I would say that most people who would want to see these epic films have already done so. They aren't exactly fresh off the press after all. That doesn't mean that it can't be sad that they are leaving given the fact that they are some of the most highly lauded films of all time, two of them making it into most top-20 lists.
I sat down for the very long process of watching Part 2, which many people consider to be the best of the series, last night and enjoyed it, I think more, than I normally would have. Perhaps the impending disappearance of the saga is what inspired me to really pay attention this time.
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I don't need to explain the story here because anyone that wants to see it or even cares about good cinema already knows. It's mafia stuff, case closed.
Knowing that this was about to be in bon voyage land as far as Netflix is concerned inspired me to pay closer attention to the filming details of this epic film and I came to a couple of conclusions when I was watching it for perhaps the 12th time in my life. These individual scenes that take place in various parts of the world such as Cuba, Florida, and New York City must have been extremely difficult and expensive to make.
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Of course most of the scenes in all of the Godfather films take place in small rooms or in gardens that could be anywhere but the sheer amount of location settings that are in part 2 is just staggering. The budget for extras alone must have been absolutely huge. There was also a tremendous amount of detail that couldn't have been cheap that was put into making this appear as though it was taking place 20-30 years prior to the film's release and every little detail is done damn near perfectly. Just making certain that all of the cars were from the appropriate time period must have been difficult, let alone making sure that all the clothes that every single person was wearing fits into the time period.
Go back to the scenes where we have Michael's father Vito becoming head of the families in New York City and the job becomes even more difficult.
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Now we have a situation where we have to recreate another entire street but this time it needs to be nearly 100 years in the past including horse and buggy carts as well as period-appropriate motorcars. The wardrobe obviously couldn't be reused for any of the 3 time periods that are represented in this movie and this must have meant that the costumer design team must have been very very busy. Rumor go left and right about the NYC scenes with some suggesting that it was a "lot build" in California but according to the film-makers themselves and many witnesses this actually took place in the real New York City in the East Village in Manhattan. Imagine how much of an undertaking it would be to shut down an entire street in New York City?
The scenes that are meant to take place in Cuba are not actually done there. There was an active embargo on all things Cuban at the time, and filming would have been extremely illegal in the early 1970's. Therefore they built a small Cuba in the Dominican Republic which I suppose wouldn't have been that much of a stretch because it's another Spanish speaking country with similar architecture.
The brief scenes that take place in Italy actually took place in Italy as well. They didn't cut corners and attempt to build façades of buildings in the Nevada desert... these are real places, real buildings, that real people really live in.
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When you put all of these factors together it is pretty remarkable that it was possible to make part 2 for a paltry $13 million. Sure we have inflation to adjust for but man oh man they must have been really sticking to a budget. How did they even pay Pacino, Duvall, and De Niro? Perhaps they didn't demand ludicrous salaries back then. You can't really make much of a film, let alone one of this epic a nature, for under $40 million these days and perhaps this is a big part of the reason why it won so many awards and remains in the annuls of history, probably for all time.
If you want to watch these movies you better get moving. They are gone for good due to an expiring contract, at the end of October.