As a Sergio Leone fan, this 4 hour american crime saga with the eminent crime cast should have created an all time classic, taking its place in the new world, 20th century Hollywood cannon.
Sadly - what should have been a dead cert, meanders its way into a confused, unrealistic tale of unsympathetic characters with next to no thematic development. A hard edged upbringing interspersed with bizarre episodes involving any and all female roles looks like Direction by Committee, and one bent on adolescent self-gratification and misogynist quota/ box ticking.
Leone should have cut the script, tightly edited, cut the artificially inserted, gratuitous episodes, mapped character arcs, and found something (such as dramatic tension of gang members avoiding their personal demise) to drive the film on. Scorsese, De Palma or Coppola all understood this - sad to see such a missed opportunity from Leone.
Sadly - what should have been a dead cert, meanders its way into a confused, unrealistic tale of unsympathetic characters with next to no thematic development. A hard edged upbringing interspersed with bizarre episodes involving any and all female roles looks like Direction by Committee, and one bent on adolescent self-gratification and misogynist quota/ box ticking.
Leone should have cut the script, tightly edited, cut the artificially inserted, gratuitous episodes, mapped character arcs, and found something (such as dramatic tension of gang members avoiding their personal demise) to drive the film on. Scorsese, De Palma or Coppola all understood this - sad to see such a missed opportunity from Leone.