Not the up to date film we were expecting, although managed to fill a friday evening's viewing!
At last we recieved a Blu-ray copy of this magnificent film which both a) played and b) didn't have the ludicrous video-tape (!) insertions of the so called "special edition". I suppose the latter is special, to be fair, just not in the way they intended. Still, it calls for a bottle of Cordon Rouge in celebration.
As to the film, the opening scenes set it up for the next 3 1/2 hours: a murder, a brutal beating and a hallucinogenic visit to an opium den. Wonderful stuff!
This epic film is a visionary masterpiece. It's a long film and was savagely cut by the studio on its initial release resulting in it gaining a poor reputation. But when it was later restored to director Sergio Leone's final cut it was revealed as a masterclass in modern film making. Its a gangster film and along with some of Leone's other films it's a study of the birth fo modern America. Robert De Niro, in one of his finest roles, is David 'Noodles' Aaronson who returns to New York in 1968, thirty five years after fleeing the city. His return sparks his memories of the 1920s & 30s when he was a member of a gang of four who rise from street gang to run a powerful organised crime group during the prohibition. His close friendship with Max (James Woods), who gradually becomes more erratic and unpredictable, forces Noodles to betray him. With the narrative cleverly cutting between the various timelines and with a stunningly beautiful and realistic recreation of a period New York this is not only a really engrossing film but also one that has some staggeringly marvellous scenes. There's some sharp and gritty violence and some of it is uncomfortable to watch but overall this is an elegiac piece of film art and you'll struggle to find a movie as good as this. With Elizabeth McGovern, Joe Pesci and others in the cast there's little to find wrong even when the film may seem a little enigmatic. If you've never seen this film then it really is one you should seek out as soon as possible.