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Two American masterpieces, The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, remain controversial now, four decades after being created by Francis Ford Coppola.
But the fuss is not about the Mafia, nor the violent portrait of the Italian-American community it depicts, nor the veiled Sinatra references, nor the disappointing way Coppola completed his trilogy in 1990.
Instead, as both films returned to Blu-ray this week, misinformed people are ranting about double-dipping, about the Coppola restorations and especially about grainy images. The trilogy already came to Blu-ray in 2009 but as one complete package. The first two Godfathers are now available separately, in Paramount's up-scale Sapphire Series.
Grain? It is a question of film stock, of emulsion, of exposures. It is a matter of the artistic and aesthetic decisions that went into the photography, a collaboration between Coppola and cinematographer Gordon Willis, who earned an honourary Oscar last year "for unsurpassed mastery of light, shadow, colour and motion."
The images look grainy because Coppola and Willis wanted it that way -- old-school, retro and soft. That made the blacks into a richer, darker black. Detail was hidden, yet present in the shadows. Witness the effect that has in the now-famous opening sequences, when Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) holds court in his wood-panelled office, while his daughter's wedding party bubbles outdoors.
During the Coppola restorations -- supervised by world-class preservationist Robert A. Harris -- Willis and Coppola insisted on keeping the Godfathers intact, as intended, including with the grain. That has led to criticism, but it is misplaced. You either live with the way these films were meant to look -- or you don't watch them.
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Artistic integrity is more important than individual audience tastes, or the compulsion to make every old film look shiny and new. It is an offer you can't refuse.