Holiday Buying Guide 2008

For the generation of moviegoers who came of age in the '70s, and for most moviemakers since, the defining multipart epics were Star Wars and The Godfather. While the Lucas films pioneered the era of fantasy and special effects, Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974) certified the killer machismo of the Mafia and, by extension, of American business. They also stoked dozens of movie careers (starting with Al Pacino's) and TV tributes (culminating in The Sopranos). Those magnificent artifacts, both of which won the Oscar for Best Picture, and the much lesser 1990 conclusion to the trilogy now appear in pristine DVD versions. Thanks to the heroic restoration of Robert A. Harris, who had to perform life-support on severely deteriorated prints, a digital edition finally captures the murky subtleties of Gordon Willis's cinematography. Out of the darkness, masterpieces emerge.

—Richard Corliss