After 50 years, Francis Ford Coppola still isn’t finished with “The Godfather” — and it isn’t finished with him, either.

Coppola made his bones with that crime epic, which won three Academy Awards, including best picture, made untold millions of dollars for Paramount Pictures and influenced a half-century of filmmaking in the process.

But times have changed. It’s not like the old days. And yet “The Godfather” continues to age like a satisfied don sitting blithely in his garden.

In efforts to preserve “The Godfather” for future generations, Paramount, Coppola and his colleagues at American Zoetrope previously worked together on repaired and revitalized versions of the film as recently as 15 years ago, in what was then billed as “The Coppola Restoration.”

Now for the 50th anniversary of “The Godfather,” which opened in New York on March 15, 1972, Coppola and these studios have produced a new restoration. This latest edition was created with higher-quality sources of the film, improved digital technology and some 4,000 hours spent repairing stains, tears and other flaws. (It will be released in theaters on Friday and on home video on March 22.)

As Coppola explained last week, “The whole thing is trying to get it to look like it did at the original screening of ‘The Godfather,’ when it was only two weeks old, not 20 years old or 50 years old.”

Coppola, now 82, said he never tired of scrutinizing of the film. But naturally any time he spends reflecting on “The Godfather” brings back a range of emotions and memories — the pain of its fraught production and the pride of its runaway success.

“You have to understand, as a filmmaker, I didn’t really know how to make ‘The Godfather,’” he said. “I learned how to make ‘The Godfather’ making it.”

Speaking in a video interview alongside James Mockoski, the film archivist and restoration supervisor for American Zoetrope, Coppola discussed the new work on “The Godfather,” the scenes he wanted to keep dark and the scenes that almost got cut — and even worked in a plug for his latest film in progress, “Megalopolis.” These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

August West wrote:
One of my earliest memories, going into the Paramount Columbus Circle. The circular entrance structure with "The Godfather" on the Marquee. Something made it indelible.

NYC was magical back then. Rough, tough and dazzling.