Good prerequisites, but nonetheless a failure

Rating: Null/10 (18 January 2004)

Everything about this movie would point to a masterpiece: the infamous Leone/Morricone combination, an impressive cast a very colorful setting and even a grant story. However, this movie is a failure in quite a few ways. I am explicitly referring to the extend version here.
When you have a movie of around four hours you have to give the viewer a character he can clinch to with some amount of sympathy. Noodles was supposed to be this character but he is incapable of doing so because of some of his actions he committed in the movie. Yet there is a bit of a heroic air about him which makes it even more confusing for the viewer.
Another major shortcoming is that the story presented is obviously stretched to fill four hours. There are passages which bring the flow of the story to a halt. This in itself can be an interesting stylistic means and it certainly is rather typical for Leone. It worked splendidly in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and "Once upon a time in the west" but failed here. I therefore assume that the 140min version might suffer less from these problems.
* SPOILERS AHEAD *
The funny thing is that - despite its runtime - the movie doesn't make other important aspects of the film clear enough. The fact that Maximilian slipped into Noodles' life after his faked death isn't sufficiently explained. Moreover, and this is a cardinal sin, the film utilizes the dead-man-revival trick that is often used in mediocre films to fill some holes in the plot. This wouldn't be necessary since in essence the plot is fine and wouldn't need such mending.
There are minor other things why this movie is not as good as it should be. The amount of violence presented in this movie can put off the viewer. It wouldn't have been difficult to present the violence (which is, afterall, part of the story so that's not the point) in a more subtle and less explicit way. With respect to this, some of the violence seems utterly misplaced: Noodles' raping of Deborah which comes as a nasty surprise to the viewer. This scene would be ok if some reflection on this followed later in the film. But it doesn't. Even when Deborah and Noodle meet again 35 years later, the silence between them seems to be targeted at a different issue.
And then there is the ending between Noodles and Maximilian. It isn't badly done, but it could have been done better. Max doesn't give any explanation for his faked death. Noodles reaction however makes sense and is convincing.
* SPOILERS DONE *
Eventually, the soundtrack is a little tame by Morricone-standards (although this is probably a tribute to the fact that this movie really tells the story as though it was a melodrama).
I'd give this one 7 out of 10. It is a grant movie, no doubt, but it is also a disappointment in many respects.