[3] The television film incorporated additional footage not included in the original films, including Don Fanucci being attacked by street thugs, Vito Corleone's first encounter with Hyman Roth, Vito killing two of the mafiosi who worked for Don Ciccio and were instrumental in his family's death, Michael Corleone's reunion with his father after his return from Sicily, Sonny Corleone's taking charge of the family after his father is severely wounded, and Michael's vengeance upon Fabrizio for killing Apollonia.
[3] Hal Erickson summarized the results as follows, "While this rearrangement was reasonably coherent, the rhythm and pacing of the original theatrical versions of the two films was severely damaged.
Even allowing for the achievement of pulling off this gargantuan editing assignment, The Godfather Saga is a lumpy affair which seems to stop and start at irregular intervals and never truly picks up momentum.
"[1] According to the entry in Les Brown's Encyclopedia of Television, the Nielsen ratings for the special were supposedly not as high as expected, possibly because both films had already aired (albeit separately) on NBC in previous years.
Lucia Bozzola wrote of this version, "With the freedom of home video, The Complete Epic reinstated the violence that had been edited for television; free of commercial breaks, the narrative drive of Part I was mostly restored, but the impact of Part II was still muted by the separation of Vito's rise from Michael's descent.
[8][9] A Time review reads, "This trilogy has a novelistic density, a rueful, unhurried lyricism and a depth that, singly, the films could not achieve.
[11] The HBO showing contained most of the known deleted scenes, thereby lengthening the runtime of the Epic from its video release to 423 minutes.