MovieChat Forums > The Godfather (1972) Discussion > Bad picture quality

Bad picture quality

posted 6 years ago by MaximRecoil (4598)
2 replies | jump to latest

The color timing was bad, and if you adjusted the brightness so that the indoor scenes were right, the outdoor scenes (the wedding especially) looked too bright / overexposed. And if you reduced the brightness to make the outdoor scenes look halfway decent, the indoor scenes were too dark / full of crushed blacks. There were a few scenes that looked good (but not great), as well as one scene that looked especially bad (that particular scene looked like it was shot on 16mm).

I don't know if the problem was with lazy/incompetent filming or if it was the result of a lazy/incompetent digital mastering and/or transfer to Blu-ray.

I find it strange that the biggest, mega classic movies often end up looking like crap on Blu-ray, while relatively small-time movies like Quigley Down Under (1990) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) look spectacular. One notable exception is Spider-Man (2002), which was a huge movie, and was one of the best looking movies I've ever seen. It looks way better than any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (which started in 2008), especially the most recent ones that were shot on video.

In any case, picture quality aside, I'm glad I watched the movie. I thought for sure that I'd already seen it ages ago, and that I didn't like it. I clearly remember renting it in the early 1990s when I was 16 or 17; it came on two VHS tapes, held together with a rubber band. But it must have been part II or III that I rented, because nothing about this movie looked familiar as I watched it tonight, and I thought it was quite good. It isn't the best movie I've ever seen, but definitely the best mob movie I've ever seen (a damn sight better than Goodfellas, which I think is overrated).

There were a could of things I didn't like about it though:

1. I couldn't always understand what Marlon Brando was saying, and had to rewind and turn on the subtitles several times.

2. There were some Italian language scenes for which there were no subtitles (the subtitles just said, "Speaking Italian"), most notably the scene where the guy is speaking in Italian to Michael Corleone in the restaurant. Some Italian language scenes had subtitles and others didn't; there should have been subtitles for all of them.

[–] Tabbycat (878) 6 years ago

Completely agree re color and brightness.

Saw this as a kid in a big theater in 1972, but don’t remember anything about the color.
Also on laserdisc (1982) and various home video releases.

The first presentation I had a problem with was the 1998 (1997?) theatrical rerelease.
It looked old and faded — terrible.

Just watched the 2007 restoration on Netflix — the same one found on the latest Blu-Ray (which I’ve also seen). The indoor “prince of darkness” scenes with deep blacks look magnificent, but as you say — the outdoor scenes are overly bright.

Does anyone know what caused this deterioration?
I’d guess it’s an issue with the negative since it didn’t seem to appear until decades after initial release.

I’m really looking forward to seeing this in a 4KHDR-mastered presentation on an 80” OLED screen someday. Those blacks just aren’t very black on a backlit LCD.

[–] strntz (12225) 6 years ago

There were some Italian language scenes for which there were no subtitles (the subtitles just said, "Speaking Italian"), most notably the scene where the guy is speaking in Italian to Michael Corleone in the restaurant. Some Italian language scenes had subtitles and others didn't; there should have been subtitles for all of them.

Reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live Spanish game show with Bill Murray: Quien es Mas Macho. It wasn't subtitled, and I speak no Spanish (or Italian), but most of the words were similar enough to English where even non-Spanish speaking people knew what they were saying. Funny bit.

We don't need to know what they were talking about word for word, but the gist was pretty clear.

In the GF, Sollazzo points to his own jaw and says something to Michael - I assumed it was something about how Michael's broken jaw was doing. He then appeared to apologize for it or at least express sympathy. I also heard the words padre, grosso respecto (or something like it) which I assumed meant Sollozzo had great respect for Michael's father. Later, when Michael is struggling with his Italian, he repeats his request to Sollozzo in English, and Sollozzo answers him back in English and it sounded like the same conversation over again, particularly since Sollozzo gestures were the same: "I'm the hunted one!"

Where we lose it is on the closeup of Michael where it's obvious he's made up his mind that Sollozzo isn't going to guarantee his father won't be harmed and Michael has decided he's going to get the gun. At this point, we don't know what Sollozzo is saying in Italian but neither is Michael listening to him. Michael interrupts him and goes to the bathroom.