"The Godfather: A Novel for Television" (1977) TV mini-series

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

12 November 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

The first two Godfather films were re-edited together in chronological order with additional footage added.

Plot Keywords:

TV Mini-Series

Cast

Marlon Brando	...	Don Vito Corleone (4 episodes, 1977)
Al Pacino	...	Don Michael Corleone (4 episodes, 1977)
Robert Duvall	...	Tom Hagen (4 episodes, 1977)
James Caan	...	Santino 'Sonny' Corleone (4 episodes, 1977)
Diane Keaton	...	Kay Adams Corleone (4 episodes, 1977)
Robert De Niro	...	Young Vito Corleone (4 episodes, 1977)
Talia Shire	...	Connie Corleone Rizzi (4 episodes, 1977)

Also Known As:

Mario Puzo's The Godfather: A Novel for Television (USA) (complete title)
The Godfather 1902-1959: The Complete Epic (USA) (video title)
The Godfather Novella (USA) (alternative title)
The Godfather Saga (USA) (alternative title)
The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television (USA) (alternative title)
Der Pate - Die Saga (West Germany) [de]

Runtime:

434 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Director Francis Ford Coppola agreed to reedit The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974) into one in order to raise money for his beleaguered production Apocalypse Now (1979).

Movie Connections:

Edited from The Godfather (1972)

A Travesty

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This thing is just ridiculous; saw it on home video as my first Godfather experience and couldn't figure out why it was so plodding. Turns out it edits everything into chronological order, so you start with all the De Niro scenes from G-2, then see G-1 (minus some R-stuff but plus some deleted scenes), and then get the rest of G-2. The De Niro scenes, out of context, are just repetitive and make little sense. The one bonus was getting to see the deleteds back when such opportunities were rare. It's not quite BAD, because the underlying material is still beautiful, but it could easily lead one to go through life thinking The Godfater was No Big Deal because you'd endured or walked out on this.

There are films I'd be interested to to see a chronological cut of (Pulp Fiction, Memento). Godfather 2 is not one of them.