Start with two classics and a pretty weak third, and then re-edit the two classics to include scenes that should have been left on the editing room floor (or added in an extra discs for only historians to see) and what do you get? A good opportunity to stroke one's own ego (the director), a chance to sell the movies again and ring the cash register, and a diminished and much weaker body of work. I really think Coppola's re-edits in these films (and in the Apocalypse Now Redux release) show how movie making is a collaborative art. The re-editing maybe heightens his vision of the films but diminishes quality of the movies at the expense of the input of others, who at time of original filming tempered his excesses. The scenes added to the segments from the original Godfather films are a bit hokey-too much-don't work (ditto for the scenes added to Apocalypse Now Redux). Had they been released in the originals, the films would have been good films, but not become the classic pieces of art that they are.
Review of The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980
