MovieChat Forums > The Godfather Part II (1974) Discussion > The original cut was 6-hours long?!

The original cut was 6-hours long?!

posted 8 years ago by Valkyrist
2 replies | jump to latest

I came across this in the trivia section:

Francis Ford Coppola's rough cut ran almost six hours in length. Vito's storyline extended into the Prohibition Era, including a gang war with Al Capone and Luca Brasi's exploits as Vito's hatchet man. Michael's story continued, gaining political influence in 1960s Washington through his connections with Senator Geary (implying a role in the Kennedy assassination, among other things). Little of this footage survived, aside from the handful of deleted scenes used in The Godfather: A Novel for Television (1977), and one or two stills showing Robert De Niro as middle-aged Vito. Many of the ideas were recycled for Mark Winegardner's sequel novels and the putative scripts for Part IV.

Is this true? Does anyone know the source of this trivia? Does anyone have any more information on it? Stills?

It might be that they had good reason for taking these scenes out. The film works beautifully in its current form, and I wouldn't change I thing. But I still find this stuff fascinating. :)

[–] keith-moyes-656-481491 8 years ago

I don't know how authoritative the following is, but it sounds right to me.

"While “The Godfather Part II” runs 3 hours and 20 minutes, there are longer versions out there, though none are available to the public now.

Additional scenes originally shot but not included in the theatrical version were added for the seven-plus-hour miniseries “The Godfather Saga,” which showed the first two films in chronological order. So just how much more “The Godfather” is there? At least an hour or so (approximately 73 minutes).

With “Apocalypse Now” running over-budget, Coppola tasked editor Barry Malkin to make a television cut of the “The Godfather” films in chronological order.

At 434 minutes, critics felt this new edit resulted in a far less effective film, but fans were treated to over an hour’s worth of deleted scenes and footage. And not all of this footage made it to home video. In the ‘80s it came to VHS in a shortened version running 386 minutes titled “The Godfather 1902-1959” and this was incorporated into a VHS and laserdisc release in 1992 (which added “The Godfather Part III” to the timeline) called “The Godfather 1902-1980.” This hasn’t yet been released on DVD, but the original “The Godfather Saga” was broadcast last month on AMC and hopefully some of you Tivo’d it (but edited out the commercials) and are going to send us a copy."

http://www.indiewire.com/2012/04/5-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-the-godfather-part-ii-252707/

I doubt if Coppola would have been allowed to shoot a 6 hour movie or that Paramount would just have lost the footage. However, an additional 73 minutes from the first two Godfather films sounds plausible.

[–] vicky_lc2001 (1907) 6 years ago

I remember watching TGF saga in the 90s but I can't seem to find the 434 minutes.