbolism?
The Godfather III is a stain relative to Parts I and II, but it's also a crappy movie all on its own.
Excellent supplement package that you won't get with the two standalones. Not that most of you would even care. Anyway, repete66211, watched #3 for the first time a year or two ago. Agree with most of what you said, it was a pretty tedious experience. But at least now I know.
@fdm: Good point re supplements, but given the price and even insignificant factors like the size of the box, buying the package just doesn't add up for me personally. However, as a recovering completist I can understand why someone might want the entire collection.
