The Screengrab

There have been a lot of good movies made since 1972, sure 'nuff. But in the twenty-six years since Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather was released, to be followed two years later by The Godfather, Part II, no other movie that combined such seriousness of purpose and richness of entertainment value to deliver so essential a vision of American life has come close to monopolizing the box office, shaping the national conversation, and setting up a permanent residence in people's imaginations as that picture did. No brag, just fact. The movies--the original, the sequel, and also, um, that Part III thing where Pacino was made up as if to star in The Alice B. Toklas Story--make their latest appearance on DVD on September 23, which will also mark their first time on Blu-Ray HD. Since Coppola had no pressing offers to make Youth Without Youth, Part II, he had plenty of time to donate to the project, the fruits of which bear the official title The Coppola Restoration. The set includes a disc's worth of supplementary material, and it turns out that there are interesting observations to made even about the making of, um, that Part III thing.




Meanwhile, New York audiences should be pleased to know that the Film Forum is using the movies this year to ease the transition into fall, in newly restored prints that have received the personal Coppola seal of approval. Nice as it is to have the family installed in your home, nothing really compares to the experience of settling in a large dark room with a bunch of other lucky people, immersing yourself in the story of the Corleones, and then trooping back out onto the streets some hours later to discover that, you know, time has passed. Starting today, they're running the original for a week, after which Part II will play from September 19-25. Then, for marathon viewers, there will be the chance to roll in and see both movies (separate admissions, let's get real here) from September 26 to October 2. These are long damn movies, which cuts down on how many times they can be run in a single work day, which in turn cuts into the business at the concession stand, so Film Forum deserves an even heartier tip of the hat for this that they do most days for just being there, the Manhattan film freak's equivalent of an amber field of grain. Sadly, various factors such as common sense have dictated that the Forum will not be showing Part III as part of this gala event, but word on the street is that if you slip the popcorn girl a ten-spot (six dollars for members), she'll act it out for you if the line's not too long. I always tear up at her re-enactment of the scene where the meeting of the heads of the organized crime families is strafed by Joey Zaza's helicopter assassin squad.